210 SERVIA 



of these two sets of harpies, and it became evi- 

 dent that he could not work out his economic 

 salvation if left to his individual resources. An 

 effective combination was absolutely indispen- 

 sable, and the first thing required of such com- 

 bination was that the peasants should be provided 

 with an easy system of agricultural credit. 

 People's Banks had been in existence since 1883, 

 but these did not sufficiently meet the case of 

 the poorer cultivators. What was needed was 

 the starting of village banks of the Raiffeisen 

 type. These alone could give the peasant the 

 kind of credit which would be of real service. 

 But he wanted more than easy credit. He 

 wanted, besides, some practical assistance both 

 in the spending of the money he borrowed and 

 in the disposal of the crops he raised. 



Servia is not a country which offered the same 

 scope as France (for example) in the way of an 

 elaborate network of agricultural syndicates and 

 other combinations for a variety of purposes, 

 and what has happened there is that the agri- 

 cultural credit banks, which began to be set up 

 in Servia in 1893, have practically covered the 

 whole ground of agricultural organization. They 

 not only receive deposits and make loans to the 

 farmers, but they themselves will see to the 

 buying of cattle, seeds, fertilizers, implements, 



