CHAPTER XI 

 RURAL CREDIT 



IN many European countries the farmers have organized 

 banking systems on the cooperative plan through which to 

 supply credit to carry on their farming operations. There 

 are several forms of rural credit institutions abroad. 

 Three leading systems originated in Germany : first, the 

 Raiffeisen, or rural credit banks, which were founded in 

 1849 by Herr Raiffeisen, a burgomaster of Weyerbusch; 

 second, the Schulze-Delitzsch, which are part rural and part 

 urban credit banks, founded about the same time by Herr 

 Schulze, mayor of Delitzsch ; and, third, the cooperative 

 non-profit societies, the Landschaften as they are called, 

 organized within a province and obtaining credit for the 

 members by means of bonds guaranteed by the land- 

 owners of the province collectively. The Landschaften 

 banks originated during the last of the eighteenth century. 

 The Raiffeisen and Schulze-Delitzsch banks were organ- 

 ized after Germany had passed through a terrible famine 

 in 1846 and 1847. There was great distress among the 

 small farmers, who, on account of the social and economic 

 conditions then prevailing, were thrown into the hands of 

 the unprincipled usurers from whom alone they could 

 obtain the necessary credit to carry on their business. 

 These systems of credit have been widely adopted in 



271 



