WORKING CREDIT FOR FARMERS. 243 



not play their classmates false. That is another argument 

 in favour of Co-operation. Co-operative banking, according 

 to M. Luzzatti, means " the capitalisation of honesty." The 

 honesty is there. But without such capitalisation it is 

 not readily convertible. To make it marketable, it has 

 had to be surrounded with some strong safeguards. In 

 many cases — where poor people are concerned, not sub- 

 stantial men — what is called " unlimited Hability " has had 

 to be resorted to, and it is difficult to see how in such cases 

 it could be dispensed with. There are plenty of other 

 cases, of fairly substantial farmers, in which it is quite 

 unnecessary and therefore not advisable. But the poor 

 man has, practically, nothing else to pledge. What he 

 possesses is worth very little to others, but very much to 

 himself. The difference between the two values is one of 

 the points which come prominently into play. 



We ought not to make the mistake of assuming that 

 the freehold, so usual abroad, has anything to do with this 

 peasant credit. That is assumed by many in this country 

 and put forward as an argument against the practicability 

 of such credit amongst ourselves. It is also urged even by 

 some leading personages abroad, who employ it, intending 

 to prove the superiority of the German freehold system. 

 However, the freehold stands absolutely by itself and is 

 subject to its own form of credit, which is a mortgage. In 

 truth all authorities are fully agreed that the less the free- 

 hold is brought into account under what is distinctly 

 intended as a system of personal credit, the better will it 

 be. There is not much tenant land which comes into 

 account under the present aspect in Germany. But in 

 Italy, where the same class of co-operative credit institu- 

 tions exist, there is a great deal. And there accordingly 

 the point of making co-operative credit purely personal, 

 and safeguarding the personal undertaking to repay by 

 effective protective methods, has been given special atten- 

 tion to. So it is in the Lodigiano, the Cremonese, and the 

 district of Rovigo, in all of which Co-operative Credit is 

 highly developed and working admirably. 



One such protective method, only partially resorted to, 



