244 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



is what has been called — and really miscalled — unlimited 

 liability, the label on the article which has become such a 

 bogy to Lord Denman and a good many uninformed persons 

 besides. In Ireland and in India, where unlimited liability 

 has been put to a test, nobody is afraid of it. In India really 

 natives almost universally, if not quite so when given a 

 choice, decide unhesitatingly in favour of unlimited liablity 

 — even though they at the same time make a decided 

 point of the collection of fairly ample share capital, which 

 under such circumstances might be considered dispensable. 

 In truth there are more misnomers than one connected 

 with Co-operative Credit. Even talking of these humble 

 little organisations as " banks " is really giving them a 

 wrong name. In preparing the Bill which Lord Shaftesbury 

 brought in in 1910, we advisedly altered the title to " Thrift 

 and Credit Societies." Since I dedicated my first book on 

 the subject to my eminent friend M. Luzzatti, I considered 

 it becoming to adopt the title which in his own country, 

 that is, in Italy, he has given to co-operative credit societies, 

 and which is also commonly employed in Belgium and in 

 France, that is " People's Banks." " Credit Societies," the 

 name employed in Germany, where the institution had its 

 birth, would have been more correct. The business to be 

 transacted is by no means " banking," such as we under- 

 stand that to be — certainly not in agricultural societies. 

 Therefore it is giving a Roland for an Oliver to apply to 

 " bankers " for advice on the matter as is frequently done. 

 Agricultural banking and ordinary banking are as markedly 

 dissimilar as, say, Old Bailey pleading and conveyancing. 

 It is very right to take bankers' opinion, and abide by it, 

 in respect of the link to be created between co-operative 

 banks and ordinary — the security of the former of which is, 

 for bankers, only latent in the agricultural credit society, 

 but is to be so put into marketable shape — most conveniently 

 by the interposition of a Central Bank — as to make it avail- 

 able for raising money in the great money market. That 

 feat has been most effectively accomplished, as not only 

 the opinion pronounced by Colonel Lease and his Manager, 

 and the active business in progress between ordinary and 



