CREDIT 59 



I will leave the question of settlement by groups 

 or colonies for the moment, and pass on to the second, 

 the provision of credit. There has been with us so 

 much talk about access to the land that the far 

 more important point of access to capital has been 

 almost entirely overlooked. For capital, or credit, 

 is the key of the door even to the land. If proper 

 conditions existed here as they do in foreign countries 

 and our Dominions, whereby the would-be small 

 farmer could with the usual safeguards borrow money 

 when and as he wanted it, he would in many cases 

 be perfectly capable of obtaining land for himself 

 without the intervention of any third party. 



In deahng with the subject of agricultural credit 

 it is necessary to differentiate between credit for 

 productive purposes and credit required for the 

 purchase of land. The latter, in most countries, 

 is provided by means of a Land Bank, in the form 

 of long term loans. A Credit Bank, on the other 

 hand (or Co-operative Credit Society) exists to 

 provide the farmer with working capital in the form 

 of short term loans. 



Access to capital in this form makes a small 

 holder independent of the trader. It enables him 

 to choose his market both in buying and selhng. 

 Instead of having to sell when " needs must " 

 because shortness of capital drives, he can afford 

 to wait until he finds a more profitable market. 

 In buying he is no longer obhged to accept the 

 trader's terms and take what he is given, but paying 

 cash for his purchase he can obtain the best quality 

 of everything at the lowest possible price. The result 

 is an all-round tuning up in the efficiency and pro- 

 ductiveness of the holding ; and it was said that in 

 Germany, where the credit banks lent out £1,000,000 



