AGRICULTURAL CREDIT BANKS 113 



therefore, a communal institution, the dessa bank 

 assumes more or less a co-operative character. Outside 

 Java it is easier to make the people themselves contri- 

 bute at once the initial capital, in the form of shares -of 

 one or more guilders. As soon as the working capital 

 amounts to a sufficient sum and a reserve has been 

 formed the interest is reduced. The banks here referred 

 to have a current account with the divisional or residency 

 bank (see below) for the borrowing of working capital 

 or for temporarily depositing surplus funds. The village 

 banks, which so far have lent chiefly small sums of a few 

 guilders per head, will gradually become the ordinary 

 credit and savings banks of the small farmers, traders, 

 and artisans. This is especially the case in a thickly 

 populated island like Java, where the means of the great 

 mass of the people are insignificant. 



type of bank has developed out of the mutual savings and 

 credit bank of native Government employees (so-called 



(3) The Regency, Divisional, or District Bank. This 

 prijaji bank). The latter began by lending its surplus 

 funds to farmers and artisans, but has gradually assumed 

 the character of a general savings and credit institution, 

 chiefly accessible to the individual natives and the village 

 banks. The opportunity offered to invest money is also 

 taken advantage of by non-natives and by the native 

 communities. The area served by the bank often coin- 

 cides with an Administrative Department, seldom with 

 part thereof; in the outer Colonies, sometimes with a 

 whole District, having a population of from a quarter 

 to one million. Such a bank, which has often many 

 branches, is under the management of an incorporated 

 association of notables, official and non-official Europeans, 

 and natives (Article 1653 f tne Civil Code of the Nether- 

 land East Indies). This association is of a purely philan- 

 thropic character, and the members are not allowed to 

 benefit financially. 



The institution is in some places called a regency, in 

 others a divisional or district bank (generally popular 

 bank). 



The administrators perform their duties gratuitously; 

 nevertheless, the bank is managed on strictly commercial 

 8 



