RESULTS OF CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT 125 



Frankenheim. Poor, neglected it was, with tumble- 

 down houses, all of them heavily mortgaged, badly- 

 tilled fields, and an uncouth, barbarous-looking race 

 of inhabitants, rightly or wrongly reputed capable of 

 any misdeeds, and possessing some few famished 

 cattle, nine-tenths of which really belonged to the 

 "Jews." In pity the Grand Duchess had some model 

 dwellings set up, erected at comparatively consider- 

 able cost, but to let at a nominal rent of 30s. a year. 

 The success was not particularly encouraging. Some 

 time after the Lutheran vicar of the parish resolved 

 on trying the effects of a loan bank of the RaifTeisen 

 type. With the help of the money so secured — on 

 these poor people's own collective credit — he built 

 houses, each of which, with the ground upon which 

 it stands and the garden surrounding it, cost a little 

 under £60. For these houses the occupiers are re- 

 quired to pay 4! per cent, interest, plus one-fifteenth 

 or one-twentieth of the principal each year by way of 

 sinking fund ; therefore in all, according to circum- 

 stances, either £5 12s. or £6 12s., in consideration of 

 which the houses become their own after a certain 

 period. All these houses have been readily taken up ; 

 the tenants pay their rents regularly, and, thanks to 

 the money brought into the village, the whole face 

 of things has become changed. The dwellings have 

 become decent, the gardens well kept, the fields well 

 tilled, the "Jews" have been paid off, the cattle are 

 well fed, and the human inhabitants are known 

 throughout the country as orderly, well-conducted, 

 industrious, saving, and thriving folk.' 



One cannot help looking wistfully for the introduc- 

 tion into these Provinces of co-operative credit institu- 

 tions which would have this educative effect upon the 

 people, and heal the sores which usury has engendered 

 in the rural economy. Government is practically 

 powerless in the matter, as the whole virtue of these 

 institutions consists in their being the effort of the 



