CKEDIT ASSOCIATIONS 135 



Association or from a Series of the bonds of such Association 

 shall receive his receipt cancelling his joint responsibility before 

 the accounts for the year in question have been passed by the 

 Minister of the Interior, with his endorsement that in his opinion 

 there is sufficient security for meeting the joint Hability." It 

 did not take many years before this nervousness had passed off ; 

 as early as 1865 a bill for the estabhshment of a new Credit 

 Association was brought in. During the debate it was declared 

 that there was no more need to inquire whether there were 

 enough Credit Associations than to inquire whether there were 

 enough tailors in the town ; people ought to be free to form 

 what associations they wanted, competition between them 

 would tend to increase the security offered in order to attract 

 capital. This view prevailed, and the following Credit Associa- 

 tions have been established by special Laws ; " The Credit 

 Office for Landed Estates in the Islands " (1866) ; " The New 

 Credit Association for Jutland Towns " (1868) ; "The Credit 

 Association of Proprietors of Small Landed Properties in 

 Jutland " (1880) ; "The Credit Association of Proprietors of 

 Small Landed Properties in the Islands " (1880) ; "The Credit 

 Association of Property Owners in Copenhagen " (1882) ; " The 

 Credit Association of Property Owners in the Country Districts 

 in Jutland " (1893) ; and " The Credit Association for Industrial 

 Properties " (1897). At present there are twelve Credit 

 Associations, their bye-laws and general organisation being 

 very similar, except as to the two Associations for Small Landed 

 Properties, which have a unique position. 



'The importance of small holdings (Husmandsbrug), which 

 began to be realised in the thirties, led to certain reforms about 

 the middle of the century, and many estates were subdivided, 

 with the result that from 1850 to 1885 about 80,000 new small 

 holdings were created, and by 1885 the number of small holdings 

 reached 153,000.^ , To work and improve these their owners 

 wanted capital, but they could not, according to the bye-laws 

 of the Credit Associations, obtain loans through their agency 

 when the capital value of the holding was less than £55 (in 

 Jutland £110). When a smallholder (Husmand) wanted to 

 raise a loan privately, he generally apphed to his neighbour, 



1 Including agricultural labourers' cottage holdings. 



