CO-OPERATION AND CREDIT 203 



Councils were assigned the duty of encouraging 

 the establishment of credit banks for small- 

 holders. After five years' working of the Act 

 not a single bank of the kind has been estab- 

 lished in England by the agency of the 

 Councils. 



In her general neglect of agricultural credit 

 Great Britain stands almost alone in Europe. 

 Even backward countries like Turkey possess 

 a system of agricultural banks, the advances 

 of which to Albanian farmers have been 

 unjustly called in by the Servian conquerors 

 for their own use. The famous Raffeissen 

 system of credit banks based on co-operation 

 and mutual responsibility has since 1849 been 

 widely extended in Germany, Austria, Italy, 

 France, Poland, Roumania, etc. In Germany 

 alone there are 1,700 co-operative credit banks. 

 A number of agriculturists combine to form 

 the bank, and the security demanded for a loan 

 to any member is twofold, the borrower must 

 be a man of trustworthy character and his 

 enterprise must be of such a sound character 

 that there is a good prospect of his success 

 and his ability to repay the loan. It may be 

 thought that such abstract security as this is 

 unfitted to form the basis of a business under- 

 taking : but any fears on this score are com- 

 pletely dissipated by the facts of experience. 



