Raffeisen Banks 



underlying principle of all agricultural credit 

 is the mutual guarantee given by all the 

 members of the society. If the members are 

 carefully chosen, and their character and 

 integrity well known, then it is perfectly sound 

 for all the members collectively to guarantee 

 the advances made to the society. This is 

 the system that the Raffeisen banks work 

 upon in Germany. Their turn-over is 

 ^300,000,000 a year, and bad debts are 

 very few. The ordinary urban banks in 

 Germany furnish the Raffeisen banks with 

 all the capital they require, for they know 

 it is a sound and safe investment. The 

 formation of a system of credit banks or 

 societies from which the cultivator can 

 borrow would confer the following advan- 

 tages : 



(i) It would enable a man to take up a 



holding, which otherwise he could 



not do. 



(2) It would enable a man so to increase 

 his working capital per acre as to 

 increase his yearly profit out of all 

 proportion to the sum borrowed. 



(3) In the case of the small farmer, he 



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