April, 1912.] 



847 Agricultural Finance & Co-operation. 



WORK OP THE FEDERATIONS 

 AND OP THE CENTRAL 

 INSTITUTIONS OF THE 

 CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES. 

 2nd Year- Number 10. 



(Prom the Bulletin oj the Bureau of 

 Economic and Social Intelligence, 31st 

 October, 1911.) 



1. The Fifth Congress of Agricultural 

 Co-operative and Mutual Societies. 



The Congresses of Agricultural Co- 

 operative and Mutual Societies organ- 

 ized by the National Federation are 

 events of the highest importance for the 

 French Agricultural world. The Fifth 

 Congress, held at Evian-les-Bains from 

 the 4th to the 10th September worthily 

 continued the series of those previously 

 held at Bordeaux, Blois, Montpellier 

 and Rouen.* 



The programme of work before the 

 Congress was subdivided into four dis- 

 tinct sections : agricultural credit, syndi- 

 cates, co-operative societies, and in- 

 surance. 



We shall here give a brief account of 

 the labours of the first three sections. 

 Those of the fourth will be treated in a 

 special article which will be found in the 

 part of the Bulletin which contains the 

 articles upon Agricultural Insurance. 



1. Agricultural Credit. 

 In this section we deal first of all with 

 short term loans granted by the credit 

 banks to the agricultural syndicates. 

 Experience has, in fact, shown that the 

 syndicates offer insufficient guarantee 

 for loans of this character, for, accord- 

 ing to the law of 1884, any member may, 

 at his pleasure, withdraw from the asso- 

 ciation. So the Congress expressed its 

 desire that the credit banks exact from 

 the syndicates supplementary guaran- 

 tees beyond those established by the 

 organic law. 



As to the system of the administration 

 of the property of the regional banks, 

 the Congress recommends all the banks 



* See Bulletin of the Bureau of Economic and 

 Social Intelligence, December, 1910, page 2S5, 



that desire to invest their capital in 

 negotiable paper to buy the securities 

 below par, and to select; such as are re- 

 payable at par within a period of greater 

 or less length, as, for example, 3 % 

 redeemable railway bonds, etc. 



The problems of long individual credit * 

 is set forth by M. Descours-Desacres 

 in an interesting report occupied the 

 attention of the members of the Con- 

 gress for a considerable time. For some 

 time it has been seen that the law of 

 19th March, 1910, could not be applied 

 in its entirety if the regional banks had 

 at their disposal only the modest credits 

 it allows them.t A solution then had to 

 be found which would permit the 

 farmers to profit by this special form of 

 credit by means of which it is expected 

 that small landed property will be deve- 

 loped and consolidated. After a full 

 discussion of the matter, the Congress, 

 on the proposal of M, Decharme, Chief 

 of the Bureau of Mutual Agricultural 

 Credit and Agricultural Co-operative 

 Societies at the Department of Agri- 

 culture, expressed the desire that the 

 regional banks be admitted equally with 

 the Real Estate Credit Societies, X to 

 receive advances out of the National 

 Pension Fund. They also ask for other 

 facilities for the concession of these 

 loans, 



* See Bulletin of the Bureau of Social and 

 Economic Intelligence, 31st December, 1910, 

 page 274, and 30th April, 1911, page '207. 



t For this service, the law assigns the regional 

 bank advances for agricultural credit without 

 interest out of the annual sums paid by the 

 Bank of France. These advances, however, 

 may not exceed twice the capital of the said 

 bank. They must, besides, be repaid at the 

 end of twenty years, 



| See Bulletin of Social and Economic Intelli- 

 gence, December, 1910, p. 320. The law of loth 

 April, 1908, upon Peasant Property authorized 

 the National Superannuation Fund to grant the 

 Regional Land Credit Societies loans for twenty- 

 live years at 2 % up to the amount of 1,000,000,000 

 francs. These sums are intended to serve for 

 the concession of loans on mortgage to indi- 

 viduals and societies for the purchase of small 

 town and country property. 



