September, 1911.] 



247 Agricultural Finance & Co-operation, 



tuted by a law passed on January 15th, 

 1904, which arranged for the amalgam- 

 ation of the old urban banks founded in 

 1863 at the time of the Turkish domin- 

 ation and transformed into agricul- 

 tural banks in 1878 by the Russian 

 Government. 



Thus, in the course of a few decades 

 this institution has passed from a collec- 

 tion of primitive institutions into a bank 

 of a modern type, which, while it has 

 adopted the principles of other banks 

 operating in the remainder of Europe, is 

 distinguished from them by some special 

 characteristics, thus constituting a type 

 by itself. This makes it especially 

 worthy of study, and we therefore refer 

 our readers to a long article on the 

 Bulgarian Agricultural Bank which 

 appeared in the June number of the 

 Bulletin of Economic and /Social Intelli- 

 gence published by the International 

 Institute of Agriculture. 



A few figures will be sufficient to 

 demonstrate the importance of the 

 Bulgarian Bank. In 1908 it had a capital 

 of 40,241,159-41 Fr., 3,731,509 64 Fr. of 

 which was represented by the reserve 

 fund. In spite of the heavy losses 

 caused by debtors who failed during the 

 year, it realised a gross profit of 

 11,129,057 22 Fr. and a net profit of 

 3,134,850 64 Fr. There were 793,232 oper- 

 ations carried out during the year for a 

 sum total of 1,161,951,569-18 Fr. 



The greater number of the loans 

 granted were for small sums, in con- 

 formity with the law of 1904 ; in fact, 

 most of them ranged between 100 and 

 500 Fr., which shows the enormoas bene- 

 fit of the bank to the small farmer class. 



We must give a few words to the third 

 form of agricultural credit institution : 

 the small co-operative society. These 

 institutions began to arise in 1896 and 

 developed so rapidly that there were 

 already 493 in 1908, most of them being 

 of the Raiffeisen type. 



Their growth is more particularly due 

 to the action of the Agricultural Bank, 

 which at once realised the great import- 

 ance of these local Banks and worked 

 assiduously to encourage their develop- 

 ment, founding new banks, aiding those 

 already in existence, organising them 

 and supervising their working. In 1908 

 there were in Bulgaria 384 rural banks of 

 the Raiffeisen type supervised and accre- 

 dited by the Bulgarian Agricultural 

 Bank; their members numbered 28 744, 

 and thev bad granted loans to the sum 

 of 8.150,537 Fr., receiving in their turn 

 1,517,593 Fr. in loans from the Agricul- 

 tural Banks. 



These local credit co-operative socie- 

 ties, distributed about in the smaller 

 centres, have been successful in ridding 

 their districts of the scourge of usury 

 which was weighing so heavily on the 

 peasants and small farmers of Bulgaria. 



(Summarised from the Bulletin of the 

 Bureau of Economic and Social Intelli- 

 gence of the International Institute of 

 Agriculture, 2nd Year, No. 6.) 



FRANCE. 



The Oil Co-operative Societies 

 in France. 



During the last decade the associations 

 for the production and sale of olive oil 

 have developed considerably in the oil 

 regions of Provence and Languedoc. 



For some time past there had been a 

 serious crisis in the olive-growing 

 industry, which was primarily due to 

 the competition of foreign oils from oil 

 seeds. On the other hand, as the olive 

 growers had no suitable machinery at 

 disposal— they were able at most to 

 count on rough wooden presses— they 

 found themselves at the mercy of 

 speculators and the proprietors of more 

 or less improved oil-works, whose whole 

 interest lay in keeping back as much oil 

 as possible in the olive husks, which 

 became their property after the oil had 

 been expressed. The natural result was 

 that the growers received but a small 

 quantity of oil of a poor quality from 

 their olives, which was unequal to the 

 competition on the market. 



The June number of the Bulletin 

 oj Economic and Social Intelligence, 

 published by the International Institute 

 of Agriculture, contains an interesting 

 study on the first steps made in this 

 field by co-operation, on its development 

 and its future. We give the following 

 summary of the main points dealt with 

 in the article : — 



In 1900, the first group of olive growers 

 was formed at Codoux (Bouches-du- 

 RLone), and gave the happiest results. 

 This example was soon followed by the 

 growers of Cabris and Gilette (Maritime 

 Alps), who set up some model oil-works. 

 The movement spread rapidly, encour- 

 aged by the Government, and at the end 

 of 191C there were no less than 20 

 co-operative oil-works in the South of 

 France. 



The Government aids the movement 

 in various ways, by spreading the 

 principles of co-operation and technical 

 instruction, granting fiscal immunities 

 or subsidies, and granting loans at a low 

 interest through the Mutual Agricultural 



