1906.] 



Mutual Insurance in France. 



119 



£2^^,000 in loans bearing 3 per cent, interest. The object of 

 the societies participating in these advances must be exclusively 

 to make temporary advances to their members of capital re- 

 quired to cover the current expenses of farming. The total 

 amount which a member can borrow is dependent on the normal 

 number of cattle which his farm can support, a calculation made 

 by the council of the society on the admission of each member. 

 Members on joining pay i krone (about is. lid.) per head of 

 cattle to the reserve fund. The sum to be borrowed by any 

 member may not exceed 56s. per head of cattle, or ^167 in all. 

 The loan must be repaid in nine months, and no fresh loan 

 will as a rule be granted within a month after repayment of the 

 previous one. The money is lent upon a simple bond, each of 

 the members being liable for the debts of the society. The rate 

 of interest must be the same for all members and may not 

 exceed 4^ per cent, per annum. Any profit during the year goes 

 to the reserve fund ; and any loss is defrayed by the members 

 according to their borrowing capacity, up to 6|d. per head of 

 cattle, any further deficiency being met out of the reserve fund. 



Such loan societies can borrow from the State a capital not 

 exceeding 33s. 4d. per head of cattle at 3 per cent, per annum. 

 The total number of members of any society are not to represent 

 less than 1,000 head of cattle, and they are to limit their opera- 

 tions to a defined district. Permission is, however, given where 

 necessary for the formation of societies representing fewer cattle 

 than this. 



Most of the societies are closely connected with the co-opera- 

 tive dairies in the sense that members of the latter only are 

 admitted in many cases. The total number of societies in 1905 

 was 168, who shared the whole of the sum advanced by the 

 Government 



The formation of mutual agricultural insurance societies has 

 made very rapid progress in France during the past seven years. 



Up to 1898 there were about 1,400 of these 

 Mutual Insurance associations in existence, of which some 

 in France.* . - .^ . ^ c 



700 alone were m the Department 01 



Landes, where the mutual insurance of cattle had long existed 



* An account of the system of cattle insurance in France was given in this 

 Journal, Dec, 1904, Vol. XL, p. 547. 



