1906.] 



Agricultural Credit in Germany. 



73* 



the paid-up share capital. According to figures quoted by Herr 

 Heuzeroth in an article prepared for the Sixth Congress of the 

 International Co-operative Alliance, the share capital of the 

 twenty-two banks within the Union amounted to £213,000, and 

 the loan capital to £2,897,000, made up of drafts on the State 

 Bank, £654,000, and deposits from local societies, about 

 £2,000,000. 



It may be noted that during the past year an amalgamation 

 has taken place between the Darmstadt Union and the Raiffeisen 

 organisation at Neuwied, by which the supreme control of both 

 organisations will be vested in a central committee. The terms of 

 the Union have been so arranged as to secure the continued exist- 

 ence within it of the special institutions of the Raiffeisen type.* 



The German Co-operative Societies Bank. — It will be seen that 

 the central banks above described, both that at Neuwied and 

 those affiliated to the Darmstadt Union, obtain credit by 

 pledging the combined liability of the societies which they 

 represent. In the case of the Raiffeisen banks, represented 

 by the first-named institution, the liability of all the members 

 of all the societies to make good the debts of the central 

 body is unlimited ; in the case of the second class of central 

 banks the liability of the societies is limited to the amount 

 of their guarantee. This principle, however, never met with 

 the approval of societies of the Schulze-Delitzsch type, which 

 took the view that a central bank should be an indepen- 

 dent institution whose actions would not under any circum- 

 stances jeopardise the welfare of the societies. With this 

 object the German Co-operative Societies Bank was formed as 

 a joint-stock company in 1864, with a capital of £40,000, which 

 was gradually increased to £1,500,000. Its operations have not 

 been confined to credit societies, though it naturally made a 

 special feature of co-operative banking, and its essential prin- 

 ciple has been that it dealt with the Schulze-Delitzsch banks 

 without favour on distinctly business lines. As may be gathered 

 from its increase of capital, it met with very considerable success, 

 but the extension of banking business in Germany made its 

 amalgamation with some more powerful institution desirable, 

 and it has recently been absorbed into the Dresdner Bank. 



* Journal of the Irish Dept. of Agric. , Oct., 1905. 



