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Agricultural Credit in Italy. 



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directly devoted to agricultural purposes. They have no 

 capital of their own, or at least no initial capital, but they 

 receive savings deposits ; and only when these are insufficient 

 do they borrow the necessary capital from other institutions 

 (such as popular banks and savings banks), or have recourse 

 to private people who have disposable capital. The loans are 

 made at an interest slightly higher than the ordinary interest 

 paid on deposits or on money borrowed by the society. This 

 little difference serves for the expenses of management and 

 for the constitution of a reserve fund, capable of placing the 

 bank in a condition of comparative independence and of 

 greater stability. The services of the officials are gratuitous. 



The reserve fund, in case of dissolution, is devoted to 

 purposes of public utility. The maximum period of repay- 

 ment is fixed by the rules, but there are two kinds of loans; 

 the first of relatively short duration, not extending over a 

 period of more than two years; the others with a longer 

 duration, extending even to ten years. Loans of the first 

 kind are generally renewed every three or six months ; those 

 of the second kind are repaid by instalments which include 

 the interest. 



Of the 500 non-Catholic banks, 130 belong to the National 

 Federation of Italian Rural Banks, which was founded in 

 Padua in 1887. It na s its headquarters now in Rome, and its 

 object is to unite the Italian rural banks "in one single federa- 

 tion, to encourage their diffusion, facilitate their development, 

 to care for and protect their interests in every way." The 

 Federation assists affiliated branches with advice, and in their 

 negotiations with larger institutions, and also in the purchase 

 of agricultural requirements, and, when requested, it conducts 

 inspections and examines their accounts. It sends out lec- 

 turers on agricultural subjects, co-operation and thrift, and 

 conducts experiments in the use of chemical manures. The 

 Catholic rural banks are nearly all united in regional and pro- 

 vincial or diocesan federations, and they are almost all 

 registered in the Italian Federation of Catholic Rural Banks 

 which was recently formed at Bologna. 



Other Institutions. — The agricultural banks of the district 

 of Parma are somewhat different from those above described, 

 but rather on account of their different historical origin than 



