191 1.] Agricultural Credit in Italy. 1005 



any difference in economic principles. They are of a non- 

 sectarian character, and are intended to benefit agriculture; 

 hence they lend to applicants only when they have assured 

 themselves of the agricultural purpose of the credit asked for. 

 The banks of the district of Parma are 11 in all, and they 

 belong to the " Federation of Agricultural Banks of the Parma 

 Apennines" and deal with the Savings Bank of Parma; they 

 thus act as intermediary institutions of this bank in its credit 

 operations with the farmers. 



The Bank of Naples is authorised by law to do agricultural 

 credit business in the provinces of Southern Italy and in 

 the Island of Sardinia with legally constituted societies and 

 institutions, preferably those of a co-operative character. 

 Similarly, the Bank of Sicily is authorised to do business 

 through the medium of local co-operative institutions, that 

 is to say, agricultural banks, in the form of co-operative 

 societies with unlimited liability, and agricultural trading 

 societies, constituted among agriculturists in the form of 

 co-operative societies, or agricultural associations constituted 

 as corporate bodies. According to the latest report of each 

 of these banks, the number of intermediary institutions of 

 the Bank of Naples was 1,542, of which 764 were " credit- 

 worthy," and the total amount of loans made to such institu- 

 tions was 4,200,000 francs (,£168,000) ; the number of 

 institutions having relations with the Bank of Sicily was 157, 

 and the business done with them amounted to 4,000,000 francs 

 (■£160,000). 



Mention must also be made of the Institution of Credit for 

 Co-operative Societies, which was founded as a limited 

 liability company at Milan, in 1904, with the assistance of 

 the larger popular banks and of some co-operative societies. 

 Its object is "to assist the development of co-operative dis- 

 tributive societies, co-operative productive societies, labour 

 co-partnership societies, and credit societies for the benefit of 

 artisans, clerks, peasants and metayers, and small freeholders, 

 facilitating, by means of credit, the work of such societies." 

 This Institution, which has a paid-up capital of a million 

 francs (£'40,000) and, deposits to the amount of three million 

 francs (,£120,000), and has made a strong position for itself 

 in nearly all Northern Italy and in several of the towns of 



