Dec. 1894.] AGKICULTURAL CREDIT BANKS IN RUSSIA. 



183 



the end of the year 1892 the statutes of 1,494 loan deposit 

 companies had received the necessary official sanction. The 

 main provisions of these statutes are generally to the following 

 effect : — 



1. The floating capital of the company to be formed by means 



of the payments made hy its members on confirmation of 

 share, assigned upon the foundation of the company, at 

 the rate of 50 to 200, and in exceptional cases, to 1,000 

 roubles. 



2. The company to be empowered to effect the following 



operations : — 



(X. Acceptance of deposits fiom the very smallest sum, 

 25 kopecks, to such an amount as shall not exceed five 

 times the rate of share allotted, in accordance with the 

 statutes of the company, to a single individual or to a 

 single establishment. 



h. Advancement of loans exclusively to members of 

 the company, if without guarantee, at the rate of IJ of 

 payment on share ; if with guarantee, at a rate not 

 exceeding three times the share. 



c. Raising of loans for increasing floating capital of 

 the company. 



3. Liabilities incurred by the company on deposits or loans 



not to exceed ten times the sum paid on shares and of 

 reserve capital. 



4. All liabilities incurred by obligations on the part of the 



company to be guaranteed by the share and reserve 

 capitals, and by the property of members, on the basis 

 of mutual surety ; the liability of each member, both for 

 himself and other defaulting members, to be limited to 

 tt^n times the rate of his share. 



Of the 1,494 companies whose statutes have at one time or 

 another been officially sanctioned and confirmed, only about 840 

 are carrying on their operations at the present time. The other 

 companies were either never started, or they suspended their opera- 

 tions after a short existence. The very partial development of loan 

 deposit companies, and their small number in comparison with the 

 population, is accounted for to a large extent by the ignorance of 

 the people, and partly by the faulty principles on which the com- 

 panies based their activity. They were organised on the funda- 

 mental principle that the floating capital of the company should be 

 formed by means of the periodical payments made by members 

 on their shares, aud that all the members should be held 

 mutually responsible for the operations of the company. The 

 fulfilment of the first of these conditions was, by reason of the 

 want of means, extremely irksome to many of the peasants who 

 were in need of easy credit, and the obligatory mutual respon- 

 sibility of all the members kept a large number of peasants from 

 joining any of the companies. 



