March 1897.] 



FOREIGN OFFICE REPORTS. 



415 



State Loans for Agricultural Improvements in Russia. 



In a Report to the Foreign Office on the Consular District of 

 Batoum, Mr. P. Stevens, Her Majesty's Consul at that port, 

 furnishes the following details relating to a law promulgated in 

 July last, which, it is stated, may prove of great advantage to 

 the agricultural classes : — 



The new law has reference to the granting of advances on 

 account of rural economical improvements. The measure has 

 been adopted for three years as a trial. By the decree in question 

 advances are authorised for drainage and irrigation works, for 

 strengthening river banks, for preventing the fall of precipices, 

 for bringing the plains of shifting sands under cultivation, and 

 for developing orchards and vineyards. 



The chief grounds on which grants are made are briefly as 

 follows : — 



The administration for granting advances is under the control 

 of the Ministry of Agriculture and State Domains (Department 

 of Rural Economy and Rural Economic Statistics), and the deci- 

 sion as to the grants being made rests with the Minister after 

 the question has been considered by the Council of that Ministry. 

 Representatives of the Ministries of Finance and of the Interior 

 take part in the deliberations of the Council with the right to 

 vote. 



Advances are granted only on condition that the earning 

 power of the proposed expenditure shall be preliminarily proved, 

 and the work must be executed under Government inspection, 

 with a view to seeing that the loans are really applied to the 

 purposes for which they are granted. Should the improve- 

 ments carried out by the borrower be of material advantage to 

 a whole district, or should they facilitate or reduce the cost 

 of the execution of similar works on neighbouring State lands, 

 then the Ministry of Agriculture shall transfer a portion of 

 the expenditure to the charge of the special credits of that 

 Ministry. 



Loans are granted (a) to Zemstvos for drainage, irrigation, 

 or other works which are of general importance for whole 

 governments or districts ; (6) to individual landowners ; and 

 (c) to rural communes. Loans to individual landowners and 

 rural communes are granted either direct by the Ministry 

 of Agriculture, or through the intervention of the Zemstvo 

 institutions. 



These loans are granted for terms not exceeding 20 years (the 

 period is fixed by the Ministry of Agriculture, by agreement 

 with the Ministry of Finance) for each class of improvement, 

 and for a sum not exceeding three-fourths of the cost of the 

 improvement. Interest is charged at the rate of 4 per cent, 

 per annum, and the loan has to be repaid in annual payments 

 varying in proportion to the length of the term for which the 

 loan is granted. 



