Italian Loan Societies. 



Belgium are Ostend, Ghent, and Antwerp, and it is to these 

 ports, and the frontier station of Esschen, that the above 

 decree is more particularly to apply, at least for the present. 



The above regulations do not apply to horses which 

 merely pass through Belgium in transit. 



In a recent report on the economic and financial situation 



in Italy, Major E. Fitzgerald Law, Her 



Italian Agri- Majesty's Commercial Attache at Rome, 

 cultural Loan ^ , . . • 



Societies ^tates that the Monti I^rumentari, as an 



ancient co-operative institution, afford 

 remarkable evidence of the national inclination to co-opera- 

 tion for practical affairs, at a period long prior to the 

 development of modern theories on the subject. Monti 

 Frumentari existed at one time or another in many parts 

 of Italy, but their original constitution was very primitive, 

 and their number appears to be steadily diminishing. The 

 object for which they were founded was to assist small 

 landowners, or peasant proprietors, in the purchase of 

 seed and cattle, by a system of local credit. The most 

 ancient institution of this class is stated to have been 

 founded in 142 1, in the province of Sassari, in the island 

 of Sardinia. It appears that in each parish of the 

 province a field was reserved for the cultivation of grain 

 under the superintendence of the priest, labour being contri- 

 buted on Sundays by all adult parishioners. The produce of 

 this parochial field formed the capital of the institution, and, 

 in case of necessity, any parishioner could obtain a loan of 

 seed, repayable with interest at 4 per cent., in kind, at the 

 next harvest. Surplus reserves of seed were sold from time 

 to time, and the money realised was lent for the purchase of 

 cattle, interest on these cash loans being fixed at 24 per cent. 

 Under such regulations the funds of many of the ]\Ionti 

 Frumentari became in time very considerable, and in excess 

 of the requirements for which they were founded. This 

 prosperity, however, appears to have proved the cause of 

 their ultimate collapse, since, the control gradually passed 



