distributed among a larger number of persons. Thus it indicates the bearing of co-operation upon the problem of lightening the social burden of interest. From the viewpoint of economic function, co-operation may be divided into two general kinds, producers' and consumers'. The best example of the former is a wage earners' productive society; of the latter, a co-operative store. Credit co-operatives and agricultural co-operatives fall mainly under the former head, inasmuch as their principal object is to assist production, and to benefit men as producers rather than as consumers. Hence from the viewpoint of type, co-operation may be classified as credit, agricultural, distributive, and productive. _Co-operative Credit Societies_ A co-operative credit society is a bank controlled by the persons who patronise it, and lending on personal rather than material security. Such banks are intended almost exclusively for the relatively helpless borrower, as, the small farmer, artisan, shopkeeper, and the small man generally. Fundamentally they are associations of neighbours who combine their resources and their credit in order to obtain loans on better terms than are accorded by the ordinary commercial banks. The capital is derived partly from the sale of shares of stock, partly from deposits, and partly from borrowed money. In Germany, where credit associations have been more widely extended and more highly developed than in any other country, they are of two kinds, named after their respective founders, Schulze-Delitzsch and Raiffeisen. The former operates chiefly in the cities, serves the middle classes rather than the very poor, requires all its members to subscribe for capital stock, commits them to a long course of saving, and thus develops their interest as lenders. The Raiffeisen societies have, as a rule, very little share capital, exist chiefly in the country districts, especially among the poorest of the peasantry, are based mostly on personal credit, and do not profess to encourage greatly the saving and lending activities of their members. Both forms of association loan money to their members at lower rates of interest than these persons could obtain elsewhere. Hence credit co-operation directly reduces the burden of interest.