The Man Farthest Down: A Record of Observation and Study in EuropeWashington, Booker T.
History
The Man Farthest Down: A Record of Observation and Study in Europe
Washington, Booker T.
Poor -- Europe; Working class -- Europe
When the farmer brought his milk to the common dairy he was paid a
price for it a little less than the average market price. This added
something to the working capital. At the end of the year a portion
of the earnings of the dairy were set aside to pay interest charges,
another portion was used to pay off the loan, and the remainder was
divided in profits among the members of the association, each receiving
an amount proportionate to the milk he had contributed. In this way the
farmer in the course of some years found himself with a sum of money,
equal to his individual share, invested in a paying enterprise that
was every year increasing in value. In the meanwhile he had received
more for his milk than if he had sold it in the ordinary way. At the
same time, out of the annual profits he received from his share in the
dairy, he had, perhaps, been able to put some money in the savings
bank. The savings banks have always been popular and have played a much
more important part in the life of the people than they have elsewhere.
At the present time the average amount of deposits in proportion to the
number of inhabitants is larger than is true of any other country in
the world. For example, the average amount of deposits in the Danish
savings banks is $77.88; in England $20.62; in the United States
$31.22. At the same time the number of depositors in Danish savings
banks is considerably larger than in other countries. For example,
there are fifty-one depositors for every hundred persons in Denmark. In
England the corresponding number is twenty-seven.
The most remarkable thing about the Danish savings banks, however, is
that 78 per cent.--nearly four fifths--of them are located in the rural
districts. That is one reason that Danish farmers have not found it
difficult to secure the capital they needed to organize and carry on
their coöperative enterprises. With the money which they had saved and
put in the savings bank from the earnings in the coöperative dairies
they were able to borrow money with which to start their coöperative
slaughterhouses and egg-collecting societies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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