nted to L7,165,753. During the
year 1898, 181 new societies of various kinds were formed.

*88. Cooeperation in Credit.*--In England building societies are not
usually recognized as a form of cooeperation, but they are in reality
cooeperative in the field of credit in the same way as the associations
already discussed are in distribution, in production, or in
agriculture. Building societies are defined in one of the statutes as
bodies formed "for the purpose of raising by the subscription of the
members a stock or fund for making advances to members out of the
funds of the society." The general plan of one of these societies is
as follows: A number of persons become members, each taking one or
more shares. Each shareholder is required to pay into the treasury a
certain sum each month. There is thus created each month a new capital
sum which can be loaned to some member who may wish to borrow it and
be able and willing to give security and to pay interest. The borrower
will afterward have to pay not only his monthly dues, but the interest
on his loan. The proportionate amount of the interest received is
credited to each member, borrower and non-borrower alike, so that
after a certain number of months, by the receipts from dues and
interest, the borrower will have repaid his loan, whilst the members
who have not borrowed will receive a corresponding sum in cash.
Borrowers and lenders are thus the same group of persons, just as
sellers and consumers are in distributive, and employers and employees
in productive cooeperation. The members of such societies are enabled
to obtain loans when otherwise they might not be able to; the
periodical dues create a succession of small amounts to be loaned,
when otherwise this class of persons could hardly save up a sufficient
sum to be used as capital; and finally by paying the interest to
their collective group, so that a proportionate part of it is returned
to the borrower, and by the continuance of the payment of dues, the
repayment of the loan is less of a burden than in ordinary loans
obtained from a bank or a capitalist. Loans to their members have been
usually restricted to money to be used for the building of a
dwelling-house or store or the purchase of land; whence their name of
"building societies." Their formation dates from 1815, their
extension, from about 1834. The principal laws authorizing and
regulating their operations were passed in 1836, 1874, and 1894. The
total