present day,
and others modeled after them were subsequently established. In 1909
in all Germany twenty-five were in operation, of which eighteen were
in Prussia. The newer ones have not in all respects followed their
models. Unlike the original five, membership in them is not limited to
the nobility and is not compulsory; the liability of the members for
the payment of the bonds issued has in some cases been limited to a
percentage of the total; the loans are usually paid in cash; and the
bonds are sold directly by the associations; but the principles of
mutual liability and mutual control which were basic in the old
organizations have not been violated in any case. Both old and new are
organized in the interests of borrowers on real estate mortgage
security, and aim to secure funds for these on the lowest possible
terms and for long periods of time, by making the security offered the
lenders greater than any single borrower could supply.

The degree of their success is indicated by the fact that in 1909 the
amount of their outstanding mortgage loans amounted to nearly a
billion dollars, and that their mortgage bonds rank on the exchanges
with Prussian state bonds and have at times outranked them.

Another type of land bank appeared in the early part of the
nineteenth century as a result of the movement for the freeing of the
serfs and their transformation into freehold peasants. The lands of
these cultivators were burdened with a variety of feudal dues and
charges which had to be commuted before they could become freeholds.
In order to facilitate this process banks were established which
assumed the obligations of a peasant towards his feudal superior in
return for a mortgage on his holding, repayable with interest in the
form of an annuity, and in amount equal to the sum to be paid to the
feudal superior for the total extinguishment of all feudal
obligations.

Some of these banks were established and administered by states,
provinces, and communes, and some by private parties. The public ones
obtained the funds they needed partly from subsidies and partly from
the sale of guaranteed mortgage bonds and the private ones wholly from
the sale of mortgage bonds.

The completion of the work for which these banks were originally
established put an end to their development about 1883, but similar
institutions have since been established in Prussia to assist
colonists in the purchase and equipment of their farms, and in