change.

Among the mortgage banks developed outside of Germany the Credit
Foncier of France is especially noteworthy. In its organization it
was modeled after the Bank of France and is second only to that
institution in the magnitude of its operations and the scope of its
influence. Its head office is in Paris and it has at least one branch
in each department. Its capital stock owned by private parties amounts
to about $40,000,000, its surplus to over $4,000,000, its loans
secured by mortgage to over $400,000,000, and its total resources to
about $1,000,000,000.

Like the German mortgage banks, it secures the greater part of its
loan funds through the issue of mortgage bonds and a large percentage
of its loans are made on mortgage security for long periods of time
and are repayable on the annuity plan. However, it transacts a greater
variety of business than does the typical mortgage bank of Germany. It
loans on city and farm real estate and to communes, and it transacts a
large commercial banking business, though this is distinctly a side
issue, incorporated with its other business in order to give
profitable employment to funds, sometimes large in amount, which are
temporarily on hand awaiting investment.

At various times it has absorbed competing institutions and at times
it has established collateral institutions to transact lines of
business for which its own constitution and legal limitations did not
fit it. Among these the most important are the Credit Agricole and the
Foncier Algierienne. It was obliged ultimately to absorb and liquidate
the former, but the latter still flourishes in the colony of Algiers.

Mortgage banks have also gained a footing in most of the other
countries of continental Europe. In Italy they passed through a period
of storm and stress, owing to their connection with the issue banks of
that country and the consequent confusion between commercial and
investment banking which resulted, but they have recently been
established on an independent basis and are now developing along right
lines and with apparent success.

The Schulze-Delitzsch and Raiffeisen societies have been imitated in
Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Switzerland, and, to some extent, in France
and India. The so-called "Banche Populari" and "Casse Rurali" of Italy
are respectively modified forms of these two German types, and rank
among the most important means employed in that country for the
improvement of the condition of