On Some Legal and Economic Questions connected with Land - Credit and
Mortgage Companies. By A. G. Henriques, Esq., barrister-at-law. (Effingham Wilson.)—A very timely pamphlet pointing out the prin- ciple on which these societies are managed and the advantages they offer to the public. The principle seems to be to lend their paid-up capital and all the money they can borrow on bond at a low rate of interest to landowners at a higher rate, the difference between the two rates forming the shareholders' profit. Mortgagors prefer to deal with the companies because they are in no danger of having the mortgage suddenly called in, lenders prefer the bonds of the company because if they want their money they can transfer the bonds more readily than
they can transfer a mortgage or sell the mortgaged property. And if they lose the power of foreclosure—which practical men know to bo worthless—they have all the subscribed capital of the company as an additional security. The success of these companies on the Continent is of very old date, and in some cases extraordinary. The Credit Foncier de France, with a nominal capital of 2,400,0001., has lent on mortgage 19,000,0001. Of course this success depends on the extent to which the general public take the bonds of the company.
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