Peculiarities of National Systems of Global Agricultural Credit Cooperation and Their Adaptation to Russian Conditions

Abstract

1. Introduction Development of credit cooperation as one of the forms of financial activities in each specific country has its peculiarities. For the Russian agrarian science, study of the specifics of these relations poses significant interest--as at present, agro-industrial complex of the Russian Federation looks for the most effective paths of its development. Relations of credit cooperation in agriculture are of special interest they are capable of activating the work of medium and small agricultural enterprises, thus combining their financial resources and efforts of enterprises' employees for preservation, processing, and transportation of manufactured products. It is by detailed use of peculiarities of agricultural credit cooperation that success and failures of development of agricultural credit cooperation in various countries in various historical periods could be explained. This block of financial relations has special anti-crisis significance due to its capability for usage of internal financial reserves of population under the conditions of difficult access to bank capital. Therefore, there is a need for systematization of international experience of development of agricultural credit cooperation. 2. Peculiarities of Emergence and Initial Development of Agricultural Credit Cooperation in Germany In Germany, sources of emergence of agricultural credit cooperation are tracked from the middle of the 19th century. Immediately after its emergence, it developed into the form of credit cooperatives. The main peculiarity of initial stage of emergence and development of this special form of financial relations is the fact that first credit relations emerged in the environment of the masses spontaneously and without formed legal field. The first credit cooperative in Germany was created in 1850 by Hermann Schulze in the city of Delitzsch. Such cooperatives became very popular from that time on. By 1859, there were 183 such cooperatives in Germany which united almost 18,000 shareholders. In 1913, the number of credit cooperatives of this type grew up to 3,600 [Miller, 2003]. The main difference of the first credit cooperatives from all others is that emerging economic relations which lie in their foundation appeared without any participation of public authorities of any level. It was relative freedom from dictate of the state that determined true democratic spirit of cooperative movement and formation of approaches and methods which formed the most important peculiarities of cooperative movement. These peculiarities include free expression of will in acceptance of initial agreements which became the foundation of emergence of this economic phenomenon. Later attempts to create cooperatives were oriented at achievement of cooperatives which were to be the first in the history of the world. Based on these achievements, representatives of authorities in various countries performed attempts to help agrarians with centralized methods. Despite general positive direction of these efforts, independent spirit of cooperative movement was largely lost. The former important accents of cooperative activities--mutual help, equality, freedom of joining cooperative or leaving it--were moved to the side of distribution of centralized financial help from government into agrarian sphere of economy and receipt of subsidized credits from the state's central bank. A natural consequence of this process was the fact that on the opposite scale was the loss of relative independence in management, strategic planning, and choice of direction of development. Providing financial resources with centralized method, the state acquired additional control over agrarian sector. This influenced positively the growth of economic power of the state, but initial ideas of ideologists of cooperative movement were overpowered by necessity for conduct of strict accounting with further possibility for increase of the level of taxation. …