 This situation was more harmful to farmers because they made up the majority of the population, and since they did not have any institutional financial structure to which to apply, they had to borrow money from the usurers with high interest rates.Under these conditions, the governor of Niş (Niš) province of the Ottoman Empire (now in Serbia), Midhat Pasha (1822–1884) began to take the first steps to overcome these difficulties in 1863 and achieved the reorganization of Memleket Sandığı ("Homeland Funds"), which became a law with Homeland Funds Regulations in 1867.Homeland Funds was the first agricultural financial institution founded by the state and operated with a state guarantee.