INTERIOR COLONIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF SMALL PROPERTY J^ 



ot colonization and even renders colonization by individuals almost im- 

 possible. This law placed six million crowns (i) at the disposal of the Minis- 

 try of Agriculture. The interest of this sum was to be used for affording 

 loans and other financial help to agriculturists cultivating lands of the Do- 

 main. Clearly since available resources were so slight, colonization on a 

 large scale could not be contemplated. Sixteen colonies which were formed 

 comprise nearly 1600 positions for farmers and 200 more for agricultural 

 labourers. The average area of each farm is 40 arpents (2) and the pur- 

 chase price varied from 3,000 to 16,000 crowns. The maximum concession 

 was three fourths of this value and the term of redemption fifty years, in- 

 terest being at the rate of 4 per cent. 



Such being the conditions, the whole countr}' felt the effect of the ina- 

 dequacy and lack of measures which could provide an impulse where so 

 important a matter was concerned. Daranyj , Minister of Agriculture and 

 president of the Federation of Hungarian Agriculturists, took note of 

 aspirations which existed and embodied them in two proposed laws, respec- 

 tively dated in 1903 and 190Q, as to colonization and the regularization of 

 the parcelling of land. But neither of his schemes became law. That 

 of 1909 was however most useful for it treats the whole problem of a land 

 policy fundamentally and integrally. It deals not only with coloniza- 

 tion by the State and individuals but also with the parcelling of land, with 

 the Rentenoitt (2) or property siibject to the pa^'ment of a yearly rent, with 

 colonization based on leases and with farmers' co-operative associations. 

 It contemplates a colonization fund of 120,000,000 crowns. It would have 

 been applied, for special ends, on all State property without reservation. 

 Had it become law when it was introduced it would have met with a great 

 success, for the purchasing power of mone}^ was then far greater than, it 

 is now. 



This scheme having fallen to the ground the State founded a federa- 

 tion of Hungarian institutions of land credit, the AUrnistenhank, in order 

 not completely to lose its directive influence over rural affairs. Although 

 this institution disposes of. somewhat limited resources they assure to the 

 State an influence over the parcelling of land, the sales of property and the 

 terms on which rural credit is afforded. 



It is certain however that Hungarian rural polic}^ has not brought about 

 that the State or the middle class disposes of sufficient financial resources 

 or capital to be able to cope with the problem of colonization on a large 

 scale ; and the parcelling of land by business men who consider only their 

 own profit is almost always fatal to the economic future of the new small 

 proprietors. Thus among those in favour of interior colonization the idea 

 arose of seeking for new resources and opening up new roads to the desired 

 goal. If this were impossible on the basis of property a positive result 



(i) r crown = about 10 y^ d. at par. (2) i arpcnt = 1.4213 acres. 



(2) For the introduction of the RentengiU into the colonization of North Germany (provinces 

 of West Prussia and Posen) see our issue for December 1912, BiUlelin des Institutions iconomi- 

 ques et Sociales, 3rd year, no.' 12, pp. 146-148. 



