82 HUNGARY - CREDIT 



It therefore seems to us desirable to indicate the course followed in 

 these operations. 



The Central Statistical Office, entrusted with the conduct of the enquiry, 

 made use of a schedule of questions and census forms to be filled in. 



By means of the schedule of questions, the statistics of the principal 

 mortgage charges were obtained from the land registers where they were 

 entered against each holding, as were also separately the additional mortgage 

 burdens on other land serving as security for the mortgage credit already 

 reported as registered against the holding. 



The auxiliary mortgage burdens were then noted on separate census 

 forms. 



By means of this schedule of questions it was possible at once to find 

 the number of farms and the amount of the debt secured by the principal 

 mortgage on each of them. This method reduced the possibilities of error 

 through the same debt being calculated a second time from the additional 

 mortgages. 



Both the schedule of questions and the census forms were prepared 

 with great diligence and skill. 



Each schedule of questions, intended to discover the burdens on the 

 holdings entered in the land registers on June 30*^^^., 1895, made careful 

 provision in the first place for ascertaining the position of the holding, 

 its area and the name and residence of the owner, or owners in case of joint 

 property. Besides, the owner was asked whether and in what communes 

 he had other land and in what register it was entered. 



After having thus sought to ascertain clearly the principal data needed 

 for the specification of the individual mortgages and for the study of the 

 distribution of the debts according to the area of the holding, the enquiry 

 went on to an accurate search for the data necessary to obtain a true know- 

 ledge, from the economic point of view, of the holding and its indebtedness. 



As regards the registered debts, account was taken of the date of 

 registration, their amount and the interest to pay. Loans redeemable in in- 

 stalments were distinguished from those not so redeemable, and, in the first 

 case, the period in which they were redeemable and the amount of the in- 

 talments had to be given. 



If the enquiry- had been successful, a perfect knowledge would have 

 been obtained of the way in which the mortgage indebtedness of Hun- 

 gary -was distributed according to the character of the persons and in- 

 stitutes, whether national, Austrian or foreign, assisting the landowners 

 with money, and the causes of the debt. That is, statistics would have 

 been obtained of the greatest importance for the study of the principal 

 economic problems connected with the question of rural indebtedness. 



In fact, in the case of the mortgage loans, redeemable in instalments 

 or not, it was asked if they had been granted : 

 {a) by Hungarian Credit Institutes 

 {h) » Austrian » » 



(c) » Foreign » » 



[d) » Minors' Estates 



