Syria: An Economic Survey 



lines connecting the Syrian ports direct with Trieste, Marseilles, 

 Liverpool, London, etc. With proper storage facilities even the 

 most perishable fruits and vegetables, for instance, apricots and 

 grapes, can be transported to Europe without risk. These improve- 

 ments will, of necessity, be brought about gradually. It might be 

 well for the government to subsidize the steamship lines. 



Agrarian Credit. According to a law of 1916, the Banque 

 Agricole is no longer limited to a maximum of 150 Itq. on mort- 

 gage credits, and moreover it is now empowered to grant loans 

 secured either by grain or by the entire property. Thus the bank 

 can really become a central institution for the granting of agrarian 

 credit in every form. The Banque Agricole will fulfill its task only 

 when it wholly and adequately satisfies the demand for loans. It 

 should facilitate the advance on grain by erecting warehouses and 

 issuing warrants in the American manner. It should promote the 

 establishment of all sorts of agrarian associations and educate the 

 farmer as to the value of forming associations. 



As long as it is not certain whether or not the Banque Agri- 

 cole can raise the necessary capital to fulfill the duties imposed 

 upon it by the new law it would not seem advisable that it should 

 have a monopoly on granting agrarian mortgages, thus excluding 

 private concerns from this activity. And yet this is what the 

 provisional law of 1912 has done, for in accordance with it private 

 concerns cannot grant mortgage credit in villages. If this measure 

 was taken in the fear that the competition of the mortgage banks 

 would be prejudicial to the Banque Agricole it was superfluous, for 

 as the latter charges only 6 per cent, interest it is in no danger of 

 meeting serious competition. There is another reason why private 

 mortgage banks should not be excluded from the agrarian credit 

 system, namely, because such banks could co-operate with tfre 

 Banque Agricole in the important task of dividing the large Syrian 

 estates into small holdings and creating a class of free farmers in 

 the place of the tenants of the present time. This could be done 

 by giving the fellah the opportunity of buying the land which 

 he now labors on as a tenant, by granting him a long-term credit 

 to be repaid year by year for a period of 10-30 years, this credit to 

 be guaranteed by a mortgage on the newly acquired land. 



The osher, which amounts to 12.63 per cent, cannot be con- 

 sidered an advisable method of taxation. Moreover it is unjust 

 because it is taken on the gross profits without regard to differences 

 in the cost of production. The osher is an impediment to every 

 improvement in which money must be invested, for the proprietor 



