



EGYPTIAN SYSTEM OF MAKING LOANS TO AGRICULTURISTS. 



[Extracts from the Report on the Administration of Egypt and the 



Soudan, 1895] 



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The Government has done something to aid the cultivators. In 

 1894, they received advances of 5,000 ardebs of seed (1 ardeb 

 = 2671bs.) ; in 1895, the quantity was increased to 8,000 ardebs. The 

 reason why advantage is not to a greater extent taken of the offer made 

 by the Government in this connection is, that the cultivators are but 

 too often so deeply pledged to the petty money-lenders that they are 

 unable to resist the pressure, which these latter naturally bring to bear 

 on them, to abstain from asking for advances of seed from the Govern- 

 ment. 



The remedy which would probably be the most popular amongst 

 the land-owning classes in Egypt, and which has, in fact, frequently 

 been suggested to me by several leading Egyptians, would be to esta- 

 blish a Government Land Bank, which would redeem the whole, or 

 nearly the whole, of the present mortages, and would for the future 

 advance money at reasonable rates of interest on the security of the land. 

 Those of my native friends who have spoken to me on this subject 

 scarcely appear to realize the grave objections which may be urged 

 against a project of this description, nor the very large amount of 

 capital which would be required to carry it into execution. Apart 

 from the fact that it would result in the Government becoming the 



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creditor of a large part of the population, which is, perhaps, scarcely 

 desirable on political grounds, it is to be observed that, in order to 

 attain the object in view which is, I conceive, to afford permanent 

 relief to the land-owning classes, another step would have to be taken, 

 namely, that all private mortgages upon land, on the security of which 

 the Government had advanced money, should be declared invalid. Un- 

 less this were done, a large number of cultivators, after having 

 borrowed at a low rate of interest from the Government, would place 

 second, third, and fourth mortgages on their land on account of c loans 

 contracted from money-lenders at high rates. I venture to assert 

 that in a very short time the condition of the land-owning classes, 

 generally, under a system of this sort, would be no better than at ' 

 present. 



