20 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. I 



place of the West Indies as a field for the investment of British 

 capital, and has held it ever since, though many rivals have 

 sprung up, especially, in recent years, the Federated Malay 

 States, in which the great rubber-planting industry has grown 

 to such dimensions. British capital is also being invested, in 

 greater or less amount, in the African colonies, and in Java, 

 Sumatra, Brazil, and other foreign countries or settlements. 

 Foreign capital mainly goes to the various foreign tropical 

 colonies, especially the Dutch Indies. Brazil and other South 

 American countries, and India, on the other hand, work mainly 

 with local money, though it must be pointed out that the 

 common people of India at least are very heavily indebted. 



Not only is capital required for the large enterprises, it is 

 also required, in small quantity it is true, for the small, and the 

 practically absolute lack of capital, even a few shillings, is the 

 great bar to progress in village or peasant agriculture. Even 

 as it is, in perhaps the majority of cases, the small crops growing 

 upon the land are mortgaged to money-lenders, who have 

 advanced small sums at a rate of interest from 40 / upwards. 

 Serious attempts to get over this difficulty are now being made 

 in many parts of the tropics, usually by the establishment of 

 Cooperative Credit Societies, upon the lines so successful in 

 Europe. 



