214 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. IV 



factor is strengthened no amount of improvement in education, 

 transport, or other of the factors will produce any result in 

 quickening the rate of progress. The extraordinarily rapid 

 spread of cooperative credit societies in India goes to show 

 how desirable such things are at present, and our experience 

 of Ceylon and the Malay States indicates that in these at any 

 rate the want is much the same. 



In the wet equatorial countries the bulk of the crops, other 

 than rice, tend to be perennials, thus needing more capital 

 than annuals, and thus encouraging capitalist 1 enterprise to a 

 greater extent than peasant. The general tendency of the 

 opening up that is going on, whether in European colonies or 

 in self-governed countries like Brazil, is also to encourage 

 capitalist as against peasant enterprise, and the endeavour of 

 governments should be to encourage both equally ; while the 

 capitalist is helped by improvement of crops, methods, etc., the 

 peasant should be helped in matters of finance, education, and 

 the other factors given in the table under A. 



It must further be recognised that the introduction of any 

 improvement, whether in the factors A or the factors B of the 

 diagram, benefits at first only a few, who thus gain, leaving the 

 rest to be compelled to follow by the instinct of self-preserva- 

 tion. The general effect, therefore, and one which on the face 

 of it looks desirable, is to lengthen out the column of agri- 

 culturists from a shape like a A to one more like a A. The 

 base remains much as at the beginning, but pressure is a little 

 relieved above and this is perhaps a benefit to all concerned. 

 The relative distances of top and bottom, however, will remain 

 all but unaltered, and real improvement in conditions must be 

 work of very great slowness. If anything the top tends con- 

 tinually to go ahead faster than the bottom, so that the effect 

 of improvement is on the whole deleterious to the latter. But 

 evolution seems to be an absolute necessity, and all we can 

 do is therefore to do our best for those at the bottom, though 

 the conversation of some who are pushing the establishment 



1 By capitalist in this book is simply meant one who has a balance to the 

 good, however small, instead of being in debt to the usurer. 



