COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 49 



sellers usually charge 4 to 5^ per cent., the last one-fifth, which 

 often remains standing, has to pay 6 to 7 per cent. 



The paying of interests that are due, is spread often 

 over three years, and payment is made only after a strong request. The 

 " Egyptische Hypothekenbank " is introducing with success a 

 system of prompt payment of interest ; one month before due date 

 each customer's attention is drawn by a letter to their responsibili- 

 ties and to the precise paragraphs on the contract, and in case of 

 the non-payment the land is at once sold by public auction. 



As a small holder of 5 feddans is not in the position, as we shall 

 see later on, to pay interest at 7 to 9 per cent, over and above his 

 living expenses, if he has to pledge his whole land, one can only 

 grant him a loan up to 20 to 30 per cent, of a low valuation of his 

 property. If the advanced money is really used for buying land or 

 for the improvement of the soil, and not as 1 is the case with about 

 25 per cent., for other things, the small holder can, if he is indus- 

 trious and if the soil is good, spare from his income the interest on 

 the mortgage. But the mortgage banks do their business almost ex- 

 clusively with the large and middle-class holders, who have by far a 

 greater balance left over and above the expenses. 



In order to urge upon the farming classes the method of 

 thrift, the system of savings banks has been extended to the villages, 

 in 1911, in such a way that the tax-collectors accept deposits from 

 one piastre upwards, and pay out similar amounts. Cases have 

 occurred which are not only comical, but also characteristic of the 

 perception of fellaheen. In order to follow what they thought was 

 a Government Ordinance, the fellaheen went to their villages usurers 

 in order to borrow small sums at 20 per cent, per annum, and put 

 these " savings " into the new savings bank at 6 per cent, per 

 annum. 



One has still to reckon also with the old prejudice, that to lend 

 money for interest is against the laws of Moslem. 



The Egyptian Government has quite recently (in 1912) issued 

 a law for the protection of the small holder from the immoderate 

 usurers, according to which every landowner possessing less than 

 5 feddans cannot be sold up. It is true this law has met with strong 

 opposition from many quarters, and as the opinion is held that the 

 peasant will suffer more harm than benefit by it, the proposal has 

 been made to enforce this law only gradually in such a manner that 

 every 5 years one feddan of land shall not be distrained upon, in order 

 to enable the Egyptian peasant and the advancer of money to make 

 the necessary financial arrangements in the course of the next 25 

 years. Otherwise the small peasant who is, as a rule, heavily in 

 debt, would find himself immediately without any of the credit which 

 he enjoys at present through the mortgage on his land. The Agri- 

 cultural Bank, too, which one might also say is a Government 

 undertaking, has respectfully pointed out that the proposed law is 

 in direct contradiction to the aims and purposes set down at its 

 foundation. In spite of all this, the "Law of 5 Feddans" will 

 probably corne into force in 1913, slightly altered. 



Very important would be the establishment of agricultural 

 co-operative banks. In 1908, already two Egyptians, namely, 

 Boghas Pasha Nubar and Omar Bey Lufti (died in 1911) tried to 



