INDEBTEDNESS IN NORWAY 91 



the proprietors only had an interest of about two- 

 elevenths in the total value of the soil ; that the bare 

 interest on the debt, even at only 4 per cent., was 

 equal to one-sixth of the value of the gross agri- 

 cultural produce, so that the farmers, especially with 

 falling prices and increasing taxes, were in a desperate 

 position. The causes of debt appeared to be the fall 

 in prices, the rise in taxation, the want of practical 

 agricultural teaching, the right or the necessity of the 

 eldest son to buy out all coheirs on succession, and 

 the " exigencies of more civilized life," apparently a 

 euphemism. Practically the whole of the above debt 

 was held by the Bank of Norway, the Land Mortgage 

 Bank, and the savings-banks — a striking commentary 

 on the idea that banking credit will cure indebtedness. 

 While the Minister of the Home Department con- 

 sidered the statistics "somewhat exaggerated," they 

 were not seriously combated or denied, and there was 

 " a unanimous agreement as to the present im- 

 poverished condition of the peasant proprietors of 

 Norway"' (Foreign Office, No. 282 of 1893). 



* In Switzerland "the indebtedness of the peasant 

 proprietors has increased to a very large extent 

 during the last twenty years," due partly to a great 

 rise in land values, giving the opportunity of making- 

 fresh charges (mortgages) on the land, partly to the 

 laws of inheritance. It is extremely important to note 

 the former reason, since it shows that, even in countries 

 of good education, the peasant cannot refrain from 

 pledging any additional value which the land may 

 acquire. In Berne "the indebtedness of the peasant 

 proprietor has been steadily increasing for the last 

 thirty years ; the sales of their holdings have been 

 becoming more frequent, and there has been a grow- 

 ing tendency among the agricultural population to 

 migrate to towns or to emigrate beyond the seas." 

 The increase of debt in this canton is enormous. The 

 capital value of the land in 1889 was ^^40,735,084, and 



