INCREASE OF INDEBTEDNESS 105 



According to the three estimates mentioned by Mr. 

 Crooke, from 56 or 66 to 78 per cent, of the cultivators 

 are in debt. We may, perhaps, assume that the average 

 is about two-thirds of the whole body. In Europe 

 the normal indebtedness is estimated to extend over 

 80 per cent, of the peasants' land, and before the recent 

 agricultural revival it was asserted that the percentage 

 was being increased. We should probably not be far 

 wrong if we assumed that about three-quarters of the 

 peasant proprietors in certain European countries are 

 in debt. 



That the indebtedness of the peasantry of Europe 

 increased considerably in the latter half of the nine- 

 teenth century is admitted on all sides, but we are not 

 in a position to say with certainty whether the in- 

 debtedness of the Indian cultivator is also increasing. 

 The evidence of Holt Mackenzie seems to indicate 

 that even at the beginning of the last century the 

 Indian cultivator pledged what credit he had to the 

 utmost. There is, however, a popular impression 

 which must be allowed some weight as evidence that 

 the peasantry of to-day are more deeply involved in 

 debt than their forefathers. In cases where the 

 peasantry are the owners of the land they till, as is 

 commonly the case in the Punjab, and to a more limited 

 extent in this province, it is intrinsically probable that 

 indebtedness should have increased. The value of 

 land and of all interests in land has risen enormously 

 since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the 

 peasant of to-day has far better security to offer than 

 his father, and can consequently raise more money upon 

 it. Now, the experience of European countries proves 

 that any increase in the cultivator's power of borrow- 

 ing is certainly followed by an increase of his indebted- 

 ness ; he borrows everywhere, not according to his 

 need, but according to his capacity. Where the value 

 of land is very low, or where, as in some of the Indian 

 feudatory States, the cultivator may not alienate his 



