1 42 HUNGARY 



1848, when the last remains of the feudal system 

 disappeared from that country. Prior to the 

 year mentioned, the humble cultivator of the 

 soil had to look to the owner of the estate when 

 he wanted financial help, for he himself had no 

 property on which he could raise loans. But his 

 position was altered when, at last, the land he 

 cultivated belonged to him ; and he then also 

 became an object of greater interest to the 

 money-lenders, who had previously regarded 

 him as beneath their notice, while the compila- 

 tion of an elaborate system of land registers — 

 not completed until 1860 — enabled them to 

 readily ascertain the position of each peasant in 

 regard to the land he owned, and the extent to 

 which it might already have been mortgaged. 



The money-lenders were mostly Jews from 

 Galicia or Russia — men, that is to say, who 

 neither by race nor language had any affinity 

 with their victims — and they so operated that 

 many of the peasant farmers became virtually 

 their slaves. There was a monotonous sameness 

 about their method of procedure. They would 

 first start an inn, or, alternatively, a store, and 

 be especially friendly with any one of their 

 customers who happened to have a fairly pros- 

 perous property. On the slightest suggestion 

 they would offer to lend him money, and at 



