56 ECONOMICS OF LAND TENURE IN GEORGIA [56 



tion perhaps not more than twenty-five per cent, 1 it at 

 once appears that conditions during that period were 

 not favorable for the reduction of credit percentages. 

 So grievous did these burdens become for the farmers 

 that in the later eighties and early nineties a conscious 

 movement arose on their part for the purpose of liberat- 

 ing themselves from the severe exactions of middlemen 

 in general and supply merchants in particular. This was 

 the famous Farmers' Alliance movement, which had its 

 origin somewhat earlier in states further west. 



From one point of view this whole movement was a 

 fiasco, for not one of the specific plans of co-operation 

 for curtailing what seemed to be the exorbitant profits 

 of the merchants was carried through to a successful 

 accomplishment of its purpose. From another point of 

 view the organization exerted a beneficent influence upon 

 the farmers. Inasmuch as a detailed history of this 

 movement would go far beyond the purposes of this 

 monograph, it is only necessary here to indicate some of 

 the prominent schemes by which the farmers sought to 

 better their condition, and then to point out that 

 although failing to work in practice, they did tend to 

 benefit the farmers, and thus to check the flow of land 

 into the hands of the merchants. 



The most conspicuous of these practical undertakings for 

 self-relief was the so-called Alliance stores. The import- 

 ance of these shops lies in the fact that they were organized 

 for the purpose of meeting the most serious difficulty in 

 the situation, that is to say, they were to open an avenue 

 of escape from the evils of the credit system. These 

 stores were organized by issuing stock at five dollars a 



1 As a basis for this calculation see Latham Alexander & Co., Cotton 

 Movements and Fluctuations (29th ed.), pp. no, in; and Twelfth Cen- 

 sus, vi, pp. 424, 425. 



