260 



Without a minute inquiry extending over all parts of the 

 country, it would not be possible to form an entirely trust- 

 worthy idea of the extent of agricultural indebtedness, as the 

 conditions of different tracts vary widely. The following 

 general account is based on inquiries made and information 

 furnished on the subject by the officers of the Registration 

 Department within the limited time allowed to them for the 

 purpose. 



The aggregate value of the documents registered in the 

 registration offices of this presidency in 1891-92 amounted 

 to about 15'68 crores of rupees ; but it would, of course, be 

 a mistake to take the aggregate value of registered trans- 

 actions as a measure of agricultural indebtedness. Regis- 

 tered transactions are not all loans, but, on the contrary 

 include a large number of cases of cancellation of debts, 

 such as reconveyances of mortgaged property, releases and 

 discharges of debts, receipts, &c., besides gifts, sales, leases, 

 and partitions of immoveable property. Of the aggregate 

 amount shown above, 14*45 crores related to immoveable and 

 1*23 crores to moveable property and simple bonds. The 

 value of gifts of immoveable property amounted to 20 lakhs 

 of rupees ; of sales of immoveable property 4*29 crores, and of 

 mortgages of immoveable property 6 "67 crores. The annual 

 rents of leases registered aggregated 48 lakhs and the amount 

 of fine or premium paid therefor was 10 lakhs. Among docu- 

 ments not relating to immoveable property, the value of sales 

 was 3 lakhs and of simple bonds 60 lakhs. 



The total extent of debts registered — mortgages and 

 bonds — therefore amounted to 7'27 crores of rupees. There 

 is no means of finding out how much of this amount relates 

 to debts renewed and how much to debts newly contracted. 

 A rough analysis of a large number of mortgage deeds in the 

 several districts shows that nearly 75 per cent, of the mort- 

 gages executed are for terms not exceeding three years, 

 that in nearly 50 per cent, of cases there is either no term 

 stipulated or the term is less than one year, and the average 

 term stipulated for all mortgages is about three and-half 

 years.^"^ Mortgages for short terms might, of course, 

 occasionally be permitted to run for the full period allowed 

 by the law of limitation, but the practice appears to be to 

 renew the mortgages as frequently as possible. 66,396 

 mortgage deeds and 12,720 bonds ^*^^ registered in the regis- 

 tration offices of nine districts were examined, and it was 



iw For particulars vide statement printed as appendix VI.-C. (1). 

 "* Do. do. VI.-C. (2). 



