251 



found that in 27,845 cases the purposes for which debts were 

 contracted were not stated ; and that in 28,206 cases the docu- 

 ments were executed either in renewal of subsisting mortgages 

 or for obtaining loans to discharge other debts. In the re- 

 maining 23,065 cases, the purposes for which the debts were 

 contracted were as follow : — To discharge court decrees 568 ; 

 for purchasing lands and houses 3,873 ; for purposes of trade 

 836; for purchase of cattle and for cultivation expenses and 

 payment of Government assessment 2,973 ; for sinking wells 

 and defraying the expenses of garden cultivation 569 ; for 

 marriage expenses 3,502 ; for funeral expenses 155 ; for other 

 household expenses 5,194; for court expenses 298 ; and for 

 various other purposes 5,097. The above figures relate only 

 to a small number of transactions registered in a few districts, 

 but a similar analysis of the statistics for all the oflBces in the 

 presidency would entail an enormous amount of labour and 

 take up considerable time. 



The aggregate amount of debt may, perhaps, be guessed 

 at four times the annual value of mortgages and bonds regis- 

 tered, viz., 29 crores of rupees for the whole presidency. 

 The unregistered debts are mostly temporary loans which 

 are either repaid in a few months or converted into debts 

 secured by registered documents. Of the above sum of 29 

 crores, a considerable portion is secured on house property in 

 towns. There is no means of estimating how much is so 

 secured, but there is no doubt that the amount is considerable. 

 In the Madras town, where the properties mortgaged are 

 mostly house properties, the total value of the mortgages 

 amounts to 26 lakhs of rupees a year. 



We have also no information in regard to the total value 

 of landed property and the extent to which it is encumbered, 

 but there is no reason to think that, high as the figures relat- 

 ing to indebtedness look, they bear anything like the pro- 

 portion to the total value of landed property that obtains in 

 European ^°^ countries. 



'<"' Mr. Jenkins, Assistant Commissioner, who reported on the state of agriculture in 

 France to the British Royal Commission on Agricultm-e in 1881, remarks as follows on 

 the indebtedness of the peasantry in France : 



" A report on the agricultm-e of any portion of France without a mention of that 

 spoilt child of the doctrinaires, the ' peasant proprietor,' would appear to many persons 

 like the play of Hamlet without the impersonation of the Prince of Denmark. Therefore 

 I feel constrained to say a few words on the subject, although, as a matter of fact, I 

 have very little to add to what has already been reported by my colleague Mr. Suther- 

 land. I quite agree with everything that Mr. Sutherland had stated in his report, and 

 also with the views on the same subject expressed by my late friend Mr. Gibson Rich- 

 ardson in his \rell known work on the Corn and Cattle Producing Districts of France. 

 But it seems necessary to draw attention to one remarkable omission by Mr. Sutherland, 

 namely, the extent to which peasant properties in France are mortgaged. Mr. Rich- 

 ardson states that ' the mortgage debt is put at 480 millions sterling, which is one-sixth 



