144 THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLEM. 



what he likes with. He can invest this sum 

 as he chooses, and is therefore in a position 

 to provide for his younger children. Thus he 

 obtains a personal premium on selling. He is 

 offered every inducement to sell, even though 

 the process should result in a diminished income 

 for the next heir. 



From the standpoint of the landowner, the sale 

 of his property takes the form of a great extin- 

 guishing of encumbrances, the possibility being 

 offered to him of contracting a new mortgage 

 at 2f per cent., provided that it does not exceed, 

 as we have seen, one-third of the total value of 

 the estate.^ Thus, in the sale of a hundred 

 millions worth of property the landowners who 

 sell can mortgage thirty-three millions worth to 

 the State at 2^ per cent. 



In a country where interest at 5 per cent, is 

 by no means uncommon, we are thus suddenly 

 confronted with the introduction by the State of 

 a mortgage interest of 2~ per cent. The mort- 

 gages owned by private persons are repaid ; new 

 investments of the kind are impossible, since the 

 large estates will no longer exist ; the rate of 

 interest is artificially reduced. The advantages 

 of this situation, in a country where the scope 

 for placing capital is so narrow as in Ireland, 

 seem to me doubtful.^ 



^ Or ;^2o,ooo as a maximum in exceptional cases. 



^ The mortgagees are in part institutions disposing of large 

 capital, as, for instance, Insurance Societies. Ecclesiastical 



