108 



RURAL CREDIT. 



CREDITS AND LOANS FOR FARMERS. 



Every year at certain periods, that hardy annual. 

 Agricultural Credits come up for discussion. At the be- 

 ginning of the season, demands are loud for credits or 

 loans for seeds, towards the middle of the agricultural 

 season the outcry is for harvesting loans, without which 

 the crop is invariably about to "malograr", and finally 

 at the end of the season when the crop is definitely har- 

 vested, sti 1 ! more urgent demands are Jieard'for even yet 

 further loans to enable the farmer to market his pro- 

 ducts; from the beginning to the end anguishing calls 

 for money or credit in some form or the other. 



Customarily, the easiest way to explain the demand 

 for loans is to attribute it to the absence of capital among 

 farmers and to the haphazard way of working without 

 any proper funds of their own, etc. The same explana- 

 tion suffices every year without any particular worry as 

 to its truth, either on the part of the authorities, or the 

 parties immediately concerned. 



Before accepting this easy explanation it is worth 

 while to examine the -theory and practice of capital, as 

 applied in the Argentine farmer's economy. 



CAPITAL . 



Capital has been defined as the accummulated sav- 

 ings of labour, and of the profits accruing from the sav- 

 ings for labour. Insofar as it applies to the capital of the 

 Argentine farmer, cereal fanner or chacarero, it is an 

 admirable definition . 



Whereas in industry and commerce, capital is ac- 

 cepted to mean the total sum involved, or its value as 

 represented by the undertaking, in agriculture it is ge- 

 nerally understood as the amount of ready cash and mov- 

 ables, implements, machines, horses, etc., the farmer pos- 

 , apart from that actually invested fixtures, land, 

 barns, etc. For our Argentine cereal farmers, capital 

 is especially the means with which he counts on being able 

 to carry through the year's business, that is, his own 

 energy, his horses and implements primarily, and only" 

 secondarily the ready cash he possesses. 



Owing to the system of land exploitation in vogue, 

 by which less than 30 per cent, of the farms dedicated 



