CHAPTER V 



AGRICULTURAL INDEBTEDNESS : THE PEASANT AND 

 THE MONEY-LENDER 



By some writers the village money-lender is branded 

 as a parasite upon industry, as a Shylock who grinds 

 the faces of the poor, and the cause of more than half 

 the troubles of the rural community. By others he is 

 described as the village capitalist, whose function it 

 is to finance the agricultural industry. It would be 

 easier to apportion to him the praise or blame which 

 is his due if we could say definitely whether he is a 

 capitalist or a usurer; but this we cannot do, as he is 

 generally both in varying degrees. A capitalist is one 

 who lends wealth which is employed for the produc- 

 tion of more wealth, and this function is certainly per- 

 formed by the village money-lender and grain-dealer. 

 It is he who advances seed for the sowings, who pro- 

 vides the cash to buy plough-oxen, and very often the 

 money to procure agricultural implements. But in 

 other dealings which are not less common he plays 

 the part of a usurer. The word usurer has not, as 

 far as I know, ever been given an exact connotation, 

 but it is, I believe, capable of precise definition. By a 

 usurer I understand a man who derives a profit out ol 

 the necessities of his neighbours, who uses their dis 

 tress and their hunger as a means of extorting un- 

 reasonably high payment for the services he renders 

 them. The usurer's opportunity consists in the 

 urgency of his client's need. A man who is on the 



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