88 AGRICULTURAL INDEBTEDNESS 



Cattle, again, are very generally bought on credit, and 

 one of the most devouring forms of usury is that of 

 cattle-merchants and of those who lease out cattle to 

 the farmer for breeding and fattening ; the trade in 

 cattle and the bail a chcptel are said to be more pro- 

 ductive of usury than money-dealing itself. 



1 The heavy indebtedness of proprietors in Europe 

 is not due, to any great extent, to improvements and 

 developments ; it is of long standing, and originated 

 long before the modern development of farming, which, 

 indeed, has hardly reached the peasant farmer — e.g., in 

 France the mortgage debt in 1840 was £480,000,000; 

 in Germany and elsewhere it was similarly very heavy, 

 Dr. Mascher's estimate for Prussia alone in 1869 being 

 above £337,000,000 and below £375,000,000, while in 

 1894 it is calculated at £500,000,000.' 



The indebtedness of the small farmer has been for a 

 long while a subject of grave anxiety in all countries in 

 Europe. In recent years, owing to the spread of mutual 

 credit banks and co-operative associations among the 

 peasants, the outlook in agricultural districts has 

 brightened, and the tendency is no longer towards 

 deeper indebtedness, but towards freedom from the 

 oppression of the usurer and the land-bank. But this 

 movement is of very recent growth indeed ; in hardly 

 any country in Europe had it achieved important 

 results ten years ago, and it can hardly be said to 

 have begun in England yet. In order properly to 

 appreciate the value of the remedies now being em- 

 ployed for the reduction of agricultural indebtedness 

 it is necessary to understand the condition in which 

 the small farmers of Europe were placed ten years 

 ago. The following extracts from Sir F. A. Nichol- 

 son's Report give a few details about the condition of 

 different European countries before the agricultural 

 revival had developed : 



'In France the total mortgage debt, wholly irre- 

 spective of all debts based upon personal and chattel 



