INDEBTEDNESS IN EUROPE GENERALLY 93 



value of the land, it follows that nearly the whole 

 land is under mortgage when the mortgage amount 

 is 40 or 50 per cent, of the value. This is a significant 

 fact. 



' In Belgium the peasants are said to have grown 

 poorer, the exceptions being those who are temperate, 

 active, and thrifty to an unusual degree. The figures 

 are not, however, available. 



' It is to be remembered, per contra, that in certain 

 cases this increase of indebtedness is due to better 

 cultivation and to a pledging of the land for improve- 

 ments and for the mobilization of the capital sunk in 

 the soil ; it is not always an unproductive charge. 

 Also, that whereas the loans in former years were at 

 usurious, or at least heavy, interest, the loans, at least 

 in Switzerland, are now often at lower interest, and 

 are not therefore necessarily in all cases a heavier 

 annual burden. Moreover, while all mortgages are 

 registered, releases from mortgage are not necessarily 

 registered, while partial repayments are necessarily 

 not shown. This, although allowed for in the French 

 statistics, somewhat reduces the total burden. Again, 

 in Switzerland and in Prussia it is the rule that the 

 State land-tax is reduced in proportion to the burdens 

 (mortgages) that the land has to bear ; hence it is not 

 uncommon deliberately to keep an estate burdened in 

 order to escape the tax, the proceeds of the mortgage 

 being placed out at interest. 



' But for Europe in general it is certain that mort- 

 gage indebtedness has immensely increased during 

 the last twenty to forty years ; that besides mortgage 

 debts there is a great mass of charges in the form of 

 " hypotheques legales et occultes " — i.e., charges not 

 bearing interest, and arising from claims of various 

 sorts, and also unregistered debts ; that there is a 

 great amount of unknown and personal debt ; that the 

 debts are largely due to the fall in prices, to the law of 

 inheritance, to heavy succession duties, to great losses 



