166 AGRICULTURAL CAPITAL 



them have abandoned the old individualist doctrines 

 according to which only the strongest necessity and 

 the prospect of certain profit justified the State in 

 embarking upon enterprises of an industrial nature. 

 Nowadays a sympathetic consideration is extended 

 to projects from which the State cannot expect any 

 direct profits, and from which the only return will be 

 the improved prosperity of the people. It is possible 

 to argue that, by taking a large view of the revenues 

 of the State, these projects may be justified financially 

 as well as politically, for the prosperity of the people 

 is reflected in the revenues of the State. With regard 

 to both public and private enterprises, the opinion 

 now prevalent is the same ; that opinion is that the 

 capital for agricultural improvements should be ad- 

 vanced by the State. 



In Europe the small farmers have been as much 

 hampered by want of capital as the cultivators of 

 India ; in recent years they have partially overcome 

 this difficulty by co-operation among themselves. 

 The earliest examples of co-operation in farming 

 were usually associations to secure loans on more 

 favourable terms than the local money-lender would 

 grant, but the farmers, who had discovered the ad- 

 vantages of association and had formed the habit of 

 working together for a common purpose, soon ex- 

 tended the scope of their activity and discovered that 

 they were able collectively to conduct a great many 

 farming operations well which they had individually 

 done ill. The benefits which spring from co-opera- 

 tion are of two kinds: (i) The stimulus to the 

 small farmer to invest his savings in farming, and the 

 discouragement of unproductive expenditure ; and 

 (2) the economic advantage of production on a 

 large scale, and the employment of adequate capital- 

 It is to this co-operative movement among the 

 peasants and small farmers that the agricultural re- 

 vival in Europe is due. Perhaps the most striking 



