Delmar.] dio [jan. 15, 



Property is still administered and managed in Spain with great disorder 

 and negligence, and extreme irregularity exists in the registration of 

 leases, etc. This is probably due to the heavy registration, succession and 

 other fees, and attempts to avoid them by neglecting proper formalities. 

 Stamped paper must be used ; only a feed notary can draw the papers, 

 and fees attend every step of registration, search or certification. The 

 average cost of transfer is about one and a-half per cent, ad valorem. 

 (L. T., p. 44). In other respects the registry system, which has only 

 been in force since 1863, appears to be similar to that which has always 

 existed in the United States. 



Hypothecation op Real Estate. 



The very recent abolition of feudal and ecclesiastical tenures, the con- 

 tinued monopolization of the land by the wealthy (L. T., p. — ), the new- 

 ness, the exactions and disorder of the registry system, together with 

 other causes, combine to render difficult the hypothecation of real estate. 

 In cases where these obstacles do not exist, where the title is undoubted 

 and the land held in fee, there is no difficulty in obtaining loans to the 

 extent of one-third to two-thirds the value of the property, at six to ten 

 per cent, per annum. But in most cases it is the landless metayer who 

 desires to borrow and has nothing to offer as security but his growing 

 crops. Upon such a precarious basis, ten to fifteen per cent, is a low rate 

 to charge for interest, and often from thirty to forty per cent, is paid. 

 (L. T., 18). With the means thus obtained numerous small holdings of 

 mountain land (common land sold by Government under act of 1866) 

 have been purchased by the peasantry on seven year annual installments 

 (p. 30). This points to an extension of the same sort of spade culture 

 which is to be seen in the hilly parts of Italy, and to the abandonment of 

 the better but metayer-held lands 'of the nobility — a tendency that should 

 not exist. 



POSITOS. 



" Posiios" are described by Macgregor as a sort of co-operative society 

 to supply seed corn and food in calamitous years, numbers of which have 

 existed all over Spain since the time of Philip II. M'CuUoch, however, 

 defines them to be merely public granaries where corn may be ware- 

 housed until it is disposed of. The name, which means "depositories," 

 proves this definition to be the correct one. They have diminished in 

 importance of late years, pi'obably because the fears of occasional 

 scarcity, which, no doubt gave rise to them, have been removed by the 

 construction of roads and railways and a more liberal policy in respect of 

 the corn laws. The peasants and dealers in grain in Castile formerly 

 preserved their stocks in silos, or subterranean caves, for sometimes five 



or six years. 



Mesta. 



As has already been explained, Mesta was a right of common which 

 certain privileged classes possessed, but which is now abolished. It is 



