Fbbbuabt, 1912.] 



143 Agricultural Finance & Co-operation. 



varies according to the varieties em- 

 ployed in the original cross. 



As to the scientific aspect of these 

 matters, there is nothing to say, for 

 nothing is known. It is greatly to be 

 desired that students of genetics should 

 occupy themselves with the significance 

 of the obscure phenomenon of self-steri- 

 lity and the apparently cognate pheno- 

 menon of enchanced vigour of hybrids. 



Professor Bate3on has already drawn 

 attention to the need for investigation 

 in this branch of genetics, and for our 

 part we know of no subject on which 

 growers, professional hybridists, and 

 scientific men could so well co-operate 

 as on the elucidation of what is at once 

 one of Nature's profound mysteries, and 

 a problem fraught with far-reaching 

 consequences to horticulturists and agri- 

 culturists. 



AGRICULTURAL FINANCE AND CO-OPERATION. 



MONEY-LENDERS AND CO-OPER- 

 ATIVE CREDIT. 



(Prom the Indian Agriculturist, 

 Vol. XXXVI., No. 9, September 1, 1911.) 



The interesting address delivered by 

 the Hon. Mr. J. dimming at the Co- 

 operative Credit Conference raises a 

 somewhat important question of policy 

 which cannot but have a considerable 

 effect on the future of the Co-opeiative 

 Credit movement. Hitherto, it has been 

 assumed that the main object of estab- 

 lishing co-operative credit societies was 

 to get rid of the mahajan. The reports 

 of the Registrars of these societies have 

 been full of examples of the unconscion- 

 able rates of usury which the money- 

 lender imposed upon his victims, and 

 co-operative credit has been represented 

 as a means by which the ryot can dis- 

 charge his obligations to the mahajan 

 and obtain his necessary capital on fair 

 terms. But Mr. Cumming now tells us 

 that these views are mistaken. The 

 moneylender has, it seems, been mal- 

 inged. " Epithets are dangerous wea- 

 pons ; is the mahajan after all so rapa- 

 cious?" Mr. Cumming quoted the late Sir 

 Denzil Ibbetson as having once said that 

 the mahajans "had been often unjustly 

 abused as a class." Further, we are 

 assured that it is no part of the aims of 

 the Co-operative Credit movement to 

 eliminate the money-lender ; the object 

 rather is to reform and utilise him. 

 This policy, Mr. Cumming states, has 

 been adopted in Burma, and is to be 

 pursued in Bengal. It is probably true 

 that the popular estimate of the maha- 

 jan, by which he is presented as an 

 Indian Shylock, has done him less than 

 justice. There is evidence to show that 

 in the money-lender class are included 

 many kindly individuals who conduct 

 their business on benevolent lines. " In 

 some villages," writes Sir Andrew Fraser 

 in his book of reminiscences, "I have 

 known the good old hereditary money- 



lender, whose family had followed this 

 calling for generations among people 

 who lopked up to him very much as to a 

 father. I remember one kindly old 

 money-lender, with no very great capi- 

 tal, but just enough to meet the want* of 

 the village community. He had very few 

 customers outside his own village, and 

 the villagers never dreamed of going to 

 any one else. Their relations with him 

 were very kindly. I do not think I ever 

 heard of his being in court as a plaintiff," 

 But Sir Andrew Fraser meutions that 

 this is a state of things which is not 

 frequent at the present day and is only 

 to be found in the remoter villages. On 

 the other hand, while the benevolent 

 baniais rare, the number of unscrupulous 

 harpies and blood-suckers has probably 

 been exaggerated. It is difficult to 

 think that a class which plays so large 

 a part in rural economy would be 

 tolerated if its members were as a rule 

 outrageously harsh and oppressive. The 

 existence of* the mahajan is in fact only 

 explicable on the supposition that as a 

 rule he does not conduct his business on 

 lines which irritate his neighbours. 

 There are many bad exceptions, and 

 occasionally these pay for their extor- 

 tions with their lives. But the average 

 mahajan appears to be a keen business 

 man who drives a hard bargain and yet 

 is careful not to kill the goose that lays 

 the golden egg. The conditions of his 

 trade render high rates of interest al- 

 most inevitable. He has to risk many 

 losses, and he seeks to safeguard himself 

 by getting as much as he can out of 

 those who pay. The result must be a great 

 hardship to many of his customers. Yet 

 even in his extortions he has not been 

 fairly represented. As Sir Theodore 

 Morison observes, " the fallacy of per- 

 centages attaches to a comparision 

 between the profits on a petty loan of 

 a few shillings and the interest upon the 

 capital lent by a bank." A monthly 

 charge of two annas for the loan of a 



