90 



MORTGAGES. 



What makes this evil the greater is, that, in most in- 

 stances, the mortgages are for much larger amounts than 

 the mortgaged property is worth. The reason is, that 

 most of the mortgages were given before the abolition 

 of slavery and the subsequent depreciation of property, 

 to which I have referred, and when West Indian estates 

 were a popular security in Mincing lane and Downing 

 street. I say the mortgages were given before, because 

 it has not been possible since then, to borrow money to any 

 extent upon Jamaica property, so serious and even ruinous 

 have been the losses sustained in consequence of the rapid 

 depreciation of real estate since that event.* 



The way the property became so encumbered is worth 

 tracing out, for it goes farther than anything else to ex- 

 plain the poverty I see about me. 



Jamaica does not furnish a sufficiently extended market 

 for all her staples. Of course, therefore, they have to go 

 abroad or be wasted. The British Parliament had, for 

 some thirty years previous to the year 1846, invited them 

 to England, by protective duties, discriminating Colonial 

 from foreign products, to the advantage of the former. 

 For the reasons to which I have alluded, the landholders 

 were compelled long before the abolition of slavery, to 



* Not only cannot the individual landholders borrow money upon their real 

 estate, but the government itself has failed to effect a loan within the past year, 

 upon the security of the island, and an extra session of the Assembly has been 

 called to meet the emergency. 



