Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1876 — The Paradise of Money-Lenders. [ARTICLE]

The Paradise of Money-Lenders.

India must be the paradise of moneylenders. Some years ago a Christian capitalist advanced the sum of five pounds on the personal security of a Eurasian co-re-ligionist employed as a writer In a Government office. The interest whs originally orfly seventy-five per cent, per annum, but as nothing had been paid at the end of the two years the debtor gave a promissory note for the amount then due, and undertook to pay 120 per cent, for the future. Three years went by without any payments being made, and then a fresh capitalizing operation was efleated. About that time the debtor’s salary was increased, and he at once set aside a moiety of his pay for the purpose of reducing his debt. In this he succeeded so perfectly that at the time of his death, a few years later, he owed no more than £IOO. Quite recently, no further back indeed than last August, a Hindoo ihoney-lender successfully sued another mild Hindoo in the small cause court for four pounds, being the balance due on a sum of eight pounds, the outcome in two years of an advance of two pounds, the interest being calculated at the rate of seven and a half farthings per rupee per diem. How much this wo ul d’amount to per annum is one of those questions which may fitly be relegated to Mr. Babbage’s calculating machine. These two cases, however; illustrate the general poverty of India, and the infinitesimal character of its internal and, so to speak, popular trade. In some of the remote hill districts, coined money is still regarded as a curiosity to be worn about the person, business being conducted on the old principle of barter. It is not very surprising that in a country where every ryot is in debt, and where the interest on personal loans varies from seventyfive to 200 per cent., the land should be rapidly passing into the hands of moneylenders and usurers. Though not matter for surprise, it is certainly matter for regret. — Pall Mall Gazette.