The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-06-17

circumstances Of the vendors, proves equally
the ability Of the buyers This would be true.
if the prices were paid down =, the time of
purchase or at the falling due of obligations at
short time That this is not so, will now
proceed to show. | might content myseIfwith
quoting the conclusions Of the present ministry,
or those Of the report Of d. Chegaray, royaIist
member OF the assembly and president of the
ttee on the ways and means Of relieving
The distress Of the mass Of andbolders. but Il
viii be more satisfactory to the reader to have
the leading facts from which these conclusions
are drawn. j will give them under the next head
vi. A mortgage debt, Of ,ohich The interest,"
alone erceeds one half Of The nett product Of az
The real estate in France.
!. The amount OF the mortgage debt as
shown on the records, has increased as land hss
become more subdivlded
July /, 1920, it was fir. $500 1914. 965
July /, 1882, it was 1888 266,778
July |. 1910, it was 1854 O98 600
Making liberal deduction for mortgage
debts satisfied but left annulled on the records.
and for obligations not bona .fde mortgage
though taken in that form, we have remaining
veritable mortgage debt, drawing interest.
amounting to not less than 10000 millions.
The constant increase of this debt Of the landed
proprietors is the subject which, more than any
other, harrassed Louis Philippe during his long
reign, but which he left as he found it,
g This enormous debt may be divided, in re-
lation to its immediate origin, into () debts
contracted for money borrowers; (2d) debts
contracted for the balance of price of purchase;
(3d) new obligations entered into for arrearages
of interest and principal. The debts of the
cond class pay an interest little higher than the
legal one but those Of the first and third paw
an exorbitant rate As The Bank of France lends
oniy TO merchants and on short time, the land
opners are forced 10 haze recourse 10 The nofaries
and usurers roho are limited in their eracfions
only By the impossibility Of pushing them farther
wiih profit.
8. What interest is paid by the country pro-
pretor borrowing on mortgage?
The government, in the statement accom-
panying its bill, estimates it at nine to ten per
cent. year. Of sixty-one general councils,
consulted by the government in l845 on this
subject, many spoke of eight, nine, ten, fifteen,
twenty, and even twenty-five per cent, the in
terest being larger on small sums borrowed on
short time and all of them declared that money
could not be had at the legal rate of five per cent.
M de Chegaray says: "We must resign our
selves to make the acknowledgement that in
many places and circumstances, interest rises to
double and even triple the legal rate" The
calculations in bis report are based OH the sup
position that an average of only seven per cent,
il taken, which he admits Z" is far below the es-
tmaton of the government, that of the majority
of the general councils and of the witnesses ex-
amined before the Council of States"
1 will take, as mean term between NJ de
Chegaray and the government, eight per cent,
as the average annual interest, covering also all
expenses of registration and renewal At this
rate, the amount of annual interest on the whole
indebtedness by mortage is 800 millions.
A. What is the nett produce of real estate!
nj. de Chegaray says that per cent is the
double of the ordinary product of fixed property,
and that French agriculturers, borrowing at even
four per cent, must sooner or later, come to
bankruptcy and ruin. But it is proposed now
to ascertain the nett product of all the real estate
in France. In 1916, this WAS said by M HUI
mann and the government of Louis Philippe to
be in proportion to the product of the direct
land tax as 94l0O to L. NJ de Chegaray
supposes the proportion to be greater, and says
cede as much as the opponents of reform could
possibly claim To avoid all appearance of ex-
aggeration, will take the proportion of 10 TO
/, as middle term between Louis Philippe and
M. de Chegaray's concession. AS the product
of the land tax is 100 millions, it results tat
the whole nett revenue of real estate in France
does not exceed 1000 millions.
b. The real estate account of France may,
then, be stated as follows -
Nett product 1900, 900 900
Deduct, direct land tax l60,000,000
Additional centimes. S0,000,000