To Us This Appears Nothing, But To The Cypriote It Is
Everything.
Where is he to obtain one hundred pounds?
To him the sum is
enormous and overpowering.
In times of scarcity, which unfortunately are the general conditions of
the country, owing to the deficiency of rain, the farmer must borrow
money not only for the current expenses of his employment, but for the
bare sustenance of his family; he has recourse to the usurer, and
henceforth becomes his slave. The rate of interest may be anything that
can be imagined when extortion acts upon one side while poverty and
absolute famine are the petitioners. The farm, together with the stock,
are mortgaged, and the expected crops for a stipulated number of seasons
are made over to the usurer at a fixed sum per measure of corn, far
below the market price. Another bad season adds to the crushing burden,
and after a few years, when the unfortunate landowner is completely
overwhelmed with debt, perchance one of the happy years arrives when
propitious rains in the proper season bring forth the grand
cereal-producing power of Cyprus, and the wheat and barley, six feet
high, wave over the green surface throughout the island. The yield of
one such abundant crop almost releases the debtor from his misery;
another year would free him from the usurer; but rarely or never are two
favourable seasons consecutive; the abundant harvest is generally
followed by several years of drought. This pitiable position may be
quickly changed by government assistance without the slightest risk.
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