THE EXTORTIONS OF RUSSIAN MONEY-LENDERSr

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8525, 3 November 1888, Page 3

THE EXTORTIONS OF RUSSIAN MONEY-LENDERSr

In January, 1880, says Stepniak in 1 The Russian Peasantry,’ a large village of the Samara province, Soloturn, borrowed from a merchant of the name of Jaroff the name of £6OO, interest being paid in advance, and bought from Jaroff’s stock 15,000 puds of hay for the starving cattle. Repayment was te be made on October Ist, 1880, under the condition that £5 should be added for every day’s delay. When the time of payment arrived the peasants brought £2OO on account of their debt to Jaroff, who made not the slightest objection to waiting for - the balance. For II months’ thereafter he kept quiet. But in September, 1881, he brought an action against the village for £ISOO. The magistrate before whom the case was tried, being evidently in a frame of mind not unlike that of Antonio’s judges, decided against the plaintiff. Bat Jaroff was not much dis. oouraged thereby. Confident in his right, he appealed to a higher Court and won his case. And as this proceeding caused farther delay, the claim, by accumulation of interest, had doubled, and Jaroff got judgment for £3OOO In satisfaction of a debt of £6OO, of. which £2OO had been repaid ! _ In /.he Npvousen district of tho same province the peasants of the village of Shendorf, being in great distress during the winter of 1880, borrowed from » clergyman named undertaking to pay him in eight months, £IOSO (i.e., 50 per cent, for eight months), on condition that in case of default they should give Mr K~, pending repayment, 3500 dessiatines of their arable land at an annual rental of ten copecks per dessiatine. As the peasants were unable to fulfil their engagement, Mr K received the 3500 dessiatines for 350 roubles, and forthwith relet the land to the peasants themselves at the normal rent, which in this province is about five roubles (10a) per dessiatine. Thus ho obtained £1715 on a capital of £7OO, or interest at the rate of 25 per cent, a year.