ly fishermen as well as
landowners), 'and have caused them to be made bankrupts. Credit has
been misused on a large scale. Its facility induces the population to
live beyond its means. It also encourages traders to set up in business
and get customers with ease, without having capital or means of their
own. The one misuse reacts on the other. All products are sunk
considerably in value, and this fall is even greater in the case of real
estate.'

The latter statement is not generally applicable to the remaining
provinces, for we find that while the average value of the 'skylddaler,'
or unit of assessment, was 153l.,[17] according to prices paid for land
in 1871-1875, it has risen to about 180l. in 1876-1880, thus confuting
Mr. Laing's theory, that the peculiar succession of property would tend
to keep land at a low value. It would not, however, be right to conclude
from these figures that landed property has, on the whole, increased of
late years in value, despite the general indebtedness of its owners.
Land in the vicinity of towns and railways must naturally become more
and more valuable, and the relatively much higher prices paid for such
land have no doubt had the effect of raising the total average deduced
from sales of every description of landed property. It may also be
assumed that the demand for land is artificially increased by the
facility with which it may be purchased, since at least one-half of the
purchase money generally remains on mortgage, in addition to other
encumbrances. At the same time, the financial institutions, to which so
large a proportion of the real property in Norway is mortgaged, are
interested in maintaining its value, and attain their object by
abstaining from offering at any one period too many defaulting
properties for sale; and it may also be suspected that the statistics of
forced sales represent only cases in which no compromise could be
effected, or in which it was expedient or possible to have recourse to
the ultimate means of recovery without sensibly deteriorating locally
the value of landed property. Cases are, in fact, not infrequent in
which the mortgagees find themselves compelled to retain the property of
the defaulter, and either to place it in the hands of caretakers, with
the hope of future realization on more favourable terms, or to sell it
in small lots as opportunity occurs. In any case, the full and exact
effect of the pawning of all the landed property of the countr