Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 103)

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عنوان

Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 103)

المحتوى

of production reiations. Changes in their objective ccnditions of
production forced many peasants tc adapt to new producvcion relations.
The cumulative effects of various legal, political and economic
changes in the Empire, including those of the tax farm system, the
promulgation of a series of legal changes to the status of land
holding/ownership and the increasing presence of money economy were
all stimuli to changes in the peasant economy. Many peasants, in the
process, began to endure heavy indebtedness in loans and in interest
on loans which were levied during this period at rates of 50 to 100
per cent. Consequently, they found it increasingly difficult to
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maintain and reproduce themselves on their land without further
borrowing. The phenomenon of peasant indebtedness was particularly
evident in areas put under the tax farming system, such as the Marj
(Scholch,1982; Owen,1981).
While it is true that the transfer of the Marj land from the
control of the state to that of the Sursuks did not result in the
immediate expropriation of the direct producers, it nevertheless, did
cause many to leave their land. Change in the Marj, or for that
matter, in Beisan, was not only a matter of legal change in titular
rights. Thus, in the case of the Marj the new owners, the Sursuks, not
only functioned as land owners but also as merchants and money-lenders
at the same time. In the absence of supervision over their operations,
the Sursuks managed to extract onerous surplus labour from the
Se eM Eat and Cert ae he SU el ae eT in a
peasants (Owen, 1981).
Peasants under the tax farming system were heavily taxed.
Commenting on this phenomenon, one Israeli historian observed:
aT ATT IIMA
89
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Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation

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المنشئ

Nahla Abdo-Zubi

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