Indebtedness,tenancy and the adoption of new technology in semi-feudal agriculture

The paper seeks to analyse the relationships between usurious money-lending, share tenancy and the incentives for the adoption of new technology by the semi-feudal landlords who typically combine the roles of landowner and money-lender vis-á-vis the tenants. It is argued that in a labour-abundant economy, ‘tenant-indebtedness’, by itself, is not likely to restrict the adoption of technological improvements. The adoption of new technology does not automatically improve the economic conditions of the tenants, nor does it necessarily transform the semi-feudal relations of production into capitalist ones.