Mortgage, a sum of money granted on the security of real estate (primarily land) for a long period (up to 20-30 years); one of the earliest forms of credit. As capitalism established itself, it concentrated in special mortgage banks. When he mortgages his land, the debtor only formally retains his property rights, while in fact he assumes the position of a tenant who pays the creditor rent in the form of interest. Mortgage largely contributes to the subordination of agriculture to finance capital, to the differentiation of peasantry, to the concentration of land in the hands of big capitalist farmers, and to the expropriation of working peasants. The payment of interest in mortgage indebtedness absorbs almost all incomes of peasants, and failure to pay off one’s mortgage in time means that the land can be sold by auction. These processes have been greatly widespread during the general crisis of capitalism, especially today. In the USA, farmers’ mortgage indebtedness rose from 5,500 million in 1950 to 56,700 million dollars in 1977, with the mortgage rate often amounting to seven per cent and higher over the period. Almost one-third of all American farmland is mortgaged in banking institutions. The mortgage indebtedness of the farmers of the FRG, Italy and other capitalist countries multiplied over the same period. In the socialist countries, land is not an object of purchase and sale, and accordingly there is no such thing as mortgage.