Download (14Mb) - VUIR - Victoria University

usiness practice was tolerated by politicians who were anxious for their economic and
social problems to be resolved in any way possible.
The repatriation of Ticinesi from Lombardy and Veneto had heightened the
problems of the comuni, or village councils. When would-be emigrants began
requesting loans to help with the cost of the voyage, many councillors considered it
expedient to give their consent. Finance had, in fact, been available for some time to
those Swiss going to Califomia.^^ The councils raised the money for the Australian
expeditions by allowing a wholesale clearing of the forests, the timber being bought by
speculators from other cantons who were also promoting the emigration.'*" To secure
a loan from the councils, the travellers were required to mortgage their homes or
possessions as collateral and then form associations to sign the loan contract jointly.
They had to agree to repay the loans from their earnings on the goldfields ~ in some
cases returning up to 50 per cent of weekly takings. The destinies of the travellers
became entwined, therefore, through their common debt. Several of the emigrants
procured private loans from wealthy citizens on different terms. In cases where the
creditor would also be on the goldfields, the loans could be paid back with one or two
years' labour. The average loan was around 1,000 francs, an amount sufficient for the
cost of the voyage, the acquisition of a passport and food and lodging on first arrival.
With an extra five per cent interest, the men were placed heavily in debt before their
departure."^ The 1,000 francs represented a fortune to the peasant farmers and one
which they could rarely have saved. The Italians who had resided in Ticino for a
number of years were also eligible for the council loans, and so departed for the
Colony in the company of their Swiss neighbours.
32