As regards terms of finance, the large number of individual factors which have
been adduced diverts attention from the existence of a cardinal factor which
decisively influences most of the other terms of finance: the loan amount. If one
succeeds in lowering it decisively, the burden can be eased and thus brought into
harmony with low incomes; the questions of personal resources and collateral
become much less acute, shorter loan periods become feasible and the level of
interest is of less importance. Only the mode of payment continues to exist as an
independent problem.