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The Soviet Foreign Trade Monopoly: Institutions and Laws.

The Soviet Foreign Trade Monopoly: Institutions and Laws. By John Quigley. (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1974. pp. 256. Appendices, Bibliography, Index. $15.00.) Professor Quigley first traces the genesis of the Soviet foreign trade monopoly, reviewing the lively and often acrimonious debates held in the early years. The early New Economic Policy (NEP) years saw the emergence of institutions which gave increased substance to the state's 'legal" monopoly. Quigley expresses understanding of such early efforts as the almost total divorce or domestic operations from foreign operations, but not all readers may agree with the view that, given the political and economic circumstances of the time, this cumbersome system was "unavoidable" (p. 50). Some may also question the claim (p. 61) that the existence of a state-operated foreign trade system permitted the USSR to keep exports at higher levels than would otherwise have been possible during the 1920's and 1930's. The predecessor Czarist regime had been sharply criticized for similar practices, allowing the export of foodstuffs while the Russian peasant went hungry. By the mid-1930's the Soviet foreign trade machinery was reshaped into essentially the same form it bears today. We are indebted to the author for his lucid analysis of the foreign trade bureaucracy and examination of the organization and operations of the Soviet "traders," of the export-import combines, and of the potentially complex questions of law that could arise as a result of the combines status as state-owned companies.