BARTER IN RUSSIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 111, 13 May 1932, Page 9

BARTER IN RUSSIA

'SOVIET ATTACK ON SYSTEM I SEVERE PENALTIES PROVIDED. I | PROBLEM OF THE ROUBLE. The practice of direct barter m Russia, not only between individuals, but between State industrial and commercial organisations, persists, despite a series of government edicts and punitive measures which have been directed against it, says the Moscow correspondent of the Observer, London. Quite recently a number of factory directors and other employees of the leather industry were called to account by the Party Control Commission for distributing shoes and other leather products not to the ’co-operatives, but to factories and other organisations which offered something tangible Tn exchange. Officially this bartering of goods for goods is regarded as “an offence bordering in seriousness on bribe-tak-ing,” which is habitually punished very severely in tho Soviet Union. Persons found guilt' - of bartering are dismissed from their posts, expelled [from the Communist Party, sometimes 'iirrcstcd and criminally prosecuted. Vet it seems impossible to repress this •ton of commercial bootlegging, which - deeply rooted in the present peculiar Soviet economic conditions. Ultimatum By a Trust. The officials of the leather trust are the latest, but by no means tho sole offenders. The head of he Western Timber Trust recently presented an ultimatum to one of the textile trusts, threatening to stop all timber deliveries unless li\o carloads of textiles goods were promptly despatched. Cases 1 liave been reported when directors of nail factories bartered their products —very scarce and very highly prizedin Russia to-day —for shoes, confectionery and other tangible objects which wcu, probably appnkdated more than paper roubles by the workers and employees of the nail factories. The reasons why the Soviet Government is vigorously opposed to this reversion to barter are obvious. There is a chronic shortage of inanufacturen goods and from the standpoint of the Slate it is clearly desirable that available stocks should be distributed orderly tray where, they are most Doubtful Value ot the Rouble. 11. is equally clear why the hard pressed factory director often feels obliged to resort to “illegal goods exchange.” Roubles in Russia have a very limited and conditional value be- 1 cause it is usually impossible to know what they will buy at. any given time and place. A few earloads of textile goods may be a tar more powerful tnlo the factory which supplies

the textile mill with machines to hurry up its orders than a correspond ing amount of roubles. Every resident of Moscow knows how much a few packages of cigarettes or some other method of pn.v ment in kind ra>e> tlic difficult task of finding a carpenter or a locksmith for a little job of repairs. So it. seems probable that, whatever legislative and administrati'e measures may be Di ken. the practice ot barter will be altogether eliminated only when the rouble becomes read’ll' exchangeable for dptinito amounts of goods all o\<Q- the country.