XPost: soc.culture.baltics, soc.culture.czecho-slovak, soc.culture.russian   
   From: holman@mappi.helsinki.fi   
      
   In article , James A. Donald   
    wrote:   
      
      
   >   
   > That would be a classic model of economic colonialism if   
   > the Finns were paid with real money instead of entirely   
   > worthless rubles.   
      
   Why do you keep repeating this nonsense, and why would the Finns have been   
   stupid enough to continue trading with the USSR if their hard work was   
   compoensated with worthless rubles?   
      
   Finnish-Soviet trade was based on BARTER and clearing accounts. Barter   
   means that you give a product or service a stipulated monetary value that   
   is recorded in a clearing account. At that time a barrel of oil might have   
   cost $15 on the world market, and the USSR supplied to Finland at a   
   discount, say $13.50. The Finns used the barrale of oil to make plastic   
   bags, one barrel making 500 bags, the fair value of which would have been   
   say $0.10/bag. Thus the amount made from a barrel of oil was worth $50.   
   The Finns took an additional 50% profit, thus we get the clearing price   
   for the bags being $75. The bags were exchanged for more oil, at   
   $13.50/barrel, and these were made into more bags and exchanged for oil at   
   $75 worth of oil at $13.50/barrel per 500 bags, etc. If there were   
   problems due to price fluctuations in the world market for raw materials,   
   this was worked out with the amounts of goods sent according to the   
   clearing account. This system resulted in Finland getting far more oil at   
   prices below the world market price than it could use, so its oil   
   monopoly, Neste Oy, sold some of the surplus at world market prices on the   
   commodities market.   
      
   Regards,   
   Eugene Holman   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)