XPost: soc.culture.baltics, soc.culture.czecho-slovak, soc.culture.russian   
   XPost: soc.culture.nordic, soc.culture.baltics   
   From: valtsu@stadissa.fi   
      
   James A. Donald wrote:   
   > James A. Donald:   
   >   
   >>>They were paid in something that was not money you   
   >>>can use to pay your rent.  The difference between   
   >>>that and rubles is not significant.   
   >   
   >   
   > Eugene Holman   
   >   
   >>They were paid in oil, natural gas, steel, and wood,   
   >>things that can be traded for money or used to make   
   >>industrial products that can be sold at a profit.   
   >   
   >   
   > Except for natural gas, these things did not go to   
   > Finnish organizations that wanted them, but to a   
   > government agency, which might then dispense them to   
   > Finns who wanted them.  That the "trade" was government   
   > to government makes it difficult to discern whether it   
   > was value for value - which under the circumstances   
   > strongly suggests it was *not* value for value.   
   >   
   Your assumptions of the structure and practices of Finnish-Soviet trade   
   are quite amusing. I wouldn't have been in that business if it was like   
   what you say.   
      
   On the Soviet side the partners were more or less government agencies,   
   some 30 or so foreign trade organisations usually having either the   
   words export or import in their name (Exportles was the exporter of   
   timber, Stnkoimport yhe importer of industrial tools, etc.) On the   
   Finnish side their was a wide range of companies quite often competing   
   with one another. Actual business deals were done between the Finnish   
   companies and Soviet foreign trade organisations. Big projects like the   
   building of the Kostamuksha town and metal processing plants were agreed   
   upon by the big bosses, Kekkonen and Brezhnev, usually during their   
   hunting or fishing expeditions in a sauna with a lot of booze.   
      
   Bank of Finland in Finland and Vneshtorgbank in the Soviet Union handled   
   the payments. Government authorities kept track of what and how much was   
   being traded. If the balance of the clearing accounts was getting uneven   
     they interfered. Quite often it meant import of more crude oil to be   
   either traded on western spot markets or refined in Finland and the sold   
   whereever. If the balance went from negative to too much positive Finns   
   then sold refined oil goods like gasoline to the Soviet Union.   
      
   This worked well for years due to the fact that the Soviet market was   
   huge and there was a market for practically anything in the USSR. In the   
   late 1980-s the collapse of the Soviet economy stopped all this.   
      
   Your first line about natural gas is hilarious. That's one of the few   
   commodities that was not dealt with private companies. It was dealt with   
   governmental agencies.   
      
   tv   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)