XPost: soc.culture.nordic   
   From: holman@mappi.helsinki.fi   
      
   In article , David Friedman   
    wrote:   
      
      
   >   
   > "Worthless" was false. But the response, that the transactions were in   
   > clearing dollars and rubles had nothing to do with it, was also false,   
   > at least according to the long article discussed here--it was in   
   > clearing rubles. And it looks as though the worth of those clearing   
   > rubles, from the standpoint of the Finnish business exporting, came from   
   > the willingness of the Finnish authorities to exchange them for Finnish   
   > currency. That's consistent with James view of what was really going on,   
   > although it doesn't compel that view.   
      
   The trade was denonimated in clearing dollars. In the fiancial pages of   
   all the major newspapers the clearing dollar rate was given every day. The   
   clearing ruble was never mentioned. The fictional and mysterious clearing   
   ruble only existed because the Soviets had a complex set of partially   
   secret exchange rates for the ruble, depending on the nature of a   
   transaction and which country it was being implemented with. It played a   
   minor role in the overall five-year clering dollar denominated plans with   
   annual revisions that formed the basis for Finnish-Soviet trade.   
      
   For some discussion of the mysterious clearing ruble, see   
   http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/57-2-454.shtml.   
      
   Regards.   
   Eugene Holman   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)