How can the British government be losing money when "home charges" meaning the resources needed to run the British government in India was and had to be secured from India itself. See Bipan Chandra, Amiya Bagchi among others.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Anthony P. D'Costa, Chair & Professor of Contemporary Indian Studies Australia India Institute and School of Social & Political Sciences University of Melbourne, 147-149 Barry Street, Carlton VIC 3053, AUSTRALIA Ph: +61 3 9035 6161 Visit the Australia India Institute Website http://www.aii.unimelb.edu.au/ Conference: http://idsk.edu.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Instruments-of-Intervention_prog_abstract_final.pdf New: After-Development Dynamics (on South Korea) http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198729433.do Forthcoming Book: http://www.tandf.net/books/details/9780415564953/ New Book Series (Dynamics of Asian Development) http://www.springer.com/series/13342 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent from my iPad > On Dec 19, 2015, at 08:08, Joseph Green <[email protected]> wrote: > > Louis Proyect wrote: > >> "Although it is impossible precisely to evaluate the gains and losses in > > intra-Comecon trade it is generally agreed that the USSR was subsidizing > > Eastern Europe and that over time this subsidy was rising largely > because > of the growing opportunity costs involved in supplying the group > with > 'hard' commodities such as oil. on--Cuba, Mongolia and most > recently > Vietnam." ...... > (Vladimir Sobell, "The Red Market : Industrial > Co-operation and > Specialisation in Comecon" (Aldershot, 1984) > > > The quote shows that both the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were in deep > economic trouble, and that their plans to get out of it didn't work. But this > doesn't refute that the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe was imperialist; > it only shows that it was an ailing imperialism. The Soviet Union wasn't the > only imperialist power that suffered such problems. > > One might note: > > * the fact that imperialism has an economic base doesn't mean that the > imperialist projects necessarily make a profit for the government or even for > the economy as a whole. > > * one needs to assess whether groups within the Soviet Union benefited from > the domination of Eastern Europe. By way of comparison, if I remember right, > a common complaint was that the British government was losing money on the > domination of India. But in fact, many British capitalists, aristocrats, and > military personnel were extracting profits, careers, and status from the > domination of India So one needs to examine what the domination of Eastern > Europe meant overall to the Soviet bourgeoisie. > > * One also needs a better assessment of Soviet relations with Eastern Europe, > not just a discussion of whether oil was sold beneath world prices. Soviet > domination of Eastern Europe after World War II began with stripping Eastern > Europe of many industrial goods and resources in the name of providing > reparations for the immense devastation the Nazi armies inflicted on the > USSR. And, for example, right up to the end, the Soviet Union made East > Germany pay the cost of Russian troops stationed there. I presume it's likely > the same thing was done elsewhere in Eastern Europe, but I don't know for > sure -- perhaps someone on PEN-L can provide an answer. As well, and probably > the most important, the Soviet Union determined the basic outlines of > economic policy in its empire. All this has to be looked at together. If one > leaves it at saying just that the Soviet Union lost the "opportunity cost" of > selling some oil at world market prices, it's a bit like Western economists > saying that the world is providing tremendous aid to Africa, and ignoring the > draining of African countries via debt, trade agreements, and the imposition > of market fundamentalism.. > > -- Joseph Green > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
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