ABSTRACT
This chapter considers a possible reform of wholesale-supply and capital-allocation mechanisms. The search for viable, politically acceptable market mechanisms for wholesale goods and capital has naturally led Soviet economics writers to evaluate the experience of other socialist countries with such mechanisms. While analyses of foreign wholesale-goods markets has been published, little has appeared addressing the issue of commodity exchanges directly. Numerous articles have been devoted to capital markets, financial exchanges, and exchange-rate policies in China, Hungary, Yugoslavia, the United States, and other countries. Torgovo-promyshlennaya gazeta reported on the birzhi on an almost daily basis from 1924 to 1926, in addition to providing daily quotations from the Moscow financial exchanges and listing major commodity transactions. As was generally true elsewhere, the Moscow commodity exchange was a meeting place for all types of traders. The Moscow financial exchange served as a sensitive barometer of public expectations regarding government economic policies.
