surplus products of agriculture, the increase of consumption in agri- 
culture, the insufficient currency invested in foreign trade, the irregula- 
rities in the organisatory structure of the whole apparatus, and the 
inadequate direction given by the leading organs... The non-fulfilment of 
the plan is called forth: 1) by the lack of proper distribution of the 
contingents among the exporters; 2) by the lack of a fixed plan for 
sollecting grain; 3) by the lack of control in how far the individual 
organisations carry out the plan, etc.... 
The export for 1925/26 in regard to the principal classes of goods, was 
anprofitable on, the whole, the export of some of the goods being affected 
by a deficit. The losses in the disposal of grain products amounted to a 
total of 13.9 mill. Rbl. The unprofitableness and the deficit are due to 
many causes: a) excessive additional costs (charges); b) the high expenses 
for foreign financing; c) inadequacy in skilful manoeuvering and lack of 
uniformity in the action of the exporting organisations; d) the unfavour- 
able reciprocal conditions of the indexes on the home market, so harmful 
to export.” 
For the first time in ten years since the inception of the Soviet power, 
an official control department admits the prejudicial character of its export 
business. Every plan that had been set up for the following economic year, 
was not only remodelled in the course of its execution, but every year, 
without exception, the so-called “errors in. calculation” also made their 
appearance. These “errors in calculation” which appeared again in each 
year, consisted in the incorrect estimates in reference to the surplus agri- 
cultural productions which were subject to purchase and export. Apparently 
it is absolutely impossible to be guided by statistical figures which the 
commissariat for foreign trade receives for the formation of his export plan. 
In the periodical “Vneschnjaja Torgovlja” (The Foreign Trade), A. 
Potjajev has written (January 1926): ... “on account of the peculiarities 
of our foreign trade, we must not only reckon with the passiveness of our 
trade balance in the past, but also with the circumstance that the obligat- 
‘ons undertaken by us by reason of the licences already granted, will cause 
a passivity of the trade balance for the coming year as well”. ... The 
Soviet statistic itself gives the following prices on the home and foreign 
markets of the pre-war and present time: 
In pre-war time: 
Grain: On the home market. On the foreign market. 
Rye .. .... 
Wheat 
Barley 
Dats 
79 
72 
Yi