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Soviet Gold Movements
(1923-1928)

FOREIGN TRADE, GOLD EXPORTS, AND TRADE OF
THE SOVIET UNION WITH THE UNITED STATES
By M. L. TacoBssoN

In the Senate Document entitled “European Currency and
Finance”, published in 1925 (Vol. II, pp. 204-207) data were presented
 regarding the amounts of Russian gold received by the United
States indirectly through Europe during the years 1920-1922. An
analysis of the gold movements reported for these years by the
customs authorities of Sweden—the primary country of destination—also
 of Switzerland and France, led to the conclusion that the
Soviet Government exported during these three years a total amount
»f about 680,000,000 rubles or about $350,000,000, which ultimately
found its way to the United States. This huge total was shipped to
cover an adverse trade balance, which, stated in terms of pre-war
rubles, reached a total of over 400,000,000 rubles, and reckoned in
‘erms of then current prices must have amounted to a great deal
more, and in addition an unknown amount of “invisible’ ’imports,
such as the cost of war material and equipment, imported by the
military authorities, the expenses abroad connected with the launching
 of the several new trading and credit organizations in the principal
 foreign countries, the salaries and expenses of the Soviet
diplomatic and trade agents stationed abroad, freights payable to
foreign shipowners and carriers, etc. These expenses were particularly
 heavy immediately after the termination of hostilities against
the contiguous countries and of the civil war, when the Soviet Government,
 after proclaiming its foreign trade monopoly, began to set
up in the leading foreign countries along novel and untried lines
its own trade representations and banking machinery for the financ
ing of Soviet foreign trade operations. While the official trade
accounts of the Soviet Republic for the years 1923, 1924 and 1927
indicate an excess of 225,000,000 rubles of merchandise exports
over imports, this excess is almost counterbalanced by an adverse
trade balance of 228,000,000 rubles for the years 1925 and 1926.
If account is taken of the several mentioned “invisible” import items,
it is evident that the balance of payments was attained by means of
export items other than merchandise exports.

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