The Role of Foreign Trade in a Socialist Economy [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION The essays of Imre Vajda contained in this volume deal with basic problems of Hungarian foreign trade and of the international division of labour. But this fact—and this is not meant as a witticism—must not "deceive" the reader. It is not as if the author were failing to meet the requirements of the task which he undertook to carry out. On the contrary, he does so at a highly scientific level and from both viewpoints of modern economics: he analyses in a clear and precise manner the established order of economic processes, relationships and interdependences, and proceeds then to outline the objectives as well as the means to attain them. On perusal of the essays the observant reader will, however, realize that what he is faced Avith here is not a simple analysis of questions pertaining to foreign trade and the international division of labour, but considerably more than that. What this important addition of the work to the strictly defined subject-matter consists of is the question on which I should like to make a few comments from the colleague's point of view. To the man of wide horizons and inquisitive mind, international trade affords a basis for a great variety of associations. Hungary's sensitivity to international trade is rather high, with an increase of 1 per cent in the national product involving a 1.6 per cent increase in import requirements. Accordingly, all questions of economic progress in this country will be closely related to those of its external trade. In the case of a choice between investment alternatives, it is the import requirements of the new industrial branch or the new plant to be established, as well as its export potentialities as related to world-market demand, that will determine the decision to be taken by those responsible for economic policy. Any author of mde horizons will thus in his investigations of foreign trade inevitably arrive at the decisive factors of domestic economic policy. However, any approach to international trade implies at the same time an outlook from within the narrow bounds of the national economy on world economy with its growing intricacies. In our age, the distribution of goods and services calls for novel attitudes, whereas those participating in international