Private Trade in Industrial Products

Abstract

The nature and dynamic of private trade in textiles, metalwares, leather goods, kerosene, salt, sugar and tobacco products forms the focus of this chapter. Chosen as representative stocks in each trade sector, these goods were produced by state industries as well as in crafts units that lay outside the public sector. Some of these items were scarce throughout the decade while consumers had easier access to others; official policy concerning private trade in them remained, however, uniformly constrictive. Resort to such policies, which were often defied by state industries’ management, has usually been ascribed to the need to maintain living standards against the high prices that were regarded as inseparable from private trade. Since the thin skein of co-operative outlets was more than offset by the denser map of private shops, traders were credited with formidable trade advantages. This dominance had to be assailed as early and effectively as feasible.