BOOK REVIEW 65 Europe and Japan succeeded in creating their monopolies in so many commodities. The average growth rate in OEGD countries during the year 1981-82 was-0.5 per cent; and industrial production registered a decline of 3.5 per cent in the same period. The total number of unemployed persons in DCCs which was 15 million in 1974, increased to 25 million in 1981. The price index was increasing at the rate of 7.3 per cent. This combination of a decrease in production and an increase in prices which has been called stagflation had hitherto been considered an impossibility. The unprecedented appreciation in the U S dollar has helped the United States in maintaining its supermacy over the world financial system. The most tragic part of the scenerio is that the major burden of this crisis has been shifted to the UDCs. The prices of agricultural commodities which constitute a major part of the exports of the UDCs, showed a decline of 15.6 per cent in the period in question. World trade which had increased at the rate of 8 per cent in the . sixties, has shown an increase of mere 3.5 percent in the seventies and the growth rate futher climbed down to 1 per cent in 1981. The share of oil exporting UDCs has increased from 7.2 per cent to 16.9 per cent in the period of 1950 to 1980 but the share of oil importing UDCs has declined from 23.6 per cent to 11.6 per cent in the same period. UDCs are transacting only 20 per cent of their trade among themselves whereas 70 per cent of their trade is with the DCCs and only 5 per cent with the socialist countries. Quantitatively, DCCs were controlling 63 per cent,whereas the share of socialist countries was 8 per cent and of UDCs was 29 per cent in the total world trade in 1980. Furthermore out of this 29 per cent which was the UDCs' share, the major part was controlled by seven oil surplus countries. A large part of UDC exports consists of agricultural commodities like coffee, cocoabeans, tea, banana, rice, jute, sisal, cotton, beef, iron ore, natural rubber etc. The prices of these commodities, when deflated by the prices of manufactured goods which constitute the main imports of the UDCs have plummeted sharply in the 1980s. About 80 per cent of the trade of the underdeveloped countries is controlled by the multinational corporations of the DCCs. The recent policies of protectionism adopted by the DCCs has further adversely affected the trade of the UDCs. Castro shows how the international monetary and financial system is completely dominated by the DCCs and, especially by the United States. In 1944, the supremacy of the U S dollar was imposed on the rest of the world at the Bretton Woods Conference. Although the Bretton Woods system came to an end in 1971 the U S will enjoys a virtually complete monopoly now over international financial institutions like the I B R D, the IMF etc. From 1975 to 1982, the U S dollar has shown an appreciation of 14 percent vis-a-vis the currencies of other DCCs; this increase has been even more in the case of the