tilE CURRENT CONJUNCTURE IN THE WORLD CAPITALIST CRISIS 5'?
1 per cent a year be tween 1953 and 1968. During this period the cumulative decline in the terms of trade of primary producers amounted to 21 per cent.
9. For a discussion of IMF-style programmes along these lines, see Prabhat Patnaik, *The Political Economy of Economic Liberalisation', Social Scientist July-August 1985. For the vacuity of the 'efficiency argument, see C. P. Chandrasekhar, "Investment, Behaviour, Economies of Scale and Efficiency Under an Import-Substituting Regime', Forth-coming, Economic and political Weekly.
10. K. Marx, Capital Vol. I ; discussion on 'Centralisation* is scattered throughout this volume as well as in vol. III.
11. See Ghosh op. cit. ; Patnaik in Lenin and Imperialism,
12. The IMF is of the view that if domestic agricultural price support is removed and profitability of agriculture is expanded by a devaluation, than resources would flow in accordance with comparative advantage to agriculture. ,
13. See Ghosh op. cit., for a discussion of this contradictory position.
14. We have assumed in the text that private investment remains unchanged while it is only decline in consumpation that curtails Imports. No doubt if investment is also curtailed, the cut in imports will be larger, but then so would the domestic recession be. The argument therefore remains valid even when we consider investment cuts.
15. During the latter half of 1972 and in 1973 there was a veritable explosion of commodity prices (even before the OPEC hike) partly because in the face of the currency upheavals following the formal suspension of the gold convertibility of the dollar, people moved into commodity-buying as an inflation hedge. See N. Kaldor, 'Inflation and Recession in the World Economy*, Economic Journal, December 1976.
16. These figures are taken from the World Development Report of the World Bank, p. 189.
17. The term 'flight to the Empire* is used by E.J. Hobsbawm in Industry and Empire^
18. For an early presentation of this argument, see W.A. Lewis Economic Survey the chapter on U.K.