124 SOCIAL SCIENTIST theoretical sustenance in this regard is presumably a dependence Bagchi would be wary of; but if this is so then it would be necessary to indicate the directions of theoretical extension and more precise modern applicability of the concepts I enin developed. Kitty Menon's piece is concerned precisely with this problem, which gives it a particular interest. But Menon's article while interesting, lacks the carefulness of Bagchi's presentation and contains a number of sweeping statements which are difficult to sustain. These tend to vitiate the impact of her argument which is essentially plausible. Menon presents a short and informative summary of the behaviour of TNCs in the late 1970s and the impact of inter-imperialist rivalry on the emergence of Japan as a major economic power. The sections on the impact of TNCs on Third World economies however contain some difficulties. There is no doubt that TNC transfer pricing policies discriminate against host countries' products, but it is not inevitably the case that these "only deepen the indebtedness of these countries". But Menon appears to have a schizophrenic attitude to TNC investment : having pointed out the evils and dangers of such investment in LDCs, she then castigates TNCs for not investing more elsewhere thus "they are completely ignoring a large group of the poorest and least developed countries on the continent (Africa), so that 80 per cent of their investments go to just about 15 countries." (p. 79) and "the lion's share of investments continues to go to the developed capitalist countries" (p. 81). To an extent such schizophrenia is inevitable, given the constraints put on developing countries' investible resources—thus Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia once remarked ruefully that in Africa "the only thing worse than being exploited by a multinational is not being exploited by a multinational". The point to recognize is that the system of international trade and finance prevailing in an era of imperialism may render the options to an individual developing country painfully small, so that specific examples of inequity in particular decisions are not of as much importance as the operation of an overall system which loads the dice economically against the poorer countries. Also, TNC investment, though important, is only one aspect of imperialist domination: other reasons to control economic territory (such as the importance of raw materials and other primary products) and other vents for surplus capital as in international private qanks lending are major features to be considered. One significant problem is that of situating the Soviet Union, China and other Socialist countries in the international economy. How dose one analyse capital exports to and multinational investment in such countries ? Menon's implicit presumption is that the Soviet Union somehow deals with such investment in a more successful way than Third World countries, being effectively an equal partner. But there are prodlems with such an understanding, which may prevent a clear look into the mechanics of TNC investment in those regions. A major conceptual difficulty with such