The peasant may exchange his surplus supplies, in excess of the tax, for manufactured articles either at the local market place or through the co-operative societies.
What now had changed besides the reversion to the old name for the forced requisitions? What grain had the Soviets taken before? There can only be one answer—all they could practically obtain. For many reasons it was desirable to leave the peasants enough food so that they could live until the next season and produce a new crop. More than that was not left to them because of the terrible shortage in the cities. Now that the crops are less than ever and the city shortage greater will they revert to any other division of the product? The question only needs to be asked to see what the answer must be.
An effort is to be made, however, to state in advance how much each peasant must pay. In those rare cases where this estimate is for any reason low the peasant may be able to produce a slight surplus for trading purposes. He will then be at the mercy of the Soviets, which have a monopoly of all Russia's imports and most of her home products. The peasant may be able to make some slight exchanges with village workshops, but in the first place this has always been permitted and besides, being without iron or other raw materials and without tools or machinery the village workers can produce little of value. For the rest this limited "free trade" must be with the so-called "co-operatives" which—since the law abolishing co-operatives—have become nothing but local branches of the Soviet Administration. These institutions have a monopoly of all tools and
