Scissors Crisis

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The Scissors: retail and wholesale prices of agricultural and industrial goods in the Soviet Union July 1922 to November 1923

The Scissors Crisis was an incident in early 1923

industrial and agricultural
prices. The term is now used to describe this economic circumstance in many periods of history.

Like the blades of a pair of open scissors, the prices of industrial and agricultural goods diverged, reaching a peak in October 1923 where industrial prices were 276 percent of their 1913 levels, while agricultural prices were only 89 percent.

subsistence farming
, leading to fears of a famine.

Causes

A similar crisis had occurred in 1916, when for example the price of rye rose by 47% whereas that of a pair of boots rose by 334%.[3] The crisis happened because agricultural production had rebounded quickly from the

famine of 1921–22 and the Russian Civil War. In contrast, industry took longer to recover, due to the need to rebuild infrastructure
. Furthermore, the problem was exacerbated by the government seeking to avoid another famine by keeping the bread grain prices at artificially low levels.

Actions

By August 1923 a wave of strikes spread across Russian industrial centres, sparked off by the crisis.

consumer cooperatives (such as the People's Commissariat
of Trade).

As a result of these actions, the imbalance started to decrease. By April 1924, the agricultural price index had reached 92 (compared to its 1913 level) and the industrial index had fallen to 131.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 9780140157741
    .
  2. ^ Robert Service. Trotsky: A Biography. Belknap Press. 2009 p. 304.
  3. ISBN 978-0712673273
    .
  4. JSTOR 129715

External links
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