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Chairman Cotton: Socialist Bulgaria’s cotton trade with African countries during the early Cold War (1946–70)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2021

Jan Zofka
Jan Zofka*
Affiliation:
Leibniz-Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europas (GWZO), Leipzig, Germany
*
Corresponding author. Email: jan.zofka@leibniz-gwzo.de
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Abstract

This article follows Bulgarian officials engaged in cotton and textile exchange with African states in the early Cold War. These officials founded enterprises for carrying out transactions, collected information on prices at international cotton exchanges and attended meetings of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) to coordinate trade activities in capitalist markets. Exploring how Bulgarian foreign trade organizations positioned themselves on the scene of international trade, this article argues that cotton traders, instead of upholding the supposed bloc bipolarity of the Cold War, followed the logic of the markets they worked in. A focus on trade infrastructures in particular shows that early Cold War East–South trade was not as strictly bilateral as official agreements and statistics suggest and reveals the systematic embeddedness of the socialist traders’ practices in global capitalist structures. In the field of cotton, the globalizing economy of the early Cold War was not cut in half, as globalization studies have implied.

Keywords

East–South RelationsSocialist Foreign TradeCold War EconomyCottonTextile IndustryBulgarian Economic History
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , November 2022 , pp. 438 - 456
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History (New York: Knopf, 2015).

2 ‘Socialist’ in this article is not used to signify a theory, political movement or system opposed to capitalism, but only for a historical set of states whose governments used the term themselves, namely the COMECON members or the ‘Soviet bloc’, plus the PRC, (North) Vietnam, North Korea, Mongolia, later Cuba and in the wake of decolonization, several more countries in the Global South.

3 Beckert, Empire of Cotton, 435–6; John Baffes, ‘Cotton-Dependent Countries in the Global Context’, in The Cotton Sector in Central Asia: Economic Policy and Development Challenges, ed. D. Kandiyoti (London: SOAS, 2007), 29–53, see 32. On the shift of textile production to Asia see also John Singleton, The World Textile Industry (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), 13–14.

4 Peter Kilduff and Ting Chi, ‘Analysis of Comparative Advantage in the Textile Complex: A Study of Eastern European and Former Soviet Union Nations’, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal 11, no. 1 (2007): 82–105.

5 Beckert does not reproduce this image, as he interprets Soviet state intervention as ‘an enhancing of the methods of industrial capitalism’, but the Soviet bloc’s role in global cotton circulations is not the focus of his book. Beckert, Empire of Cotton, 435–6.

6 Jürgen Osterhammel and Niels P. Petersson, Geschichte der Globalisierung: Dimensionen, Prozesse, Epochen (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2003).

7 Elmar Altvater and Birgit Mahnkopf, Grenzen der Globalisierung: Ökonomie, Ökologie und Politik in der Weltgesellschaft (Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot, 1996), 423.

8 Katalin Fábián, ed., Globalization: Perspectives from Central and Eastern Europe (Bingley, UK: Emerald, 2007); Tadeusz Buksinski and Dariusz Dobrzanski, Eastern Europea and the Challenges of Globalization (The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy: Washington, DC, 2005); Thilo Bodenstein, ‘Systemwandel und Handelsliberalisierung: Die Integration der Transformationsländer in die Weltwirtschaft’, in Globalisierung. Forschungsstand und Perspektiven, ed. Stefan A. Schirm (Nomos: Baden-Baden, 2006), 235–56.

9 Marie Lavigne, The Economics of Transition: From Socialist Economy to Market Economy (Basingstoke: MacMillan Press, 1995), 65.

10 Odd Arne Westad, The Cold War: A World History (London: Allen Lane, 2017), 1.

11 For recent volumes in the field, see: Anna Calori, Anne-Kristin Hartmetz, Bence Kocsev, James Mark and Jan Zofka, eds., Between East and South: Spaces of Interaction in the Globalizing Economy of the Cold War (Berlin and Boston: DeGruyter-Oldenbourg, 2019); James Mark, Artemy Kalinovski and Steffi Marung, eds., Alternative Globalizations: Eastern Europe and the Postcolonial World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2020). For an earlier overview: David Engerman, ‘The Second World’s Third World’, Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 12, no. 1 (2011): 183–211.

12 János Kornai, The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), 345–55; Marie Lavigne, International Political Economy and Socialism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 21.

13 For a detailed account of the debate, see: Anna Calori, Anne-Kristin Hartmetz, Bence Kocsev and Jan Zofka, ‘Alternative Globalization? Spaces of Economic Interaction between the “Socialist Camp” and the “Global South”’, in Between East and South, eds. Calori et al., 1–31.

14 Oscar Sanchez-Sibony, Red Globalization: The Political Economy of the Soviet Cold War from Stalin to Khrushchev (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 5–6, 8, 12–21.

15 Johanna Bockman, ‘Socialist Globalization against Capitalist Neocolonialism: The Economic Ideas behind the New International Economic Order’, Humanity 6, no. 1 (2015): 109–128; Calori et al., ‘Alternative Globalization’; Mark et al., Alternative Globalizations; Besnik Pula, Globalization under and after Socialism: The Evolution of Transnational Capital in Central and Eastern Europe (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018); Sanchez-Sibony, Red Globalization.

16 Most explicitly in Bockman, ‘Socialist Globalization’; for an example from the literature on empire see: Martin Thomas and Andrew Thompson, ‘Empire and globalization. From “High Imperialism” to Decolonisation’, The International History Review 36, no. 1 (2014): 142–70.

17 See Matthias Middell, ‘Raumformate – Bausteine in Prozessen der Neuverräumlichung’, Working paper series Collaborative Research Center 1199 at Leipzig University (Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2019); Joseph W. Esherick, Hasan Kayah and Eric Van Young, ‘Introduction’, in Empire to Nation. Historical Perspectives on the Making of the Modern World, eds. Joseph W. Esherick, Hasan Kayah and Eric Van Young (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), 1–34.

18 For an exception and a discussion of Global history’s focus on development, see Victor Petrov, ‘The Rose and the Lotus: Bulgarian Electronic Entanglements in India, 1967–89’, Journal of Contemporary History 54, no. 3 (2019): 666–87, 668–69; see also Sanchez-Sibony, Red Globalization.

19 James Mark, ‘The End of Alternative Spaces of Globalization? Transformations from the 1980s to the 2010s’, in Between East and South, eds. Calori et al., 217–29; Sara Lorenzini, ‘COMECON and the South in the Years of Détente: A Study on East–South Economic Relations’, European Review of History 21, no. 2 (2014); 183–99, 184.

20 See e.g. Beckert, Empire of Cotton, 426.

21 John Waterbury, The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat: The Political Economy of Two Regimes (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983), 31; 392–9.

22 Khristo Khristov, Imperiyata na zadgranichnite firmi. Săzdavane, deynost i iztochvane na druzhestvata s bălgarsko uchastie za granica 1961–2007 (An Empire of Foreign Firms: Foundation, Activity and Waning of Companies with Bulgarian Participation Abroad) (Sofia: Ciela, 2009), 17, 31.

23 For discussions of Bulgarian agriculture and industrialization in Cuba, Sudan and Egypt see C. Blasier, ‘CMEA in Cuban Development’, in Cuba in the World, ed. C. Blasier and C. Mesa-Lago (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1979), 225–6, 242; Michael Zeuske, Insel der Extreme; Kuba im 20. Jahrhundert, (Zürich: Rotpunkt-Verlag, 2000), 91–116; Material from Egyptian and Sudanese press, collected by Foreign Ministry, Bulgarian State Archive (hereafter TsDA), f. 1477, op. 26, d. 3296 and d. 3157; Stefan Troebst, ‘Exportmodell „Sozialistische Bauernnation“? Der Bulgarische Volksbauernbund (BZNS) in der Afrika- und Lateinamerikapolitik der Volksrepublik Bulgarien und ihrer Kommunistischen Partei’, in Kommunismus jenseits des Eurozentrismus. Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung 2019, ed. U. Mählert and M. Middell (Berlin: Metropol-Verlag, 2019), 159–72.

24 On Bulgaria’s cotton production and the significance of its textile industry see section II.

25 Mohamed Youssef El-Sarki, La monoculture du coton en Égypte et le développement économique (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1964); Omaima M. Hatem, Naiem A. Sherbiny, M. Brown, and Heather Jackson, eds., State and Entrepreneurs in Egypt: Economic Development since 1805 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015); Derek Hopwood, Egypt: Politics and Society, 1945–90 (London: HarperCollins Academic, 1991); Charles Issawi, An Economic History of the Middle East and North Africa (London: Routledge, 1982); David S. Landes, Bankers and Pashas: International Finance and Economic Imperialism in Egypt (London: Heinemann, 1958); Robert Vitalis, When Capitalists Collide: Business Conflict and the End of Empire in Egypt (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995); James Whidden, Egypt: British Colony, Imperial Capital (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2017).

26 E.g., Stephen Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization (Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997); Dagmara Jajeśniak-Quast, Stahlgiganten in der sozialistischen Transformation. Nowa Huta in Krakau, EKO in Eisenhüttenstadt und Kunčice in Ostrava (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag 2010); Michael Palairet, ‘“Lenin” and “Brezhnev”. Steel making and the Bulgarian economy, 1956–1990’, Europe-Asia Studies 47, no. 3 (1995): 493–505.

27 For the most notable recent book dealing with Tsarist Russia’s and the Soviet Union imperial cotton projects in Central Asia, see Julia Obertreis, Imperial Desert Dreams: Cotton Growing and Irrigation in Central Asia, 1860–1991 (Göttingen: V&R unipress GmbH, 2017). For other studies taking cotton into account in the context of Central Asian development, see Maya K. Peterson, Pipe Dreams: Water and Empire in Central Asia’s Aral Sea Basin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019); Christian Teichmann, ‘Canals, Cotton, and the Limits of De-colonization in Soviet Uzbekistan, 1924–1941’, Central Asian Survey 26, no. 4 (2007): 499–519; Grey Hodnett, ‘Technology and Social Change in Soviet Central Asia: The Politics of Growing Cotton’, in Soviet Politics and Society in the 1970’s, eds. H. W. Morton and R. L. Tökes (New York: The Free Press, 1974), 60–117; Artemy M. Kalinovsky, ‘Tractors, Power Lines, and the Welfare State: The Contradictions of Soviet Development in Post–World War II Tajikistan’, Asiatische Studien 69, no. 3 (2015): 563–92. For a strict economic analysis of East European textile industries in global markets, see: Kilduff and Chi, ‘Comparative Advantage in the Textile Complex.’

28 Obertreis, Imperial Desert Dreams, 273–321.

29 Kilduff and Chi, ‘Comparative Advantage in the Textile Complex’.

30 John Singleton, ‘Planning for Cotton, 1945–1951’, Economic History Review 43, no. 1 (1990): 62–78.

31 Centralno statistichesko upravlenie pri Ministerskiya Săvet na Narodna Republika Bălgarya (Central statistical administration of the Council of Ministers of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria – hereafter CSU) (ed.), Vănshna tărgoviya na Narodna Republika Bălgariya: Statisticheski sbornik. S danni za 1945–1964 (Foreign Trade of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria: Statistical bulletin) (Sofia: Pechatnica pri Centralno Statistichesko Upravlenie, 1965), 27–8; 73–4. On Bulgaria’s industrialization process, its sectoral distribution and the role of Soviet assistance: Ilijana Marcheva, Politikata za stopanska modernizacija v Bălgarija po vreme na Studenata vojna (The Politics of Economic Modernization in Bulgaria during the Cold War Era) (Sofia: Letera, 2016).

32 Hodnett, ‘Technology and Social Change’, 65–6.

33 Erik Radisch, Der Rat für Gegenseitige Wirtschaftshilfe als Konsensimperium (1949–1971) (Bochum: Diss. Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 2019), 73, 91–2. Proposed COMECON resolution on ‘Measures for the development of cotton production 1950–1953 in Bulgaria, Albania, Romania and Hungary (…)’, Moscow 1950, Russian State Archive for Socio-Political History (RGASPI), f. 82, op. 2, d. 1074, 54–59.

34 Georgi Koynov, Pamukoproizvodstvo (Cotton Production) (Plovdiv: Fotoofsetova Baza pri VUZ-Plovdiv, 1965), 8. For a comparison: the production in Uzbekistan reached 3 million tons in 1958 (G. Klinčarski, Pamukoproizvodstvoto v Uzbekistan (Sofia: Zemizdat, 1960), 16.

35 U.S. American national trade regulations were more restrictive than the international CoCom (Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls) restrictions, see James K. Libbey, ‘CoCom, Comecon, and the Economic Cold War’, Russian History 37, no. 2 (2010), 133–52: 144–51.

36 CSU, Vănshna tărgoviya na Narodna Republika Bălgariya: Statisticheski sbornik. S danni za 1955–1961 (Sofia: Pechatnica pri Centralno Statistichesko Upravlenie, 1962), 111; CSU (ed.), Vănshna tărgoviya na Narodna Republika Bălgariya: Statisticheski danni 1980–1988 (Sofia: Izdatelstvo i pechatnica pri Centralno statistichesko upravlenie, 1989), 270.

37 Data extracted from CSU, Vănshna tărgoviya na Narodna Republika Bălgariya: Statisticheski sbornik, editions from 1948, 1949, 1958, 1960, 1965, 1968, 1972, and 1989. Numbers for 1946–47 are similar to 1948, and 1958–59 fall mostly within the trend. Data for 1949–54 are not available in the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute’s digital library. Data from the Soviet statistics for 1949–54 show a zigzag course of Soviet exports to Bulgaria between 8 and 14,000 tons. The numbers in the Soviet statistics diverge from the Bulgarian statistics up to several hundred tons on some occasions. Vneshnaya Torgovlya SSSR. Statisticheski sbornik, 1918–1966 (Moscow: Izdatelstvo Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, 1967), 134–35.

38 For the Bulgarian case, see: Letter Avakum Branichev, Chairman Department Trade Agreements, Ministry of Foreign Trade, to Industrialimport, Sofia, 2 June 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 240.

39 Issawi, Economic History, 31.

40 Report foreign trade firm ‘Teksim’ to Commission for Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation, TsDA, f. 1244, op. 1, d. 7650, 274–277; Proposals of Bulgarian Embassy, Commercial Department, to Ghanaian Committee for Economic Cooperation with the Eastern Countries, Accra, 21 March 1962, Ghana Public Records and Archives Administration Department (PRAAD), RG 7/1/1665, 49–50, 79.

41 For example, for British factory owners in the first half of the 19th century: Beckert, Empire of Cotton, 132.

42 El-Sarki, Monoculture du coton, 54–5.

43 Hodnett, ‘Technology and Social Change’, 109.

44 Vneshnaya Torgovlya SSSR. Statisticheski sbornik, 1918–1966 (USSR’s Foreign Trade. Statistical Yearbook) (Moscow: Izdatelstvo Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, 1967), 152–3.

45 El-Sarki, Monoculture du coton, 76–89; Current Support Brief of CIA Office of Research and Reports, 3, December 1962, ‘Possible Increase in Bloc Reexports of Egyptian Cotton’, Central Intelligence Agency Library (https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79T01003A001400110001-3.pdf).

46 El-Sarki, Monoculture du coton, 83–6.

47 El-Sarki, Monoculture du coton, 76–87; Sanchez-Sibony, Red Globalization, 221–7; Correspondences of Industrialimport with Ministry of Foreign Trade and Trade Representation in Cairo, 1963–1967, TsDA, F. 324, Op. 12, d. 120, see esp. 196–7.

48 Gospodinka Nikova, Săvetăt za Ikonomicheska Vzaimopomosht i Bălgariya 1949–1960 (The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and Bulgaria) (Sofia: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata Akademiya na Naukite, 1989), 39.

49 Victor Petrov, A Cyber-Socialism at Home and Abroad: Bulgarian Modernisation, Computers, and the World, 1967–1989 (New York: Diss. Columbia University, 2017), Chapter VII.

50 For such an episode from 1947 to 1948, see: Note from Georgi Petrov Jankov, official at the Directorate for Foreign Trade, to General Director Radkovski, Sofia, 14 February 1948, TsDA, f. 259, op. 1, d. 111, 43–45; Correspondence Industrialimport with the Bulgarian Delegation in Egypt, trade agent Stefan Saraivanov in Sofia and Cotton Exporter Rodocanacchi & Co in Alexandria, November 1947–February 1948, TsDA, f. 324, op. 2, d. 60, 1–120; Letters of cotton agents in Sofia to Industrialimport, 1947/1948: TsDA, f. 324, op. 2, d. 60, 102–116.

51 John R. Lampe and Marvin R. Jackson, Balkan Economic History, 1550–1950: From Imperial Borderlands to Developing Nations (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982), 133–50; Michael R. Palairet, The Balkan Economies c. 1800–1914. Evolution without Development (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 63–75; 243–58; Michael R. Palairet, ‘The Decline of the Old Balkan Woollen Industries 1870–1914’, Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 70, no. 3 (1983), 331–62: 334–5.

52 John R. Lampe, The Bulgarian Economy in the Twentieth Century (London: Croom Helm, 1986), 15.

53 Report on Relations with the ‘Third World’ of Czechoslovak Centrotex to Industrialimport in preparation of November 1955 meeting in Budapest, 16 April 1955, TsDA, f. 324, op. 10, d. 23l, 107–13; Trade Agreement of Poland with Egypt, based on an agreement from 1930, Cairo, 1 August 1949, TsDA, f. 259, op. 1, d. 111, 2–3. On the Bulgarian cotton trade in the decades prior to the Second World War, which was conducted by Bulgarian communities and the state’s representations in Cairo and Alexandria, see: Report note Georgi Jankov, technical officer, to the chairman of the Directorate of Foreign Trade concerning renewal of trade relations with Egypt, Sofia, 30 July 1947, TsDA, f. 259, op. 1, d. 111, 47; Pre-war correspondence and reports on cotton trade of the Bulgarian legation in Cairo and the Trade Councillor in Alexandria (1925/1937) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: TsDA, f. 368k, op. 1, d. 43; TsDA, f. 368k, op. 1, d. 81. f. 328 K, op. 1, d. 117.

54 Information on the fund ‘Industrialimport’, TsDA, f. 324, op. 1–15.

55 See the Liverpool standards for Egyptian cotton in El-Sarki, Monoculture du coton, 19. The International Commercial Terms (Incoterms) issued by the International Chamber of Commerce regulate which side has to bear the extra costs of trade transaction, like freight, tariff or insurance. The Bulgarian traders mostly used the most common ones, ‘Cost, Insurance, Freight’ (CIF) and ‘Free on Board’ (FOB).

56 Reports in preparation of meetings of COMECON textile exporters for cooperation on foreign markets, TsDA, f. 324, op. 10, d. 18–60. For a list of additional services necessary to realize cotton transactions, see: Letter Ivan Chukanov, representative of Egyptian cotton exporter ‘A. Engel & Co’ in Sofia, to Industrialimport, 1948, CDA, f. 324, op. 2, d. 60, 109–10.

57 Sahar Hamouda and Colin Clement, Victoria College. A History Revealed (Cairo and New York: The American University in Cairo Press, 2004), 55–7.

58 Dina Mamdouh Nassar and Shahira Sharaf Eldin, ‘A New Life for the Industrial Heritage of Minet El-Bassal at Alexandria’, Journal of Heritage Conservation 33 (2013): 25.

59 Letter Stefan Sarăivanov, representing the trading house Rodocanachi & Co. – Alexandria, to Industrialimport, Sofia, 16 February 1948, CDA, f. 324, op. 2, d. 60, 18.

60 Letter Sarăivanov to Industrialimport, Sofia, 13 February 1948, TsDA, f. 324, op. 2, d. 60, 20.

61 Report Ivan Kalushev, Representative for Transport in Port Said, to Ministry of Foreign Trade, TsDA, f. 259, op. 17, d. 80, 1–3; Letter Ministry for Transport to Ministry of Foreign Trade, TsDA, f. 259, op. 13, d. 44, 120.

62 Accord de paiement entre la République Populaire de Bulgarie et la République d’Égypte, Cairo, 17 March 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 129–32.

63 Letter Trade Representative Ivan Kobarelov to Ministry of Foreign Trade, Cairo, 14 September 1959, TsDA, f. 259, op. 13, d. 44, 375–7; Information for Ministry of Foreign Trade on Payment in Egypt, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 68–70.

64 E.g., letter BNB, Foreign Currency Department to Ministry of Foreign Trade, Sofia, 29 April 1960, TsDA, f. 259, op. 13, d. 44, 476; Report for Ministry of Foreign Trade, Sofia, 6 August 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 80–3; Letter from Industrialimport to BNB, Department for Foreign Operations, Sofia, 20 January 1956, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 245; Brief information regarding the state of loan repayment and cotton purchases of Trade Representative in Egypt, N. Baranovski, to Minister of Foreign Trade Zhivko Zhivkov, Cairo, 15 September 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 259, 462–63.

65 Letter Trade Representative in Cairo to DSP Bulet, about trilateral deals in the Bulgarian-Egyptian trade balance, Cairo, 10 February 1960, 372–4.

66 Report Minister for Finance Kiril Lazarov about financial discipline in foreign trade organizations, 3 July 1961, f. 259, op. 14, d. 6, 74–92: 74.

67 Report Department for Finances and Accounting to Minister of Foreign Trade, December 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 24, 2–3. For a more general account of the contraposition between BNB and the Ministry of Foreign Trade, see Rumen Avramov, Pări i de/stabilizaciya v Bălgariya, 1948–1989 (Money and De/Stabilization in Bulgaria) (Sofia: Ciela, 2008), 133–6.

68 Elitza Stanoeva, ‘Balancing between socialist internationalism and economic internationalism. Bulgaria’s economic contacts with the EEC’, in European Socialist Regimes’ Fateful Engagement with the West National Strategies in the Long 1970s, eds. Angela Romano and Federico Romero (London: Routledge 2020), 162.

69 For an account of the history of Midland Bank, the world’s largest bank after the First World War, see Philip L. Cotrell, ‘The Historical Development of Modern Banking within the United Kingdom’, in Handbook on the History of European Banks, ed. Manfred Pohl (Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1994), 1137–273, 1222. On the ‘British Empire Bank’ Barclays, which had made its fortune in the first half of the 20th century after acquiring the Colonial Bank, the National Bank of South Africa, and the Anglo-Egyptian Bank with its cotton crop business, see Margaret Ackrill and Leslie Hannah, Barclays: The Business of Banking, 1690–1996 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 279; Cotrell, ‘Banking within the UK’, 1150; 1197–98. On Crédit Lyonnais and its representations in Cairo and Alexandria, which operated cotton businesses until 1956, see Alain Plessis, ‘Histoire des banques en France’, Handbook of European Banks, ed. Pohl, 195–296, 277–81); Samir Saul, ‘Les agencies du Crédit lyonnais en Egypte: l’insertion d’une banque de dépôts dans une économie d’Outre-Mer (1875–1956)’, in Le Crédit lyonnais 1863–1986, eds. Bernard Desjardins et al. (Genève: Librairie Droz S.A., 2003), 521–48.

70 Letter cotton agent Sarăivanov to Industrialimport, Sofia, 5 February 1948, TsDA, f. 324, op. 2. d. 60, 22; Letter Bank ‘Bălgarski Kredit’, Department ‘Letters of Credit – Import’ to Industrialimport, Sofia, 16 February 1948, TsDA, f. 324, op. 2, d. 60, 13.

71 Thereafter, Industrialimport occasionally resorted to the Swiss cotton market in cases of unsuccessful negotiations with the Egyptian government. See Report Ivan Budinov, Minister of Foreign Trade, to Tano Colov, Chairman of Committee for Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation, on the supply of basic goods from developing countries, Sofia, January 1968, TsDA, f. 324, op. 12, d. 133, 196–220, esp. 204.

72 Correspondence Industrialimport, Sofia, with COSATA, Dar Es Salaam, August 1966 to February 1967, TsDA, f. 324, op. 12, d. 112, 107–30; Contract between National Cotton & Trade Co. (Sudan) Ltd. and Industrialimport, Khartoum, 6 March 1966, TsDA, f. 324, op. 12, d. 112, 259–62.

73 Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire: 1875–1914 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1995), esp. chap. 2.

74 The ascension of these Egyptian trading houses still occurred in close connection to British imperial structures. For example, Industrialimport’s business partner Mohamed Farghaly was an alumnus of the Alexandria-based British Victoria College. Hamouda and Clement, Victoria College, 55–8; for other main figures of Egyptian (cotton) trade and the bourse’s colonial structures, see Vitalis, When Capitalists Collide, 1995; Issawi, Economic History, 177; Samir Raafat, The Egyptian bourse (Cairo: Zeitouna, 2010).

75 Nassar and Eldin, ‘Industrial Heritage of Minet El-Bassal’, 25.

76 Letter Trade Representative to Ministry of Foreign Trade, Department Trade Agreements, regarding relocation of Trade Representation to Cairo, Alexandria, 28 June 1954, TsDA, f. 259, op. 10, d. 55, 158–9.

77 Ibid.; Report Mikhail Konstantinov, Working Group Chairman, to Avakum Branichev, Chairman Department Trade Agreements, 12 June 1954, TsDA, f. 259, op. 10, d. 55, 354–5.

78 Report N. Baranovski, Trade Representative in Cairo, to Ministry of Foreign Trade, Department Trade Agreements, Sofia, 15 December 1955, TsDA, f. 259, op.12, d. 29, 104–8.

79 Patrick O’Brien, The Revolution in Egypt’s Economic System: From Private Enterprise to Socialism, 1952–1966 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966).

80 Waterbury, Egypt of Nasser and Sadat, 71–74. On the perspective of the Eastern European cotton traders on Egyptian trade regulation: Protocol Meeting of COMECON foreign trade organisations on ‘coordination of cotton purchases on capitalist markets’, 17–18 October 1961, Budapest, 2 November 1961, TsDA, f. 324, op. 10, d. 52, 2–7.

81 For an example beyond Egypt, see Bulgarian traders’ reactions towards nationalisation in Ghana: Letter Ministry of Foreign Trade, Department Trade Agreements, to Industrialimport, Sofia, 9 January 1964, TsDA, f. 324, op. 12, d. 120, 150–1.

82 Letter Trade Representative in Egypt, N. Baranovski, to Minister of Foreign Trade Zhivko Zhivkov, Cairo, 12 June 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 482–5, 484.

83 Report note Georgi Jankov, technical officer, to Foreign Trade Directorate, Sofia, 30 July 1947, TsDA, f. 259, op. 1, d. 111, 47; Report note Ivan Kobarelov, Trade Representative in Egypt, and Jordan Nedev, chief economist of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, to Minister Zhivko Zhivkov, Sofia, 28 November 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 38–40.

84 Letter Trade Representative Baranovski, to Foreign Trade Minister Zhivko Zhivkov, Cairo, 23. June 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, 29, 511–4.

85 Letter Avakum Branichev, chairman department Trade Agreements, to Trade Representation in Cajro, 23. June 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 506–7.

86 Khristov, Imperijata na zadgranichnite firmi, 17–30; Petja Slavova, Georgi Naidenov i Teksim-Imekstrakom: ‘Komisionerska’ ikonomika i stopanska avtonomija prez socializma ot 60-te (Georgi Naidenov and Teksim-Imekstrakom. ‘Commissionary’ economy and economic autonomy under socialism starting from the 1960s) (Sofia: Ciela, 2017).

87 Report N. Baranovski, Trade Representative in Egypt, to Ministry of Foreign Trade, Department Trade Agreements, Cairo, 27 November 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 395–406.

88 Nadja Filipova, Bălgarskata diplomaciya v Egipet, Siriya i Irak văv vremeto na studenata voina, sredata na 50-te – sredata na 70-te godini na XX vek (Bulgarian diplomacy in Egypt, Syria and Iraq during the Cold War: Mid 1950s to mid 1970s) (‘Liigăl advais – Dimităr Filipov’ EOOD: Sofia, 2008), 65; Report N. Baranovski, Trade Representative in Cairo to Ministry of Foreign Trade, Department Trade Agreements, on ‘The Import Regime Introduced in Egypt in 1956’, Cairo, 20 April 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 443–5.

89 For the same problem in Egyptian-Soviet trade negotiations, see Sanchez-Sibony, Red Globalization, 218–27.

90 Protocol Meeting of COMECON foreign trade organizations on ‘coordination of cotton purchases on capitalist markets’, 17–18 October 1961 in Budapest, 2 November 1961, TsDA, f. 324, op. 10., d. 52, 2–7.

91 Report for Conference of COMECON foreign trade organisations on Egyptian cotton market, Moscow, 5–6 September 1961, TsDA, f. 324, op. 10, d. 52, 82–83.

92 Thomas H. Oatley, ‘Multilateralizing Trade and Payments in Postwar Europe’, International Organization 55, no. 4 (2001), 949–69, see esp. 949–58. Sanchez-Sibony, Red Globalization, 71–72.

93 Beckert, Empire of Cotton, 434; W. Robertson, ‘The Raw Cotton Commission: An Experiment in State Trading’, The Journal of Industrial Economics 4, no. 3 (1956): 224–39; Singleton, ‘Planning for Cotton’, 62–78.

94 Following tobacco, with much smaller figures in the trade statistics, Bulgaria exported to Egypt wood products in different stages of processing, fertilising chemicals, construction materials, wheat, and equipment for electronics. See, for example, Trade Statistics 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 44–46. For the general importance of tobacco in Bulgaria’s foreign economic activities, see: Mary C. Neuburger, Balkan Smoke. Tobacco and the Making of Modern Bulgaria (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2013).

95 Information Ministry of Foreign Trade, Department for Economic Research, on ‘Our Offer of 7000–8000 tons of corn through Austria to Egypt’, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 86; on purchases of Egyptian cotton through the clearing account with the PRC, see Report note Konstantin Vasilev, Industrialimport, to Minister of Foreign Trade Zhivko Zhivkov, Sofia 17 February 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 95–96. Report Jordan Nedev, expert for Egypt, to Avakum Branichev, Chairman of Department Trade Agreements, Ministry of Foreign Trade, Sofia 15 December 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 3–6, 4; Filipova, Bălgarskata diplomaciya, 59–63.

96 Report Nedev to Branichev, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 3–6, 4; Report N. Baranovski, Trade Representative in Egypt, to Ministry of Foreign Trade, Department Trade Agreements, 27 November 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 395–406.

97 Report note Kosta Jankov, Department Export, to Minister of Foreign Trade, Sofia, 22 July 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 460–1.

98 Summary of the work of Department ‘Reexport’ of Ministry of Foreign Trade in July 1956, Sofia, 6 August 1956, TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 29, 260–2. At that moment, a deal of selling Vietnamese anthracite coal to an Argentine firm, which aimed to bring it to a buyer in the Netherlands, was one of the more spectacular ones in the making.

99 The first foreign investment project, operated by the enterprise ‘DSP Bulet’, attempted to establish livestock farming in Ethiopia and sell meat abroad. The BNB opposed this operation. Khristov, Imperijata na zadgranichnite firmi, 23; Survey for Ministry of Foreign Trade on the objections against the foundation of DSP ‘Bulet’, 13 December 1956, Sofia; TsDA, f. 259, op. 12, d. 24; 9–11.

100 Khristov, Imperiyata na zadgranichnite firmi, 19-33.

101 Khristov, Imperiyata na zadgranichnite firmi. By the 1980s, socialist Bulgaria was maintaining 450 such enterprises abroad.

102 Report Teksim to Commission for Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation, TsDA, f. 1244, op. 1, d. 7650, 274–7; Report note from Marin Vachkov, Minister of Transport, to Ivan Goloshiev, Chairman of Coordinating Commission at Ministry of Foreign Trade, regarding the setup of a company for agricultural aviation services abroad, Sofia, 11 July 1967, TsDA, f. 259, op. 20, d. 80, 13–17.

103 Slavova, Georgi Naidenov, 93–101.

104 For the new managerial class in Bulgaria see: Petrov, Cyber-Socialism, Chapter VII.

105 Khristov, Imperijata na zadgranichnite firmi, 17–30; Slavova, Georgi Naidenov.

106 E. g. Vladislav Zubok, ‘Introduction’, H-Diplo Roundtable Review, Volume 16, no. 24 (2015) on Sanchez-Sibony’s Red Globalization: The Political Economy of the Soviet Cold War from Stalin to Khrushchev (27 April 2015).

107 E.g. most recently: David Chilosi and Giovanni Federico, ‘The effects of market integration during the first globalization: a multi-market approach’, European Review of Economic History 25, no. 1 (2021): 20–58.