Battle for trade


The battle for trade was an element of the state politics in the early period of communist takeover of Poland according to which new laws and regulations succeeded in significantly decreasing the size of the private sector in Polish trade, in order to facilitate the transformation of Polish economy from capitalism to Soviet communism's planned economy.
The larger private shops were nationalized or closed, and government-owned chains and cooperatives were created to replace them, but that was inefficient as more shops were closed than opened and led to lasting difficulties for Polish people in obtaining consumer goods.
The term 'battle for trade' was introduced by Polish communist propaganda to denote the importance and urgency of the fight against 'capitalist profiteers and saboteurs'.

History

The 'battle' began when Polish communist Hilary Minc proposed and succeeded in passing a series of reforms during the 1947 Polish Workers Party congress accompanying the Three-Year Plan. On 13–14 April, the 1947 congress of the Polish Workers Party accepted that direction.
On 2 June 1947 new laws were passed to help the government in the 'battle':
The new legislation allowed the government to accuse many shopkeepers of sabotage, imprison them and nationalise their enterprises..
The number of private retail shops fell from 150,000–185,000 in 1946 through 131,000 in 1947 to 58,000–70,000 in 1949. Wholesale stores fell from 3300 to 1100. By 1953, only 7% of shops in Poland remained in private hands ; 75% of craftsmen's workshops were closed or nationalized.
Since many fewer government-run shops were opened, it marked the beginning of the shortage economy, as people found it increasingly difficult to find a shop with everyday items.