Originally published in 1973, this book deals with the development of financial institutions, changes in methods of finance and the role of monetary control in socialist economic management. The structure and activity of financial institutions were deliberately adapted to changes in policy planning techniques used in socialist economies. Dr Podolski provides a systematic description of this process of adaptation, based mainly on the example of the Polish economy, on which he has gathered a large amount of statistical data. Throughout the book international comparisons are made. Soviet experience is particularly relevant, but attempts are also made at comparisons with Western economies. Dr Podolski's study sheds a great deal of light on the role of the credit system in a centralised economy and will be of value to anyone with an interest in banking and monetary policy, or Soviet and Eastern Bloc economies.