Critically surveys the literature of unequal exchange and presents an approach, focusing on the moment of exchange proper and how the mechanisms of unequal exchange work. Emphasizes the marketing side, using elasticities of demand of individual countries as indices of dependence. The last part centers on the problems of unequal factor incomes and the incentives they provide to shift investment to the periphery. Argues that this process is checked because a total emigration of capital to the third world would demolish the present capitalist world economy by destroying its driving engine--effective demand for the products that are produced by the center. Concludes by discussing strategies open to the periphery. Raffer is a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Vienna. Bibliography; index.