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Related to concessions: Tax Concessions, make concessions


1. Brit a reduction in the usual price of a ticket granted to a special group of customers
3. US and Canadian
b. the premises so granted or the business so maintained
c. a free rental period for such premises



an agreement granting, under specified terms, rights for the exploitation of natural resources and enterprises belonging to a country or municipality. In capitalist countries, concessionaires are usually large monopolies which use the concession to make monopolistic profits.

In the era of imperialism, international concessions developed extensively, enabling the imperialist powers to ensure raw materials for themselves and to preserve their economic influence in developing countries. Examples of such concessions are the petroleum concessions of imperialist monopolies in the Middle East and North Africa. These concessions, particularly those granted before World War II or in the early postwar years, covered vast areas and were given for long terms. Concessions in Bahrain, Trucial Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Muscat and Oman cover the entire country. The Bahrain Petroleum Company received a concession for 91 years and the Kuwait Oil Company for 92 years. The concession agreements granted the foreign monopolies the exclusive right of extraction, processing, and marketing of petroleum and guaranteed them the right to build means of transportation, pipelines, ports, and other necessary installations.

In the early 1950’s, with the growth and strengthening of the world socialist system and the upsurge in the liberation movement, the imperialists were forced to agree to increase payments for their concessions in a number of Middle Eastern and North African countries. Previously specified payments were replaced by the principle of an equal division of profits, although the colonial nature of the existing concessions remained unchanged. Since the export of petroleum is the main source of revenue for many Middle Eastern and North African countries, they began to coordinate their efforts to gain more advantageous terms for the concessions they granted.

In 1960 the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was formed to work out a uniform policy aimed at changing the unequal terms of concession agreements, increasing petroleum revenues, and developing national petroleum industries. OPEC launched an offensive against the oil monopolies and achieved significant success. By 1973 OPEC was making decisions that hitherto had been made exclusively by foreign monopolies, particularly those concerning prices and the distribution of profits from the extraction of crude oil between the producing countries and the monopolies.

The concessions that existed in the USSR in the period of transition from capitalism to socialism were fundamentally different economically and politically. The decree of Nov. 23, 1920, permitted the granting of concessions in order to attract foreign capital into industries and regions that the Soviet government was unable to develop at the time. V. I. Lenin thus described the aim of these concessions: “We make sacrifices giving to the foreign capitalists millions of the most valuable materials … , but at the same time we must get the advantages we need, that is, an increase in production volume and, if possible, the improvement of the condition of our workers, both those employed in concession enterprises and those not employed by them” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 43, p. 190). Under the dictatorship of the proletariat, concessions were used only to the extent that they could be useful for the development of the national economy, and they did not in the least affect the economic independence of the USSR. Concessions in the USSR played an auxiliary role in economic construction and were not extensive. By 1937 all concession agreements were canceled with the con-sent of the concessionaires.


Lenin, V. I. “Zakliuchitel’noe slovo po dokladu o kontsessiakh.” Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 42.
Lenin, V. I. Ibid., pp. 118–24, 126–27.
Lenin, V. I. “Doklad o kontsessiakh.” Ibid., vol. 43.
Lenin, V. I. “Russkoi kolonii v Severnoi Amerike.” Ibid., vol. 45.
Lenin, V. I. A. P. Serebrovskomu. (Letter.) Ibid., vol. 52.
Lenin, V. I. “Telegramma kraevomu ekonomicheskomu soveshchaniu lugo-Vostoka.” Ibid., vol. 54.
Lenin, V. . Armandu Hammeru. (Letter.) Ibid., vol. 54.
Lenin, V. I. I. V. Stalinu dlia chlenov Politbiuro TsK RKP (b). (Letter.) Ibid.
Andreasian, R. N., and A. Ia. El’ianov. Blizhnii Vostok, neft’ i nezavisi-most’. Moscow, 1961.
Levin, A. Ia. Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie uklady v SSSR v period perekhoda ot kapitalizma k sotsializmu. Moscow, 1967.
Mikdashi, Z. A Financial Analysis of Middle Eastern Oil Concessions 1905–1965. New York [1966].



i. Permission allowed by a designated authority to operate an aircraft even when there is some shortfall in terms of serviceability of some system.
ii. Permission granted for continued use of a component for a specific period of time when it is due for servicing or replacement. This is also applicable to servicing of the complete aircraft.
References in classic literature ?
Betteredge made a note of that concession, on the spot.
I made another concession, and Betteredge made another note.
It seems to be theirs by right of discovery and government concession," he said, in disappointed tone.
Clare had nothing to tell Frank which Magdalen could not communicate to him much more agreeably -- the philosopher was not the less resolved on personally informing his son of the parental concession which rescued him from Chinese exile.
For their part, they make allowance in their scheme of life for a great possibility, and with some of them that bare concession of possibility (the subject of it being what it is) becomes the most important fact in the world.
seemed to have made his reply as a mere concession to politeness, while he was thinking of something else which really interested him.
Agnes started out of her chair, ashamed of even the momentary concession to superstition which was implied by the mere presence of such questions as these in her mind.
The old gentleman having exhausted his powers of persuasion, alighted to lead him; whereupon the pony, perhaps because he held this to be a sufficient concession, perhaps because he happened to catch sight of the other brass-plate, or perhaps because he was in a spiteful humour, darted off with the old lady and stopped at the right house, leaving the old gentleman to come panting on behind.
It's clear we have no real plan in the works to deal with concessions.
In cases when reason for granting of concession is not exclusively profit, but when crucial political arguments are involved, then we have to do with the so called political concessions (i.