Page:Imperialism (Lenin).djvu/23

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IMPERIALISM
15

centration of capital is plainly shown. It is true that this concerns a country the industry of which is protected by tariffs and transport duties. The German mining industry is ripe for expropriation."4 Such is the conclusion to which a conscientious bourgeois economist has been led. Let us remark that he seems to consider Germany to be an exceptional case, in view of her system of protective tariffs. But this system has only hastened the concentration of industry and the formation of monopolies, combines, cartels and industrial syndicates. It is extremely important to realise that in a free trade country, in England, concentration also leads to monopoly, although a little later and perhaps in another form. The following is what Professor Herman Levy writes, in his work on Monopolies, Trusts and Combines, in which the latest data on British economic development are taken into account:

"In Great Britain a tendency to monopoly is contained in the very size of undertakings and in their high technical development. On the one hand, concentration makes necessary the investment in an enterprise of enormous capital. And so new enterprises, having to conform to very considerable financial requirements, are very difficult to launch. On the other hand—and this seems to be more important—every new enterprise which aims at reaching the level of the giants of industry, which are created by concentration, must produce such a tremendous quantity of goods that their profitable sale is only possible if there is a great increase in demand. If this is not the case, the super-abundance of products will lower prices to a level which is unprofitable for the new fac-