⧠27 Imperialism

In individual countries the effect of the sway of financial capital is, in a certain measure, to put an end to the anarchy of capitalist production. The various producers, who have hitherto been fighting one another, now join forces in a State capitalist trust.

But what happens in this case to one of the fundamental contradictions of capitalism? We have said more than once that capitalism will inevitably break down because of its lack of organization and because it is affected by the class struggle. Now if one or these two contradictions (see §13) is invalid, may it not be that the prediction concerning the collapse of capitalism has no foundation?

The point we chiefly have to consider is this. In actual fact the anarchy of production and competition has not ceased. Or perhaps it would be better to say that it ceases in one place to break out worse than ever in another. Let us endeavour to explain the matter in detail.

Contemporary capitalism is world capitalism. All the countries are interconnected; they buy one from another. We cannot now find any country which is not under the heel of capitalism; we cannot find any country which produces for itself absolutely everything it needs.

There are numerous articles which can only be produced in certain places. Oranges do not grow in a cold country; whereas iron ore cannot be obtained from a country which has no deposits of it beneath the soil. Coffee, cocoa, and rubber are grown only in warm climates. Cotton is grown in the United States, India, Egypt, Turkestan, etc.; from these lands it is exported to all parts of the world. Coal is found in Britain, Germany, the United States, Austria, and Russia; but there is no coal in Italy, and Italy is entirely dependent upon supplies of British and German coal. Wheat is exported to all other countries from the United States, India, Russia, and Rumania.

On the other hand, certain countries are far advanced in their development, whilst others are backward. As a result of this, various products of urban industry in the more advanced lands are marketed in the backward countries. England, the United States, and Germany, in particular, send iron goods to all parts of the world. Germany is the chief exporter of chemical products.

Thus each country is dependent on the others; each sells to the others or buys from the others. How far this dependence can go, we may learn from the example of Britain. From three-fourths to four-fifths of the wheat needed by that country and half of the meat are imported, and in return for this the greater part of the goods produced in British factories has to be exported.

Let us now ask ourselves whether financial capital puts an end to competition in the world market. Does it create a worldwide organization in virtue of the fact that it unites the capitalists in individual countries? Obviously this is not the case. The anarchy of production and of competition within each specific country ceases more or less completely because the individual entrepreneurs unite to form a State capitalist trust. All the fiercer grows the struggle between the various State capitalist trusts. This is what always happens when capital is centralized. When the small fry are ruined, then of course the number of competitors diminishes, for only the big fish are left. Among these latter, the struggle is now conducted upon a larger scale; instead of a fight between individual manufacturers, there ensues a fight between the trusts. Of course the number of the trusts is less than the number of the individual manufacturers. The struggle, therefore, has become fiercer and more destructive. When the capitalists in any particular country have defeated their lesser opponents and have organized themselves into a State capitalist trust, the number of competitors is still further reduced. For the competitors are now these titanic capitalist powers. Such competition involves expenditure and waste upon an unprecedented scale. The fight between the State capitalist trusts expresses itself during 'peace' time in the rivalry of armaments. Ultimately it leads to a devastating war.

Thus, WHEREAS FINANCIAL CAPITAL PUTS AN END TO COMPETITION WITHIN THE INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES, in due course and when the time is ripe, IT GIVES RISE TO A FIERCE AND EMBITTERED COMPETITION BETWEEN THE VARIOUS STATES.

How does this come about? Why, moreover, does competition between capitalist countries lead in the end to an annexationist policy and to war? Why cannot the competition be peaceful? When two manufacturers compete with one another, they do not attack one another with knives, but attempt to steal one another's custom by peaceful methods. Why, then, should competition in the world market assume so savage a form? Why should the competitors have recourse to arms? To these questions we must give a detailed answer.

First of all we must consider why it was necessary that the policy of the bourgeoisie should undergo a change concurrently with the transition from the old capitalism in which free competition prevailed, to the new capitalism in which financial capital holds sway.

Let us begin with the so-called tariff policy. In the international struggle, the bourgeois governmental authorities, each aiming at the protection of its own capitalists, have long since adopted the use of customs tariffs as a means of struggle. When, for example, the Russian textile manufacturers were afraid that their British or German competitors would introduce British or German textiles into Russia and would cut prices, the Russian government was accommodating enough to impose an import duty upon British and German textiles. Of course this hindered the import of foreign products into Russia. Manufacturers usually declare that tariffs are necessary for the encouragement of home industry. If, however, we study the tariff policies of the various countries, we can see that the real aim was very different. During the last few decades, the countries in which the capitalists have raised the greatest clamour for high import tariffs, the countries in which such tariffs have been imposed, are the greatest and strongest countries in the world. The United States has led in this movement. Could foreign competition possibly injure these countries? 'What are you making such a row about, John? Who is hurting you? You are the aggressor!'

What is the real meaning of all this? Let us suppose that in a certain country the textile industry has been monopolized by syndicates or trusts. What happens if an import duty is imposed? The syndicated capitalists kill two birds with one stone. In the first place they free themselves from foreign competition. Secondly, to the buyers of their own land, they are able to raise prices by an amount nearly equal to that of the tariff. Suppose the import duty on textiles to be two shillings per yard. In that case the textile magnates need have no hesitation in adding two shillings, or at least is 9d, per yard to the price of their goods. If the industry were not syndicated, the internal competition between the capitalists of the country we are considering would immediately lead to price cutting. But if there is a syndicate in control, it has no difficulty in raising prices, for the foreigner is kept out of the market by the customs barrier, and owing to the syndication of the industry there is no competition in the homeland. In so far as there are any imports, the State revenue benefits, while the syndicated manufacterers secure additional surplus value in consequence of the enhanced price. This can only take place where there is a syndicate or trust. But that is not the end of the affair. Thanks to these surplus profits, the syndicated manufacturers are able to introduce their goods into other countries and to sell them there below cost price simply in order to supplant all competitors in those countries. This is what they have actually done. It is a matter of common knowledge that the Russian Sugar Syndicate kept the price of sugar in Russia comparatively high, while selling sugar in England at a ridiculously low price in the hope of destroying competitors in that country. The saying became current that in England pigs were fed on Russian sugar. Thus the syndicated manufacturers, aided by the tariffs, are able at one and the same time to fleece their own countrymen and to bring foreign customers under their sway.

The consequences are of great importance. It is obvious that the surplus profits of the syndicate will increase proportionally with the increase in the number of sheep to be shorn, with the increase in the number of those who are penned within the tariff barriers. If the customs area be a small one, the opportunity for profit-making will also be small. If, on the other hand, the customs area be large and populous, the opportunities for profit-making will be correspondingly extensive. In that case the surplus profits will be very large, so that it will be possible to act boldly in the world market, and to act there with the hope of a 'substantial success. Now, the customs area usually coincides with the area administered by the State. How can this latter be enlarged? By grabbing some foreign territory, by annexing it, by including it within one's own frontiers, within one's own governmental area. But this means war. It means that the dominion of syndicates is inevitably associated with wars of conquest. Every robber capitalist State endeavours to extend its frontiers; the extension is demanded by the interests of the trust magnates, by the interests of financial capital. Now, he who talks of extending frontiers really talks of waging war.

In this manner, the tariff policy of the syndicate and trust magnates, in conjunction with their policy in the world market, leads to violent collisions. But here there are at work, tending towards war, additional causes.

We have seen that the development of production results in the continuous accumulation of surplus value. In every land of advanced capitalist development there is therefore continually expanding a mass of superfluous capital which returns less profit than in comparatively backward countries. The larger the accumulation of superfluous capital in any country, the more vigorous are the endeavours to export capital, to invest it abroad. This aim is preeminently favoured by tariff policy. In fact, import duties greatly hinder the import of goods, When, for instance, the Russian manufacturers imposed high duties upon German goods, it became difficult for the German manufacturers to introduce their products into Russia. (We are speaking, of course, of things that happened when the manufacturers were in power, before the days of the Soviet Government.)

But when they found it difficult to export their goods to Russia, another way was opened to the German capitalists. They began to introduce their capital into Russia. They built factories there; they bought shares in Russian undertakings, or they started new enterprises, supplying these with capital. Did the duties offer any hindrance? Nothing of the kind. Far from being a hindrance, they were a help; they positively promoted the influx of capital. For this reason. When the German capitalist has a factory in Russia, and when he too becomes a member of the 'Russian' syndicate, of course the Russian tariff helps him to earn surplus profit. The import duties are just as useful to him in fleecing the Russian public as they are to his Russian colleagues.

Capital moves from one country into another not only in order to found new enterprises in the latter or to support those which already exist. In many cases the introduction of capital takes the form of a loan to the government of the country into which the capital is introduced, a loan at a fixed rate of interest. This means that the borrowing government increases its national debt, becomes indebted to the lending government. In such cases the debtor government usually undertakes to float all loans (and especially war loans) among the industrials of the creditor State. Thus vast quantities of capital pass from one State to another, partly incorporated in buildings and manufacturing enterprises, and partly taking the forms of State loans. Under the dominion of financial capital, the export of capital attains gigantic proportions.

We will give certain figures which can still teach us a great deal, although they are a trifle out of date. In the year 1902, France had in twenty-six foreign States investments to the approximate amount of thirty-five milliards of francs: about half of the sum was in the form of State loans. The lion's share had gone to Russia (ten milliards). Parenthetically we may remark that this is why the French bourgeoisie is so furious because we Russians have cancelled the tsarist debts and have refused to pay the French usurers. By the year 1905 the sum of foreign capital imported into Russia had already exceeded forty milliards. In the year 1911 the foreign investments of Britain amounted to about sixteen hundred million pounds sterling; but if we include loans to the British colonies the sum invested overseas by the British amounted to three thousand million pounds sterling. Germany, prior to the war, had foreign investments amounting to something like thirty-five milliards of marks. - In a word, every capitalist government exports vast quantities of capital, in order, with the aid of this capital, to plunder foreign countries.

Moreover, the export of capital entails important consequences. The various powerful States begin to compete for the possession of those territorial areas or lesser States to which they wish to export capital. But here is another point to which we must draw attention. When capitalists export capital to a 'foreign' land, the risk involved is not that of certain quantities of commodities, but that of immense sums of money running into millions and milliards. Evidently, therefore, there will arise a strong desire to take completely into their hands the lesser countries in which they have invested capital, and to send armies to protect this capital. In the exporting States there thus arises the aspiration to subject these territories to their own governmental authorities, to do so at all hazards, simply to conquer them, to annex them by force. There ensues on the part of various strong, plundering States a competitive invasion of the weak territories, and it is clear that in the long run the marauders must come into mutual collision. Such clashes have actually taken place. In consequence, the export of capital has led to war.

We have now some additional points to consider. With the growth of syndicates and the introduction of tariffs, the struggle for markets becomes greatly intensified. Already by the close of the nineteenth century there was no longer to be found any territory which remained quite free for the export of goods, or any region on which the capitalist had not yet set his foot. A great rise in the price of raw materials was beginning; metals, wool, timber, coal, and cotton were all growing dearer. During the years immediately preceding the war, there had been a fierce scramble for markets and a struggle for new sources of raw materials. The capitalists were nosing all over the world in quest of new coal mines, and new deposits of ore; they were hunting for new markets to which they could export the produce of their metal works, their weaving mills, and other factories; they wanted a new, a 'fresh' public to plunder. In former days, often enough, the competitors in any country consisted of firms whose competition was 'peaceful'; they remained on tolerably good terms. Under the sway of the banks and the trusts, a great change has taken place. Let us suppose that new deposits of copper have been discovered. They are immediately seized by a bank or a trust, which gets them wholly into its power, monopolizes them. The capitalists of other countries are left to console themselves with the adage: ' It's no use crying over spilt milk'. The same considerations apply to the struggle for markets. Let us suppose that capital from afar finds its way to a remote colony. The sale of goods is thereupon organized on the grand scale. The business usually falls into the hands of one gigantic firm. Opening branches in the place, it exercises pressure upon the local authorities, endeavouring in this way, and by a thousand wiles and stratagems, to corner the market, to secure a monopoly, to exclude all competitors. It is obvious that monopolist capital and the magnates of trusts and syndicates must act after their kind. We are not living in the ' good old times', but in an age of war between monopolist thieves and plunderers.

Inevitably, therefore, CONCURRENTLY WITH THE GROWTH OF FINANCIAL CAPITAL THERE MUST OCCUR A GREAT INTENSIFICATION OF THE STRUGGLE FOR MARKETS AND RAW MATERIALS, AND THIS CANNOT FAIL TO LEAD TO VIOLENT COLLISIONS.

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century the great robber States ruthlessly seized numerous regions belonging to lesser nations. Between 1876 and 1914 the so-called Great Powers annexed approximately ten million square miles of territory. In other words, they grabbed territory the total area of which is twice as large as that of Europe. The whole world had been partitioned among the big robbers; all other countries have become their colonies, their tributaries, or their slaves.

Here are some examples. Great Britain since 1870 has annexed in Asia: Beluchistan, Burma, Wei-hai-wei, and the mainland adjacent to Hong-Kong; she has enlarged the Straits Settlements; she has acquired Cyprus and British North Borneo. In Australasia and Oceania she has annexed a number of islands, has occupied the eastern part of New Guinea, has annexed a great part of the Solomon Islands, the island of Tonga, etc. Her new possessions in Africa are: Egypt, the northern Soudan, Uganda, Eastern Equatorial Africa, British Somaliland, Zanzibar and Pemba. She has swallowed up the two Boer republics, has occupied Rhodesia and British Central Africa, has annexed Nigeria, and so on, and so on.

France, since 1870, has acquired Annam; conquered Tonkin; annexed Laos, Tunis, Madagascar, large portions of Sahara, Soudan, and the Guinea coast; has acquired areas on the Ivory Coast, in Dahomey, in Somaliland, etc. As a result, at the opening of the twentieth century the French colonies had an area which was nearly twenty times that of the mother country. (The British colonies at this date were more than one hundred times the size of the mother country.)

Germany began to participate in the game of grab somewhat later, towards 1884; but within a brief time she was able to secure a considerable share of the spoil.

Tsarist Russia has likewise pursued a robber policy on a large scale. Of late years this was principally directed towards Asia, and here a collision with Japan ensued, for Japan was trying to plunder Asia from the other side.

The United States annexed numerous islands in the Caribbean Sea, and subsequently practised an annexationist policy on the American continent. Her attitude towards Mexico has been extremely threatening.

In the year 1914 the homeland territories of the six Great Powers amounted in all to about six million square miles. The total area of their colonial possessions at the same date was approximately thirty million square miles.

It need hardly be said that in the first instance such robberies were effected at the expense of the lesser countries, of those that were unprotected and weak. They were the first to be ruined. Just as in the struggle between the manufacturers and the independent artisans the latter were the first to succumb, so here. The great State trusts, the great capitalists organized for robbery, began by smashing the lesser governments and seizing their possessions. In the world economy, the centralization of capital advanced along the familar lines; the lesser States were ruined while the large robber States grew richer, larger, and more powerful.

As soon as they had annexed the whole world, they began to struggle more fiercely among themselves. It was inevitable that the brigands should now quarrel over the loot, should fight for a redistribution of the world. Giant robber States remained, and a life-anddeath combat was to ensue among these survivors.

THE POLICY OF CONQUEST WHICH FINANCIAL CAPITAL PURSUES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR MARKETS, FOR THE SOURCES OF RAW MATERIAL, AND FOR PLACES IN WHICH CAPITAL CAN BE INVESTED, IS KNOWN AS IMPERIALISM. Imperialism is born of financial capital. Just as a tiger cannot live upon grass, so financial capital cannot exist without a policy of conquest, spoliation, violence, and war. The essential desire of every one of the financial capitalist State trusts is to dominate the world; to establish a world empire, wherein the small group of capitalists belonging to the victorious nations shall hold undivided sway. The British imperialist, for example, dreams of a 'Greater Britain' which shall rule the whole world a world in which British trust magnates shall command the labour of Negroes and Russians, Germans and Chinese, Hindus and Armenians, slaves of all colours, black, white, yellow, and red. Britain is not far from the attainment of this ideal. But the more she grabs, the more she wants. The same thing happens with the imperialists of other nations. Russian imperialists dream of a 'Greater Russia'; German imperialists dream of a 'Greater Germany'; and so on. By these 'great' ones, there is of course practised a shameless spoliation of all the rest.

In this manner, therefore, the reign of financial capital must inevitably hurl all mankind into the bloody abyss of a war for the benefit of bankers and trust magnates; a war which is not fought for a people's own land but for the plunder of other lands; a war that is waged in order that the world may be subjugated by the financial capital of the conquering country. Such was the nature of the first great world war, during the years 1914 to 1918.