For example, in Germany, among every 1000 industrial enterprises, there are large enterprises with more than 50 employees 1882, 1895, 6 and 1907, 9. Of every 65,438+000 workers, 22, 30 and 37 are workers in these enterprises respectively. But the concentration of production is much greater than that of workers, because the labor productivity of large enterprises is much higher. The materials of steam engines and motors can illustrate this point. Take the so-called generalized industries (including commerce and transportation) in Germany: among the 3,265,623 enterprises, there are 30,588 large enterprises, accounting for only 0.9%. 14.4 million workers, of which 5.7 million, accounting for 39.4%; Among the 8.8 million steam horsepower, they account for 6.6 million horsepower, accounting for 75.3%; Among the 6.5438+0.5 million kilowatts of electricity, it accounts for 6.5438+0.2 million kilowatts, accounting for 77.2%.
Industry (employing no more than 5 workers), that is, enterprises accounting for 9 1% of the total, only account for 7% of steam and electricity! The largest tens of thousands of enterprises are everything, and millions of small enterprises are nothing.
In 1907, 586 enterprises in Germany employed 1000 workers, exceeding 1000 workers. Their workers account for almost110 (1.38 million), and their steam power and electricity account for almost 32% of the total. As we can see below, monetary capital and banks make this advantage of a few largest enterprises more powerful and truly overwhelming. In other words, millions of small and medium-sized "owners" and even some big "owners" are actually completely enslaved by hundreds of financial tycoons.
In the United States of America, another developed country of modern capitalism, production concentration has developed faster. Statistics in the United States list the narrow industries separately, and divide such enterprises into several categories according to the annual output value. 1904 annual output value 1900 largest enterprises with USD 0/million or above1900 (accounting for 0.9% of the total number of enterprises), with employees1400,000 (accounting for the total number of employees) after five years, i.e. 1909. The corresponding figures are as follows:
Almost half of the total output value of all enterprises in the United States is in the hands of enterprises that only account for 1% of the total number of enterprises! These 3,000 large enterprises include 258 industrial departments. It can be seen that when the concentration develops to a certain stage, it can be said that it will naturally move towards monopoly. Because dozens of large enterprises can easily reach an agreement with each other; On the other hand, it is the huge scale of enterprises that causes the difficulty of competition and the trend of monopoly. This change from competition to monopoly is not only the most important phenomenon in the latest capitalist economy, but also one of the most important phenomena, so we must talk about it in detail. However, we must first clear up a possible misunderstanding.
According to American statistics, there are 3,000 large enterprises in 250 industrial sectors. It seems that there are only 12 largest enterprises in each department.
But this is not the case. Not every industrial sector has large enterprises; On the other hand, in the highest stage of capitalism, there is a very important feature, that is, the so-called joint system, that is, different industrial departments are combined in one enterprise, and these departments either process raw materials in turn (such as smelting ore into pig iron, smelting pig iron into steel, and possibly making various finished products from steel), or one department plays an auxiliary role to another (such as processing leftovers or by-products, producing packaging supplies, etc.).
Hilferding wrote: "The joint venture system has stabilized various markets, thus ensuring a more stable profit rate of the joint venture. Second, the joint system led to the elimination of trade. Third, the joint system makes it possible to improve technology, so it can get more profits than a' pure' enterprise. Fourth, the joint system makes the position of joint ventures more consolidated than that of' pure' enterprises, so that they can't keep up with the serious depression of falling prices of raw materials and finished products. Enterprises are in recession, and the competition in the crisis period has been strengthened. " ①
German bourgeois economist Hyman wrote a monograph describing the "mixed" (that is, joint) enterprises in the German steel industry. He said: "Simple enterprises closed down because of high prices of raw materials and low prices of finished products". The result is:
"On the one hand, there are several large coal mining companies with a coal mining capacity of several million tons, closely forming a coal syndicate; Secondly, there are some large steel casting factories closely related to them, forming steel syndicates. These large enterprises produce 400,000 tons of steel every year, mine a lot of ore and coal, and produce steel products. There are 1000 workers living in the dormitory of the factory, and some have their own dedicated railways and ports. Such large enterprises are typical representatives of German steel industry. And the concentration is still developing. Some enterprises are getting bigger and bigger; More and more enterprises in the same industrial sector or different industrial sectors have joined forces to form large enterprises, and Berlin has six big banks as its backing and commander. The German mining industry has clearly confirmed that Karl Marx's concentration theory is correct. Admittedly, this refers to countries that protect the mining industry with protective tariffs and freight. German mining is mature enough to be deprived. " ①
This is the inevitable conclusion of an honest (this is an exception) bourgeois economist. It must be pointed out that he seems to regard Germany as special, because German industry is protected by high protective tariffs. However, this situation can only accelerate concentration and the formation of cartels and syndicates. More importantly, in Britain, a country with free trade, concentration also leads to monopoly, although the time is a little late and the form may be different. Please read a passage in the monograph Monopoly-Cartels and Trusts written by Professor Herman Levy according to the Data of British Economic Development:
"In Great Britain, it is the huge scale and high-tech level of enterprises that have curbed the trend of monopoly. On the one hand, due to centralization, every enterprise must invest a lot of capital. Therefore, new enterprises are facing higher and higher requirements in terms of necessary capital, which makes it difficult for new enterprises to appear. On the other hand (we think this is more important), if each new enterprise wants to keep pace with those large enterprises caused by concentration, it must produce a large number of surplus products, and these products can only be sold smoothly if the demand increases abnormally, otherwise this surplus product will reduce the price to a level that is unfavorable to both new factories and monopoly alliances. " Britain is different from those countries that protect tariffs to promote cartelization. Here, entrepreneurs monopolize cartels and trusts, mostly when the number of competing major enterprises is reduced to "one or twenty". "The influence of concentration on the emergence of large industrial monopoly organizations is very obvious here." ②
When Marx wrote Das Kapital half a century ago, most economists thought that free competition was a "natural law". Official scholars have tried to stifle Marx's works with silent conspiracy, because Marx's theoretical and historical analysis of capitalism proves that free competition leads to concentration of production, and concentration of production leads to monopoly when it develops to a certain stage. Now, monopoly has become a reality. Economists are writing many books to describe some manifestations of monopoly, while continuing to declare with one voice: "Marxism has been refuted." However, there is an English proverb that says well: facts are tenacious things, and you must attach importance to them whether you like them or not. Facts have proved that the differences between some capitalist countries, such as protectionism or free trade, can only cause some non-essential differences in the form or time of monopoly organization, and monopoly in centralized production is the general and basic law of capitalist development at this stage.
For Europe, it can be quite accurately concluded that the new capitalism will eventually replace the old capitalism at the beginning of the 20th century. In a recent comprehensive book about the history of "the formation of monopoly organizations", we see the following paragraphs:
"We can cite individual examples of capitalist monopoly organizations before 1860; From these examples, we can see the budding of those forms that are very common now; But all this is undoubtedly the prehistoric period of the cartel. The real beginning of modern monopoly organizations was in the 1960s of 19. The first great development period of monopoly organizations began with the international industrial depression of 19 in the 1970s and continued until the early 1990s of 19. " "From a European perspective, the 1960s and 1970s were the peaks of free competition. At that time, Britain established its old capitalist organization. In Germany, such organizations fought resolutely against handicrafts and cottage industries and began to establish their own forms of existence. "
"Great changes began with the collapse of 1873, or rather, with the depression after the collapse; This depression lasted for 22 years in the economic history of Europe, only interrupted slightly in the early 1980 s, and there was an extremely violent but short-lived upsurge around 1889. " "During the short boom period of 1889- 1890, people organized cartels to take advantage of the market. Reckless policies make prices rise faster and more violently than when there are no cartels. As a result, almost all these cartels are buried in the grave of' collapse' in disgrace. After five years of depression and low prices, the mood hanging over the industry at this time is different from before. People no longer take depression for granted, but think it is just a pause before a favorable new market comes.
So the cartel movement entered the second period. Cartel is no longer a temporary phenomenon, but has become one of the foundations of all economic life. It occupies one industrial sector after another, the first is the raw material processing sector. As early as 65438+the early 1990s, when the coke syndicate was organized (the later coal syndicate was also established after it), the cartel created the technology of organizing cartels, which basically never developed. The surge of 19 at the end of the year and the crisis of 1900- 1903, at least in the mining and steel industries, are all under the symbol of cartel for the first time. At that time, people thought this was a new phenomenon, but now it is generally believed in society that the main aspects of economic life are usually not dominated by free competition, which is self-evident. "①
To sum up, the history of monopoly organizations can be summarized as: (1) 19 The sixties and seventies were the culmination of the development of free competition. At this time, the monopoly organization is just an inconspicuous bud. (2) After the1873 crisis, cartels have developed for a long time, but cartels are still an exception, unstable and temporary phenomenon. (3) The surge at the bottom of19 and the crisis of 1900- 1903. At this time, cartel became one of the foundations of all economic life. Capitalism is transformed into imperialism.
The cartel reached an agreement on the terms of sale and payment. They divide the sales areas among each other. They specify the quantity of products to be produced. They set the price. They distribute profits among enterprises and so on.
There were about 250 German cartels in 1896, 385 in 1905, and about12,000 enterprises participated in the cartels. However, everyone admits that this is a reduced figure. From the German industrial statistics 1907 cited above, it can be seen that only these12,000 largest enterprises concentrate on steam power and electricity, which account for more than half of the total. The number of trusts in North America is 185 in 1900 and 250 in 1907. American statistics divide all industrial enterprises into individuals, partnerships and companies. The latter accounts for 23.6% of the total number of enterprises in 1904 and 25.9% of the total number of enterprises in 1909, which is more than 1/4. The employees of these enterprises account for 70.6% of the total employees of 1904 and 75.6% of the total employees of 1909, that is, 3/4; The output value was $654.38+009 billion and $654.38+063 billion respectively, accounting for 73.7% and 79% of the total output value.
78% of the total industrial output is usually concentrated in the hands of cartels and trusts. 1893 When the Rhine-Westphalia coal syndicate was established, it concentrated 86.7% of the total coal mining in this area, and by 19 10, it had reached 95.4%. This monopoly ensures huge income and leads to the formation of large-scale technical production units. The famous American kerosene trust (Mobil Oil Company) was established in 1900. "Its capital is $6.5438+0.5 million. At that time, 654.38 billion US dollars of common stock and 654.38 billion US dollars of preferred stock were issued. During the period of 1900- 1907, the annual dividends paid by the preferred shares were: 48%, 48%, 45%, 44%, 36%, 40%, 40%, 40%, * * totaling $367 million. The net profit of 1882- 1907 is 889 million US dollars, of which 606 million is used to pay dividends and the rest is used as reserve capital. " (1) "The number of employees in all enterprises of Steel Trust (American Steel Company) reached 2101801907. Gelsenkirchener Berg-Werks Gesellschaft, the largest mining company in Germany, has 46,048 employees in 1908. " Steel Trust produced 9 million tons of steel in 1902. Its steel output accounts for 66.3% of the total steel output in the United States in 190 1 year, and 56. 1% in 1908. Its ore output is 43.9% in 190 1 and 46.3% in 1908.
The report of the Special Committee on US Government Trust said: "It is superior to its competitors because of its large scale and excellent technology and equipment. Since its establishment, Tobacco Trust has tried its best to replace manual labor with machines on a large scale in all aspects. To this end, it bought all the invention patents related to tobacco processing and spent huge sums of money in this respect. Many inventions are not applicable at first and must be improved by engineers working in trust companies. /kloc-set up two branches at the end of 0/906 to purchase invention patents. For the same purpose, the trust company has established its own foundry, machinery factory and repair shop. One such factory in Brooklyn has about 300 workers; This factory has experimented with inventions related to the production of cigarettes, cigars, snuff, tinfoil for packaging and cigarette cases, and has also improved various inventions here. " ⑤ "Other trusts also employ so-called development engineers, whose task is to invent new production methods and conduct technical improvement experiments. The Iron and Steel Trust gives high bonuses to engineers and workers who have made inventions in improving technology or reducing costs. " ①
Germany's big industries, such as the chemical industry, which has made great progress in recent decades, also organize technical improvement work in this way. By 1908, the process of production concentration has caused two "groups" in this industry, and they are gradually monopolizing in their own way. At first, these two groups were a "bilateral alliance" composed of two pairs of large factories, each with a capital of 2000-2 1 million marks: one pair was Qiandong Company in Hohurst, Main and casella Company in Frankfurt, Main; The other pair is ludwigshafen Aniline Alkali Factory and the former Bayer Company of Aibeifeite. Later, a group reached an agreement with another big factory at 1905, and reached an agreement at 1908. As a result, two "trilateral alliances" were formed, each with a capital of 40-50 million marks, and the two "alliances" began to "approach" and "agree" on prices. ②
Competition becomes monopoly. The socialization of production has made great progress. Even the process of technological invention and improvement is socialized.
In the past, owners were free to compete. They are scattered and don't know each other at all. They were all made for sale in an unknown market, but now they are completely different. The concentration has reached such a level that we can make a rough estimate of all raw material sources (such as iron ore-bearing land) in many countries and even the whole world, as follows. Now, not only such an estimate is made, but also these sources are completely controlled by some big monopoly alliances. These alliances also roughly estimate the market capacity and "carve up" these markets according to the agreement. They monopolized skilled labor, hired the best engineers, and occupied transportation lines and vehicles, such as American railways and European and American shipping companies. Capitalism in the imperialist stage is close to the most comprehensive socialization of production, which ignores the wishes and consciousness of capitalists and can be said to have dragged them into a new social order from complete competition and freedom to complete socialization.
Production is socialized, but possession is private. Socialized means of production are still the private property of a few people. The general framework of officially recognized free competition still exists, while the oppression of the rest of the residents by a few monopolists is more heavy, obvious and unbearable.
German economist K wrote a book about "the struggle between cartels and outsiders". The so-called "outsiders" are entrepreneurs who have not joined the cartel. He named the book Forced to Join the Organization. In fact, if capitalism is not whitewashed, it should be said that it is forced to obey monopoly alliances. It is also instructive to look at all kinds of modern, latest and civilized means of struggle adopted by monopoly alliances against this "organization". These means are: (1) deprivation of raw materials ("... one of the main means of forcing to join a cartel"); (2) Deprivation of labor by "alliance" (that is, capitalists enter into contracts with trade unions, so that trade unions only accept the work of cartelized enterprises); (3) Deprivation of means of transport; (4) Deprivation of sales; (5) enter into a contract with the buyer, so that it only has a buying and selling relationship with the cartel; (6) Depress the price in a planned way (in order to let the "outsider" that is, the enterprise that does not obey the monopolist go bankrupt, it will not hesitate to spend huge sums of money to sell goods at a price lower than the cost for a period of time. There was an example in the gasoline industry: the price dropped from 40 marks to 22 marks, almost half! ); (7) deprivation of credit; (8) announce a boycott.
It is no longer the competition between small enterprises and large enterprises, and the competition between enterprises with backward technology and enterprises with advanced technology. Now it is the monopolist who is strangling those enterprises that do not succumb to monopoly and its oppression and pity. The following is the reflection of this process in the consciousness of a bourgeois economist.
K wrote: "Even in pure economic activities, some changes are taking place, from the original commercial activities to the activities of speculative organizers. The greatest achievements are not those businessmen who are best at judging buyers' needs according to their own technical and commercial experience, but those who are good at predicting in advance, or even just smelling organizational development and smelling that some enterprises and banks may have some connection.
Translated into the language of ordinary people, that is to say, capitalism has developed to such a degree that although commodity production is still "dominant" and still regarded as the foundation of the whole economy, it has actually been destroyed, and most of the profits have been taken away by those "geniuses" engaged in financial activities. This kind of financial activity and deception is based on the socialization of production. Speculators have benefited greatly from the tremendous progress made by human beings in the socialization of production. Next, we will see how those who criticize capitalist imperialism by petty bourgeoisie dream of reversing the car and restoring "freedom", "peace" and "honesty" competition.
K said: "The long-term price increase caused by cartel formation has only appeared in the most important means of production, especially coal, iron and potash fertilizer, and has never appeared in finished products. The subsequent increase in income is also limited to industries that produce means of production. There is a supplement to this: the processing industry of raw materials (not semi-finished products) not only gains high profits by forming cartels, but also loses those industries that further process semi-finished products, and also gains a certain dominant position in this industry, which is not available in the era of free competition. " ①
We made a few marks to illustrate the essence of the problem. This essence is very unwilling and rarely acknowledged by bourgeois economists, and it is also tried to prevaricate and avoid talking about by contemporary opportunist defenders headed by Ka Kaucki. The ruling relationship and the resulting compulsion are typical phenomena of "the latest stage of capitalist development" and the inevitable result of the formation of a powerful economic monopoly organization.
Let's give another example of how cartels work. Cartels and monopoly organizations are particularly easy to form in places where the origin of all or major raw materials can be mastered. However, it is wrong to think that other industrial sectors will not have monopoly organizations and cannot occupy the origin of raw materials. Raw materials for the cement industry are available everywhere. But in Germany, even this industry is highly cartelized. Cement plants unite to form regional syndicates, such as South German syndicate, Rhine-Westphalia syndicate and so on. Monopoly price regulation: the cost of a wagon cement is 180 mark, and the actual price is 230-280 mark! Corporate dividends 12- 16%, don't forget that modern speculative "geniuses" can not only get dividends, but also make a lot of profits roll into their own pockets. In order to exclude competition from such a profitable industrial field, monopolists even use various tricks: spreading rumors that the cement industry is in a bad situation; Advertise anonymously in the newspaper and say, "Capitalist! Be careful not to invest in the cement industry! " ; Finally, the "outsider" enterprises that did not participate in the syndicate were bribed and paid a "transfer fee" of 60,000 and 80,000 to10.5 million mark. Monopoly organizations do everything from paying "meager" transfer fees to "using" explosives on their competitors like the United States, and they open roads everywhere.
Eliminating the crisis with cartels is the nonsense of bourgeois economists who desperately describe capitalism. On the contrary, the monopoly formed in several industrial sectors has made the chaos unique to the whole capitalist production more severe and serious. As a feature of general capitalism, the incompatibility between agriculture and industrial development has become more serious. The privileged position of the so-called heavy industry with the highest degree of cartelization, especially the coal and steel industries, makes the rest of the industrial sectors "more seriously lack planning", as Goeldel, the author of one of the best books on the relationship between German big banks and industry, admitted.
Liefmann, a shameless defender of capitalism, said: "The more a country's economy develops, the more it will turn to more adventurous enterprises or foreign enterprises, enterprises that need a long time to develop, or enterprises that only have local significance." (2) The increase in risk is ultimately related to the massive increase in capital, which can be said to be overflowing and flowing abroad, and so on. At the same time, with the accelerated development of technology, the factors of inadaptability, confusion and crisis in various sectors of the national economy are increasing day by day. Similarly, Liefmann has to admit: "It is very likely that in the near future, mankind will encounter some technological changes that will also affect the national economic organization" ... such as electricity and aviation ... "When this fundamental economic change occurs, there will usually be a strong speculative business developed ..." (3)
Crisis (all kinds of crises, the most common one is economic crisis, but not only economic crisis) has greatly strengthened the trend of concentration and monopoly. We know that the crisis of 1900 is a turning point in the history of modern monopoly organizations. Regarding the significance of this crisis, Gidar has a very noteworthy conclusion:
"1900 crisis, in addition to large enterprises in major industrial sectors, there are many' simple' enterprises with outdated structures today, that is, enterprises that have not been United. They floated in the rising tide of industry. Falling prices and reduced demand have put these' simple' enterprises in a disastrous situation, which has never been encountered by large joint ventures at all, or only in a very short time. So the industrial concentration caused by the crisis of 1900 far exceeds the crisis of 1873. Although the crisis of 1873 also played the role of elimination and saved some good enterprises, at the technical level at that time, this elimination did not give those enterprises that successfully survived the crisis a monopoly position. For a long time, it is the large enterprises in the steel industry and power industry (because of their complex technology, extensive organization and abundant funds) that occupy this monopoly position, and the monopoly degree is very high; Followed by machinery manufacturing, metallurgical industry, transportation and other enterprises in some departments, but the degree of monopoly is low. " ①
Monopoly is the latest achievement of "the latest stage of capitalist development". However, if we do not pay attention to the role of banks, our understanding of the actual strength and significance of modern monopoly organizations will be extremely inadequate, incomplete and inadequate.