Manifestations of imperialism

At the end of 19th century and the beginning of 2th century, the characteristics of imperialism put forward by Lenin in his book "Imperialism is the Highest Stage of Capitalism" have been shown in all imperialist countries. However, due to the differences of social and economic conditions and historical conditions in different countries, the characteristics of imperialism are very different in their forms of expression and degree of development.

American trust is the most common form of American monopoly organization, and it is a monopoly organization with a higher degree than cartels and syndicates. Enterprises participating in the trust have completely lost their independence in production and commerce, and have been United into a huge enterprise, which is managed by the board of directors in a unified way. All capitalists become shareholders of the trust and get dividends and bonuses according to their shares. By the beginning of the 2th century, all the important industrial sectors in the United States had generally been monopolized by one or two or several big trusts, forming the so-called "king" of all departments. Such as Ford, the automobile king, Rockefeller, the oil king, Andrew Carnegie, the steel king, etc. The world-famous American steel companies, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, Dupont, General Electric, American Tobacco and AT&T were all formed in the late 19th century and early 2th century. At that time, the major trusts controlled the production of various departments, accounting for 95% of oil, 66% of steel, 81% of chemical industry, 77% of metal industry, 85% of aluminum industry and 8% of sugar industry and tobacco industry. Trust has become the dominant force in American economic life and has mastered the economic lifeline of the country. The United States has become a trust empire and a typical country with the most developed monopoly capital, which is inseparable from the characteristics of its social and economic development. The United States has no deep-rooted feudal system in history, and has a vast domestic market and rich natural resources; The United States is a rising capitalist country, which is free from the old fixed capital and makes full use of foreign advanced technological achievements, a large amount of funds and a large number of immigrant labor. These conditions enabled the United States to make smooth and full use of the achievements of the technological revolution that appeared in the 197s, and set up many large-scale enterprises on the basis of the latest technology at the beginning, which laid the foundation for the high concentration and monopoly of American industrial production.

Germany Germany developed the capitalist economy and entered the stage of monopoly capitalism after the failure of the bourgeois revolution in 1848 and the compromise between the bourgeoisie and the landlord class. Junker landlord class, with a deep-rooted Prussian tradition of feudalism and militarism, has always played an important role in Germany's political and economic life. This situation has brought great influence to the formation and development of German monopoly capitalism.

in the second half of 19th century and the beginning of 2th century, although the economy of Germany developed rapidly and the concentration of industrial production and capital was relatively high, its monopoly organizations generally took the form of lower-level cartels. Enterprises participating in cartels still maintain operational independence in terms of production and sales, and only divide the sales market according to the agreement, determine commodity output and set standard prices. In 1911, there were 55 ~ 6 cartels in Germany, which were widely distributed in a series of departments such as coal mining, metallurgy, electricity, chemistry, textile, leather, glass, bricks and tiles, pottery, food and so on. Cartel has become the most common form of monopoly organization in Germany, which is inseparable from the widespread existence of feudal remnants in the German economy. Junker landlords and monopoly capital combined to exploit the working people both capitalism and feudalism. Workers' wages were low, the people's purchasing power was low, the domestic market was narrow, and the struggle for the market was extremely sharp, thus promoting the development of a cartel that divided the market and set the price. At the same time, the existence of feudal forces, feudal guild tradition has a great impact on the economy, and there are a large number of small enterprises coexisting with a few large enterprises in industry, and their technical level is uneven. This has caused difficulties for the development of joint trusts in production, and cartels are the easiest to organize a large number of enterprises with different technical conditions.

The combination of Junker landlord class and monopoly bourgeoisie makes German imperialism particularly aggressive. In order to divert people's attention and compete with British and French imperialism for "turf under the sun", the German landlord bourgeoisie actively participated in the struggle to carve up and re-carve up the world, and embarked on the road of monopoly capitalism by military countries at the earliest.

Britain is the first country to embark on the capitalist road and realize the industrial revolution, and it is the most powerful capitalist country and "world factory" in the stage of free competition capitalism. However, after entering the stage of monopoly capitalism, its economic development slowed down relatively, and the speed and degree of industrial production concentration, the number of monopoly organizations and the degree of economic domination were lower than those of the United States and Germany, and the establishment of monopoly organizations was 1 to 15 years later than those of the United States and Germany. The great development of British monopoly organizations was in the 189s. By the beginning of the 2th century, although there were different forms of monopoly organizations in most departments, some old industrial sectors such as textiles, coal and iron smelting were still in a state of decentralized operation, which was related to the slow economic development in Britain and the heavy burden of the old industrial sectors, and also to the implementation of the free trade policy in Britain. However, in terms of capital export and dividing up the world from territory, Britain is very prominent. Colonies are decisive to the development of British monopoly capitalism. From the early 17th century to the mid 19th century, Britain has gradually established a huge colonial system, and later won a large number of overseas colonies. By 1914, Britain had a colony area of 33.5 million square kilometers, accounting for 1/4 of the global area, 1/2 of the total colonies of imperialist countries, and more than 111 times the size of Britain. It has a colonial population of 393.5 million, more than eight times that of Britain. While occupying a large number of foreign territories, Britain also exported a large amount of capital. By 1913, Britain's total foreign investment had reached 4 billion pounds, equivalent to a quarter of Britain's national wealth and half of the foreign investment of imperialist countries. More than half of Britain's capital exports are invested in colonial and semi-colonial countries. The largest monopoly organization in Britain was also produced in the field of monopolizing the production and sales of colonial raw materials. For example, De Beers Mining Company, a monopoly company founded in South Africa, Anglo-Dutch Shell Oil Company founded by British capital and Dutch capital in 197 and Anglo-Iranian Oil Company founded in 199. The income of British foreign investment not only exceeds the income of foreign trade, but also exceeds the income of industry. Britain has become a typical colonial empire and a food-seeking country.

The development of monopoly capitalism in France is basically similar to that in Britain. During its transition to imperialism, its industrial development was relatively slow, its concentration was far less than that of the United States and Germany, and its monopoly was relatively low. Before the First World War, the industrial population of France was still less than the agricultural population, and it was basically an agricultural-industrial country. In industry, heavy industry is not very developed, and light industry characterized by fashion and luxury goods is dominant, and there are a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises widely in industry.

France, like Britain, also holds a large number of colonies and export capital. In 1914, France had a colony with an area of 1.6 million square kilometers and a population of 55.5 million. In terms of area, it ranks third after Britain and Russia, while in terms of population, it ranks second after Britain. In 1869, France's total capital output was 1 billion francs, which increased to 3 billion francs in 19, and surged to 6 billion francs in 1913, greatly exceeding the total domestic investment in the same period and becoming a capital exporter second only to Britain. Most of France's foreign investment is borrowed capital, that is, public debt, rather than investment in industrial enterprises. More than 6% of French investment is concentrated in European countries, with Russia as the largest, followed by the Ottoman Empire (1299 ~ 1922), the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867 ~ 1918), Spain and Belgium on the eve of disintegration. The huge interest income brought by the massive export of loan capital has strengthened the decadent parasitism of France. Until the eve of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, there were as many as 2 million rentiers in France, and together with their families, they accounted for more than 1/8 of the national population.

among the major imperialist countries, Russia and Japan, which straddle eastern Europe and northern Asia, are very similar in basic aspects. The bourgeois revolutions in these two countries were carried out in top-down reforms, so they retained strong feudal forces politically and economically. The landlord class and the bourgeoisie jointly dictatorship, and take the form of extremely brutal absolutism; They all entered the stage of monopoly capitalism under the historical condition that the capitalist economy did not develop much, and all of them were economically dependent on advanced capitalist countries in Europe and America. Therefore, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 2th century, although Russia and Japan also established the rule of monopoly capital, feudal relations generally existed in domestic social relations, which were much lower than those of the United States and Western Europe in terms of industrial technology and its development level. Most of the equipment was imported and there was almost no machine manufacturing industry. In the monopoly organization, Russia generally adopts the form of syndicate. Enterprises participating in the syndicate have lost their independence in business, and the sales of goods and the purchase of raw materials are handled entirely by the head office, but they still retain their independence in production. The emergence of this kind of monopoly organization, which only unites in business, is related to the great differences in economy and technology between various regions and departments in Russia, and also to the fact that the widespread existence of feudal relations has made the domestic market problem very acute. In Japan, as the highest form of monopoly organization, the "chaebol" is more feudal. Russian and Japanese imperialism not only has strong feudalism, but also has strong military aggression. The domestic class contradictions and economic contradictions of these two backward imperialist countries are extremely acute. The autocratic regime has established a huge military force, on the one hand, it suppressed the people militarily at home, on the other hand, it frantically invaded abroad and seized foreign markets and colonies, so as to divert people's attention and ease domestic contradictions.