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, monopolises 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 organised 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