We have already learned that capitalist society is very badly constructed. Private ownership holds sway, and there is no definite plan whatever. Every factory owner conducts his business independently of the others. He struggles with his rivals for buyers, “competes” with them.
The question now arises whether this struggle becomes enfeebled or intensified as capitalism develops.
At first sight it might seem that the struggle is enfeebled. In actual fact, the number of capitalists grows continually smaller; the great fish eat up the small fry. Whereas in earlier days ten thousand entrepreneurs were fighting one with another and competition was embittered, since now there are fewer competitors it might be imagined that the rivalry would be less acute. But this is not so in reality. The very opposite is the case. It is true that there are fewer competitors. But each one of these has become enormously stronger than were the rivals of an earlier stage. The struggle between them is greater, not less; more violent, not more gentle. If in the whole world there should rule only a few capitalists, then these capitalist governments would fight with one another. This is what it has come to at long last. At the present time the struggle goes on between immense combinations of capitalists, between their respective States. Moreover, they fight with one another, not solely by means of competitive prices, but also by means of armed force. Thus it is only in respect of the number of competitors that competition can be said to diminish as capitalism develops; in other respects it grows continually fiercer and more destructive.2
One more phenomenon must now be considered, the occurrence of what are termed crises. What are these crises? What is their real nature? The matter may be stated as follows. One fine day it appears that various commodities