These crises have a devastating influence. Large quantities of goods perish. The remnants of small-scale production are swept away as if by an iron broom. Even the big firms often fail.
Most of the burden of these crises is of course borne by the working class.
Some factories close down altogether; others reduce production, working only half-time; others are temporarily closed. The number of unemployed increases. The industrial reserve army grows larger. Simultaneously there is an increase in the poverty and oppression of the working class. During these crises, the condition of the working class, bad at the best of times, grows even worse.
Let us consider, for example, the data of the crisis of 1907-1910, affecting both Europe and America, in fact the whole capitalist world. In the United States, the number of unemployed trade unionists increased as follows: June, 1907, 8.1 per cent.; October, 18.5 per cent.; November, 22 per cent.; December, 32.7 per cent. (in the building trades, 42 per cent.; in the dressmaking trade, 43.6 per cent.; among tobacco workers, 55 per cent.). It goes without saying that the total number of unemployed, taking into account the unorganised workers as well, was still larger. In England, the percentage of unemployed in the summer of 1907 was 3.4 to 4 per cent.; in November, it rose to 5 per cent.; in December, to 6.1 per cent.; in June, 1908, it reached 8.2 per cent. In Germany, during January, 1908, the percentage of unemployed was twice as great as during the same month of the previous year. Like conditions were observable in other countries.