Revolutionary socialism Author:Lewis Corey Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill CLASS DIVISIONS UNDER IMPERIALISM The epoch of Imperialism expresses a readjustment in the concentration of capital and industry, and the radical alter... more »ation of class relations and the form of expression of class interests. The accumulation of capital produces the concentration of industry, and the concentration of industry accelerates the accumulation of capital. The development of technology requires larger and larger industrial units; the battle of competition, waged through the cheapening of commodities, places the small producer at a disadvantage and encourages concentrated industrial enterprises. A simple industry becomes complex: the steel industry not only manufactures steel, but by-products, and acquires mines and railways. In this process of concentration, the smaller capitalists are either driven to the wall, compelled to unite their capitals, or forced into new lines of industrial endeavor, where the development of technology and the battle of competition again produce concentration. The consequences of this activity are thedecay of the industrial middle class and a development toward monoply. The process of concentration of industry is accompanied by the centralization of capital. Normally, the centralization of capital is a consequence of concentration of industry; actually, it may be and often is its cause. Centralization1 is financial, the unity of many small or large capitals used co-operatively and not competitively. Centralization may precede concentration of industry, accelerate concentration, and plays an important part in capitalist development. "The world would still be without railroads if it had been obliged to wait until accumulation should have enabled a few individual capitalists to undertake the construction of a railroad. Centralization...« less