In today’s era, the general perception or the assumption among populations is that capitalism is present and seems like it is here to stay. The ugly truth that we all have to accept is that this world has gone to extremes in generating wealth and has not reciprocated enough by letting the third world countries attain equivalent growth. It is important to go back 100 years to understand the nature of imperialism which was studied in depth by Lenin. Lenin the leader of the Russian revolution wrote his influential book ‘’Imperialism the highest stage of capitalism’’ in early 1916 which means that this book was written in the middle of the First World War and he was attempting to explain the reasons for the war and to show how it was rooted in
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When we begin to see changes in forces of production where it is solely concentrated on a few hands, there are definitely going to be certain changes and reformation in the markets dictated on their terms and interests. It is extremely important to constantly remind yourself in what context Lenin has written his book. During this time, the First World War had broken out, the industrial revolution which began in the 18th century had begun to gain momentum and there were major changes in different sectors such as agriculture, transport, manufacturing, technology etc. and this had deep effects on sociocultural and economic conditions for the people. The great depression in Britain in 1870’s had enormous effects on its economy so their territorial conquests overseas and extracting resources helped them build their economy and get it back on track. Before the war, between 1860 and 1910, England went to control large tracts of land in Africa and other European powers like Germany and France controlled large areas of land too. Back to the concentration of production, the several oligarchs get closely associated with the state and thus having an influence on state policy which leads us to the concept of ‘Monopoly …show more content…
Instead of lending out credits, the banks are getting greatly involved and are merging with the industry controlling large swathes of the economy and this is created through the fusion of industrial and financial capital leading to a creating of financial oligarchy. There were some indicators that Lenin used to measure his second characteristics of imperialism that was dominance of finance capital. They were development of the percentage of total deposits controlled by banks of a certain size (measured by total controlled capital); development of the number of holdings and establishments of certain banks; development of the number of letters received and dispatched by certain banks; development of the amount of capital held by certain banks; development of the capital invested by certain banks in a country; development of the profit rate of certain banks; and development of the total securities issued by certain banks. (Fuchs) To follow that up with some statistics, the value of financial transactions by US corporations and pension funds increased from 51.7% of the US GDP in 1980 to 122.92% of GDP in 2007. The second criterion of Lenin’s definition of imperialism is still valid today
When we begin to see changes in forces of production where it is solely concentrated on a few hands, there are definitely going to be certain changes and reformation in the markets dictated on their terms and interests. It is extremely important to constantly remind yourself in what context Lenin has written his book. During this time, the First World War had broken out, the industrial revolution which began in the 18th century had begun to gain momentum and there were major changes in different sectors such as agriculture, transport, manufacturing, technology etc. and this had deep effects on sociocultural and economic conditions for the people. The great depression in Britain in 1870’s had enormous effects on its economy so their territorial conquests overseas and extracting resources helped them build their economy and get it back on track. Before the war, between 1860 and 1910, England went to control large tracts of land in Africa and other European powers like Germany and France controlled large areas of land too. Back to the concentration of production, the several oligarchs get closely associated with the state and thus having an influence on state policy which leads us to the concept of ‘Monopoly …show more content…
Instead of lending out credits, the banks are getting greatly involved and are merging with the industry controlling large swathes of the economy and this is created through the fusion of industrial and financial capital leading to a creating of financial oligarchy. There were some indicators that Lenin used to measure his second characteristics of imperialism that was dominance of finance capital. They were development of the percentage of total deposits controlled by banks of a certain size (measured by total controlled capital); development of the number of holdings and establishments of certain banks; development of the number of letters received and dispatched by certain banks; development of the amount of capital held by certain banks; development of the capital invested by certain banks in a country; development of the profit rate of certain banks; and development of the total securities issued by certain banks. (Fuchs) To follow that up with some statistics, the value of financial transactions by US corporations and pension funds increased from 51.7% of the US GDP in 1980 to 122.92% of GDP in 2007. The second criterion of Lenin’s definition of imperialism is still valid today