LITTLE LENIN LIBRARY V O L I M E F I FT E E N 4?4 * IMPERIALISM The Highest Stage of Capitalism b y V. I. LENIN S* One Shilling and Sixpence Net IMPERIALISM THE HIGHEST STAGE OF CAPITALISM i THE LITTLE LENIN LIBRARY Reprinls o f his more important short works and articles. 1. The Teachings o f K arl Marx. Od. 2 . T h e W a r a n d t h e S e c o n d I nternational . I s . (6d. paper). 3. Socialism a n d W ar. Is. (6d. paper). 4 . W h a t i s t o b e D o n e ? 2 s. 5 . T h e P a r i s C o m m u n e . I s . 6 . R e v o l u t io n o f 1 9 0 5 . Is . 7 . R e l i g io n . I s . 8. Letters f r o m A f a r . 9 d . 9 . T h e T a s k s o f t h e P r o l e t a r ia t in O u r R e v o l u t io n . 9<L 10. T h e A p r i l Co n f e r e n c e . I s . 11. The Threatening Catastrophe and How to Fight It. I s . 12. W i l l t h e B o l s h e v i k s R e t a in S t a t e P o w e r T 9 d . 1 3 . O n t h e E v e o f O c t o b e r . 9d . 1 4 . S t a t e a n d R e v o l u t io n . I s . 15. Imperialism, the Highest Stage o f Capitalism. Is. 6d. 16. “ L eft W ing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder. I s. L e n in Co l l e c t e d W o r k s . L e n in P a m p h l e t s . L e n i n B io g r a p h ie s . Write for List. IMPERIALISM THE HIGHEST STAGE OF CAPITALISM A Popular Outline BY V. I. LENIN Revised Translation LONDOM LAWRENCE & WISHART First Edition in revised form, 1033 Second Edition, 1934 (December) Reprinted, 1937 MADE AND PRINTED IN CHEAT BRITAIN Publithed by Lawrkncb & Wishart, J.td . 2 Parton St., I/ONDON, W.C. 1. PRINTED BY BISHOP AND SONS LTD., NICOLSON SQUARE, EDINBURGH CONTENTS rut P refa c e t o t h e R ussian E d i t i o n ....................................................... 7 P r efa c e to t h e F ren c h and G erm a n E d itio n s .... 9 I m p e r ia l ism , t h e H ic h e s t S ta ge o f Ca p it a l ism .... 15 CHAPTER I. Concentration o f P roduction and M o n o po lies . 17 I I. T h e B an ks and T h e ir N e w R o l e ....................................... 3 0 I II . F inance Ca p it a l and F inancial O lig a rc h y . 4 4 IV . T h e E x p o r t o f Ca p i t a l .............................................................. 57 V . T h e D iv isio n o f t h e W orld A mong Ca p it a l ist Co m ­ b in e s ..................................................................................................... 62 VI. T h e D iv isio n o f t h e W orld Among t h e Grea t P o w e r s ..............................................................................................70 VII. Imperialism as a Special Stage o f C a p ita lism . 8 0 VIII. Parasitism and the Decat o f Capitalism . 90 IX. Critique o f I m p e r i a l i s m .......................................................9 9 X . T h e P la ce o f I m p e r ia l ism in H ist o r y ........... I l l E xplan atory N o t e s ...................................................................................... 1 17 T h e pamphlet here presented to the reader was written by me in Zurich in the spring of 1916. Under the conditions in which I was obliged to work there I naturally suffered from a certain lack of French and English literature and from a very great lack of Russian literature. However, I made use of the principal English work on imperialism, J. A. Hobson’s book, with all the care that, in my opinion, this work deserves. The pamphlet was written with an eye to the tsarist censorship. Hence I was forced not only to confine myself strictly and ex­ clusively to a theoretical, particularly economic, analysis, but also to formulate the few necessary observations on politics with extreme caution, with pointed hints, in that “Esopian” language—that cursed “Esopian” language—to which tsarism forced all revolu­ tionaries whenever they took pen in hand to write a “legal” work.J It is painful, in these days of freedom, to read again in the pamphlet these passages, mutilated by consideration for the tsarist censorship, gripped and held tight in a vise of iron. How imperial­ ism is the eve of the socialist revolution; how social-chauvinism (Socialism in words, chauvinism in deeds) is the complete betrayal of Socialism, a complete desertion to the side of the bourgeoisie; how this split in the labour movement is connected with the objec­ tive conditions of imperialism, etc.— of all these things I had then to speak in a “slave” language, and now I must refer the reader who is interested in the question to the reprint of the book which is soon to appear, containing the articles I wrote abroad from 1914 to 1917.** Special attention should be paid to one passage on pages 119-120: * * * to make clear to the reader in censor-proof * “Esopian,” after the Creek fable writer .Xsop, was the tern applied to the allusive and round-about style adopted in “legal" publications by revolution­ aries in order to avoid words which would arouse the suspicions of the authori­ ties. Thus, instead of “Social-Democrat” they would write “consistent Marxist.” —Ed. * * These articles are now reprinted in Vols. XVIII and XIX of the Collected Works, which comprise Lenin’s writings between 1914 and 1917.—Ed. * * * See page 110 of this book.—Ed. 7 form how shamelessly the capitalists and the social-chauvinists who have deserted to their side (whom Kautsky is fighting with so much inconsistency) lie on the question of annexations, how shamelessly they screen the annexations of their capitalists, I was forced to take as an example . Japan! The careful reader will easily substitute Russia for Japan, and Finland, Poland, Courland, the Ukraine, Esthonia, Khiva, Bokhara or other regions peopled by non-great-Russians for Korea. I entertain the hope that my pamphlet will be of assistance in enquiring into that fundamental economic question, without a study of which it is impossible to understand anything when it comes to evaluating the present war and present-day politics, viz., the question of the economic essence of imperialism. T h e A u th o b. Petbocrad, April 26. 1917. As indicated in the preface to the Russian edition, this pamphlet was written in 1916, with an eye to the tsarist censorship. I am unable to revise the whole text at the present time, nor, perhaps would it be advisable since the fundamental purpose of the book was and remains: to present, on the basis of the summarised results of irrefutable bourgeois statistics and admissions by bourgeois schol­ ars of all countries, a general picture of capitalist world economy in its international interrelations at the beginning of the twentieth cen­ tury, on the eve of the first world imperialist war. To some extent it will even be useful for many Communists in advanced capitalist countries to convince themselves, by the example of this pamphlet, legal from the standpoint of the tsarist censor, of the possibility and necessity of making use of even the slight remnants of legality which the Communists still retain in, say, con­ temporary America or France after the recent wholesale arrests of Communists,* in order to explain the complete falsity of the social- pacifist views and hopes for “world democracy.” I shall try to supply in this preface the supplementary material most indis­ pensable to the censored book. n In the pamphlet it is proved that the war of 1914-1918 was on both sides imperialist (i . e an annexationist, predatory, plunderous war), a war for the partition of the world, for the distribution and redistribution of colonies, of “spheres of influence” of finance capital, etc. Now, proof as to what is the true social or, more correctly, the * Lenin refers to the wholesale raids on Communist organisations conducted in the United States on a national scale early in 1920 by order of Attorney- General Palmer and known as the “Palmer raids,” which drove the Communist Party underground for a period of three years.—Ed. 9 true class character of a war is naturally to be found, not in the diplomatic history of the war, but in an analysis of the objective positions of the ruling classes in all belligerent powers. In order to depict this objective position one must not take single examples or isolated data (in view of the extreme complexity of the phe­ nomena of social life it is always easy to select any number of exam­ ples or isolated data to corroborate any point one desires), but the aggregate of the data concerning the bases of economic life of all the belligerent countries and of the whole world.