27 pages • 54 minutes read
Vladimir LeninImperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1916A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaChapters 3-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “Finance Capital and the Financial Oligarchy”
Due to the capitalist system, banks and bankers are becoming industrial capitalists. Asset capital is being continuously and more efficiently transferred into bank capital—“capital in money form” (57). It is then transformed into “industrial capital,” or as Lenin puts it, “finance capital” (57). When this finance capital, which the banks control, is put to use, it is concentrated in the hands of a very small number. This wealthy minority “[exact] enormous and ever-increasing profits” by “exercising a virtual monopoly” (65).
Centralization of capital allows the “financial oligarchy” to exercise enormous power over the whole of society (65). Lenin gives the example of the American sugar trust which created a monopoly by buying up fifteen smaller firms. They manipulated the banks into declaring that the value of their newly founded corporation exponentially increased. This allowed them to set up monopoly prices and eventually increase their capital by 1,000%.
In capitalism, there is an increased separation of capital from the means of production—the money is taken from the labor. As Lenin notes, “money capital is separated from industrial or productive capital” (71). The rentier—the investor who lives off returns—"is separated from the entrepreneur and from all who are directly concerned in the management of capital” (71-72). This eventually leads to the final form of late-stage capitalism: imperialism.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Export of Capital”
Old capitalism was concerned with the “export of goods,” but the new capitalism—late-stage capitalism—is concerned primarily with the “export of capital” (77). Surplus of capital has allowed monopolies to rise at an unprecedented scale—first with the gathering of capitalists into like-minded associations within nations; second, with monopolies forming between the wealthiest nations “in which the accumulation of capital has reached gigantic proportions” (77).
The new capitalism is concerned purely with profit, with finance capital, and with the development of industry rather than the development of agriculture. If late-stage capitalism developed agriculture, then living standards of entire peoples and communities could be raised, but this is not its goal, for then “it would not be capitalism” (78). As long as capitalism remains in force, excess capital and financial gains will be used only to further increase financial capital; it will be exported to lesser developed countries for a massive return on investment.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Division of the World Among Capitalist Associations”
Capitalism has expanded economic interests beyond borders. It has created “a world market” (85). International cartels are formed, drawing everything into the giant global monopolies’ influence. Lenin discusses various electric companies of the great capitalist powers. He notes that any competition is doomed from the start, pointing out the difficulty of competing against a monopoly that controls billions of dollars and has influence across the world.
Lenin critiques authors and theorists who pay lip service to Marxist ideals and speak of the peace possible under monopolies. As Lenin notes, “this opinion is absolutely absurd” (94). While the capitalists might not be dividing and conquering the world out of malice, it remains a fact that the world is in fact divided. Only violent means, which are inevitable, can rectify this.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Division of the World Among the Great Powers”
Colonialism is an unavoidable product of capitalism. The only means to continue financial gain and exponential growth is to export capital to lesser-developed countries. Imperialist expansion and the creation of new colonies is merely a matter of time. The capitalists’ colonialist policies have created a situation in which the world is literally divided up into territories claimed for conquest and exploitation. The only possible revision is by way of “redivision” (97).
Colonialism is not a new phenomenon. However, the manner in which it operates centers on capital and the conglomeration of raw materials; this is wholly new. Monopolies are firmly entrenched when raw materials are centralized and held by one group. The more capitalism has taken hold “the more strongly the shortage of raw materials is felt, the more intense the competition and the hunt for sources of raw materials,” and thus “the more desperate the struggle for the acquisition of colonies” (104).
Chapters 3-6 Analysis
Lenin draws out the implication of monopolies and the participation of banks in the capitalist system. Banks and monopolies have assisted the transition to bank capital and industrial/finance capital. Capital in the form of money—as opposed to material goods, services, or property—is now liquid and thus capable of being shifted around the world rapidly and often without barriers.
The few controlling actors of the financial oligarchy constitute a ruling class powered by financial capital. The new global monopolies rapidly funnel liquid capital across the world for the sake of gaining and maintaining power. With this capital, the financial oligarchy—in union with the banks—can manipulate the markets to overvalue corporations for the sake of gain. They can also set inflated prices for goods and services without threat of recourse or competition.
The centralization of capital among banks and monopolies removes capital from the masses—whether they be individuals or small entrepreneurial enterprises. This precipitates the decline of industrial and productive capital. The end result is the wage-slave conditions of the proletariat: They live in subjugation to the bourgeoise and the imperialist overlords who profit off of labor in which they refuse to participate.
The global economy has transitioned to one in which the primary export is capital, not actual goods. The capitalist system concerns itself with finding new territories. It will inject capital into these territories, gaining massive returns on minimal investments due to low costs and standards of living in newly founded colonies and conquered lands. This new system of capitalist export has led to a global economic system of exploitation.
Since the world has been divided up and claimed by leading powers, there no longer remains territory to be discovered or claimed. This inevitably leads to violence. The primary dynamic between colony and colonizer is one of radical inequality. The only means by which territories change hands is by peaceful treaty—which Lenin considers an impossibility—or by war—which Lenin considers inevitable. Monopolies have exclusive access to the vast majority of raw materials in the known world. They are completely in control of these materials, the means of production, and the distributive channels and capital by which to manipulate the markets into introducing certain products. There is no aspect of life that capitalism does not touch.
