New Imperialists : Ideologies of Empire

HANIEH: Praising Empire 179
recurring crises of the hegemonic centre. 28 The “empire of free trade”
advocated by Lal and others, reflects this basic tendency of capital to
expand across the globe. In recent decades the most striking expansion at
this level has been the spread of capitalist exchange relations into the
former Soviet Union, eastern Europe, and more recently China.
Christian Palloix described this process as the internationalization of
capital. 29 He stressed that internationalization of capital should not be
understood as an increase in the multinational nature of a firm’s capital
or even the increasing international movement of capital. Rather,
internationalization should be seen in light of the circuit of capital,
specifically, the increasing spread of capitalist social relations. The
reasons behind internationalization are “the need to produce, reproduce,
and constantly expand the basic capitalist relation, the class relation.” 30
Occurring alongside the internationalization of capital is the tendency
towards its concentration and centralization. Increasing amounts of
capital become concentrated in fewer hands, generally located in the
richest countries. This phenomenon was identified in the classical
theories of Lenin, Bukharin, and Hilferding as central to the development
of imperialism. As capital comes under the control of a handful
of huge conglomerates it seeks to expand across the globe in search of
higher profits.
The centralization and concentration of capital is clearly shown in the
domination of all sectors of the world economy by a handful of corporations.
Look at the food sector: five companies control 90 percent of the
world’s grain trade, six companies control nearly 80 percent of the world
pesticide market, three companies control 85 percent of the world’s tea
market, two companies control 50 percent of the world trade in bananas,
and three companies control almost 80 percent of the confectionary
market. Four companies control 75 percent of all retail trade in the U.K.
In media and entertainment, nine large conglomerates dominate the
sector, with five companies controlling around 80 percent of the music
industry worldwide. 31
Capital becomes centralized and concentrated not just in specific
corporations but also in particular geographic regions. This is the reason
for the uneven spatial development that is germane to modern capitalism
and is reflected within nations and regions as well as between nations. 32
Indeed, it is a striking and undeniable fact that global inequality has
consistently widened over the last 150 years of capitalist history. This