Lenin CW-Vol. 23.pdf - From Marx to Mao

106V. I. LENINthe entire world market and divide it “amicably” amongthemselves—until war redivides it. The export of capital,as distinct from the export of commodities under nonmonopolycapitalism, is a highly characteristic phenomenonand is closely linked with the economic and territorialpoliticalpartition of the world; (5) the territorial partitionof the world (colonies) is completed.Imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism inAmerica and Europe, and later in Asia, took final shape inthe period 1898-1914. The Spanish-American War (1898),the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), the Russo-JapaneseWar (1904-05) and the economic crisis in Europe in 1900are the chief historical landmarks in the new era of worldhistory.The fact that imperialism is parasitic or decaying capitalismis manifested first of all in the tendency to decay,which is characteristic of every monopoly under the systemof private ownership of the means of production. The differencebetween the democratic-republican and the reactionary-monarchistimperialist bourgeoisie is obliteratedprecisely because they are both rotting alive (which byno means precludes an extraordinarily rapid developmentof capitalism in individual branches of industry, in individualcountries, and in individual periods). Secondly,the decay of capitalism is manifested in the creation ofa huge stratum of rentiers, capitalists who live by “clippingcoupons”. In each of the four leading imperialistcountries—England, U.S.A., France and Germany—capitalin securities amounts to 100,000 or 150,000 millionfrancs, from which each country derives an annual incomeof no less than five to eight thousand million. Thirdly,export of capital is parasitism raised to a high pitch.Fourthly, “finance capital strives for domination, notfreedom”. Political reaction all along the line is a characteristicfeature of imperialism. Corruption, bribery ona huge scale and all kinds of fraud. Fifthly, the exploitationof oppressed nations—which is inseparably connectedwith annexations—and especially the exploitation ofcolonies by a handful of “Great” Powers, increasinglytransforms the “civilised” world into a parasite on the bodyof hundreds of millions in the uncivilised nations. The