dangerous" colonial policy; and that it would be "possible" to greatly increase the supply of raw materials quite "simply" by improving agriculture. But these suggestions transform themselves into an apology for imperialism, because they are founded on a neglect of the principal characteristic of modern capitalism: monopoly. Free trade is becoming more and more a thing of the past. The combines and trusts are restricting it daily. And as for the "simple" improvement of agriculture, it resolves itself into a question of improving the condition of the masses, of raising wages and lowering profits. But are there, excepting in the imagination of the reformists, any trusts capable of interesting themselves in the condition of the masses instead of the conquest of colonies?
The already-known sources of raw materials are not the only ones to interest finance-capital. It is also interested in possible sources of raw materials, because present-day technical development is extremely rapid, and because land which is to-day barren may be made fertile to-morrow with new processes, if big capital is devoted for that purpose. (To discover these new processes a big bank can equip a whole expedition of engineers, agricultural experts, etc.) This also applies to boring for materials, etc. Hence the inevitable tendency of finance-capital to extend its economic territory and even its uneconomic territory. In the same way that the trusts capitalise their property by estimating it at two or three times its value, taking into consideration its "possible" future revenues and the further results of monopoly, so finance-capital tends in general to take possession of the greatest area of land of any and every kind in any
