CHAPTER VIII.
Parasitism and the Decay of Capitalism
We have yet to examine a very important aspect of imperialism, an aspect to which too little attention is generally assigned in the treatment of this subject. One of the defects of the Marxist, Hilferding, is that, as compared with the non-Marxist Hobson, he has taken a step to the rear in this regard. We intend to deal with the parasitism which is characteristic of imperialism.
As we have seen, the most deeply-rooted economic foundation of imperialism is monopoly. It is capitalist monopoly, that is monopoly which has grown out of capitalism, and exists in the general capitalist environment, of commodity production of goods and competition, and remains in permanent and insoluble contradiction with this general environment.
However, like all monopoly, this capitalist monopoly infallibly gives rise to a tendency to stagnation and decay. In proportion as the monopoly prices become fixed, even though it be temporarily, so the stimulus to all progress tends to disappear: and so also arises the economic possibility of slowing down technical progress. For instance, in America a certain Mr. Owens invents a machine intended to revolutionise the manufacture of bottles. The German bottle-manufacturing trust buys the patent from Owens and keeps it in its strong-rooms, thus holding up its utilisation.
