CHAPTER I.
Concentration of Production and Monopoly
The enormous development of industry and the extremely rapid concentration of production in ever larger enterprises constitute one of the most characteristic peculiarities of capitalism. Modern industrial statistics give us complete and exact information on this evolution.
In Germany, for example, for each 1,000 industrial enterprises, the important ones, employing ing more than 50 salaried officials, numbered three in 1882; five in 1895; nine in 1907: and out of every 100 workmen there fell to their share at these same dates, 22, 30 and 37 respectively. Concentration of production, however, is much more intense than that of manual labour, since the work of the great enterprises is much more productive. This is shown to us by the figures available about steam engines and electric motors. If we consider what is called in Germany industry "in the wide meaning of the term," that is, including commerce, transport, etc., we get the following picture.
Big enterprises:—30,588 out of a total of 3,265,623, that is to say, 9 per cent. These big enterprises employ 5,700,000 workmen out of a total of 14,400,000, that is, 39.5 per cent.; they use 6,600,000 horse power out of a total of 8,800,000, that is, 75 per cent., and 1,200,000 kilowatts of electricity out of a total of 1,500,000, that is, 80 per cent.
Less than a hundredth of the enterprises possess three-fourths of the steam and electric power of German industry. 2,197,000 small enterprises (employing up to five workmen) constituting 91
