on the point of going bankrupt in one branch of industry or another.
The replacing of the old type of capitalism, in which free competition flourished, by a new capitalism in which monopoly reigns, is notably expressed by a decrease in the importance of the Stock Exchange. The German review, Die Bank, wrote: "For a long time now, the Stock Exchange has ceased to be the indispensable intermediary of exchanges that it was formerly, when the banks were not yet able to place with their clients the biggest part of the scrip issued."31
"Every bank is a Stock Exchange"—this modern saying contains more and more truth as the bank becomes greater and greater, and as capitalist concentration makes greater progress in the realm of finance. "If formerly, in the '70's, the Stock Exchange, flushed with the exuberance of youth" (a delicate allusion to the crash of 1873, and to the bucket-shop scandals), "opened the era of the industrialisation of Germany, nowadays the banks and industry are able to transact their own business without its aid."32
'The domination of our big banks over the Stock Exchange. . . is nothing else than an expression of the completeness of organisation achieved by the German industrial State. If the domain of economic laws functioning automatically is thus restricted, and if the domain regulated deliberately by the banks is considerably increased, then the national economic responsibility of a very small number of directors is being increased to a formidable extent"—so wrote Professor Schulze-Gaevernitz, one of the defenders of German imperialism, who is looked upon as an authority
