Page:Imperialism (Lenin).djvu/69

development and stabilisation of the financial oligarchy. "There is not in the whole country a single business bringing in profits like the issue of foreign loans," says the German journal Die Bank."⁵¹

"No banking operation brings in profits to be compared with those from new issues." According to the German Economist, the average profits made on the issue of industrial securities from 1895 to 1900 were as follows:

1895	...	...	...	38.6 per cent.
1896	...	...	...	36.1 per„ cent.„
1897	...	...	...	66.7 per„ cent.„
1898	...	...	...	67.7 per„ cent.„
1899	...	...	...	66.9 per„ cent.„
1900	...	...	...	55.2 per„ cent.„

"In the ten years from 1891 to 1900, German financial houses 'earned' more than a thousand million marks on the issue of industrial securities."⁵²

If, during periods of industrial boom, the profits of finance-capital are disproportionately large, so during periods of depression small businesses, and those not in an assured position, go out of existence, while the great banks profit by buying up their shares for next to nothing, or through advantageous 'reconstructions.' In the reconstruction of imperilled undertakings, the share capital is decreased in face value, that is, profits are distributed on smaller capital and for the future are calculated on this basis. If the income falls to zero, new capital is called in which, in conjunction with the old, saves the situation. All these reorganisations and reconstructions, says Hilferding,