Date: 1910
Source: Lenin Miscellany, Volume 27
Pages: 313-319

Hilferding: "Finance Capital". ("The Latest Phase in the Development of Capitalism.") M. 1912.

HILFERDING: "FINANCE CAPITAL" in German appeared in 1910. (Ill. Band Marxistisch)

p. 13— "According to E. Mach" "I" is only that focus in which the infinite lines of sensations converge more closely... Similarly, money appears as a knot in the net of social connections"----

p. 34.— "The quantitative theory (of money) since Tooke has been entirely correctly considered untenable"...

p. 54: note and especially 54—5. Hilferding's error. See No. 2 of 1912, Jahrgang 30, Vol. 1.
(In Hilferding money enters into circulation without value).

p. 74 note
"Only our intuition gives things the form of space" (Kantian)

p. 90—91 (and 91 note)
[Capital II, p. 79
How Mach predicted the domination of banks over industry
———————— incorrectly not "also" incorrect.
incorrect.

* The second page in the manuscript is blank. Ed.

318


billions of marks

Of them accepted by banks

93, note] 2 * bills per year:

1885 - 12.x
1905 — 25.5

16%
31%

102 (and note]). A large part of international commercial transactions is executed with the help of bills "accepted" by banks.

105—6. The role of banks. |||

108. Three functions of banks.

1) mediation in payments.
2) transformation of inactive capital into active capital.
3) collection of income from all classes in monetary form and its lending to capitalists.

110, note]. Jeidels' superior work and its deficiency].

112. Countries — "International bankers"
(1) France, Belgium, Holland (2) England.
(3) United States and Germany

116:
The role of banks in production ((chiefly according to Jeidels)). /2 0 idem].

7% on preferred shares and 2% on ordinary shares:
retains profits for years, then suddenly distributes them at an opportune moment.

157. Capital of 5 millions dominates over 39 millions

"Tochtergesellschaft" translated as <subsidiary society>, "subsidiary company"

159. Positions of members of supervisory boards (60 millions—

154—5, note]. Steel trust and its %*

* sum. Ed.

HILFERDING: "FINANCE CAPITAL"

319

70 millions income from these positions throughout Germany) — utilization of connections and acquaintances.

462. 6 banks — 75 positions in supervisory boards (Jeidels)... In 1909 such positions numbered 12,000 — 197 persons occupy 2,948 positions. (Cf. ibidem* Morgan in America).

472. Significance of "reorganizations":

(1) profitable operation; (2) places needy societies in dependence on banks

483 (!. (') and 484.— Replacement of bills by notation in bank books.

499. Pressure of large capital on the stock exchange. (and note]: example of Morgan in 1907 g.).

244
Banks replace the stock exchange—

222. The essence and significance of futures trading.

262. Quotation from Capital III. 2, p. 144—5 (Russian translation) on the role (NB)** of banks versus**** socialism.

274. Heavy industry. Difficulty of capital outflow (path to monopoly).

(277-) 278: Tendency of banks toward monopoly.

284. NB: Cunow on cartels in Neue Zeit XXII, 2, p. 210.

285. "Combination" = union of extractive industry with processing industry.

295: Corporations and "outsiders" (NB)...

298: Without the help of a bank not a single large industrial enterprise can exist.

500—4. Engels on protective tariffs of a new type and on cartels. (Capital III, 1, p. 95).

* ibid. Ed.
** in fine — at the end. Ed.
*** In the manuscript the note "NB" is located (without brackets) between lines above the words: "on the role of banks". Ed.
**** in relation to. Ed.

320


302—3: Evolution of forms of cartels (and 304 especially]).

308. Concentration of commerce (compare A. Lee in Neue Zeit XXVII, 2, p. 654).

320, note]. Elimination of commerce does not diminish product prices.

322—3: Merchants — agents — clerks (NB) (and 324).

331. Verbal imitation of Mach*.

336. Example of founding profit: Sugar trust (NB)* in America (70% on actual capital, 10% on watered**)

338—9: definition of finance capital (cf. 54/):
Finance capital = capital at the disposal of banks and applied by industrial enterprises (339).

346: Cartels = "hindrance to competition".

353. Connection of cartels with capital export.

355: Finance capital and "organization of social production"... (cf. 353 and 354).

358. With the growth of combination, production grows for own needs (but not for commodity production).

362. Mach on crises (III, 1, 219—220 Russian translation)

364. The N-th volume*** "the most brilliant parts of a marvelous work" ("credit" to Tugan-Baranovsky¹¹ in a note]).

382.
"Schemes" (of Volume II) and significance of "disproportionality". ((cf. 426 and +427)).

427

* The note "(NB)" in the manuscript stands between lines, above the words: "Sugar trust". Ed.
** "watered" = established share capital. Ed.
*** Marx's "Capital". Ed.

HILFERDING: "FINANCE CAPITAL"

321

447: "Economically possible" but "socially and politically unrealizable" universal cartel... which would eliminate crises... But "to expect elimination of crises from individual cartels" = lack of understanding.

to section V: "Economic Policy of Finance Capital"

p. 454, note]. Quotation from Schücking-Saevering (Der britische Imperialismus, p. 75): "Even Sir Robert Peel said: 'In every one of our colonies we get a second Ireland'"

474: capital export = "export of value intended to produce surplus-value* abroad"

487: in new countries the inflow of capital "provokes resistance of peoples awakening to national self-consciousness"... "Capitalism itself provides the conquered with the means for liberation"... "movement toward independence"....

487** " ..." Problem of national movement in dependent countries (striving for "liberation" among "the conquered")...

488. Acceleration of development of capitalism in new countries...

491: struggle of "national banking groups" for spheres of capital investment (Mitteleuropa and others)....

see following page***

* surplus-value. Ed.
** In the manuscript there is an additional (unnumbered) sheet with outline notes on the same Hilferding book (p. 487, 488, 493, 495, 510, 511, 512—3, 513—4). The sheet is marked by Lenin: "From Hilferding 'Finance Capital'. These additional notes are here distributed to the corresponding places in the main text. At this point the first two notes are inserted: to p. 487 and 488 of Hilferding's book. Subsequently such insertions are noted in the corresponding footnotes. Ed.
*** This Lenin note indicates that in the manuscript at this point the main text of the outline of Hilferding's book is interrupted by Lenin's own notes (in a frame) and continues on the following page of the manuscript, after these notes. Ed.


322


[Corporations in America.
America and Germany.

Table— and example of Argentina.

Finance capital = banking capital, dominating over industry.

[Is it not enough: "Finance capital = banking capital"?]

Three main moments:

Development and growth of large capital to a certain degree.... The role of banks. (Concentration and socialization).

Monopolistic capital (seizure of such a large part of a given branch of industry that competition is replaced by monopoly)...

Division of the earth... (Colonies and spheres of influence)....

493*: Profitability of capital in colonies

495. Policy of Finance Capital (1.2.3.)

Hilferding (continued)
(colonies)
(protectionism)
(monopolies)

495: "The policy of Finance Capital pursues three kinds of goals: first, creation of the broadest possible economic territory, which, second, must be protected from foreign competition by tariff walls and thus transformed, third, into a sphere of exploitation for national monopolistic unions"...

* These two notes—to p. 493 and 495 of Hilferding's book—are inserted here from the additional manuscript sheet (see footnote ** on the preceding (321) page). Ed.

HILFERDING: "FINANCE CAPITAL"

323

NB: 484: polemic on immigration in Neue Zeit [XXVI, 1.] 25. Jahrgang, 2 (1907)*

505. "The most important function of diplomacy is now becoming representation of Finance Capital"...

506. Karl Emil on German imperialism Neue Zeit XXVI, 1.

510** National state

511. Finance Capital desires not freedom, but domination

512—3. Nation and imperialism

513—4. Instead of democracy—oligarchy

567. "The answer of the proletariat to the economic policy of finance capital, to imperialism, can be not freedom of trade, but only socialism".

restoration of freedom of trade = "reactionary ideal"

NB Hilferding: in der "Neue Zeit" 1912 (Jahrgang 30, Bd. 1), p. 556... "das jedem kapitalistischen Monopol innewohnende Streben, das ökonomische Monopol durch ein natürliches unzerstörbar zu machen"***....

* "25 Jahrgang, 2(1907]" written in pencil over crossed-out: "[XXVI, 1]". Ed.
** The following notes to p. 510, 511, 512—3 and 513—4 of Hilferding's book are inserted here from the additional manuscript sheet (see note ** on p. 321 above). Ed.
*** Hilferding: in "Neue Zeit" 1912 (edition year 30, vol. 1), p. 556... "inherent to each capitalist monopoly is the striving to make economic monopoly absolutely natural, indestructible"... Ed.