NOTEBOOK “μ” (“MU”)

RAILWAYS [3]

Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich , 36th year, 1915, Berlin, 1915 (2 marks). “International Surveys”, table 31 (p. 46). “Railways of the World, 1890 and 1913” (Source: Archiv für Eisenbahnwesen (published by the Royal Prussian Ministry), 1892 and 1915).

The very first issue of the International Survey for 1903 gives the following figures for 1890:

(⋕) I have taken these figures from Archiv für Eisenbahnwesen , 1892, p. 496, in which the figure 474 refers to Jamaica and Martinique and Barbados and Trinidad.

The following can be assumed for 1890:

4 ) British Borneo (the British part of it) in 1912 according to The Statesman’s Year-Book : 130 miles (idem for 1915).
( Dutch ) Celebes?

N.B. Apparently, all the “Malay states” should be included in British possessions

439 km. is shown for 1901

The figure 105 in 1890 refers to Cochin-China, Pondicherry and Tonkin (all of which are French).

3 ) The Chinese-Eastern Railway (1,480 km.) is listed under China (in 1913 table).

5 ) Taken from Archiv für Eisenbahnwesen , 1892, p. 1229

2 ) refers to:

The main source is Archiv für Eisenbahnwesen . I have gone through the 1892 edition (15th year of publication) and have inserted additions in the preceding pages

The 1890 figures for the “Malay states” are given only in total; there is nothing in brackets (not even the words: “Borneo, Celebes, etc.”, which occur in the 1915 edition of the Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich ).

There are data by decades: 1840 and subsequent years (up to 1890)—which appear also in the Brockhaus Encyclopaedia.

Value estimates (mostly 1888-91) are given:

A comparison of these railway data with the following figures ( Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich , 1915) is revealing:

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| | The disproportion between the development of iron and coal production, on the one hand, and railway construction, on the other (monopoly = colonies), is very striking. This relates to the problem of monopolies and finance capital!! |
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Notes:
[1] See present edition, Vol. 22, p. 274.— Ed .

[2] Ibid., p. 275.— Ed .

[3] In the preface to the French and German editions of Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism Lenin particularly mentions the importance of data on the world’s railways for a characterisation of monopoly capitalism: “The uneven distribution of the railways, their uneven development—sums up, as it were, modern monopolist capitalism on a world-wide scale” (see present edition, Vol. 22, p. 190). The railway statistics quoted in this volume on pp. 484-90 and 492-95 show how Lenin collected and analysed extensive data on railway development in different countries (Great Powers, independent and semi-independent states, and colonies) in 1890 and 1913. Comparing these data with figures of iron and coal output, Lenin revealed the disproportion between the development of the productive forces and railway construction in various countries (as a result of colonial monopoly). The results of his study, summarised in two short tables, are given in Chapter VII of Imperialism (see present edition, Vol. 22, pp. 274-75).