International Monopoly Combines

The international economic alliances formed by the monopoly organizations of the monopoly capitalist countries according to the agreement. Their purpose is to carve up the world market, set monopoly prices, control the scale of production, monopolize the source of raw materials, and divide the investment sites among themselves to ensure high monopoly profits. Lenin argued that the formation of international monopoly combines is “the capitalist alliance formed a certain relationship on the basis of economic division of the world”, which is one of the basic characteristics of imperialism, namely monopoly capitalism.

International monopoly combines are formed on the basis of domestic monopoly. In the period of monopoly capitalism, monopoly capital of various countries first established monopoly rule in China, partitioned domestic market, and controlled domestic production to varying degrees. But under the capitalist system, the domestic market must be linked with the foreign market. In order to obtain more profits, monopoly organizations must seize more foreign markets. Monopoly capital has developed from competing for the domestic market to competing for the international market. “This is a new stage of world concentration of capital and production, incomparably higher than the preceding stages.”

However, the foreign market is limited after all. With the continuous expansion of the export of goods and capital, the struggle of monopoly organizations for foreign markets is increasingly intensified. In order to avoid losing both sides in the fierce competition, monopoly organizations may make temporary compromise, sign agreements and carve up the world economically in a certain period of time. Lenin said: “As the export of capital increased, and as the foreign and colonial connections and ‘spheres of influence’ of the big monopolist associations expanded in all ways, things ‘naturally’ gravitated towards an international agreement among these associations, and towards the formation of international cartels.”

Although the international monopoly alliance has reached an agreement to divide up the world economically, this compromise is only temporary and unstable. It can not eliminate the monopoly organization to continue to split up the world and redistribute the world. The purpose of monopoly organizations to establish international monopoly alliance is to grab high monopoly profits. Once the agreements reached can not meet this requirement, they will inevitably break the original agreement and start the struggle of dividing up the world again.

Lenin said: “The capitalists divide the world, not out of any particular malice, but because the degree of concentration which has been reached forces them to adopt this method in order to obtain profits. And they divide it ‘in proportion to capital’, ‘in proportion to strength’, because there cannot be any other method of division under commodity production and capitalism.” Due to the unbalanced law of economic and political development in capitalist countries, the strength of each country is constantly changing with the economic and political development of each country. In this way, the competition between countries will no longer adapt to the sharp changes of the market power, and will inevitably adapt to the new situation of market segmentation. For example, in the 50-plus years from 1884 to 1940, the international railway cartel, which was organized by Britain, Belgium and Germany, has collapsed twice. After many times of re-dividing the world market according to their strengths, this international monopoly alliance did not completely disintegrate until the outbreak of the World War II. It can be seen that the international monopoly alliance is constantly changing with the growth and decline of the strength of national monopoly organizations of respective countries.

Under the condition of monopoly capitalism, the form of struggle between monopoly organizations in various countries is also changing. Sometimes they collude with each other to achieve compromise; sometimes they break the original agreement and fight. They decide to use peaceful and non-peaceful means mainly according to the interests of monopoly capital. Compromise is to divide the world, and struggle is to divide the world again. Dividing the world is the essence and content of the struggle of monopoly organizations.

The main forms of international monopoly alliances include international cartel, international syndicate and international trust. Among them, international cartel has been the main form of international monopoly alliance. After the World War II, with the development of state monopoly capitalism, many new international monopoly alliances have emerged on the basis of the original international monopoly alliance, such as multinational companies established by private monopoly organizations and European Union established by capitalist governments. The emergence of a new form of international monopoly alliance after World War II shows that with the rapid development of state monopoly capitalism, private monopoly capital has increasingly integrated with the state in international activities. The political power of capitalist countries takes advantage of the financial, credit and technical power in their hands to support the external expansion of private monopoly capital and improve their international competitiveness. With the increasingly fierce competition for the world market and the internationalization of production and capital, capitalist countries set up an international monopoly alliance, and implement different degrees of common adjustment within the alliance, so as to ensure that the monopoly organizations of various countries can obtain maximum profits. Lenin said: “We see plainly here how private and state monopolies are interwoven in the epoch of finance capital; how both are but separate links in the imperialist struggle between the big monopolists for the division of the world.”