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PARTISAN REVIEW
and they were willing to destroy the old world order to get these
things. This is just what they are now doing.
Two questions are being asked by every one these days: (1)
What drove Nazi Germany to struggle so implacably for imperial–
ist expansion and military supremacy, despite the enormous sacri–
fices entailed, sacrifices so great as to endanger the Nazi system
itself? And (2) how could the "have nots" compete against the
far wealthier and economically more powerful "haves" with any
chance of success? These questions cannot be answered by any
theory of the madness of a Hitler or a Mussolini. The answer is
only to be found in an understanding of the development of world
capitalism, and in particular of the distinction between national
and international monopolies.
National Monopolies vs. International Monopolies
Two stages may be distinguished in the development of impe–
rialism: the earlier period, characterized by foreign and colonial
investments, and the present period, which is based on national
monopolies and home investments. The first, or pre-1914, type of
imperialism, whose expansion abroad was secured by foreign
investments and control over the world market, has been super–
seded by the "new" imperialism, which relies on autocratic rule,
replacing the indirect power of money with the direct power of
force.
Germany, of course, is the outstanding example of this new
imperialism. It has never possessed foreign investments and colo–
nial monopolies on anything like the same scale as Britain, and it
has, therefore, from the very beginning exhibited the characteristic
features of the new order.
National and international monopolies can easily be distin–
guished. A national monopoly is in control of the national market,
while an international monopoly controls a world market. The
latter monopoly occupies a position on which the entire world
economy or world trade is dependent.
On the surface it may appear that national monopolies are
not fundamentally different from world monopolies. Both rely on
control of the market or elimination of free competition. The dif–
ference seems to be merely geographic. Both types of monopolies
are, however, related to different types of world economy.
