German Capitalism and International Conditions after the World War I : Especially in Relation to American Capitalism. (PROBLEMS ON THE ECONOMIC HISTORY AFTER THE WORLD WAR 1)

Abstract

During and after the War, the world system of capitalism underwent a violent change mainly attributed to the facts: the birth of Soviet Russia and the change of international positions of imperialist countries. The transfer of the leadership of international money market to change acutely. The general crisis of capitalism was caused principally by the facts -two monents of political and economic crises. At the stage of imperialism, the crisis was the one against the rule of finance capital as the leading capital. The key to this rule depended on whether their monopolistic policies, domestic and foreign, could be accomplished. The domestic policy was to reproduce the bases for exploiting the people by means of monopolistic pirce policy, and the foreign policy was to deal with the "Kapitaluberschuss" without disturbing the international money market. As long as the foreign policy could be carried out, they could absorb the political crisis into the economic process while accumulating capital. But essentially, those policies became impossible as a result of the change of capitalistic world system. The yeaes before the panic, however, was a period of so-called relative staability, because the following abnormal conditions of German and American capitalism and their singular relation formed for a time a mechanism for the relative stability. German capitalism, in spite of the change of its international position and the bases for exploitation, was inclined to reconstruct the same type of industrial structure as ever and to re-orhanize within that structure monopoly capitals. Consequently, they suffered from the surplus of the real capital and the shortage of funds. On the contrary. Amerinan capitalism was inclined to re-organize the industrial structure including new industries through isnnovation. But low wages caused by declining employment in the heavy industries and the dual system, caused by declining employment in the heavy industries and the dual system, caused yb new industries, of the industrial structure and capital formation brought about the stagnation of investment and the surplus funds. Capital export from America to Germany enabled Germany to pay the reparations, and this international flow of funds functioned as the said mechanism for the relative stability. This report intends to throw light on these problems through analyzing the capitalistic structures of reproduction in the two countries, and the difference, between them, of the type of surplus-capital formation.