In Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, what exactly does Lenin mean by “the merging of bank capital with industrial capital”? Does it simply just mean banks and things like factories, etc merge together? What is an example of bank capital merging with industrial capital?
As my username suggests, I am a massive theory noob and would greatly appreciate it if somebody could explain this in layperson language.
Thank you.
Basically finance capitalists in the imperial core countries (US, Europe), buy up what production is left, and start moving production to the global south, in order to take advantage of cheap labor. The industrial capital then needs to be wholly dismantled and exported, and its workers moved to service-sector jobs.
The imperial core countries then become mainly labor-intensive service economies, mainly oriented towards moving goods and services around, but not actually producing much. You saw this really start ramping up in the 1980s, but the US, UK, and Germany especially, re-oriented their economies towards the financial sector.
In the modern day, finance capital can either control them in the form of subsidiary production companies (so the bank partially or fully owns the producer), or “arms-length” suppliers (where the bank becomes the sole buyer for the producer).
A really good in depth look at this in the modern day, is John Smith - Imperialism in the 21st century, which I’m recording as an audiobook rn. Its a very in-depth update to Lenin’s imperialism, and explains how transnational corporations headquartered in the imperial core steal the land, labor, and resources of the global south.
You see companies helmed by people from the financial sector, and the most important product that a company produces is its stock, and so then the primary motivator is not to make the most popular product in the market niche you’re targeting, but to instead maximize share price
