Finance capital A study of the latest phase of capitalist development Rudolf Hilferding Edited with an Introduction by Tom Bottomore From Translations by Morris Watnick and Sam Gordon Routledge & Kegan Paul London, Boston and Henley‘ubliuhed i» Viema as Das Fisanckapital: Eine Stale aber de jt Entwicklung des Kapitalismus Mewie This translation first published in 1981 by Routledge & Kegan Paul Lid 39 Store Street, London WCIE 7DD, Broadway House, Newtown Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RGD 1B} 9 Park Street, Boston, Mase. 02108, USA and ‘Set in Monophoro Times 11 on 13 pt ‘and printed in Great Britain by Thomson Litho © Rudolf Hiferding 1910 Drawn from ove translations by Morris Weimick © 1981 ‘Sam Gordon © 1981 ‘This edition Tom Bottomore © 1987 ‘No part of this book may be reproduced in ‘any forma without permission from the publisher, except for the quotation of Brief passages in criticism British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Hilferding, Rudolf Finance capital 1. Capitation 1 Title 1H, Bottomore, Thomas Burton IL, Watnick, Morris: 1. Gordan, Sam 390122 HBSOI80-41226 ISBN 07100 0618 7 at 2 B 14 15 Contents ‘Acknowledgments Note on the translation Introduction to the translation FINANCE CAPITAL Preface Part I Money and eredit The necessity of money Money in the circulation process Money as a means of payment. Credit money Money in the circulation of industrial capital ‘The banks and industrial credit ‘The mate of interest Part IL The mobilization of capital. Fictitious eapital ‘The joint-stock company ‘The stock exchange ‘The commodity exchange Bank capital and bank profit Part [I Finance eapital and the restriction of free competition ‘Surmounting the obstacles to the equalization of rates of profit Cartels and trusts ‘The capitalist monopolies and commerce ‘The capitalist monopolies and the banks. The transformation of capital into finance capital Price determination by the capitalist monopolies ‘and the historical tendency of finance capital vii ix ai 27 37 60 67 82 107 130 151 170 183 204 208 223 227Fart t¥ Finance capital and erises ‘The general conditions of crises The causes of crises Credit conditions in the course of the business cycle Money capital and productive capital during the depression ‘Changes in the character of crises, Cartels, and crises Part ¥ The economic policy of finance capital ‘The reorientation of commercial policy ‘The export of capital and the struggle for economic territory Finance capital and classes The conflict over the labour contract The proletariat and imperialism Notes Bibliography The principal writings of Rudolf Hilferding IF Works on Hilferding TIT Other works mentioned in the ‘oa Introduction and in the text. 239 237 267 282 288 301 3 337 351 364 am 438 439 445 Acknowledgments “The publishers and the editor are grateful to the late Professor David Spitz (who was the literary executor of Professor Morris Watnick) and to Mr Sam Gordon and the Monthly Review Press for permission to make use of the translations which were in their possession, and to Rudolf Hilferding’s son, Dr Peter Milford, for his permission to publish this English edition. Tam also grateful to Dr Milford for his advice on some matters ‘concerning the translation, and especially for the additional information and extensive comments which he ‘provided in connection with my Introduction. He is not, of course, in any way responsible for the interpretation of Hilferding's theories and political views which I have presented ‘After the death of Professor David Spitz in April 1979, his widow, Professor Flaine Spitz, was kind enough to send me the manuscript material on Hilferding which formed part of Morris Watnick’s literary ‘estate, and I have acknowledged my use of this material more fully in the Introduction ‘The English version of a passage from Aristophanes’ The Frogs, translated by David Barret, is reprinted on pp. 381-2 by permission of the publishers, Penguin Books Ltd. Finally, | should like to express here my very great appreciation of the ‘work of my secretary, Bileen Plume, and of Pat Bennett, who between them produced, with great accuracy and dispatch, an excellent typescript from a much revised and untidy original Tom Bottomore