The Day Capital Became Snowball: Capitalism, 19th Century

The Day Capital Became Snowball: Capitalism, 19th Century

The accumulation of capital is the movement of money through commodities into more money, a process by which capital multiplies itself by reinvesting surplus value. Marx pointed out that this movement is not an accident of the market, but a law inherent in the structure of capital itself. Competition weeds out inefficient capitalists, and the capital of the winners becomes concentrated and centralized. This trend became more pronounced in the late Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century, and in the United Kingdom, limited liability and company laws encouraged capital accumulation. The system of limiting the liability of investors mobilized a large amount of capital and enabled the formation of giant corporations. In the U.S., Standard Oil monopolized the domestic market, and the Sherman Antitrust Law was enacted in 1890 in response to the backlash against monopoly capital. In Germany, the Universal Bank controlled heavy industry from the financial side and strengthene
d the ties between companies. Capital expanded like a snowball in the midst of these trends, and a structure was formed in which a small number of capital blocs dominated the economy and society. This is the inevitable consequence of the development of capitalism as Marx envisioned it.