Page:Karl Kautsky - The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program) - tr. William Edward Bohn (1910).djvu/71

 trusts, through which the price and production of certain wares is "regulated," has increased greatly, especially in "protected" countries, such as the United States, France and Germany. The trust, once formed, the several concerns that have combined constitute virtually only one concern, under the guidance of a single head.

The articles most necessary for the development of production, such as coal and iron, are the ones that become the first subjects of syndicates and trusts. Combinations usually extend their influence far beyond the monopolized industries themselves; they render the whole machinery of production dependent upon a few monopolists.

Simultaneously with the effort to bring together the several establishments of one industry into a single hand, there also develops the effort of the several establishments engaged in different branches of industry, but one of which furnishes either the raw material or the machinery needed by the others, to unite under one management. It is a common thing to see railroad lines owning their own coal mines and locomotive works; sugar manufacturers raise a part of their own cane or beets; the producer of potatoes establish his own whisky distillery, etc.

There is still a third way, and that the simplest, by which several establishments are merged into one.

We have seen how important are the functions of the capitalist under the present system of production; under the system of private property in the means of production, large production is