580 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



be on the side of the laboring class, and the fall of snch a plu- 

 tocracy might be safely prophesied. But Marx happily was mis- 

 taken as to the tendency. The tendency is not to the greater and 

 greater fortunes of individual capitalists. That tendency did, 

 however, exist during and for a certain time after the industrial 

 revolution, especially in England, so long as she had a compara- 

 tive monopoly of the continental as well as other foreign mar- 

 kets. And the tendency was so marked, it lasted so long, and 

 some men became so rich, that Marx may be excused for gener- 

 alizing too hastily from it, as undoubtedly he did. That tend- 

 ency has now almost ceased in England, from increased compe- 

 tition, from the want of the old opportunities, from increased 

 wages, from the spread of companies, and other causes ; and 

 though it did exist at the time Comte wrote, according to M. Le- 

 roy-Beaulieu it has ceased in France ; the law, moreover, having 

 there considerably assisted to check it by the equal partition of 

 inheritances among the children. 



The real tendency at present is to the greater massing together 

 of separate portions of capital owned by many capitalists, small, 

 great, and of moderate dimensions ; to the concentration of capi- 

 tal certainly, but not to its concentration in single hands ; to the 

 union of capitals for a common purpose, while still separately 

 owned. The tendency is to the creation of companies and unions 

 of companies ; to the transformation of the larger businesses into 

 companies with larger capital, the original owner retaining a 

 large portion of the shares, and possibly a large influence in the 

 management, if the business is in a sound condition. The tend- 

 ency is also to give business ability without capital chances of 

 becoming rich through the management of such large concerns, 

 and greatly to increase the number of directors of industry who, 

 without being large capitalists, may in time become considerable 

 capitalists. 



The tendency to the concentration of capital, then, does exist 

 as a fact, and socialism might conceivably come as the end of 

 the tendency ; only it will not come as the result of its concen- 

 tration in the hands of a few mammoth millionaires, for the tend- 

 ency is not toward such in any country save the United States, 

 and even there the tendency is not marked, or it only shows itself 

 in comparatively few instances. It might conceivably come as 

 the result of a universal syndicate and monopolistic regime, 

 which, if the monopolists greatly abused their position, might 

 necessitate the state either to regulate stringently or itself to 

 occupy and undertake those industries whose abuses proved in- 

 corrigible. But if a partial socialism came in this way, it would 

 give the present system a much longer lease of life, both because 

 the process of monopolistic occupation will probably be slow, and 



