[292] Published in _Sozialdemokratisches Zentralblatt_, vol. iii, No. 1.
[293] _Critical Comments on the Problem of Economic Development in
Russia._
[294] Op. cit., p. 251.
[295] Ibid., p. 255.
[296] Ibid., p. 252.
[297] Ibid., p. 260. 'There can be no doubt that Struve's attempt to
refute what he calls the pessimist outlook on the analogy of the U.S.A.
is fallacious. He says that Russia can overcome the evil consequences of
the most recent capitalism just as easily as the U.S.A. But what he
forgets is that the U.S.A. from the first represent a new bourgeois
state, that they were founded by a petty bourgeoisie and by peasants who
had fled from European feudalism to set up a purely bourgeois society.
In Russia, on the other hand, we have a primitive communist foundation,
a society of _gentes_, as it were, in the pre-civilised stage which,
though it is already disintegrating, still serves as a material basis
upon which the capitalist revolution (for it is in fact a social
revolution) can take place and become effective. In America, a monetary
economy had been stabilised more than a century ago, whereas a natural
economy had until recently prevailed in Russia. It should be obvious
therefore that this revolution in Russia is bound to be much more
ruthless and violent, and accompanied by immensely more suffering than
in America' (Engels to Nikolayon, October 17, 1893, _Letters_ ..., p.
85).
[298] _Critical Comments_ ..., p. 284.
[299] Professor Schmoller, amongst others, clearly reveals the
reactionary aspect of the 'Three Empire Theory' (viz. Great Britain,
Russia and the U.S.A.) evolved by the German professors. In his handbook
of commercial policy (_Handelspolitische Säkularbetrachtung_), the
venerable scholar dolefully frowns upon 'neo-mercantilism', that is to
say upon the imperialist designs of the three arch-villains. 'In the
interests of a higher intellectual, moral and aesthetic civilisation and
social progress' he demands a strong German navy and a European Customs
Union. 'Out of the economic tension of the world there arises the prime
duty for Germany to create for herself a strong navy, so as to be
prepared for battle in the case of need, and to be desirable as an ally
to the World Powers'--which latter, however, Professor Schmoller says
elsewhere, he does not wish to blame for again taking the path of
large-scale colonial expansion. 'She neither can nor ought to pursue a
policy of conquest like the Three World Powers, but she must be able, if
necessary, to break a foreign blockade of the North Sea in order to
protect her own colonies and her vast commerce, and she must be able to
offer the same security to the states with whom she forms an alliance.
It is the task of the Three-Partite Union (Germany, Austro-Hungary, and
Italy) to co-operate with France towards imposing some restraint,
desirable for the preservation of all other states, on the
over-aggressive policy of the Three World Powers which constitutes a
threat to all smaller states, and to ensure moderation in conquests, in
colonial acquisitions, in the immoderate and unilateral policy of
protective tariffs, in the exploitation and maltreatment of all weaker
elements. The objectives of all higher intellectual, moral and aesthetic
civilisation and of social progress depend on the fact that the globe
should not be divided up among Three World Empires in the twentieth
century, that these Three Empires should not establish a brutal
neo-mercantilism' (_Die Wandlungen der Europäischen Handelspolitik des
19. Jahrhunderts_, 'Changes in the European Commercial Policy During the
19th Century', in _Jahrb. für Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und
Volkswirtschaft_, vol. xxiv, p. 381).
_CHAPTER XXII_