duction through the modern trusts and other industrial combinations, crises will be abolished, particularly in view of the apparently boundless possibilities of the expansion of capitalist markets by the aid of modern imperialism. And as the final breakdown of capitalism, or social revolution, is nothing more than a big crisis, the possible danger of a revolution is averted the moment the cause of crises is removed. The basis of fact for this argument is furnished by the circumstance that the law of the periodical recurrence of economic crises insisted on by Marx was apparently broken through by the modern trusts with the aid of Imperialism, and the crisis which was due at about the beginning of this Century was successfully kept out by them.
Before proceeding any further we shall have to examine the Marxian theory of crises, and the connection in which crises within the capitalist system stand to the ultimate breakdown of the system as a whole, and then examine the facts of the latest developments of capitalism as to their bearings on each.
According to Marx there are two distinct causes of crises: One is the separation of the act of exchange of commodities into two separate acts, the exchange of commodity A for money and then the exchange of that money for commodity B, by the introduction of money as the universal commodity and general repository of exchange-value. By dividing the act of exchange into two separate and independent acts, disconnected in point of time, the possibility of crises is given. For, should the interval between the two acts be too long the wheels of production will stop, the market will become overloaded with goods, and a crisis will result. This possibility turns into a probability because of the peculiar character of money as the universal commodity and special repository of exchange-value which makes it a very much coveted good, as it is only in that form that value is realized and remains real. Of course, capital is anxious to fulfil its function, the cre-
