ABSTRACT
Partial combinations represent a stage of concentration. They differ from the earlier form of concentration, which involved the destruction of the weaker enterprises, by the fact that in this case the combination of plants and enterprises is not necessarily accompanied by a unification of ownership. The monopoly price would be that price which makes possible a volume of sales such that the scale of production does not increase the costs of production so greatly as to reduce the profit per unit significantly. The indeterminate and incalculable factor, where monopoly prices prevail, is demand. It is impossible to say how demand will respond to an increase in price. Classical economics conceives price as the expression of the anarchic character of social production, and the price level as depending upon the social productivity of labour. Cartelization is a historical process which affects the various branches of capitalist production in sequence, as the conditions become favourable.
