ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors look at what the German cartels teach us from the perspective of the internal economy. They consider them as auxiliaries of the German government in its foreign policy, in its active protectionism, and in its efforts to bring about the extension of commerce beyond its borders. The authors examine how they direct production and local consumption. The cartels also play an important role as auxiliaries of German protectionism, disposing themselves in such a way as to put the tariff laws into operation. The vices of protectionism should be found in the cartels having social conservatism as their purpose. The cartels had the illusion that the "special science" of the German universities had spread profusely—an illusion which the authors find in the social democrats. Kautsky is among those who think that social democracy possesses an economic science of a higher order.
