Imperialism shifted from trade profits to investment profits requiring long-range exploitation

Evidence

The increase in profits from foreign investment and a relative decrease of foreign trade profits characterizes the economic side of imperialism. In 1899, it was estimated that Great Britain’s whole foreign and colonial trade had brought her an income of only 18 million pounds, while in the same year profits from foreign investment amounted to 90 or 100 million pounds. See J. A. Hobson, Imperialism, London, 1938, pp. 53 ff. It is obvious that investment demanded a much more conscious long-range policy of exploitation than mere trade. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2343

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Hobson’s theory of imperialism that Arendt builds on — the economic-driving-force argument that she criticizes elsewhere in the book as inadequate to explain totalitarianism. — connects to: Lenin defined imperialism as the monopoly stage of capitalism, making war endemic to it — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 254
• SHARE: The 18m vs 90-100m pounds statistic is a precise one to share with someone working on economic history or Hobson’s imperialism debate.