Division of Labour, Capitalist International, the highest stage of the development of the social divison of labour under capitalism, when individual capitalist countries specialise in making and exchanging products of certain kind. It is the basis of the world capitalist market (see World Market, Capitalist) and of other forms of economic relations between capitalist countries, and is the factor of integrating their economies into the world capitalist economic system. The capitalist international division of labour assumed developed forms in the mid-19th century following the appearance in European countries of large-scale machine industry, which demanded the import of vast 92 quantities of raw materials and foods for the rapidly growing urban population. Large-scale machine industry increased the scope of production and led to greater specialisation in industry itself which began to extend beyond national borders. The need for international specialisation has especially intensified with the advent of the modern scientific and technological revolution, since it is impossible in individual countries to produce on a mass scale the constantly increasing range of all modern industrial products. The capitalist international division of labour encourages the further development of the productive forces and higher labour productivity, which in the capitalist world helps to increase monopoly profits. The international division of labour under capitalism first evolved spontaneously in the acute competitive struggle between capitalists and then—between the monopolies of different countries. The successes of the capitalist class, with its higher technical level of production, in winning the world market led to the ruin of small-scale handicraft production, especially in the economically less developed countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the epoch of imperialism the export of capital, the formation of international monopolies, as well as the appearance of the colonial system (see Colonial System of Imperialism) tended to make colonial and dependent countries the agrarian and raw-material appendages of the imperialist powers. As a result, the capitalist international division of labour assumed an abnormal character: on the one hand there was a relatively small group of industrially developed European and North American countries and on the other a group of backward agrarian and raw-material countries with the greater part of the population of the capitalist world. The capitalist international division of labour becomes a weapon- for the imperialist powers to exploit the economically weak countries. Many of the colonial and dependent countries were compelled to specialise in the production of one or two raw materials or farm products. This makes them wholly dependent economically on the imperialist powers, thus creating conditions for their exploitation by the monopolies through non-equivalent exchange. With the current general crisis of capitalism the capitalist international division of labour is going through a period of agony. Countries which chose socialist development have left it. Between them relations of a new type have evolved— the international socialist division of labour (see Division of Labour, Socialist International). But even so, they also take part in the world division of labour. The countries which have freed themselves from colonialism, which have begun to create the foundations of their national economy and which are calling for a new international economic order, are trying to change their status in the capitalist international division of labour. The development of the productive forces influenced by the scientific and technological revolution has produced the tendency of a deeper division of labour between the developed capitalist countries, and that of international intra-industry specialisation. This finds its reflection in the considerable increase of international trade in industrial goods. The increased export of capital from one developed capitalist country to another, the growing role of the transnational monopolies and inter-national monopolies enhancing specialisation and cooperation between their enterprises in various countries, play a key role in this process. Intercompany cooperation and the establishment of interlocking groups also deepen the division of labour among capitalist countries. The growing economic links between the developed capitalist countries in connection with the deepening division of labour between them do not at all weaken capitalist contradictions, only heighten them, making the capitalist economy more vulnerable in cyclical crises of overproduction.