Monopolies, Capitalist, big enterprises, firms, or amalgamations (unions) appropriating much of the production and marketing of a certain product and dominating the market in order to obtain monopoly superprofit. The monopoly price is used to attain monopoly domination on the market. The appearance of the monopolies is a logical result of the concentration and centralisation of production and capital. The dominant position of the 234 monopolies is the initial indication and principal economic feature of imperialism (monopoly capitalism). There are various forms of capitalist monopolies, the most important being cartels, syndicates, trusts, concerns. As imperialism develops, the power and influence of the monopolies increase. Whereas initially monopolies established their foothold in heavy industry, they then brought under their control practically all sectors of the economy. In 1974 nearly 350 big monopolies representing only 0.002 per cent of the total number of companies in the capitalist world, employed two-thirds of the work force, and accounted for about 70 per cent of the assets and profits. Although they did manage to eliminate the dominating role of free competition, the monopolies did not get rid of competition which has assumed more diversified and sharper forms. Since World War II multibranch capitalist amalgamations have become especially widespread. They are characterised by a high degree of socialised capitalist production. New forms of international monopolies (see International Monopolies; Transnational Monopolies) appeared on this basis and as a result of the internationalisation of economic life. Today’s big monopolies are characterised by a multi-industry organisational structure and are composed of a multitude of factories and sections. This complex organism is subordinated to the objective of rationally organising production. But the monopoly, based on private ownership of the means of production, is part of the spontaneous capitalist economic system. This contradiction between the organisation of production within the monopoly and the spontaneous, unplanned character of the capitalist economy as a whole is one of the contradictions of capitalism. As the monopolies develop this contradiction deepens and gives rise to systems of state ( government) regulation of the capitalist economy and state (government) economic programming under capitalism. But this contradiction, like all the other contradictions of the capitalist world, cannot be resolved by capitalism itself. The monopolisation of the economy creates a material base for the transition from capitalist to a higher stage of social production.