Transnational Monopolies, the biggest imperialist monopolies national in their capital, but international in the sphere of activity due to the export of capital. As a rule, these monopolies conduct at least a quarter of their production activity outside the mother country. These monopolies appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, when, in the struggle to seize raw material sources, the biggest monopolies of the imperialist states began setting up production branches not only in their own but also in other countries. The tendency towards their creation and enhancement of their role in the world capitalist economy gained in intensity after World War II when under the conditions of the scientific and technological revolution the biggest corporations in the developed capitalist countries attempted to use their technical advantage to monopolise production of certain commodities on a world scale and began actively setting up enterprises in many capitalist countries. These monopolies now control a considerable part of world capitalist production and participate in the economic division of the world. The biggest transnational monopolies include the US giant monopolies in the oil, motor, electrical engineering, chemical and other industries which have set up a broad network of enterprises in Western Europe, Canada and a number of developing countries. For instance, the American motor concern Ford has branches in 30 countries. The scope of the activities of such monopolies is so great that their gross sales (for instance, those of General Motors, Exxon, and Ford) exceed the gross national products of such countries as Denmark, Austria, and Norway, and approach those of Belgium and Switzerland. The big British monopolies (British Petroleum, IKI 374 and others), the West German concerns Hoechst, Siemens, B.A.S.F., and others, the Dutch concern Philips and others are also transnational. The activities of such monopolies lead to an intensification of international specialisation and cooperation, and a deepening of the international capitalist division of labour (see Division of Labour, Capitalist International), because deep-running production ties develop between their enterprises, regardless of their location. Capital is invested in countries with better prospects for obtaining maximum profits. The entire mechanism for manoeuvering capital and using technology, raw materials, personnel, etc., is subordinated to the task of reaping superprofits on the scale of the entire capitalist world. Huge profits are connected not only with the large-scale prpduction activities of the monopolies and their application of the results of the scientific and technical progress, but also with the use of the differences in wages and social legislation between various countries, tax evasion, monetary speculation, etc. As a result serious contradictions arise between the companies and capitalist states both in the countries where foreign enterprises operate and the mother countries. The activities of the transnational companies often reduce the effectiveness of measures for the state-monopoly regulation of the national economy and foreign economic ties. The transnational retain and expand their positions in the economies of the developing countries, exploiting them by exporting valuable raw materials, selling goods at higher prices, paying lower wages to local workers, and so on. Recent increases in their investment in the processing industries of the developing countries have resulted in them setting up enterprises there that produce machine parts and assembly units or perform certain technological operations, thus closely binding their economies to those of the imperialist states. By making demands concerning the new international economic order, the developing countries are working to establish control over the activities of the multinational monopolies in their own economies and restricting their positions in the development of their national resources.