am power spreads daily, and stronger steam
machines drive out weaker ones--large production drives out small. The
fact is shown emphatically in the industries in which steam has become
the general power, the brewery industry, for instance. In the German
brewery tax department, exclusive of Bavaria, Wuertemburg, Baden and
Alsace-Lorraine, there were:--

Breweries Industrially
Year. in Operation. Operated. Output.
1873 13,561 10,927 19,654,900 hl.
1891-2 8,460 7,571 33,171,100 hl.
------ ------ ----------
5,101 3,356 13,516,200 hl.
Decrease Decrease Increase
= 38 per cent. = 31.1 per cent. = 68.8 per cent.

The breweries in general, this table shows, had decreased during this
period 38 per cent., the industrially operated ones 31.1 per cent.; the
output, however, had increased 68.8 per cent. The giant concerns
increased at the expense of the middle and small ones. The identical
development is going on _in all countries of civilization, in all
industries capitalistically operated_. Let us now take up the brandy
distilleries. In all the eight provinces of Prussia, there were in
operation:--[165]

Consumed in Distillery,
Year. Distilleries. Brandy (Double Quintal).
1831 13,806 1,736,458 5,418,217
1886-87 5,814 2,518,478 24,310,196
------ --------- ----------
7,992 782,020 18,891,979
Decrease Decrease Increase
= 38 per cent. = 31.1 per cent. = 68 per cent.

Similar results are revealed in the coal and the mineral mining
industries of the German Empire. In the former, the number of leading
concerns--623 in number between the years 1871-1875--dropped to 406 in
1889, but the output increased simultaneously from 34,485,400 tons to
67,342,200 tons, and the average number of employees rose from 172,074
to 239,954. In the latter, the average number of leading establishments
between 1871-1875, was 3,034, with an average force of 277,878 hands,
that turned out 51,056,900 tons; in 1889, the number of leading
establishments had _dropped to 1,962, while the average force had risen
to 368,896 hands, and the output t