Nearly every capitalist country has legislation to prevent or limit monopoly. Just how unsuccessful (or perhaps, half-hearted?) these endeavours are is shown by the first complete survey of ownership and control of manufacturing industry made on a world scale, The study,carried out by the research department of the McGraw-Hill magazine, International Management, took 30 months to complete and covers 152 countries. The facts it reveals on a global scale are truly staggering: some 60 to 70 of all business activity is controlled by less than 2% of all the companies in the world, The major share of manufacturing and distribution is in the hands of only 20,637 companies,
The survey finds that in the United States, only 3,500 companies, representing 1% of the incorporated concerns, handle between 70 and 80% of the country's turnover, In all other countries apart from the United States and Canada, the survey shows that 14% of the companies - some 17,137 ~ control a similar amount of business. Even within the top 2% of companies, there is tremendous concentration. The extent of centralised control by manufacturing corporations and their subsidiaries is emphasised by the fact that only 1,600 companies - outside of the U.S. and Canada control 30% of the world's business. In the United States a mere 100 companies control 60% of the net capital assets of all the nation's manufact= uring corporations.
There is a surprisingly similar degree of concentration in most of the advanced capitalist countreis, with 1 to 2% of the companies controlling 60, 70 and even 80% of all business. In the United Kingdowm 1,322 firms account for 75% of business, the figures for other countries are: Germany, 1,3533 Japan, 1,125; France, 936, Italy, 693, Sweden, 281; Yolland, 236 and Belgium 231 (in all cases controlling about 75%)