Review of Political Economy July 1983 the author's paper, "Financial Oligarchy under Contemporary Capitalism' presented at a seminar on "Lenin and Theories of Imperialism'' in New Delhi in September 1982, Comments received from participants at the seminar, and later on the present version from an unknown referee of this journal, are gratefully acknowledged. The author claims responsibility for all limitations and errors that may have remained in the paper,] 1 'Finance capital' was defined in 1912 as "... capital controlled by banks and employed by indus- tries''. According to Lenin, the notion implied, in addition, "... a concentration of capital, [with] the merging or coalescence of banks with industry". In addition "... the supremacy of finance capital over other forms of capital means the predominance of the rentier and of the financial oligarchy". V I Lenin, "Imperialism", 1914, pp 338-39; Lenin, "Collected
