| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 17 December 1857 |
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 17 December 1857
Dear Marx,
This crisis is keeping me hellishly en haleine.[1] Prices falling every day. Moreover we ourselves are already beginning to feel it. My old man was in a fix not long ago and we had to advance him money. However I don't imagine that it will prove serious, but that's neither here nor there just now.
Manchester is becoming ever more deeply involved. The effect of the constant pressure on the market is really tremendous. Nobody can sell anything. Every day we hear of lower offers, and anyone with a sense of the proprieties stops offering his goods for sale. Things look grim among the spinners and manufacturers. Yarn agents are no longer selling to factories except for CASH or against security. A few of the smaller people have already come a cropper but that's nothing compared with what's in store.[2]
Despite two substantial subventions, Mercks are in a complete fix, both here and in Hamburg. They are expected to go under any day, and only an extraordinary fluke could save them. The capital of the Hamburg house is said to total 4 to 5 million banco marks against LIABILITIES of 22 million (13 marks=£l). According to other reports the crisis has already whittled down the capital to 600,000 marks.
We shall have 4 more distinct crises: 1. colonial produce, 2. corn, 3. spinners and manufacturers, 4. HOME TRADE—this not before next spring. In the woollen districts things are already beginning, and very nicely too.
Don't forget to make a note of the BALANCE-SHEETS of the firms that have failed—Bennoch, Twentyman, Reed of Derby, Mendes da Costa, Hoare, Buxton, etc. All of them most edifying.
Your views on France have since been borne out by the newspapers almost to the letter. There is sure to be a CRASH over there and the first to be involved will be the speculators of central and northern Germany.
You will presumably have made a note of the proceedings relating to Macdonald, Monteith, Stevens (London and Exchange Bank).[3] The story of the London and Exchange Bank and the BORROWED NOTES counting as SECURITY is the most splendid I have ever read.
Apart from Hamburg, northern Germany has hitherto hardly been drawn into the crisis at all. But it's beginning there now too. Heimendahl (silk doubler and merchant) has gone under in Elberfeld, and Linde & Trappenberg (SMALL WARE MANUFACTURERS) in Barmen. Both respectable firms. So far the north Germans have suffered virtually nothing but losses; in their case, as over here, the temporary disruption of the money market has a less severe effect than the protracted period over which goods have been unsaleable.
Vienna's turn will also come. Lupus is eating humble pie; we were right. Distress has also begun to set in among the proletariat. There are as yet few signs of revolution, for the long period of prosperity has been fearfully demoralising. The unemployed on the streets continue to beg and to idle away their time. ROBBERIES by garrotters are on the increase, but not to any serious extent.
I now have to do so much running round seeing people in order to keep track of the crisis that there's damned little time left to do any work for Dana. That, too, must be attended to in the intervals. What has he to say? And how are his payments going?
Warm regards to your wife and children.
Your
F. E.
T h e Guardian always publishes the Manchester market reports on Wednesdays and Saturdays. A whole bundle goes off to you today. This morning it also published some more labour statistics.
Congratulations on your prediction about the Bank Act.[4]