Letter to Friedrich Engels, February 13, 1866

Author(s)	Karl Marx
Written	13 February 1866

First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42

MARX TO ENGELS^[1]

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 13 February 1866

DEAR FRED,

Tell or write to Gumpert to send me the prescription with instructions for use. As I have confidence in him, he owes it to the best of 'Political Economy'" if nothing else to ignore professional etiquette and treat me from Manchester.

I was laid up again yesterday with a vicious cur of a carbuncle erupting on left loin. If I had enough money, that is, more>—0, for my family, and if my book were ready, I would care not a fig whether I was thrown on the charnel heap today or tomorrow, alias perished. But things being as they are, that cannot be contemplated just yet.

As far as this 'damned' book is concerned, the position now is: it was ready at the end of December.^[2] The treatise on ground rent alone, the penultimate chapter, is in its present form almost long enough to be a book in itself.^[3] I have been going to the Museum^[4] in the day-time and writing at night. I had to plough through the new agricultural chemistry in Germany, in particular Liebig and Schönbein, which is more important for this matter than all the economists put together, as well as the enormous amount of material that the French have produced since I last dealt with this point. I concluded my theoretical investigation of ground rent 2 years ago. And a great deal had been achieved, especially in the period since then, fully confirming my theory incidentally. And the opening up of Japan^[5] (by and large I normally never read travel-books if I am not professionally obliged to) was also important here. So here was the 'SHIFTING SYSTEM', as it was applied by those curs of English manufacturers to one and the same persons in 1848-50, being applied by me to myself.^[6]

Although ready, the manuscript, which in its present form is gigantic, is not fit for publishing for anyone but myself, not even for you.

I began the business of copying out and polishing the style on the dot of January first, and it all went ahead swimmingly, as I naturally enjoy licking the infant clean after long birth-pangs. But then the carbuncle intervened again, so that I have since been unable to make any more progress but only to fill out with more facts those sections which were, according to the plan, already finished.

Otherwise, I agree with you and shall get the first volume to Meissner as soon as it is ready.^[7] But in order to complete it, I must at least be able to sit.

Please do not forget to write to Watts,^[8] as I have now reached my chapter on machinery.^[9]

Could you not dash off an article on Prussia for The Commonwealth, under the rubric Berlin? Bear in mind how important it is for us to have a firm footing in London. The articles on Poland^[10] can take their time. But with the German papers, which are at your disposal, it would be fun for you to write about Prussia. My influence here depends partly on people seeing at last that I do not stand entirely alone.

I am less bothered by political affairs (not qua'^d individual but on account of the book) than by the economic situation, which is pointing more and more ominously to a crisis.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

Greetings to your 'Irish' lady-friend.^[11] The Irish ladies, notabene Roses O'Donovan, etc., have thanked us for the appeal in our paper and for Fox's articles.^[12]

↑ Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London [1934].
↑ After the publication of Part One of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy in 1859, Marx wrote a voluminous economic manuscript in 1861-63 which is a second, after the manuscript of 1857-58, detailed rough version of his future Capital. By 1863, Marx had finally decided to publish his work in four books: the first three books—theoretical, and the fourth—historical-literary. Having completed the 1861-63 manuscript, in August 1863 Marx began preparing his Capital for the press.
In the course of this work he wrote a third preparatory version of Capital—the Economic Manuscript of 1863-65 consisting of three theoretical books (the outline of the fourth book, Theories of Surplus Value, was in the 1861-63 manuscript). Subsequently, having finished them, Marx again returned to the first book. On Engels' advice he decided to publish it before the others were ready. Marx gave the finishing touches to it in 1866 and most of 1867. The first German edition of the first book—Volume One of Capital—appeared in September 1867. As agreed with Otto Meissner, a Hamburg publisher, the second and third books, devoted to the analysis of the process of circulation of capital and the forms of capitalist production as a whole, were to be published as Volume Two of Capital, and the fourth book, on the 'history of economic theories', as the concluding volume, Volume Three, of Capital.
However, during his lifetime Marx did not manage to prepare the last books of Capital for the press. It was Engels who after Marx's death did this and published his manuscripts of the second and third books, as Volume Two (1885) and Volume Three (1894) of Capital. Engels also intended to publish the above-mentioned manuscript of the fourth book, as Volume Four of Capital, but did not materialise this intention during his lifetime. In the present edition of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels, this book is included in the Economic Manuscript of 1861-63 (vols 30-34), while the first three volumes of Capital published in vols 35-37.
↑ Marx set forth the theory of ground rent in Chapter VI of the manuscript of Book III of Capital. In the third volume of Capital published by Engels it is given as Part VI: 'Transformation of Surplus-Profit into Ground Rent' (see present edition, Vol. 37).
↑ the British Museum Library
↑ Marx presumably meant H. Mahon's Aus dem Bericht an den Minister für die landwirtschaftlichen Angelegenheiten in Berlin über die japanische Landwirtschaft. This work was published as a supplement to J. Liebig's Die Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Agricultur und Physiologie, Braunschweig, 1862. Marx's notebook of excerpts for 1865, which he probably filled in while working on his Economic Manuscript of 1863-65, contains synopses of these two works.
When developing the theory of ground rent Marx used, besides the above-mentioned work by Liebig, the following books: L. de Lavergne, The Rural Economy of England, Scotland and Ireland. Translated from the French, Edinburgh and London, 1855; and L'Mounier, De l'agriculture en France, d'après les documents officiels, avec des remarques par Rubichon, Tomes 1-2, Paris, 1846.
↑ The shifting system or Relay system was used by the British manufacturers to circumvent the laws limiting the working hours of children and juveniles. Under this system the children and juveniles, after several hours' work, were moved the same day to another workshop or factory in order to deceive the factory inspectors. As a result, their entire working day was often even longer than before the adoption of the ten hours act (see present edition, Vol. 35).
↑ See this volume, p. 226.
↑ ibid., p. 224.
↑ The reference is to Section IV of Chapter IV of the first edition of Volume One of Marx's Capital. In the second and subsequent editions it is given as Chapter XIII: 'Machinery and Industry'. In the English edition of 1887 edited by Engels it is Chapter XV in Part IV (see present edition, Vol. 35).
↑ F. Engels, 'What Have the Working Classes to Do with Poland?'
↑ Lizzy Burns
↑ By decision of the Central Council of the International, The Workman's Advocate (No. 148) of 6 January 1866 reprinted from The Cork Daily Herald an appeal by the wives of the Irish revolutionaries O'Donovan Rossa and Luby to collect funds for the imprisoned Fenians (see Note 257). It was entitled 'The State Prisoners. An Appeal to the Women of Ireland'.
At the Central Council meeting of 16 January 1866 Marx announced that Fox had received a letter from Mrs O'Donovan Rossa thanking him for the reprint of the appeal and for his articles published in The Workman's Advocate on 14, 21 and 28 October 1865: 'The British Coup d'État in Ireland' (No. 136), 'The Influence of Irish National Feeling upon the Relations between Great Britain and the United States' (No. 137), and 'The Irish Difficulty. Continued' (No. 138).

[1] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London [1934].

[2] After the publication of Part One of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy in 1859, Marx wrote a voluminous economic manuscript in 1861-63 which is a second, after the manuscript of 1857-58, detailed rough version of his future Capital. By 1863, Marx had finally decided to publish his work in four books: the first three books—theoretical, and the fourth—historical-literary. Having completed the 1861-63 manuscript, in August 1863 Marx began preparing his Capital for the press.
In the course of this work he wrote a third preparatory version of Capital—the Economic Manuscript of 1863-65 consisting of three theoretical books (the outline of the fourth book, Theories of Surplus Value, was in the 1861-63 manuscript). Subsequently, having finished them, Marx again returned to the first book. On Engels' advice he decided to publish it before the others were ready. Marx gave the finishing touches to it in 1866 and most of 1867. The first German edition of the first book—Volume One of Capital—appeared in September 1867. As agreed with Otto Meissner, a Hamburg publisher, the second and third books, devoted to the analysis of the process of circulation of capital and the forms of capitalist production as a whole, were to be published as Volume Two of Capital, and the fourth book, on the 'history of economic theories', as the concluding volume, Volume Three, of Capital.
However, during his lifetime Marx did not manage to prepare the last books of Capital for the press. It was Engels who after Marx's death did this and published his manuscripts of the second and third books, as Volume Two (1885) and Volume Three (1894) of Capital. Engels also intended to publish the above-mentioned manuscript of the fourth book, as Volume Four of Capital, but did not materialise this intention during his lifetime. In the present edition of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels, this book is included in the Economic Manuscript of 1861-63 (vols 30-34), while the first three volumes of Capital published in vols 35-37.

[3] Marx set forth the theory of ground rent in Chapter VI of the manuscript of Book III of Capital. In the third volume of Capital published by Engels it is given as Part VI: 'Transformation of Surplus-Profit into Ground Rent' (see present edition, Vol. 37).

[4] the British Museum Library

[5] Marx presumably meant H. Mahon's Aus dem Bericht an den Minister für die landwirtschaftlichen Angelegenheiten in Berlin über die japanische Landwirtschaft. This work was published as a supplement to J. Liebig's Die Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Agricultur und Physiologie, Braunschweig, 1862. Marx's notebook of excerpts for 1865, which he probably filled in while working on his Economic Manuscript of 1863-65, contains synopses of these two works.
When developing the theory of ground rent Marx used, besides the above-mentioned work by Liebig, the following books: L. de Lavergne, The Rural Economy of England, Scotland and Ireland. Translated from the French, Edinburgh and London, 1855; and L'Mounier, De l'agriculture en France, d'après les documents officiels, avec des remarques par Rubichon, Tomes 1-2, Paris, 1846.

[6] The shifting system or Relay system was used by the British manufacturers to circumvent the laws limiting the working hours of children and juveniles. Under this system the children and juveniles, after several hours' work, were moved the same day to another workshop or factory in order to deceive the factory inspectors. As a result, their entire working day was often even longer than before the adoption of the ten hours act (see present edition, Vol. 35).

[7] See this volume, p. 226.

[8] ., p. 224.

[9] The reference is to Section IV of Chapter IV of the first edition of Volume One of Marx's Capital. In the second and subsequent editions it is given as Chapter XIII: 'Machinery and Industry'. In the English edition of 1887 edited by Engels it is Chapter XV in Part IV (see present edition, Vol. 35).

[10] F. Engels, 'What Have the Working Classes to Do with Poland?'

[11] Lizzy Burns

[12] By decision of the Central Council of the International, The Workman's Advocate (No. 148) of 6 January 1866 reprinted from The Cork Daily Herald an appeal by the wives of the Irish revolutionaries O'Donovan Rossa and Luby to collect funds for the imprisoned Fenians (see Note 257). It was entitled 'The State Prisoners. An Appeal to the Women of Ireland'.
At the Central Council meeting of 16 January 1866 Marx announced that Fox had received a letter from Mrs O'Donovan Rossa thanking him for the reprint of the appeal and for his articles published in The Workman's Advocate on 14, 21 and 28 October 1865: 'The British Coup d'État in Ireland' (No. 136), 'The Influence of Irish National Feeling upon the Relations between Great Britain and the United States' (No. 137), and 'The Irish Difficulty. Continued' (No. 138).

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