Letter to Karl Marx, about August 14, 1868

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 14 August 1868


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 43


ENGELS TO MARX[1]

IN LONDON

[Manchester, about 14 August 1868]

Dear Moor,

I shall send you money tomorrow, our cashier had no more notes this afternoon. Do not feel awkward about 'pressing', I only wish there were more there to be pressed out; but bear in mind as well that in 6 weeks we shall have to pay the £150 with interest, and Borkheim says that the interest will bring the total up to 165! I think you will have to make up your mind to go to Holland; we cannot 'afford' to borrow at such interest.

Faucher made me laugh very much.[2] Absolutely the noble arrogance of this fellow. The patronising introduction and then criticism (and what criticism!) of a very elementary thing in which you present the views of the economists, thus only make a resume; he wisely keeps his fingers off your own things. Also very good is his admission that the present generation, including Faucher, knows nothing of either Jacob or Joseph, thus confirming your opinion that they 'really have learned nothing'. Incidentally, the impudence of the fellow is comic. He really assumes that his public knows nothing, will learn nothing, and even wishes to read nothing except such Faucherist piss. And the man is right about it.

Best greetings.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ This letter was first published in English in an abridged form in: Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Selected Letters. The Personal Correspondence, 1844-1877, Ed. by F. J. Raddatz, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Toronto, 1981.
  2. ↑ A reference to the review of Volume One of Capital in the magazine Vierteljahrschrift für Volkswirthschaft und Kulturgeschichte, of which Faucher was an editor (Bd. XX, Berlin, 1868, S. 206-19). It appeared under the heading 'Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Oekonomie von Karl Marx. Erster Band. Buch I. Der Produktionsprozess des Kapitals. Hamburg, Otto Meissner, 1867'.