Letter to Karl Marx, October 2, 1868

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 2 October 1868


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913
Printed according to the original
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


ENGELS TO MARX[1]

IN LONDON

Manchester, 2 October 1868

Dear Moor,

Borkheim has done his business excellently. At the end of last month the sum of £72 was due for wine which Charles,[2] Gumpert and I had received from him. It was only at the beginning of this month, however, that I could lay my hands on the cash. So I sent it to him yesterday and asked whether he knew how to raise £100 for you or whether he could leave the wine unpaid until February. He agreed to the latter and advanced the other £28 himself. So we have, I think, peace and quiet at least for the immediate future.

But now you must get on with the 2nd volume,[3] and give your liver some exercise.

The Spanish business 165 has gone brilliantly so far. The 'dynasty' had already been wrecked in the vagina of the Innocent Lady.[4] So the minimum consequence: a change in dynasty and an elected king, plus a constituent assembly. All very nice things, even in themselves, on MR Bonaparte's frontier. It may get better yet.

Schweitzeriana[5] back this evening, forgotten yesterday by mistake. His manner of establishing a few nice little posts for life for himself and Fritzsche is priceless. But the whole story is impracticable. In the 'Union' 3 independent powers of different origin! 1. The committee, elected by the trades. 2. The presidium, elected by a general vote. 3. The congress, elected by the local organisations. This means collisions everywhere, and that is supposed to make for 'rapid action'. To be sure, the elû du suffrage universel,[6] as everybody's trusted agent, is in the best position. Childish of Lassalle to have taken over these idiocies from the French Constitution,[7] and of Schweitzer to treat them as eternal models to be used everywhere.[8] However it may be, the whole business will get nowhere so long as only the Lassalleans are in it, and as soon as others participate, too, the stuff will come to an end.

Have to catch the last post.

Your

F. E.

Enclosed the ceremonial RECEIPT which the illustrious Gaudissart[9] has accepted from you to prove that he is a serious businessman.

  1. ↑ An excerpt from this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Selected Letters. The Personal Correspondence, 1844-1877, Ed. by F. J. Raddatz, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Toronto, 1981.
  2. ↑ Charles Roesgen
  3. ↑ After the first publication of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy appeared in 1859, Marx produced a lengthy economic manuscript throughout 1861-63, which was a second rough draft of Capital (the first was the manuscripts of 1857-58). In 1863, he evolved the final plan for a four-book work, the first three books theoretical and the fourth, a historical and critical one. Having finished work on the manuscripts of 1861-63, Marx began preparing them for the press in August 1863.
    This work from 1863-65 resulted in the third rough draft of Capital, three books of a theoretical character. The notes for the fourth book, the Theories of Surplus-Value, were incorporated in the manuscripts of 1861-63. Later, having completed work on them, Marx went back to the first book. On Engels' advice, he decided it should appear first. Preparation for the press continued throughout 1866 and most of 1867. The first German edition of the first book appeared in September 1867 as Volume One of Capital. Under the plan agreed upon with Meissner, the publisher, the second and third books (devoted to the circulation of capital and the process of capitalist production as a whole) were to appear as Volume Two, while the fourth book on the history of economic theories was to be Volume Three of Capital.
    Marx, however, had not completed the preparation of the last books of Capital for the press. After his death, this was done by Engels, who published Marx's manuscripts relating to the second and third books as volumes Two and Three of Capital (1885 and 1894). Engels also intended to prepare for the press and publish as Volume Four of Capital the above-mentioned manuscript of the fourth book, but did not have time to do this in his lifetime. This edition presents this book of Capital as part of the Economic Manuscripts of 1861-63, (volumes 30-34) while Volumes One, Two and Three of Capital are to be found in volumes 35, 36 and 37 of the present edition respectively.
  4. ↑ Isabella II
  5. ↑ See this volume, p. 116.
  6. ↑ man elected by universal suffrage
  7. ↑ A reference to the French constitution of 14 January 1852 issued after the Bonapartist coup d'état, under which state authority was concentrated in the hands of the president elected for a term of 10 years at a general election (see also Marx's letter to J. B. Schweitzer of 13 October 1868, this volume, p. 135).
  8. ↑ Marx is referring to his articles of 1856-57 for the New York Daily Tribune on the French joint-stock bank Crédit Mobilier—'The French Crédit Mobilier' (a series of articles) and 'Crédit Mobilier' (see present edition, Vol. 15).
  9. ↑ Sigismund Borkheim