Letter to Hermann Engels, July 15, 1869

ENGELS TO HERMANN ENGELS

IN ENGELSKIRCHEN

Manchester, 15 July 1869

Dear Hermann,

You really are a fine chum. It stands to reason that I wrote about the exchange-rate matter to you simply as our mother's business manager? But just because you are her business manager, you can't get out of it like that and tell me that I should approach mother directly about the matter. It would be a fine state of affairs if you always resigned as business manager as soon as the other party's opinion differed from yours, or when your arguments were exhausted. No, my lad, you've got to stick to it now.

To get to the point: what do you mean, we agreed to calculate everything at 6 thalers 20 silbergroschen? Nothing more nor less than that both parties, our mother and I, should waive making an exchange profit on these £10,000. Since, however, a considerable exchange profit has been made by mother on the £7,000 paid back by me, I felt it to be absolutely in order that I should also make my profit on the small remainder. You solve the pattern much more simply, by claiming offhandedly that mother alone has a right to the exchange profit.

In addition, you have not considered that, in presenting mother quite correctly as the only interested party, you are sawing off the bough on which you sit with regard to the discount business. I repay mother £1,000 and, on enquiry, receive the reply that this should be sent to R. Funke & Co. in bills at any sight. I did this, and was thus entitled to have these bills credited to me at full value per date of maturity. What Funke later did with the bills as a result of some agreement—of which I know nothing, and which is no business of mine—between R. Funke & Co. and Ermen & Engels, Barmen (2 firms which, as you say, do not concern me in the slightest), is no longer my concern, any more than what the bank did at which Funke discounted them. This should now at last be clear to you.

There can be absolutely no question of 'trickery'. But those who are merchants by profession, just like lawyers by profession, easily accustom themselves to regard the matter in hand solely from the most advantageous angle from their own point of view; when one is dealing with scientific questions this habit is the one which must be broken first. The discount business gave me the impression that your viewpoint on this matter was not entirely unprejudiced, so I have felt since then that I should myself pay rather more attention to my own interests.

I have no recollection at all that J expressed the desire to keep the accounts in thalers for your convenience. But you overlook the fact that your entire chain of evidence, which is based simply upon the fact the £10,000 stayed here in Manchester to my advantage, also demonstrates that, if the exchange rate had remained at 6 thalers 12 silbergroschen, I would have been obliged to remit in thalers, since nobody would wish mother to lose money on it. And you must admit yourself what sort of value an argument has that demands that, when the rate is high, I must cover in sterling, and when low, in thalers.

I should also like to ask you, with regard to the COPS AND SEWINGS I purchased for you, whether you have charged them to mother at the current exchange or at 6 thalers 20 silbergroschen, although I do not doubt at the former, in view of your zeal for mother's profit on the exchange rate.

But that's enough. As your patience appears to be coming to an end, and the matter is not worth the trouble, I'll oblige you and cover in sterling. Under my agreement with Gottfried,^[1] the sum of £1,000 is payable on 1 August, and then every 2 months, and I shall devote the first instalments, as far as possible, to cover mother. It is, however, probable that Gottfried will hold back the first instalment until the accounts are completed and the contracts signed, which could take 14 days longer, so I would ask you not to depend on it as a certainty and to the day. Be so good, therefore, as to send me my current account, made up as of 30 June; my account here is so lengthy, as a result of many money withdrawals, that I would prefer not to depend upon it, since I have not yet received my statement, and can only check it superficially in the office. The whole approximate balance you will receive: 1. in August circa £800-900, 2. in October £1,000, and in December—the remainder; I would request you to let me know in good time where and how you would like the remittances.

Your letter of the 13th just arrived; I shall sign the thing as soon as I go to town and meet the vice-consul, probably tomorrow. But be so kind as to enquire what I should do in order to be spared any further communications from the Royal District Court in Bochum with regard to the Vereinigte^[2] Engelsburg. From time to time a fat epistle arrives here, written on heavy, poor-quality scribbling paper, with a seal as big as a two-thaler piece, addressed to me as 'Official Business, Post Free'; whereupon the English Post Office, which doesn't give a damn for the District Court of Bochum, charges me between 3 and 5s. postage. A week ago I received a packet like this, with the names of all the shareholders in the Vereinigte Engelsburg and the draft of the amalgamation, and the request that I should make my declaration on it. I learned from this that I may some day have the pleasure of possessing 7 mining shares divided by 8, but feel that it is a little too dear to pay 4s. 8d. postage for this information. If I could only read the name of the worthy district judge appended to this, I would write him a very polite epistle, praying him to leave me in peace with the Vereinigte Engelsburg; but the Prussian officials purposely write their signatures so illegibly, in order to avoid the danger of receiving replies. Be so good as to inform this illegible gentleman that the unstamped post of the Dortmund and Bochum District Court is not recognised here and that I'll be grateful to him, if he, in accordance with the power of attorney, sends all communications to mother.

The situation with the firm is this: Gottfried attaches importance to keeping it as long as you keep it, since otherwise you would have been able to take over part of the legacy of Ermen & Engels, Manchester. I regarded it as not only superfluous, but also harmful, for me to interfere on your behalf, since you had 1. P.^[3] Ermen's promise, which covers you here, and 2. the expert opinion of the lawyers, which I took for gospel truth. For as long as P. Ermen lives you are safe from G. Ermen; had I known that your rights were not quite bomb-proof, I would certainly have avoided drawing Gottfried's attention to this by making proposals; and G. Ermen would not have entered into an engagement not to challenge your rights after P. Ermen's death. Meanwhile we have him in our hands, because I have given him the rights of the firm for only 5 years, and although I promised him that after that period I would make no difficulties for him, this depends, together for instance with my discretion about business secrets, completely upon his conduct, particularly vis-à-vis yourselves, and I have made this plain to him.

On the £10,000 that I have already invested in shares, I had earned at least £170 net in market appreciation by 30 June. They bring me in an average of 5 7/8% of my investment capital. They are mostly gas, WATERWORKS and railway shares, all English companies.

My freedom pleases me more and more from day to day. Unfortunately, I have still too much running about to do to be able to start any particularly thorough studies, but this will soon be settled.

I have spoken about the COPS with Schuncks' buyer, and have sent him a memorandum, a copy of which I enclose for your use. With regard to the SEWINGS, the qualities have changed so much since my last purchases that it would be best for you to order them from samples if you still need some. Likewise with the COPS, it would be best for you to bind Schuncks to the yarns named in the memorandum; they are those we have been using here for 20 years, and they are indispensable for you as long as they don't change the quality.

Best regards to Emma, the little ones, and all brothers and sisters. Enclosed 2 lines for E. Blank.

Your

Friedrich