Letter to Samuel Davenport, November 12, 1869

Author(s)	Karl Marx
Written	12 November 1869

First published in Russian in Kommunist, No. 3, Moscow, 1983
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43

MARX TO SAMUEL DAVENPORT^[1]

London, 12 November 1869

1 Modena Villas, Maitland Park,
Haverstock Hill, N. W.

Sir,

I have the honour to enclose a post office order for 2 guineas as my yearly subscription for the Society of Arts.^[2]

Yours obediently

Karl Marx

↑ The original of this letter is kept in the archives of the Greater London Library (Greater London Council).
↑ In May 1869, Peter Le Néve Foster, Secretary of the Society of Arts and Trades Board of Directors, sent out letters to a number of persons, including Marx, requesting their consent to be elected to the Society. Marx's letter of 28 May 1869 was a reply to this proposal. On 30 June 1869, the Society's general meeting considered 132 candidatures and took a vote, as a result of which Marx was elected a member. To be admitted, a person had to have three members, at least one being his personal acquaintance, to back his candidature. For Marx, this was Peter Lund Simmonds, a Dane residing in England, a well-known political writer and author of numerous works on botany and agriculture.
Marx's admittance to the Society of Arts and Trades signified recognition by British scientific quarters of his merits as a scholar and political writer.
The Society of Arts and Trades, which was founded in 1754, set itself the philanthropic and educational goal of 'promoting the arts, trades and commerce'. Its social composition was varied: its managing bodies included both members of the aristocracy, patrons of the Society, and representatives of a broad cross-section of bourgeoisie and bourgeois intellectuals; among the members were also representatives of trade unions. In the 1860s, the Society's membership was in excess of 4,000.
In 1853-54, as the mass strike movement began to grow, the Society tried to act as an intermediary between the workers and the manufacturers seeking to take the edge off the class struggle. Marx sharply criticised this position and even called the organisation the ' "Society of Arts" and tricks' (see present edition, Vol. 12. p. 612).
Marx's admission to the Society gave him greater access to scientific literature to be found in the Society's library, including its extremely large collection of works by the 17th-19th century economists. Many of them he used when working on Capital. He was particularly interested in recent research in the field of economics and natural sciences, specifically, chemistry and agriculture, whose results were published in the Society's journal. Marx used the materials of the journal for 1859, 1860, 1866 and 1872 in Volume One of Capital (the first and second editions) (see present edition, Vol. 35).

[1] The original of this letter is kept in the archives of the Greater London Library (Greater London Council).

[2] In May 1869, Peter Le Néve Foster, Secretary of the Society of Arts and Trades Board of Directors, sent out letters to a number of persons, including Marx, requesting their consent to be elected to the Society. Marx's letter of 28 May 1869 was a reply to this proposal. On 30 June 1869, the Society's general meeting considered 132 candidatures and took a vote, as a result of which Marx was elected a member. To be admitted, a person had to have three members, at least one being his personal acquaintance, to back his candidature. For Marx, this was Peter Lund Simmonds, a Dane residing in England, a well-known political writer and author of numerous works on botany and agriculture.
Marx's admittance to the Society of Arts and Trades signified recognition by British scientific quarters of his merits as a scholar and political writer.
The Society of Arts and Trades, which was founded in 1754, set itself the philanthropic and educational goal of 'promoting the arts, trades and commerce'. Its social composition was varied: its managing bodies included both members of the aristocracy, patrons of the Society, and representatives of a broad cross-section of bourgeoisie and bourgeois intellectuals; among the members were also representatives of trade unions. In the 1860s, the Society's membership was in excess of 4,000.
In 1853-54, as the mass strike movement began to grow, the Society tried to act as an intermediary between the workers and the manufacturers seeking to take the edge off the class struggle. Marx sharply criticised this position and even called the organisation the ' "Society of Arts" and tricks' (see present edition, Vol. 12. p. 612).
Marx's admission to the Society gave him greater access to scientific literature to be found in the Society's library, including its extremely large collection of works by the 17th-19th century economists. Many of them he used when working on Capital. He was particularly interested in recent research in the field of economics and natural sciences, specifically, chemistry and agriculture, whose results were published in the Society's journal. Marx used the materials of the journal for 1859, 1860, 1866 and 1872 in Volume One of Capital (the first and second editions) (see present edition, Vol. 35).

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