Letter to Pasquale Martignetti, March 30, 1890

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 30 March 1890


First published in Italian in: La corrispondenza di Marx e Engels con italiani. 1848-1895, Milano, 1964
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO PASQUALE MARTIGNETTI

IN BENEVENTO[1]

London, 30 March 1890

Dear Friend,

Herewith the letter to Labriola you asked for.[2]

As to his terra libera,[3] it is in fact altogether too much to expect of the present Italian government that it will allocate property in the colonies to small farmers for themselves to cultivate and not to monopolists, whether companies or individuals. Small-scale farming is the natural and best system for the colonies presently being founded by bourgeois govern- ments, on which point cf Marx, Capital, Volume I, last chapter, 'The Modern Theory of Colonisation'.[4] So we socialists can, with a good conscience, support the introduction of the system of small farms into colonies that have already been founded. But whether this will be done is another question. All governments today are so much the creatures and hirelings of financiers and the stock exchange that there's nothing to stop the speculators themselves from gaining control of the colonies in order to exploit them, and no doubt that will also apply in Eritrea. But one can, after all, hit back, even if it's in the shape of a demand that the government should give the emigrant Italian farmers an assurance that they will enjoy the same advantages there as they seek and generally find in Buenos Aires.

I can't discover from the Messaggero's article[5] whether Labriola combines his demand with still further requirements, namely govern- ment loans for emigrants to Eritrea, co-operatively run settlements, etc.

Unfortunately I have absolutely no time to spare for revising the translation of Wage Labour and Capital.[6] I have had some urgent jobs to do, and must now get back at once to Volume III of Capital before events in Germany take a revolutionary turn, as is very possible.

Yours sincerely,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ The main part of this letter, which P. Martignetti had sent to the editorial board of the journal Cuore e critica, was published in Italian in No. 7 of this journal on 16 April 1890, under the heading 'L'opinione di F. Engels'. This publication was prefaced with the following editorial text: 'Professor Labriola's proposal concerning the settlement of the colony of Eritrea is also finding support abroad. After reading the letters of Professors Labriola and Loria in II Messaggero, Frederick Engels wrote from London on 30 March to our regular contributor P. Martignetti'.
  2. ↑ See previous letter
  3. ↑ A reference to the project to use free land (terra libera) in the Italian colonies, as suggested by Antonio Labriola in his letter to Baccarini. Part of this letter was published on 15 March 1890 by the journal II Messaggero under the heading 'La terra a chi la lavora'. Martignetti sent this number of the journal to Engels.
  4. ↑ See present edition, Vol. 35, pp.751-64
  5. ↑ Refers to Antonio Labriola's letter to Achille Loria published by the journal Il Messaggero on 15 March 1890 under the title 'La terra a chi la lavora - La colonia Eritrea e la questione sociale'. A. Labriola sent this publication to P. Martignetti who, in his turn, forwarded it to F. Engels.
  6. ↑ In February 1886 P. Martignetti sent his Italian translation of Marx's Wage Labour and Capital for Engels to peruse. However, because of his work on the English edition of Volume I of Capital, and his eye disease, Engels was unable to read the Italian translation immediately. It was published in Milan only in 1893.