| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 9 December 1857 |
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 9 December 1857
Dear Moor,
In haste, a few more particulars about the crisis. In Hamburg, where the crisis has been grossly exacerbated by the pedantry of the old and much-famed clearing bank, this is what has happened: Schunck, Souchay & Co. here had drawn bills on Hamburg. So as to be really on the safe side, and although the bills were on goods, etc., etc., they sent the drawees BANK OF ENGLAND SEVEN DAY BILLS. These were indignantly returned AS SO MUCH WASTE PAPER, and the bills drawn on Hamburg duly protested with the comment that only silver now had any value! Bills bearing the endorsements of Schunck, Souchay & Co. and 2 other equally good houses, maturing in 2 months, could not be discounted last week at less than 12/2 per cent.
NB. If I give you the names of the houses concerned, it is on the understanding that this remains strictly between ourselves. I could get into the devil of a row if such an abuse of confidential information were to come to light.
The Liverpool and London PRODUCE houses will come a cropper before long. Things look grim in Liverpool; the chaps are stone broke and can't even summon up the energy to go bankrupt, while at the Exchange, or so I am told by someone who was there on Monday, faces are three times as long as they are here, though here too the storm clouds are growing steadily darker. Spinners and manufacturers are paying wages and buying coal with the money they get in for their goods and when that's gone they're sure to collapse. Yesterday the market was more listless and depressed than it had ever been before.
Someone told me he knew of 5 or 6 Indian houses whose stocks are such that they cannot fail to go to the wall in the very near future.
Only now are the fellows beginning to realise that the monetary speculation was the least important factor in the crisis, and the more they see this, the gloomier they look.
Health good. More tomorrow or the day after. Herewith a bundle of Guardians. Take a look at the little bits of local news, in which you'll find some very interesting facts.
Your
F. E.