Letter to Karl Marx, August 15, 1867

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 15 August 1867


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 15 August 1867

Dear Moor,

End. 3 £5-notes I/V 65551., , «.<.• CFLII<A Manchester " " " 44954J 2 9 January 1866

and the tax-slip returned. In these circumstances, it is essential that my return be kept a secret from Borkheim,[1] so that I do not need to pay him until as late as possible in September, otherwise I shall be completely stuck, since you will understand that I too have a mass of payments to make here, especially in the new half-year. Furthermore, consequent upon the fall in the price of yarns, we are having to enter the stock in the accounts at approx. £2,500 less than by the prices which applied at the time of my departure. Which is not very pleasant either!

When do you wish to have some of the sheets returned? Schorlemmer asked me to pass them on to him a few at a time, as I finished with them, but that naturally depends on you. I have now read the thing through to the end (cursorily) and definitely think that the second volume is also indispensable, and the sooner you finish it, the better.[2] I am now looking through the whole thing again, i.e., the more theoretical aspects. The fellows will be astonished to see with what consummate ease the most difficult points, such as Ricardo's theory of profit, are dealt the coup de grâce here in this way.

Kindest regards to your wife.

Your

F. E.

Lupus was born in Tarnau[3] on 21 June 1809, died 9 May 1864.[4]

  1. ↑ Between 5 July and early August 1867 Engels travelled in Sweden, Denmark and Germany and visited Ludwig Kugelmann in Hanover. His wife Lizzie Burns accompanied him during some part of the trip.
  2. ↑ According to the arrangement with the publisher that Marx mentions in his letter, he planned after the publication of Volume One of Capital (appeared in September 1867) to publish Book Two and Book Three as Volume Two, and Book Four, which contained a critical history of economic theories, as a concluding Volume Three. After Marx's death, Engels prepared for the press and published manuscripts belonging to Book Two and Book Three as Volumes Two and Three of Capital; he died before he could prepare for the press Book Four, Theories of Surplus Value (Volume Four of Capital) and have it published (see also Note 227).
  3. ↑ Polish name: Tarnöw
  4. ↑ Marx wanted to know this because he meant to dedicate the first volume of his Capital to Wilhelm Wolff (Lupus).