Letter to Wilhelm Bracke, April 30, 1878

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 30 April 1878


An excerpt from this letter was first published in: F. Engels, Politisches Vermächtnis. Aus unveröffentlichten Briefen, Berlin, 1920; first published in full, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1932
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


ENGELS TO WILHELM BRACKE[1]

IN BRUNSWICK

London, 30 April 1878

Dear Bracke,

Herewith Lissagaray's receipt for the 300 marks which he has changed into £15 at a loss of approx. 6 marks against gold at par, doubtless so that he should not have to acknowledge Bismarck's currency reform.[2]

I think that in taking the view you do of the Imperial railways and the tobacco monopoly[3] you may be looking a bit too far ahead. Aside from the enormous increase of power that would accrue to Prussian dominion, on the one hand through total financial independence of any control, on the other through direct command of two new armies, that of railway officials and that of tobacco sellers, and the consequent power to confer appointments and engage in corruption — aside from all that, it must not be forgotten that nowadays any transfer of industrial and commercial functions to the state may, depending on the circumstances, have a twofold purport and a twofold effect: one reactionary, a step back into the Middle Ages, one progressive, a step forward towards communism. We in Germany, however, have only just crept out of the Middle Ages and are only this moment engaged in entering modern bourgeois society through the medium of large-scale industry and the crash.[4] In our case, what needs to be developed to the highest possible degree is precisely that bourgeois economic régime which concentrates capitals and accentuates contradictions,[5] notably in the north-east. To my mind the economic dissolution of feudal conditions east of the Elbe is, for us, the most essential step forward, along with the dissolution throughout Germany of small businesses in industry and the crafts and their replacement with large-scale industry. And, after all, the only good thing about a tobacco monopoly is that, at one stroke, it would change one of the most infamous cottage industries into large-scale industry. On the other hand, the state tobacco workers would also at once become subject to exceptional laws and, still worse, deprived of the liberty to associate or strike. In our case the Imperial railways and the tobacco monopoly are not of necessity state industries—the railways not yet, at any rate, whereas in England they are only just coming to be so; posts and telegraphs, on the other hand, are. And by way of compensation for all the disadvantages those two new state monopolies would bring us, we'd simply get a handy new expression to use in agitation. For a state monopoly that is set up simply for reasons of money and power, not out of compelling and intrinsic necessity, wouldn't even provide us with a proper argument. And the process of setting up a tobacco monopoly and abolishing the cottage tobacco industry would, what's more, take at least as long as Bismarckism can possibly hope to survive. Again, you may be sure that the Prussian state would both debase the quality of tobacco and raise the price to such an extent that the adherents of free competition would gleefully point to this discrediting of state communism, and the people would be forced to agree with them. The whole thing is an ignorant fancy of Bismarck's altogether worthy of his plan of 1863 to annex Poland and Germanise her within three years.

Had I known that the Party of Progress[6] had for years been proposing [the abolition of] tax exemption for the military, I should have advised you against bringing the motion in question. To my mind, our function is to support bourgeois demands only when the bourgeois parties fail to do what they damned well ought to; but judging by your own speech, this does not appear to have been quite the case. I merely mention this on account of Richter's reply.[7] Naturally I don't dispute for one moment that our airing of the question may have great advantages as regards propaganda, though I can't, needless to say, give an unqualified verdict from here.

I've now finished Mr Dühring, fortunately, apart from the revision of the final articles,[8] and trust I shall have no more of his esteemed company while on this earth. What a conceited ignoramus! If the rest isn't printed quickly, it won't be my fault. Kind regards.

Yours,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ An extract from this letter was published in English for the first time in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters on 'Capital', New Park Publications Ltd., London, 1983.
  2. ↑ In 1871-73, a single gold coin was introduced in Germany to replace the different currencies of the kingdoms, principalities and duchies.
  3. ↑ In a letter to Engels of 26 April 1878, Bracke praised the railway project and the tobacco monopoly introduced by Bismarck. But he still regarded as wrong 'any participation by the party in implementing these measures'.
  4. ↑ A reference to the economic crisis of 1873, which in Germany lasted into the late 1870s (see also Note 118).
  5. ↑ Cf. F. Engels, Anti-Dühring, Part III, Ch. II (present edition, Vol. 25, p. 265).
  6. ↑ A reference to the Party of Progress formed in June 1861 (its most eminent members were Waldeck, Virchow, Schulze-Delitsch, Forchenbeck and Hoverbeck). The party's programme included the unification of Germany under the aegis of Prussia, the convocation of an all-German Parliament, and the formation of a strong liberal ministry accountable to the Chamber of Deputies. Fearing a popular revolution, the Party of Progress gave no support to the basic democratic demands—universal suffrage and freedoms of the press, association and assembly. In 1866 the party split, and its Right wing founded the National Liberal Party, which capitulated to the Bismarck government.
  7. ↑ Eugen Richter, the leader of the Party of Progress, said in the Reichstag on 10 April 1878 with respect to the Bill introduced by Wilhelm Bracke on the repeal of the law exempting the military from communal taxes (passed on 22 December 1868): 'We consider it important enough to note a change at present in the tactics of the socialist gentlemen.... You, Sirs, obviously do not consider the modern state and its organisation so bad as to make them unworthy of the effort, made by the previous speaker [Bracke] in his speech, to partially improve them.... We will be far from displeased if you follow in our footsteps and bring up our old proposals.'
  8. ↑ F. Engels, Anti-Dühring, Part III.