ENGELS TO MARX “ 

Manchester, 10 May 1868 
Dear Moor, 

You received the information about the factory at that time 
direct from Henry Ermen—it is G. Ermen’s spinning mill, with 
which I have nothing to do, and about which the young Ermens 
have been specifically forbidden to tell me anything. If you write 
to Henry Ermen, Bridgewater Mill, Pendlebury (private), he will 
probably tell you what you want to know. But you will have to tell 
him that he should give you the data as they were in 1860, since 
much has been built since then. I would say, approximately, that a 
factory building for 10,000 spindles, including cost of land, will 
come to £4,000 a@ £5,000 (in the given case a bit less is probably to 
be assumed, since it was only a one-storey ship, and land up there, 
unless containing coal, costs almost nothing). Rate of wear and 
tear on the building (£500-600 to be subtracted as ground price) 
7'/o% including interest. At £3,600 therefore £18 ground rent (4 
3%) + (7 '/0% on 3,000=) 225=£243 rent for the building. 

Warexouse does not exist for this factory, since G. Ermen only 
sells through or to us or through an agent to other people, and 
pays 2% commission on the turnover for this. Assuming the 
turnover a@ £13,000, we get £260 as substitute for warehouse 
costs. 

As far as calculating the turnover of the circulating capital is 
concerned, I do not really know what you mean by this. We 
calculate only the total turnover, that is the total of annual sales. If I 
understand rightly, you want to know how many times a year the 
circulating part of capital is turned over, or, in other words, how 
much circulating capital is in business. This, however, differs in 
almost all cases. A prosperous owner of a spinning mill has almost 
always (that is except when he is expanding, or immediately 
afterwards) some spare capital that he invests in some other way, 
but uses, when the chance offers itself, to buy cotton cheaply, etc. 
Or he uses credit, if he can and it is worthwhile. It may be 
assumed that a mill-owner who invests £10,000 in machines (apart 
from the building, which he can and mostly will rent) can get along 
with '/; a@ '/, of the fixed capital in circulating capital; that is for 

£10,000 fixed capital put into machines, £2,000 a@ £2,500 
circulating capital will do. This is the average assumption here. 

Here I leave out of account the steam engines. On this score 
H. Ermen has obviously provided you, from memory, a complete- 
ly absurd story. Weekly wear and tear of the steam engine £20, 
that is £1,040 a year! At a 12'/2% rate the steam engine will cost 
£8,320, ce qui est absurde.* The entire machine cannot have cost 
more than £1,500 a £2,000, and that G. Ermen wanted to write 
off his whole machine in 2 years is just like him, but not 
businesslike. You can ask him about this, too. But I fear that 
Monsieur Gottfried has long taken these old account books into 
his own custody, and then Henry Ermen will not be able to help 
you either. 

Schorlemmer will probably visit you on Wednesday or Thurs- 
day.“ The Royal Society has invited him to read his rarer on the 
boiling points of C,Hen+2 on Thursday and to take part in the 
debate.* Since the main chemist there is Frankland, whom 
Schorlemmer has attacked in all his works, this is a great triumph, 
and a few more invitations like this wit. BE THE MAKING oF HIM. I am 
very happy for the fellow, who has only stayed at his rather pitiful 
position here because it places at his disposal the laboratory and 
thus the means of doing theoretical work. He is really one of the 
best fellows I have got to know for a long time; he is so totally free 
of prejudices this freedom appears to be almost spontaneous, but 
must in fact be based upon much thought. At the same time, the 
notable modesty. Incidentally, he has again made a handsome 
discovery. On pages 264 and 297 of his book you will find that 
propyl alcohol and isopropyl alcohol are two isomeric combina- 
tions.© It had hitherto been impossible to obtain pure propyl 
alcohol, so the Russians had already claimed that it did not exist, 
there was only isopropyl alcohol. Last autumn at the meeting of 
natural scientists Schorlemmer replied to them: by next autumn 
he would have obtained it, and he has really done it. 

This week I do at last have no more meetings and similar calls 
upon my time, and will be able to get down to the Fortnightly.’ 
But [ still do not know how to start. It is clear to me that I will 

a which is absurd - > Ermen - © 13 or 14 May - 4 C. Schorlemmer, ‘Researches on 
the Hydrocarbons of the Series C , H 9n+9’, Proceedings of the Royal Society, No. 94, 
1867 and No. 102, 1868. -¢© This refers to H. E. Roscoe’s chemistry textbook, 
the German edition of which, Kurzes Lehrbuch der Chemie nach den neuesten 
Ansichten der Wissenschaft (Brunswick, 1867), was prepared by Carl Schorlemmer in 
conjunction with the author. The isomerism of the alcohols named is stated on 
pp. 296-98. 

begin with the conversion of money into capital, but how is still 
quite unclear. What do you think about this? 
With best greetings, 

Your 
F. E.