London, 10 May 1882 

Dear Mr Bernstein, 

My afternoon having already been broken into, I shall employ it in 
writing to you. As regards the Virgin Mary-Isis, that was a point 
upon which I could not enlarge, if only for reasons of space. Like 
all hagiolatry, the Marian cult belongs to a much later period than 
the one I am considering (a time when it was clerical policy to pro- 
duce in the persons of the saints a new version of the polytheistic peas- 
antry’s numerous tutelary gods), and finally it would be necessary to 
provide historical proof of the derivation, which would demand spe- 
cialised study. The same applies to the gloria and moonlight. In the 
imperial days of Rome, by the way, the cult of Isis was part of the 
state religion. 

Bimetallism.* The main thing — particularly after many of the ‘lea- 
ders’ have been so frightfully cock-a-hoop about our party’s 
superiority over the bourgeois in matters of economics, a superiority 
of which those gentlemen are totally innocent— the main thing is 
that we should beware of inviting censure in this field as is unblush- 
ingly done by the said gentlemen the moment they think it will serve 
to flatter a particular kind of worker, win an electoral victory or gain 
some other advantage. Thus, because silver is mined in Saxony, they 
think it in order to dabble in the bimetallist nonsense. So to catch 
a few more votes, our party is to go and make an immortal ass of itself 
in the very sphere which is supposed to be its forte! 

But that’s our literary gents all over! Just like the bourgeois literati, 
they think themselves entitled to the privilege of learning nothing and 
laying down the law about everything. They have, for our benefit, 
concocted a hotch-potch of literature which, for ignorance of eco- 
nomics, new-fangled utopianism and arrogance, has yet to find an 
equal, and Bismarck did us a tremendous favour by banning it. 

When we speak of bimetallism today, it is not so much bimetallism 
generally as the specific case of bimetallism in which the ratio of gold 
to silver is, say, 15 1/2: 1. A distinction must therefore be drawn here. 

Bimetallism is becoming daily more impracticable in that the ratio 

of the value of silver to that of gold which, at one time, was at least 
fairly constant and changed only gradually, is now subject to daily 
and violent fluctuations, the initial tendency being for the value of sil- 
ver to fall as a result of the colossal increase in production, especially 
in North America. The exhaustion of gold is an invention of the silver 
barons. But whatever the cause of the change in value, it remains 
a fact and that is what concerns us first of all. Silver is becoming daily 
less capable of serving as a measure of value, whereas gold is not. 

The ratio of the value of the two is now about 17 1/2: 1. But the sil- 
ver people want to reimpose upon the world the old ratio of 15 1/2: 1, 
and that is just as impossible as maintaining the price of mechanically 
produced yarn and cloth everywhere and for all time at that of man- 
ually produced yarn and cloth. The die does not determine the value 
of the coin, it is merely a guarantee, for the recipient, of weight and 
standard and can never confer on 15 1/2 lbs of silver the value of 17 1/2. 

All this is dealt with so lucidly and exhaustively in Capital, chapter 
on money (Chap. III, pp. 72-120) that there’s nothing more to 
add. For material relating to more recent fluctuations, cf. Soetbeer: 
Edelmetall— Produktion und Werthverhaltnis etc. (Gotha, Perthes, 1879). 
Soetbeer is the leading authority in this sphere, and the father of 
German currency reform—even before 1840 he was advocating 
a ‘mark’ equivalent to 1/3 taler. 

Hence, if silver is minted at 15 1/2 lbs = 1 lb. gold, it flows back into 
the state treasuries, everyone wants to be rid of it. That’s what the 
United States discovered in the case of its silver dollar minted to the 
old standard and worth only 90 c., as did Bismarck when he tried for- 
cibly to put back into circulation the silver talers that had been with- 
drawn and replaced by gold. 

Mr Dechend, the chairman of the Bank, imagines that bimetallism 
will enable him to pay off Germany’s external debts in bad silver in- 
stead of gold at full value, and thus avoid any kind of gold crisis, 
something that would certainly be most convenient for the Reichs- 
bank if only it were feasible. But all that is forthcoming is the proof 
provided by Mr Dechend himself, that he is totally unfitted to preside 
over a bank and would be more at home at a school desk than a 
board-room table. 

Your Prussian Junker, too, would certainly be happy if the mortga- 
ges he contracted in silver at 15 1/2: 1 could be repaid or serviced in 
silver at 17 1/2:1. And since this would necessarily occur inside the 
country, it would be perfectly feasible for debtors to rook their credi- 

tors by this means— provided only the aristocracy could find people 
to lend them silver at 17 1/2: 1 in order that they might make repay- 
ments at 15 1/2: 1. For their own means certainly do not permit them 
to make repayments. But they would, of course, be compelled to 
accept their silver at 15 1/2 and thus, so far as they were concerned, 
everything would remain as before. 

As regards the German production of silver, its extraction from 
German ore dwindles yearly in importance as compared with 
(Rhenish) extraction from South American ore. Total production in 
Germany in 1876 amounted to about 280,000 lbs, of which 58,000 
were from South American ore; since that time this figure has risen 
considerably. 

That the debasing of silver to the status of a fractional currency 
must depress the value of silver still further is obvious; the use of silver 
for purposes other than money is minimal, nor is it likely to show a 
rapid increase because demonetisation throws more silver on to the 
market. 

It is inconceivable that England should ever introduce bimetal- 
lism. No country that is on the gold standard could re-introduce 
bimetallism now and on a permanent basis. In any case, universal bime- 
tallism does not admit of general application; if all men were to agree 
today that silver was once more to be worth 15 1/2:1, they could not 
alter the fact that it is worth only 17 1/2:1, and there’s absolutely 
nothing to be done about it. One might just as well decide that twice 
two equals five. 

During our early days of exile Bamberger did us many a good turn; 
he was a decent and obliging man, secretary to Karl of Brunswick. 
We subsequently lost sight of him. 

Kindest regards, 

Yours, 
F.E.