Johann Georg Eccarius
Record of Karl Marx's speech
on Prussian protectionist tariffs

at the meeting of the General Council, May 12, 1868

The Bee-Hive Newspaper.
Nr. 344, 16. Mai 1868

The International Working Men's
Association.

... The trades' unions established in Germany by the agency and with the assistance of the International Working Men's Association have furnished the chiefs of
5 the iron trade in the Rhenish province, with an argument against the Prussian
Government with regard to a reduction of the import duties on foreign iron. The
Chamber of Commerce of Elberfeld and Barmen is of opinion that a reduction of
the import duties on iron will completely ruin the Prussian iron masters. The
English capitalists maintain that they must reduce the wages of their workmen to

10 be able to cope with the foreigners. The German iron masters demand the continuance of protection against the English to save themselves from utter ruin; yet
the wages received by the Prussian workmen are less than half what the British
workman receives, and the hours of labour are more. In its report of April 14* to
the Government, the Chamber of Commerce states:—"The iron trade of Ger-

15 many once prostrate a remedy is impossible. Much capital will then be lost, and
thousands of working men deprived of the means of subsistence—a matter that
would be the more critical, as the labour question becomes more and more serious, and the International Working Men's Association assumes a more and more
active and menacing attitude."

20 This statement proves that the Association has not laboured in vain. The
capitalists demand a public enquiry into the present state of the Prussian iron
trade. The workmen insist that the inquiry shall include an investigation of the
condition of the workpeople employed in the trade.

699