Manchester, 1 July 1869 
86 Mornington Street, Stockport Road 

Dear Mother, 

Today is the first day of my freedom, and I cannot use it better 
than by immediately writing to you. Yesterday I finally reached a 

a the first volume of Capital 

settlement with Gottfried Ermen on all the main questions. The 
draft contract, drawn up by his lawyer, was such that I would 
never have signed it in that form. I obliged myself not to compete 
with him in the next five years, i.e., neither to make nor sell 
bleached, coloured or dressed cotton cloth. That was all right. But 
his lawyer had set this out in such a way that, if I breached any 
stipulation, I was obliged, in advance, to pay a penalty rising from 
£100 to £1,000 for each single instance, so that, in these monetary 
penalties, I would have had to pay back to G. Ermen more than 
the £1,750 paid to me, not counting the legal costs. My lawyer 
advised me strongly not to agree, so we struck out the whole 
business, nearly half the whole draft. Then there was another 
point, about the continuation of the firm Ermen & Engels by 
Gottfried. My lawyer told me that if I explicitly allowed him to do 
this, then, in the case of insolvency, I could still be regarded as 
associé” and be held hable. I therefore demanded that my explicit 
agreement to this should also be limited to 5 years, and this only 
so long as he himself was an active associé in the firm. 

My Gottfried, who was originally very pressing with the 
negotiations, soon started dragging things out, and once even left 
the draft at home for 3 weeks without saying anything about it, so 
only about 3 weeks ago did I receive the 2nd draft contract (which 
is between G. Ermen, Anton Ermen and me, and governs the 
arrangement when I leave), and because of the usual lawyers’ 
formalities could only begin to negotiate 8 days ago. In the past 
few days G. Ermen appeared frequently to avoid me, as though he 
wished to delay the matter until I was out of the business, when he 
might hope to deal with me more easily. Only yesterday morning 
did we get down to negotiations, and then Gottfried gave way on 
all points, while, for my part, I conceded him that, for 5 years, I 
would not spin and twine any cotton yarn under No. 40; I would 
remain free to trade in such yarn as long as it was in the raw 
condition, This concession has no sort of practical importance for 
me, and I thus obliged him. 

Thus the matter has now been concluded, with the exception of 
a few legal matters of form, and I think everything could be 
finished in three weeks; but I am resigned that it might last in to 
August, since the accounts must be completed, and the lawyers 
always drag things out so. 

Yesterday afternoon I went to the mill with Gottfried and 
inspected the stores and the reception; afterwards we went to his 

* partner 

house, where he served me a bottle of very good Scharzhofberger. 
He is as glad as I am that the matter is finished, that he is now the 
sole master of the firm, and that he is not going to have a row 
with me, since 1. as my lawyer tells me, if I had gone into 
partnership with my brothers, we would have been able to conduct 
the firm of Ermen & Engels here too, and we could prohibit him 
from doing so; 2. he is anyway very much afraid of competition; 
and 3. it now emerges that he still needs me very much for a time 
if bad blunders are to be avoided in the business; for this reason, 
he has invited me to come to the office as often as I like, and has 
requested me to give the people information from time to time, to 
which I naturally agreed. He has engaged a young Stuttgarter as 
correspondent, but he has only been there for 3 weeks and is 
naturally still very green. He'll have a heavy enough load. 

Gottfried is not finished with Charles* either; his notice runs out 
in 8 days. I am curious whether they will reach an agreement. 
Five years ago Charles obtained from him a promise to make him 
managing clerk, but has never received the post; now he is 
demanding £1,000 compensation for this, but Gottfried will never . 
give it to him. 

Neither does he seem to want to keep on Anton as an associé. At 
least the 2nd draft contract dissolves the partnership with him in 
just the same manner as with me, and Gottfried would not go to 
this trouble if he did not intend it that way. On the one hand, 
Gottfried has realised that Anton is worth absolutely nothing in 
practical business, 1.e., in earning money and, on the other, Anton 
continually draws so much money behind Gottfried’s back, and 
sends it to his Julie” that Gottfried is apprehensive that he might 
some day start drawing money directly from the bank as long as 
he—Anton—has the right to sign. When Anton joined, Gottfried 
advanced him £500, which represented Anton’s capital, but 
Monsieur Anton, who should leave £250 yearly standing from his 
emoluments, has not only not done this, but has also squandered 
the £500 long ago. 

My new freedom is just the thing for me. Since yesterday I have 
been quite a new man, and ten years younger. This morning, 
instead of going into the gloomy city, I walked in this wonderful 
weather for a few hours in the fields; and at my desk, in a 
comfortably furnished room in which you can open the windows 
without the smoke making black stains everywhere, with flowers 
on the windowsills and trees in front of the house, one can work 

a Charles Roesgen - > Jater Anton Ermen’s wife 

quite differently than in my gloomy room in the warehouse, looking 
out on to the courtyard of an ale-house. I live ten minutes walk 
from my club, just far enough away from the German and 
lodging-house quarters to be sure that I am not overrun. At 5 or 6 
in the evening I dine at home, the cooking is really quite good, 
and then generally go for a few hours to the club to read 
newspapers, etc. But I shall only be able to organise this properly 
when I no longer have to go to the city because of the accounts, 
etc. 

But now adieu, dear Mother; give my heartiest greetings to all, 
and if you have plans to travel let me know, so that I can, if 
possible, adjust to them; as I am situated at the moment, you 
should not take me into consideration. 

From my heart, your son 

Friedrich