Manchester, 15 July 1869 

Dear Hermann, 

You really are a fine chum. It stands to reason that I wrote 
about the exchange- rate matter to you simply as our mother’s 
business manager. But just because you are her business manager, 
you can’t get out of it like that and tell me that I should approach 
mother directly about the matter. It would be a fine state of affairs 
if you always resigned as business manager as soon as the other 
party’s opinion differed from yours, or when your arguments 
were exhausted. No, my lad, you’ve got to stick to it now. 

To get to the point: what do you mean, we agreed to calculate 

a Jenny Marx - > F. Engels, Karl Marx. - © Kugelmann’s daughter Franziska - ¢ See 
this volume, pp. 280-82. 

everything at 6 thalers 20 silbergroschen? Nothing more nor less 
than that both parties, our mother and I, should waive making an 
exchange profit on these £10,000. Since, however, a considerable 
exchange profit has been made by mother on the £7,000 paid 
back by me, I felt it to be absolutely in order that I should also 
make my profit on the small remainder. You solve the pattern 
much more simply, by claiming offhandedly that mother alone has 
a right to the exchange profit. 

In addition, you have not considered that, in presenting mother 
quite correctly as the only interested party, you are sawing off the 
bough on which you sit with regard to the discount business. I 
repay mother £1,000 and, on enquiry, receive the reply that this 
should be sent to R. Funke & Co. in bills at any sight. I did this, 
and was thus entitled to have these bills credited to me at full 
value per date of maturity. What Funke later did with the bills as a 
result of some agreement—of which I know nothing, and which is 
no business of mine—between R. Funke & Co. and Ermen & 
Engels, Barmen (2 firms which, as you say, do not concern me in 
the slightest), is no longer my concern, any more than what the 
bank did at which Funke discounted them. This should now at last 
be clear to you. 

There can be absolutely no question of ‘trickery’. But those who 
are merchants by profession, just like lawyers by profession, easily 
accustom themselves to regard the matter in hand solely from the 
most advantageous angle from their own point of view; when one 
is dealing with scientific questions this habit is the one which must 
be broken first. The discount business gave me the impression that 
your viewpoint on this matter was not entirely unprejudiced, so I 
have felt since then that I should myself pay rather more attention 
to my own interests. 

I have no recollection at all that I expressed the desire to keep the 
accounts in thalers for yeur convenience. But you overlook the fact 
that your entire chain of evidence, which is based simply upon the 
fact the £10,000 stayed here in Manchester to my advantage, also 
demonstrates that, if the exchange rate had remained at 6 thalers 
12 silbergroschen, I would have been obliged to remit in thalers, 
since nobody would wish mother to lose money on it. And you 
must admit yourself what sort of value an argument has that 
demands that, when the rate is high, I must cover in sterling, and 
when low, in thalers. 

I should also like to ask you, with regard to the cops anp sewincs I 
purchased for you, whether you have charged them to mother at 
the current exchange or at 6 thalers 20 silbergroschen, although I 

do not doubt at the former, in view of your zeal for mother’s 
profit on the exchange rate. 

But that’s enough. As your patience appears to be coming to an 
end, and the matter is not worth the trouble, [ll oblige you and 
cover in sterling. Under my agreement with Gottfried,* the sum of 
£1,000 is payable on 1 August, and then every 2 months, and I 
shall devote the first instalments, as far as possible, to cover 
mother. It is, however, probable that Gottfried will hold back the 
first instalment until the accounts are completed and the contracts 
signed, which could take 14 days longer, so I would ask you not to 
depend on it as a certainty and to the day. Be so good, therefore, 
as to send me my current account, made up as of 30 June; my 
account here is so lengthy, as a result of many money withdrawals, 
that I would prefer not to depend upon it, since I have not yet 
received my statement, and can only check it superficially in the 
office. The whole approximate balance you will receive: 1. in 
August circa £800-900, 2. in October £1,000, and in De- 
cember—the remainder; I would request you to let me know in 
good time where and how you would like the remittances. 

Your letter of the 13th just arrived; I shall sign the thing as 
soon as I go to town and meet the vice-consul, probably tomorrow. 
But be so kind as to enquire what I should do in order to be 
spared any further communications from the Royal District Court 
in Bochum with regard to the Vereinigte” Engelsburg. From time 
to time a fat epistle arrives here, written on heavy, poor-quality 
scribbling paper, with a seal as big as a two-thaler piece, addressed 
to me as ‘Official Business, Post Free’; whereupon the English 
Post Office, which doesn’t give a damn for the District Court of 
Bochum, charges me between 3 and 5s. postage. A week ago I 
received a packet like this, with the names of all the shareholders 
in the Vereinigte Engelsburg and the draft of the amalgamation, 
and the request that I should make my declaration on it. I learned 
from this that I may some day have the pleasure of possessing 

601 

3 as mining shares divided by 8, but feel that it is a little too 

dear to pay 4s. 8d. postage for this information. If I could only 
read the name of the worthy district judge appended to this, I 
would write him a very polite epistle, praying him to leave me in 
peace with the Vereinigte Engelsburg; but the Prussian officials 
purposely write their signatures so illegibly, in order to avoid the 
danger of receiving replies. Be so good as to inform this illegible 

4 Gottfried Ermen - » United 

gentleman that the unstamped post of the Dortmund and Bochum 
District Court is not recognised here and that I'll be grateful to 
him, if he, in accordance with the power of attorney, sends all 
communications to mother. 

The situation with the firm is this: Gottfried attaches importance 
to keeping it as long as you keep it, since otherwise you would 
have been able to take over part of the legacy of Ermen & Engels, 
Manchester. I regarded it as not only superfluous, but also 
harmful, for me to interfere on your behalf, since you had 1. P.* 
Ermen’s promise, which covers you here, and 2. the expert opinion 
of the lawyers, which I took for gospel truth. For as long as 
P. Ermen lives you are safe from G. Ermen; had I known that 
your rights were not quite bomb-proof, I would certainly have 
avoided drawing Gottfried’s attention to this by making proposals; 
and G. Ermen would not have entered into an engagement not to 
challenge your rights after P. Ermen’s death. Meanwhile we have 
him in our hands, because I have given him the rights of the firm 
for only 5 years, and although I promised him that after that 
period I would make no difficulties for him, this depends, 
together for instance with my discretion about business secrets, 
completely upon his conduct, particularly vis-a-vis yourselves, and 
I have made this plain to him. 

On the £10,000 that I have already invested in shares, I had 
earned at least £170 net in market appreciation by 30 June. They 

bring me in an average of 5’/3% of my investment capital. They 

are mostly gas, waterworks and railway shares, all English com- 
panies. 

My freedom pleases me more and more from day to day. 
Unfortunately, I have still too much running about to do to be 
able to start any particularly thorough studies, but this will soon be 
settled. 

I have spoken about the cops with Schuncks’ buyer, and have 
sent him a memorandum, a copy of which I enclose for your use. 
With regard to the sewincs, the qualities have changed so much 
since my last purchases that it would be best for you to order them 
from samples if you still need some. Likewise with the cops, it 
would be best for you to bind Schuncks to the yarns named in the 
memorandum; they are those we have been using here for 20 
years, and they are indispensable for you as long as they don’t 
change the quality. 

4 Peter 

Best regards to Emma, the little ones, and all brothers and 
sisters. Enclosed 2 lines for E. Blank. 

Your 
Friedrich