London, 28 December 1862 
9 Grafton Terrace, Maitland Park, 
Haverstock Hill 

Dear Sir, 

A while ago, Freiligrath showed me a letter he had received 
from you.*” I would have written sooner had not a series of 
accidents that befell my family rendered me incapable of writing 
for some TIME. 

I was delighted to see from your letter how warm an interest is 
taken by you and your friends in my critique of political economy. 
The second part has now at last been finished, i.e. save for the fair 
copy and the final polishing before it goes to press.*!° There will 
be about 30 sheets of print. It is a sequel to Part I,* but will appear 
on its own under the title Capital, with A Contribution to the Critique 
of Political Economy as merely the subtitle. In fact, all it comprises 
is what was to make the third chapter of the first part, namely 
‘Capital in General’. Hence it includes neither the competition 
between capitals nor the credit system. What Englishmen call ‘tue 
PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY’ iS contained in this volume. It is the 
quintessence (together with the first part), and the development of 
the sequel (with the exception, perhaps, of the relationship 
between the various forms of state and the various economic 
structures of society) could easily be pursued by others on the 
basis thus provided. 

The reasons for the long delay are as follows. In the first place, 
a great deal of my time in 1860 was taken up with the Vogt 
rumpus, since I had a lot of research to do on material which 
was in itself of little interest, besides engaging in lawsuits, etc. In 
1861, I lost my chief source of income, the New-York Tribune, as a 
result of the American Civil War. My contributions to that paper 
have remained in abeyance up till the present. Thus, I have been, 
and still am, forced to undertake a large amount of hackwork to 
prevent myself and my family from actually being relegated to the 

a K, Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, 

streets. I had even decided to become a ‘practical man’ and had 
intended to enter a railway office at the beginning of next year. 
Luckily—or perhaps I should say unluckily?—I did not get 
the post because of my bad handwriting. So, you will see that 
I had little time left and few quiet moments for theoretical work. 
It seems probable that the same circumstances will delay my 
finishing the book for the printers for longer than I should have 
wished. 

As regards publishers, on no account shall I give the second 
volume to Mr Duncker. He was sent the manuscript for Part I in 
December 1858, and it came out in July or August 1859. There is 
some, but not a very promising, prospect of Brockhaus publishing 
the thing. The conspiration de silence with which I am honoured by 
the German literary rabble as soon as the latter finds out that the 
thing can’t be dismissed with insults is, quite apart from the 
tendency of my works, unfavourable from the point of view of 
sales. As soon as I have a fair copy of the manuscript (upon which 
1 shail make a start in January 1863), I shall bring it to Germany 
myself, it being easier to deal with publishers on a personal basis. 

There is every prospect that, as soon as the German edition 
appears, arrangements will be made in Paris for a French version. 
I have absolutely no time to put it into French myself, particularly 
since I am going either to write the sequel in German, Le. to 
conclude the presentation of capital, competition and credit, or 
condense the first two books for English consumption into one 
work. I do not think we can count on its having any effect in 
Germany until it has been given the seal of approval abroad. In 
the first part, the method of presentation was certainly far from 
popular. This was due partly to the abstract nature of the subject, 
the limited space at my disposal, and the aim of the work. The 
present part is easier to understand because it deals with more 
concrete conditions. Scientific attempts to revolutionise a science 
can never be really popular. But, once the scientific foundations 
are laid, popularisation is easy. Again, should times become more 
turbulent, one might be able to select the colours and nuances 
demanded by a popular presentation of these particular subjects. 
On the other hand, I had certainly expected that, if only for the 
sake of appearances, German specialists would not have ignored 
my work so completely. Besides, | had the far from gratifying 
experience of seeing party friends in Germany, who had long 
interested themselves in this branch of knowledge and sent me 
gushing encomia on Part I in private, not lift a finger towards 
getting a critique or even a list of the contents into such journals 

264, Engels to Marx. 30 December 1862 437 

as were accessible to them. If these be party tactics, then I must 
confess that they are an impenetrable mystery to me. 

I should be most grateful if you could write to me occasionally 
about the situation at home. We are obviously heading for 
revolution—something I have never once doubted since 1850. 
The first act will include a by no means gratifying rehash of the 
stupidities of ’48-’49. However, that’s how world history runs its 
course, and one has to take it as one finds it. 

With best wishes for the New Year, 

Your 
K. Marx