Manchester, 17 December 1857 

Dear Marx, 

This crisis is keeping me hellishly en haleine.” Prices falling every 
day. Moreover we ourselves are already beginning to fee! it. My 
old man was in a fix not long ago and we had to advance him 
money. However I don't imagine that it will prove serious, but 
that’s neither here nor there just now. 

Manchester is becoming ever more deeply involved. The effect 
of the constant pressure on the market is really tremendous. 
Nobody can sell anything. Every day we hear of lower offers, and 
anyone with a sense of the proprieties stops offering his goods for 
sale. Things look grim among the spinners and manufacturers. 
Yarn agents are no longer selling to factories except for cas or 
against security. A few of the smaller people have already come a 
cropper but that’s nothing compared with what’s in store.”” 

Despite two substantial subventions, Mercks are in a complete 
fix, both here and in Hamburg. They are expected to go under 
any day, and only an extraordinary fluke could save them. The 
capital of the Hamburg house is said to total 4 to 5 million banco 
marks against liabilities Of 22 million (13 marks=£1). According to 
other reports the crisis has already whittled down the capital to 
600,000 marks. 

4 it would require too much thought - > on the alert 

We shall have 4 more distinct crises: 1. colonial produce, 
2. corn, 3. spinners and manufacturers, 4. Home TRADE—this not 
before next spring. In the woollen districts things are already 
beginning, and very nicely too. 

Don’t forget to make a note of the saLancesnzets of the firms 
that have failed—Bennoch, Twentyman, Reed of Derby, Mendes 
da Costa, Hoare, Buxton, etc. All of them most edifying. 

Your views on France have since been borne out by the 
newspapers almost to the letter. There is sure to be a crash over 
there and the first to be involved will be the speculators of central 
and northern Germany. 

You will presumably have made a note of the proceedings 
relating to Macdonald, Monteith, Stevens (London and Exchange 
Bank).* The story of the London and Exchange Bank and the 
BORROWED NOTES Counting as security is the most splendid I have ever 
read. 

Apart from Hamburg, northern Germany has hitherto hardly 
been drawn into the crisis at all. But it’s beginning there now too. 
Heimendahl (silk doubler and merchant) has gone under in 
Elberfeld, and Linde & Trappenberg (small ware MANUFACTURERS) in 
Barmen. Both respectable firms. So far the north Germans have 
suffered virtually nothing but losses; in their case, as over here, 
the temporary disruption of the money market has a less severe 
effect than the protracted period over which goods have been 
unsaleable. 

Vienna’s turn will also come. 

Lupus is eating humble pie; we were right. 

Distress has also begun to set in among the proletariat. There 
are as yet few signs of revolution, for the long period of 
prosperity has been fearfully demoralising. The unemployed on 
the streets continue to beg and to idle away their time. Robberies by 
garrotters are on the increase, but not to any serious extent. 

I now have to do so much running round seeing people in 
order to keep track of the crisis that there’s damned little time left 
to do any work for Dana. That, too, must be attended to in the 
intervals. What has he to say? And how are his payments going? 

Warm regards to your wife and children. 

Your 
F. E. 

4 Reported in The Times, Nos. 22860, 22861, 22865 and 22866, 10, 11, 16 and 17 
December 1857. 

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