ENGELS. TO HERMANN ENGELS 

Manchester, 24 May 1864 

Dear Hermann, 

You must excuse my keeping you waiting some little while for a 
reply to your letter of the 7th and that of the 18th. 

As regards the £1,000, I shan’t be able to remit this to you 
before 1 July, or perhaps a little later. That is to say I must await 
the statement of accounts on 30 June of this year, since G. Ermen 
will release himself from the contract if so much as a penny is 
missing from the £10,000 I have to put up. Until then, therefore, 
I must tread carefully. I also mentioned this to Mother in my 
letter of 7 April,°” and hence the best thing would be for you to 
pay Wiebelhaus & Busch from over there. In any case, for a sum 
of the order of £1,000, I wouldn’t be able to lay my hands on bills 
as short as a week after date. More about this matter, then, in July 
or August; I am in no hurry whatever. 

It had struck me, by the way, that this £1,000 could be partially 
reimbursed by my prevailing on G. E. to send off to you in 
advance the interest amounting to £375 due on 30 June; but, since 
our bankers are now paying us 6% interest, he'll take good care 
not to give you the money at 5%. 

As regards my balance with you over there, this should be dealt 
with as follows: 

On 30 June, the £10,000 which, under the terms of the 
contract, must remain here, will be debited to me over there. 
Deduct from that the portion of my balance there on which the 
interest accrues to me; as to the remainder I must refund you the 
interest a 5%. The portion of my balance of which Mother has the 
usufruct would best continue to be credited to me separately, since 
it doesn’t figure in my favour when interest is calculated and 
would therefore only muddle up the calculation. 

The one question that may have to be considered in this 
connection is the exchange rate at which fs are to be converted 
into talers. In my view, the simplest thing in all present and future 
cases relating to my account would be to take the average rate of 
6 talers 20 silver groschen, as Father also used to do in his books, so 
that the £10,000 will be debited to me as 66,666.20 talers, while all 

reimbursements made by me in fs will be credited at the same 
rate. Think it over and let me know what you think about it. 

As regards the transfer of the £10,000 to my account, you have 
no need to advise G. E. further; the contract, to which you are all 
subject, is sufficient. 

Very many thanks for the pictures. They’ve touched up your 
face a bit more than is necessary; apart from that, they’re very 
good. But you must now see to it that the other ones for my 
album follow on soon, and also remind the good Boellings about 
it, for so far I have none of them at all. In the case of the Blanks, 
I don’t have one of Maria Senior, Emil Junior, Rudolf, and the 
younger ones. 

Apropos. Should Ermen & Engels over there be asked to pay 
the costs of an insertion, to which I was a co-signatory, in the 
deaths’ column of the Kélner; Breslauer? and Augsburg Allgemeine 
Zeitung, I would ask you to attend to it and debit me 
accordingly.°° 

Give my love to Mother, if she is still in Barmen, and tell her 
that I’ve been keeping very well. Much love to Emma‘ (she’s still 
not as plump as she used to be, but I trust that will resolve itself) 
and the little ones as well as to Rudolf‘ and family, the Blanks, 
and the Boellings. 

Your 
Friedrich