London, 19 February 1870 
My dear Sir, 

When I received your last letter, I was dangerously ill and, 
therefore, unable to answer. 

The very minimum of the Russian Railway Loans amounts to 
100 mill. £St. This sum has been mainly raised in Holland, 
Frankfort on the Main, London, Berlin, and Paris. 

As appears from the Moscovite public journals, the Russian 
government intends raising, if possible, in the course of the next two 
years, no less than 50 mill. £'St. 

In regard to the last Railway Loan of 12 mill. £St., its history 
comes to this: 

As you will be aware, the Russian government had successively, 
but vainly tried to raise money, first by Thompson and Bonar, 
then by Baring. Being hardly pressed for money, it succeeded at 
last to get from Rothschild, acting through his agent Bleichréder at 
Berlin, a loan of something like two millions £St. 

With a view to get further securities for the repayment of this 
loan, Rothschild undertook to bring out the last Railway Loan.>? 

aL. L. Sawaszkiewicz, Tableau de Uinfluence de la Pologne sur les destinées de la 
Révolution frangaise et de Empire. 

He stipulated 

1) 4 per cent commission for himself—which, on 12 mill. £St., 
amounts to the nice round sum of 480,000 £St.; 

2) another 5,000£ to be annually paid to him for 80 years for 
his trouble of paying out the coupons. 

Rothschild proceeded very cautiously. He limited the English 
share of the loan to but 4 mill. £St., part of which he took up on 
his own account, while the rest was placed exclusively with 
confederate stockjobbers and City friends. Thus, when the loan 
was thrown on the open market, it was mere child’s play to push it 
quickly to 4 per cent premium. 

Still Rothschild’s anticipations were quite surpassed. So floated 
was he with applications that he expressed his regret of not having 
at once issued a Joan of 20 mill. £St. 

The present financial distress of the Russian government may 
be inferred from the following facts: 

About a year ago the Russian government issued a ‘series’ of 
paper money to be refunded after a certain term of years, and 
amounting to 15 mill. roubles. The official pretext of this new 
issue was that by this operation 15 mill. roubles of the old paper 
assignats should be withdrawn from the market and replaced by a 
more solid sort of currency. But hardly had the ‘series’ been issued 
in the way of state payments, when the Petersburgh Official Gazette* 
declared in a short, dry note that, for the present, no paper 
assignats would be withdrawn. 

During the few lqst months the Russian government has again 
issued no less than 12 new ‘series’ of that new sort of paper 
money, amounting together to 36 mill. roubles. 

The Russian Exchange on London is now 28-29d. per rouble, 
while the par of exchange would be 40d. per rouble. 

One reason of this state of things is avowed by the Russian press 
uself, viz. that, consequent on several bad harvests in the North- 
Eastern provinces, and still more on revival of American competition, 
the Russian corn exports have fallen by '/s. 

Yours truly 
Karl Marx