London, 28 November 1878 

* My dear Sir, 

I have received the three books with best thanks.* I was 
prepared, by some Russian friends, to expect, on the part of Mr 
Tshitscherin, a very feeble production, but my expectations have 
been surpassed. He is evidently unacquainted with the very 
elements of Political Economy and fancies that, by being edited 
under his name, the trivialities of the Bastiat school become 
transformed into original and self-evident truths. 

Last week I was prevented from looking at the Capital. I have 
now done so, and find that—save the changes which the translator 
must make by comparing the second German edition with the 
French one—only a very few alterations are necessary, the which 
you will find later on in this letter. 

The two first sections* (‘Commodities and Money’ and ‘The 
Transformation of Money into Capital’) *are to be translated 
exclusively from the German text. There, p. 86,* line 5 from bottom 
read: ‘And, as a matter of fact, the value of each single yard is but 
the materialised form of a part of the social labour expended on 
the whole number of yards.’ *” 

In Chapter XVI of the French edition (not contained in 
Chapter XIV of the German edition) the added passage on J. St. 
Mill, p. 222, column II, line 12 from bottom, should read: ‘I always 
assume, he says, the actual state of affairs which predominates 
wherever workers and capitalists are distinct classes, etc.!’>** 
* The following two sentences, viz.:* ‘It is a strange optical illusion 
to see everywhere a state of affairs which as yet exists as an 
exception in this world of ours! But to continue’—* are to be struck 
out, and the following sentence is to be read thus: * 

‘Mr Mill would like to think there is no absolute necessity that 
such should be the case—even in an economic system where 
workers and capitalists are distinct classes.’ *°” 

a Céopruxs zocydapcmeennoixd 3naniti, vols V and VI, 1878, containing B. N. Chiche- 
rin’s articles ‘Humeukie couiaauctpr: I. Aaccaab’ and ‘Htmeukie couiaancri: II. 
Kapab Mapxcr’, and A. Chuprov’s book /Kers3nodopoocnoe xosaiicmeo, Vol. II. - 
b Here and below Marx quotes from the French edition of Capital in French. 

The crisis and ensuing work stoppages, the closure of factories 
and bankruptcies * proceed boisterously in the industrial counties, 
but here at London, in order not to frighten the general public, 
the newspapers do their best to hush these unpleasant but 
stubborn ‘incidents’. One reading only the London money articles 
gets indeed but very scanty information. 

Yours most sincerely, 

F A. Williams* ?*