Letter to Konrad Schmidt, December 9, 1889

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To Konrad Schmidt in Berlin

London, December 9, 1889

Dear Schmidt,

Best thanks for your letter of 10 November. I am glad to hear that you are getting along so well in your journalistic career, only you should make sure you are properly paid, otherwise it’s only half the battle. Journalism is a very useful training ground, particularly for us Germans since we all of us tend to be a bit clumsy (which is why the Jews are so ‘superior’ to us in this sphere too); it makes one more flexible in every way, one gets to know and assess one’s own abilities better and, above all, one learns to do a given piece of work in a given length of time. On the other hand, it can also lead to superficiality because shortage of time accustoms one to dashing off things one knows one has not yet fully mastered. But someone like you with a scientific bent will nevertheless be able to preserve his powers of discrimination and not be tempted to place a dazzling tour de force, calculated for immediate effect and drawn exclusively from the handiest sources, on a par with a scientific work painstakingly produced if outwardly, perhaps, not so brilliant; although here too the cash forthcoming tends to be in inverse proportion to the actual value.

Once you have made a position for yourself in journalism you ought to try and establish contacts that would enable you to return to London for a year or two. It’s pretty well the only place that is any good for the study of political economy. Despite the great advances happily made by German industry during the past 25 years, we still lag behind others—in the customary manner—in this respect too. England has anticipated us in heavy goods, and France in fashion goods; for the export trade, as I once said in an article for the Paris Égalité, our industry could have recourse only to goods that ‘étaient trop mesquins pour les Anglais ou trop vilains pour les Français’. Hence, too, the remarkable phenomenon in Germany that the most notable feature of the present industrial boom is a drop in exports because, with the rise in internal consumption and thanks to protective tariffs, the manufacturers can sell more goods at home at monopolistic prices and are therefore having to sell fewer abroad at give-away prices. Hence all the economic phenomena there are manifested, firstly in a derivative form and, secondly, in a form vitiated by the protective tariff system, and are therefore always special instances nor, save as exceptions and after having been thoroughly purged of irrelevancies, can they be used to demonstrate the general laws and phases of development of capitalist production. Today, more than ever before, free trade has made England the classical field for the study of those laws and this all the more in that England, though in absolute terms still increasing its production, is, in relative terms, definitely declining by comparison with other countries and rapidly becoming a Holland-type nation. However, the decline of British industry is, in my view, coincidental with the collapse of capitalist production generally. And whereas there can be little doubt that Germany will be the ground on which the struggle will be fought out, it may well be in England that the issue is decided.

Which is why it’s so splendid that here too, and at this particular juncture, the movement should have got under way in real earnest and, as I think, for good and all. The strata of working men who are now buckling to are infinitely more numerous, energetic and aware than the old Trades Unions, which represented only the aristocracy of the working class. They have far more drive. Whereas the old men still continue to believe in ‘harmony’, the young deride anyone who mentions an identity of interests between capital and labour. And whereas the old reject all socialists, the young refuse to have anyone at all except avowed socialists for their leaders. Here I have a splendid informant in the person of Tussy, who is deeply involved in the said movement.

As I have already said, do try and come back here. You could risk it if you were to work as correspondent and do various other jobs for the Neue Zeit, Braun’s Archiv and one or two other magazines. We should all—and I especially—be delighted to see you here again.

Sam Moore is in Africa, in Asaba on the Niger, as Chief Justice to the territories of the Royal Niger Company. He left in the middle of June and writes very contentedly; he finds the region salubrious and the company tolerable. Sleeps sweetly, I hope, in a negress’ arms. Otherwise everything here is much as it was. Aveling seems to be doing well with his dramatic endeavours—his last piece, a fortnight ago, was much liked. The Swiss expellees81 are gradually settling down. Time, a monthly controlled by Bax, will be appearing as from 1 January.b With kindest regards

Yours

F. Engels