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Special pages :
On Certain Peculiarities in England's Economic and Political Development
| Author(s) | Frederick Engels Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 12 September 1892 |
Printed according to the manuscript
Source : Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 27
This draft, the first part of which was dated September 12, 1892 by Engels himself, echoes, in substance, the âPreface to the Second German Edition (1892) of The Condition of the Working-Class in Englandâ (see this volume, pp. 307-23).
It was first published in English in: K. Marx and F. Engels, On Britain, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1953, p. 483.
Owing to its eternal compromises, the kind of gradual, peaceful political development that takes place in England gives rise to a situation full of contradictions; because of its overwhelming advantages this situation can be practically tolerated within certain limits, but its logical absurdities cause much anguish to the thinking mind. Hence, the need of all "state-supporting" parties for a theoretical cloak, a justification, which, naturally, can be provided only through sophisms, distortions, and enfin by dubious tricks. Thus, a literature is being cultivated in the political field that repeats all the wretched hypocrisy and untruthfulness of theological apologetics, and which also transplants the theological intellectual vices to a mundane soil. Thus the soil of the specific liberal hypocrisy is fertilised, sown and cultivated by the Conserva-tives themselves. And thus is theological apologetics offered an argument, produced by ordinary minds, which it lacks in other lands. What of it if the facts related in the gospel and the dogmas preached in the New Testament in general contradict each other? Does that make the muntrue? The English Constitution contains many more inconsistencies and constantly contradicts itself, but continues to exist and, hence, is true!
September 12, 1892
The absence of crises since 1868 is also due to the expansion of the world market, which distributes the surplus English, respectively European, capital in transport investment, etc., throughout the world and also among a whole mass of other branches of investment. This has made a crisis impossible owing to excessive speculation in railways, banking, etc., or in specifically American investments, or in Indian trade, but small crises, such as the Argentinian,[1] have become possible for the past three years. But all this proves that a giant crisis is in the making.
- â Engels is referring to the financial crisis which hit Argentina in 1889-90 and produced a panic on the money market, severe inflation, mass bankruptcies and the termination of national debt repayments. It was part of the world economic crisis of 1890 and served to aggravate the latter, especially in England, which had large investments in Argentina. The crisis of 1889-90 exacerbated Argentina's economic enslavement to European finance capital.