Aus:
The Economist, 12. Oktober 1867. S. 1153/1154.
Schließen

The Money Market here and in France.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen (Credit Mobilier etc) (Cotton, Wheat etc)

The Credit Mobilier Co. (in France) was raised up to be a kind of Providence in the moneymarket, and its stoppage, therefore, troubles people. It was raised up, according to its original programme, to „regenerate industry“, and it was known to have the Gvt. aid in so doing. Its original statutes are full of the most patriotic aims … L. Bonaparte patronised the Crédit Mobilier, and we see the result. A pretty full list of the shares it holds has been given, and greater rubbish could not have been collected, worse even than those of our Finance Cos. They, at least, have had no political aspect, but the Crédit Mobilier has. It is the representative of the „Imperial Initiative“, and when it fails, the Empire is damaged.

The state of the Cotton Trade, of Liverpool especially, is gloomy. Cotton has been falling in price rapidly. In Indian cotton, it is probable that many have been obliged to sell to meet bills drawn upon them, and it is not yet at all clear that the price has gone down to the point at which the manufacturers will begin to work. Before the cotton famine we had „Three years’ clothes in advance for the human race“. Beforehand, this great supply was called overproduction; but it had the best effect. It enable enabled us to get through the cotton famine with ease otherwise impossible. But until the whole world is satisfied that cotton has reached its final fall, no similar stock will again be accumulated. The fall in the raw material is ruining many, but no corresponding augmentation of our manufacture occupies our surplus capital or employs our population.

Wheat crop bad (barley und oats good.) Our foreign purchases will have to be large. The largest augmentation (in wheat import) is from Russia; and the Russian exchange almost never rises to the point at which gold goes. Large orders, too, are gone to California.

Slack Employment: The bad state of credit has, undoubtedly, made the employment of the people worse than it has been for a long time. In some departments, f.i. iron trade, the prospects are improving. Still, compared mit late years, employment will be bad, and consumption too. This evil is of a self-intensifying kind. The worse any trade is, the less those engaged in it can spend on other things, and the worse, therefore, the trade in such other things will be also.

Aus:
The Economist, 5. Oktober 1867. S. 1121.
Schließen

L. Bonaparte’s Cost.

 Zusammenfassung von Marx in eigenen Worten.
Schließen Der Economist sagt in einer früheren Nummer, daß L. B. Europa, on average, 40 Mill. £. St. gekostet hat in Rüstungen, Armies, Krieg etc.

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Oktober 1867. S. 1155.
Schließen

Our Wheat Crop.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen (Lawes’ Experimental fields)

Mr. Lawes’ experimental fields in Hertfordshire consist of land of fair quality on a chalk subsoil, which has also been artificially drained, and for 24 years wheat has been grown, year after year, on one portion of the land without any manure; on another portion, with a yearly dressing of farm yard manure; and on several other portions, with dressings of artificial manures, varying on each portion, but the dressing on each constituting in fact high farming. In other respects, |170 each portion is treated like every other. „As the preparation of the land“  Zusatz von Marx. Marx exzerpierte John Bennet Lawes’ Artikel in „The Times“ vom 5. Oktober 1867 im Januar/Februar 1868 in „Heft I. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 360).
Schließen (dieß alles aus J. B. Lawes, of Rothamsted, Herts, Letter to Times) „the quantity of seed sown, the time of sowing, and every other operation is each year the same for all the plots, the difference of result between plot and plot in the same year is due to the difference in manuring; and as the operations are also conducted, as far as possible, in the same way from year to year, the variation in the produce of one year compared with another should represent the variation of the climatic conditions or season.“ Lawes notices that von 1860 to 1863, there was a progressively increasing yield from year to year; the great crop of 1863 having been the largest grown during the whole series of 24 years, while the subsequent 5 crops show a progressively declining yield. There is little doubt that these cycles of advancing and declining crops are due to season, and that the same results will be found to have occurred in the ordinary farm crops during the same seasons.

On the plot unmanured crop of 1866 bushels 121/8 of dressed corn per acre, in 1867 only 87/8 bushels, decline of nearly 1/3. Average produce of the unmanured land for 15 years, 1852–1866 was 151/4 bushels per acre; that of 1863, the largest, was 171/4 bushels. On the plot manured with 14 tons of farm yard manure to the acre, produce in 1866 was 325/8 bush., in 1867 bush. 271/2. On the plot dressed with artificial manure, the highest farmed and most productive, 1866 321/2, in 1867 291/8 bush. p. acre – the average crops for 15 years on the 2 last plots being 355/8 und 361/8 per acre respectively – falling off in this year, compared mit last year, but the proportion of deficiency is nothing like so great on the „unmanured“, i.e., ill-farmed land. The produce of 1867 is not only less than that of any of the 4 preceding years, but also „very inferior to the average of the preceding 15 years“. The produce without manure is unusually low, „indicating that the season was specially unfavourable for the crop on lands out of condition“. The quality of the grain, as show shown by the weight, per bushel, is above the average in every case, except where there was no manure employed. On the unmanured land, the wheat this year was 56-1 lbs per bushel, against an average for 15 years 75-5 lbs p. bush. Here again, we see the greatest loss from season falls on the poor farmer. Lawes estimated the crop of 1866 at 10% below the average, fears the present will be 20% less than the average.

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Oktober 1867. S. 1155/1156.
Schließen

Money and Trades Unions.

If the Trades’ Unions can, as they say, „raise the price of all things“, where do they get the money to pay that augmented price? Under a metallic circulation, as a rule, higher prices require more of the precious metals. The operations of the Trades’ Union have no tendency to improve Banking. The „consumer“, as he existed before the rise of prices, cannot find the money. He is very commonly a person mit fixed income. If he buys less of one thing, he must buy more of another. The new money must be found, either by making the miner work harder and so bring fresh gold into the world, or by changing the distribution of gold, and diverting to the country affected by the Trades’ Unions a part of the gold which used to go elsewhere. Beides unmöglich. Wenn the Trades Unions can cause a general rise of price, how will they get more gold for the same things?  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen (Der Esel hätte sagen sollen: How they get more things for more gold.)

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Oktober 1867. S. 1159/1160.
Schließen

The State and the Currency. (Communicated)

Mr. Patterson in Fortnightly [Review] (July, 1867) proposes: „That the State should secure the substantial value of the note circulation, by requiring that every bank of issue shall deposit with a Gvt. office an amount of Consols fully equal to its note issue, at the same time allowing each bank to security secure the convertibility of its own notes, by keeping in |171 inhand hand so much gold as experience shows in each case to be requisite.“

What we (the State Currency men gegen Patterson) propose is, that all banknotes above a certain amount to be fixed by the H.o.C. should be issued by Gvt. in exchange for properly assayed gold, 22 carats fine, at the rate of 77s. 101/2d. p. ounce, exactly as sovereigns are now issued by the Mint in exchange for the same kind of gold at the same rate. Giving banknotes in exchange for bullion at the exact value of this last per standard ounce, and which is to lie idle in a vault as long as the amount of banknotes which represents it is in circulation, is a very different thing from being a dealer in bullion, nor does it involve any transactions in either home or foreign securities. The H.o.C. must determine what amount of banknotes may be issued against securities other than gold coin or bullion  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen (Blödsinn!), and this amount banknotes should be unalterable without their consent. The duty of the Gvt. would be simply to take care that any one who wanted banknotes for bullion or gold coin should be able to get them, or vice versa. This could be arranged by 3 issuing establishments at London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, where stores of bullion, gold coin, and banknotes should be kept for the purpose of being exchanged one for the other according to the wants of the public. The State banknotes legal tender everywhere but at the issuing establishments; here they would be simple certificates on gold. They should go as low as one sovereign; dadurch holders of banknotes kept away from the issuing establishments until they required gold for exportation, and the tedious process of changing 5£ St notes into sovereigns, and back again into 5£ notes, would be thereby avoided. Any one who lived in Scotland or Ireland, will admit the 1l. notes’ convenience of carriage and superiority to sovereigns, often light, and to be weighed. The legitimate business of a banker to lend and borrow money already in existence. To each of the 3 issuing departments, there should be a Gvt Clearing House Department, open to all bankers on payment of an annual fee; they should be permitted to settle with each other by drafts on the reserves they have previously lodged at the Clearing House Department, such drafts to be payable to Clearing bankers only.