Marx-Engels Correspondence 1891

Engels to Nikolai Danielson

Abstract

Source: Marx Engels On Literature and Art, Progress Publishers, 1976;
Transcribed: by Andy Blunden.

October 29-31, 1891

Very interesting are your notes on the apparent contradiction that, with you, a good harvest does not necessarily mean a lowering of the price of corn. When we study the real economic relations in various countries and at various stages of civilisation, how singularly erroneous and deficient appear the rationalistic generalisations of the 18th century — good old Adam Smith who took the conditions of Edinburgh and the Lothians as the normal ones, of the universe! Well, Pushkin already knew that:

“Of gold what has he
any use
Whose wealth consists
of nature’s produce?
His son the father failed to understand
And mortgaged every acre of his land.”