The passage (or lack of it!) is in Volume 1 on page 920 of the Fowkes translation. It is not omitted in the Eden and Cedar Paul edition, where it reads: 'At about the date when, in England, people gave up the practice of burning witches, they began to hang the forgers of banknotes.' (p. 837)
In the French edition translated by Roy and introduced by Althusser, it appears on page 561 and reads: 'Dans le meme temps qu'on cessait en Angleterre de bruler les sorcieres, on commenca a y pendre les falsificateurs de billets de banque.' I would interpret this passage, following Marx, to mean that the formation of the Bank of England came at a time when the early accumulation of capital to create a national hoard, carried out in part through the burning of women of means, had been more or less accomplished, and so attention shifted to protecting the accumulated capital, the coining of money, creation of credit, and monopoly manipulation by the speculators who formed the Bank -- hence death to forgers who threatened this monopoly. Gary Begin forwarded message: > > > where in CAPITAL (volume 3?) should this passage appear? > > On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 5:36 AM, Angelus Novus > <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> In the German original text, when Marx writes about the historical role of >> the Bank of England, there is the following passage: >> >> "Allmählich wurde sie der unvermeidliche Behälter der Metallschätze des >> Landes und das Gravitationszentrum des gesamten Handelskredits. Um >> dieselbe Zeit, wo man in England aufhörte, Hexen zu verbrennen, fing man >> dort an, Banknotenfälscher zu hängen." >> >> The first sentence is reproduced both in the Ben Fowkes and Edward Aveling >> translations. In the Aveling translation at the MIA, it reads as follows: >> >> "Gradually it became inevitably >> the receptacle of the metallic hoard of the country, and the centre of >> gravity of all commercial credit." >> >> The second sentence is **missing from both English translations**. It >> means: "In England, at the same time that the burning of witches ceased, >> counterfeiters of bank notes were starting to be hanged." >> >> So I checked the Spanish edition, translated by Wenceslao Roces, and the >> missing sentence is there: "Por los años en que Inglaterra dejaba de quemar >> brujas, comenzaba a colgar falsificadores de billetes de banco." >> >> >> Does anybody know what the story is as to why this passage is missing from >> **both** English translations? Can you all confirm its absence or presence >> in other languages? >> _______________________________________________ >> pen-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > >
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