Of course in the 18th-c the number of ‘crimes’ suffering death rose to a
fantastic number. 

 

Carol

 

  _____  

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of gary teeple
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 12:28 PM
To: Progressive Economics
Subject: [Pen-l] Fwd: Missing Passage in English Versions of Capital

 

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?

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