[lbo-talk] Missing Passage in English Versions of Capital

Angelus Novus fuerdenkommunismus at yahoo.com
Sun Feb 26 05:36:33 PST 2012


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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