KARL MARX

326 KARL MARX: A BIOGRAPHY
commercially, a purely proletarian set-up would be unsuitable here,
however fine it might have been when my wife and I were alone or
when the children were young. 222
Engels duly came to the rescue and went as far as guaranteeing Marx
£200 p.a., with the possibility of another £50. In November 1866 Marx's
hopes were momentarily raised by the death of an aunt in Frankfurt but
the result was only a meagre £12. The family was soon threatened with
eviction and Marx had to get small loans from acquaintances 'as in
the worst refugee period'. 223 The situation was made even worse by the
necessity of keeping up appearances in front of Paul Lafargue, who was
then paying court to Laura. Marx once again expressed a desire to go
bankrupt - but instead ordered champagne and gymnastic lessons for
Laura on the doctor's advice. During 1867 Marx recognised that Engels
had given him 'an enormous sum of money' 224 but claimed that its effect
was negated by his previous debts which amounted to £200. The next
year, on his fiftieth birthday, he bitterly recalled his mother's words, 'if
only Karl had made Capital, instead of just writing about it'. 225 Things
were so bad that Marx seriously considered moving to Geneva. The
poverty was all the more glaring as Marx had become a respected figure
in the neighbourhood, culminating in his election to the prestigious
sinecure of Constable of the vestry of St Pancras. Marx would not accept
the office, agreeing with one of his neighbours that 'I should tell them
that I was a foreigner and that they should kiss me on the arse.' 226
In November 1868 the financial situation became intolerable and
Engels asked Marx to let him know firstly how much he needed to clear
all his debts and secondly whether he could live thereafter on £350 p.a.
(Engels himself enjoyed an income from i860 onwards of never less than
£noo.) 227 Marx described himself as 'quite knocked down', asked Jenny
to calculate their total debts and discovered that they were 'much larger'
than he had imagined. 228 Engels let himself be bought out of Ermen and
Engels earlier than he had anticipated and left the firm - to his immense
jubilation and the popping of champagne corks - on 1 July 1869. Three
weeks later, however, Marx noticed that Jenny was still not managing
with the weekly allowance that he gave her. On pressing her about it,
'the stupidity of women emerged. In the list of debts that she had drawn
up for you, she had suppressed about £75 which she was now trying to
pay off little by little from the house allowance. When I asked why, she
replied that she was frightened to come out with the vast total. Women
plainly always need to be controlled!' 229 Engels accepted this with good
grace and Marx's financial troubles were, at last, finished. It has been