I was amused to read this on the web site of Is this Jersey?:
Watchers of this excellent website might be interested to learn about a little Jersey history secret. Karl Marx visited Jersey twice, once in October 1857 and next in August 1879, a gap of 22 years in between. The first time he came over with Engels and stayed at 3 Edward Place, the Parade - there should perhaps be a plaque there.
Marx stayed in the Island for only 4 to 5 days that first time but Engels remained from October to November. Engels wrote to Marx during his stay, mentioning their friends the Chartist George Harney (a one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind, as they referred to him and his Jersey residency) and German socialist Conrad Schramm.
Engels wrote, for example :
There is a lot of amusement to be got out of this posthumous feudal set-up...and the whole mess is endlessly ridiculous.
Plus ca change!
Agreed.
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In fact the revolutionary duo visited Jersey even earlier than 1857, staying at what is now the Trafalgar Hotel in Saint Aubin. In September 1874, Engels re-visited Jersey alone, and wrote to Marx that:
Jersey has changed a great deal since we were there together. A vast amount of building . . big hotels . High, almost English, prices in them, everything also much more expensive in the market.
The respectability standards of Jersey visitors seems to decline each year…
Fred
Shortly thereafter there was a local banking collapse and the island’s economy went into decline for over a half century, surviving largely on the export earnings of the delicious Jersey Royal.
A similar inflationary wave built up in the 1980s when the States of Jersey licensed dozens of new banks to operate in the island. Property and labour market prices rose to central London prices again, and the island’s future now hangs on a thread: a single decision taken in Brussels could put the island back into long term recession.
Jersey has always suffered from being led by a small elite who pursue their own self-interest by selling the island down the river to voracious carpet-baggers from London.
Plus ?ßa change indeed.
John