Marx was coming around to the idea that one of his assertions, that capitalism would break in its birthplaces, was incorrect. It took Engels and Lenin to put a greater focus on imperialism, and formulate a lot of the original ideas around labor aristocracy.
Where was that first quote from Marx from
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1869/letters/69_12_10-abs.htm
Marx was coming around to the idea that one of his assertions, that capitalism would break in its birthplaces, was incorrect. It took Engels and Lenin to put a greater focus on imperialism, and formulate a lot of the original ideas around labor aristocracy.