[...] I shall say nothing today about my Parisian enterprises: everything still hangs in the balance, although a number of important points will shortly be resolved.
On the other hand, I have a question to put to you and a favour to ask. The great music publishers B. Schott and Sons in Mainz, who have hitherto been hostile towards me, have now approached me with the desire to publish one of my major dramatic compositions. Without further ado, I offered them the “Rhinegold”, with the sole reservation that I myself retain the right to have a complete edition of the entire poem of “the Ring of the Nibelung” published by a bookseller of my choice; and at the same time I asked them what they would pay for it. I am now writing to ask your consent in the event of Schotts’ paying at least 6000 fr. and, in the event of your agreeing - as I hope you will - I would beg you to empower and allow me to undertake a definitive sale of the publishing rights of the “Rhinegold”, on condition that the firm of Schotts pay 6000 fr. to you or your firm without delay. I believe it would be sufficient for you to declare your agreement by letter. [...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 254