Mises wrote this book for the ages, and it remains the most spirited, thorough, and scientifically rigorous treatise on money to ever appear. It made his reputation across Europe and established him as the most important economist of his age.

We think this Mises Institute edition is the most beautiful, by far, of any edition in print. It is the first English edition, complete with an explanatory foreword by Murray Rothbard and a preface by Douglas French. The size, look, and feel are just perfect, at once classic and very modern, in a case-wrapped hardback. And the price beats everything.

This classic treatise on monetary theory remains the definitive book on the foundations of monetary theory, and the first really great integration of microeconomics and macroeconomics. As Rothbard points out in his introduction to "the best book on money ever written," economists have yet to absorb all its lessons.

Mises shows how money had its origin in the market, and how its value is based on its usefulness as a commodity in exchange. In a step-by-step manner, Mises presents the case for sound money with no inflation, and presents the beginnings of a full-scale business cycle theory. This edition includes Mises's early blueprint, improved later in life, for a return to a fully backed gold standard and competitive banking.

The contents of this essential opus include:

• Part One: The Nature of Money
  • 1. The Function of Money
  • 2. On the Measurement of Value
  • 3. The Various Kinds of Money
  • 4. Money and the State
  • 5. Money as an Economic Good
  • 6. The Enemies of Money

• Part Two: The Value of Money
  • 7. The Concept of the Value of Money
  • 8. The Determinants of the Objective Exchange Value, or Purchasing Power, of Money
  • 9. The Problem of the Existence of Local Differences in the Objective Exchange Value of Money
  • 10. The Exchange Ration Between Money of Different Kinds
  • 11. The Problem of Measuring the Objective Exchange Value of Money
  • 12. The Social Consequences of Variations in the Objective Exchange Value of Money
  • 13. Monetary Policy
  • 14. The Monetary Policy of Etatism

• Part Three: Money and Banking
  • 15. The Business of Banking
  • 16. The Evolution of Fiduciary Media
  • 17. Fiduciary Media and the Demand for Money
  • 18. The Redemption of Fiduciary Media
  • 19. Money, Credit, and Interest
  • 20. Problems of Credit Policy

• Part Four: Monetary Reconstruction
  • 21. The Principle of Sound Money
  • 22. Contemporary Currency Systems
  • 23. The Return to Sound Money

• Appendix A. On the Classification of Monetary Theories

Publication Information

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953.