The acknowledgments of the translator are due, in the first place, to the eminent author himself, for the revision of the plate-proof of the entire work, and then to Professor WILLIAM F. ALLEN, of the University of Wisconsin, for his interest in the progress of the enterprise, and for many valuable suggestions; also to Professor W. G. SUMNER, of Yale College, for some excellent hints as to the best translation of certain words in the Appendix on Paper Money. AUTHOR’S PREFACE. (1ST EDITION.) My _System der Volkswirthschaft_ shall, _Deo volente_, be completed in four parts. The second shall contain the national economy of agriculture and the related branches of natural production; the third, the national economy of industry and commerce; the fourth, of the economy of the state and of the commune (_Gemeindehaushalt_). While the entire work shall constitute one systematic whole, each part shall have its own appropriate title, constitute an independent treatise, and be sold separately. Of the peculiar method which I have followed in this work, and which will produce still better fruits in the succeeding volumes, I have given a sufficient explanation in §§ 26 ff., and all I desire now is to say a few words on the relation the notes bear to the text. The careful reader will soon be convinced that of the many citations in this work, not one has been made from a vain desire of the display of erudition. Part of them serves as the necessary proof of surprising facts adduced, but which are little known. Another part of them is intended to incite the reader to the study of certain questions nearly related to those treated in the text, but which are still different from them. The object of the greater number is to supply information concerning the history of economic principles. As far as the sources at my command permitted, I have endeavored to point out the first germs, the chief stages of development, the contrasts, and, finally, what has been thus far attained in economic science. This sometimes required some little victory over self, inasmuch as I was conscious of having independently discovered certain facts, when I afterwards found that some old and long-forgotten writer had made similar observations. Thus, this work may serve both as a handbook and as a history of the literature of Political Economy. Students of the science know how little has thus far been done by writers in this direction. And hence I shall be very grateful to those who labor in the same field, if they will, either by writing to me personally, or through the medium of the press, inform me when I have erred in ascribing a truth, or a scientifically important error, to its earliest author.