A Treatise, on Money

Abstract

MR. KEYNES'S “Treatise on Money”, the fruit of his study and reflection up to date on the part played by currency and credit in contemporary civilisation, is the most important work on monetary theory published since the War, certainly in England and probably throughout the world. Its two volumes, entitled respectively “The Pure Theory of Money” and “The Applied Theory of Money”, are divided into seven books. The first book is concerned with essential definitions; the second investigates what the value of money really means, and how its fluctuations may best be measured; the third and fourth books—which contain the heart of Mr. Keynes's theory—deal with the factors which determine the value of money and the dynamics of changing price-levels; the fifth and sixth are taken up with a study of the statistical and non-statistical data bearing on changes in the quantity of money and its velocity of circulation, in the volume of production and trade, and in the rate of investment; while the seventh and last book contains Mr. Keynes's proposals for the practical reforms which he would like to see the ultimate monetary authorities of the world adopt in order to achieve the objectives at which, in his opinion, monetary policy should aim.

A Treatise, on Money.

John Maynard Keynes. Vol. I: The Pure Theory of Money. Pp. xvii + 363. Vol. 2: The Applied Theory of Money. Pp. viii + 424. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1930.) 15s. net each vol.