The work that I present to the public in its first volume is a continuation of my writing Zur Kritik der Politischen Oekonomie [Critique of Political Economy] published in 1859. The long interval between the beginning and the continuation is due to a lengthy illness that periodically interrupted my work.

The content of that previous work is summarized in the first chapter of this volume. This was done not only for reasons of coherence and completeness. The description has improved. As circumstances somewhat allowed, many points that were merely touched upon previously are elaborated upon here, while conversely, points that were explored in depth there are merely mentioned here.

Of course, the sections on the history of the theory of value and money are now omitted. However, the reader of the previous work will find in the footnotes of the first chapter new sources opening up for the history of this theory.

[Excerpt from the text of the preface]