WINTHROP MORE DANIELS, M.A. NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1899 OCT 8 1910 CAMBRIDGE, MASS Prof. F. W. Taussig Copyright, 1899 BY HENRY HOLT & CO. ROBERT DRUMMOND, PRINTER, NEW YORK. PREFACE. THE present volume owes its origin to the want the author experienced in finding a suitable text for his classes. Such treatises as were at hand proved unsuitable for one or the other of two very different reasons. Either their treatment of financial theory was too detailed, or the scope they allowed to public finance was too narrow to include certain subjects—such as our currency system-which I thought fit to discuss in a somewhat practical manual. So manifold are the obligations I am under to various writers on finance that I shall make no attempt to enumerate them all in this place. I have indicated in the footnotes the sources from which I have drawn much of my material, and have added, here and there, an appreciative comment. It would be unfair, however, not to mention the great assistance I have derived from the writings of Bastable, Seligman, and H. C. Adams. The latter's Science of Finance had not issued from the press when my manuscript went to the printer, and consequently I have been able to insert only a few cross-references to this excellent work while correcting my proofs. I am under special obligations to my friend, Professor Stockton Axson, for his kindly and valuable assistance in reading the proof. PRINCETON, May 15, 1899. W. M. D. |