The present Work may, in some points of view, be considered as an enlargement and continuation of one which was published fifteen years ago under the title of Thoughts and Details on the High and Low Prices of the Last Thirty Years, inasmuch as it embraces the same line of argument, and proposes to establish the same conclusions, but it is essentially different, both in its arrangement and in its details. The view now presented of the operation on prices of the more general causes, precedes instead of following, as in that work it did, the statements bearing upon the period more immediately under consideration: while the details are here placed in chronological order, and in historical connection, embracing a much wider collection of illustrative facts, more especially of those relating to the state of the circulation; with a continuation of the narrative of events in their relation to prices, and to the state of the circulation, in the fifteen years which have elapsed since the publication of the above-named Work. In fact, with the exception of a very small part, the whole of that which is now submitted to the public, has been written afresh, and has therefore every claim to be considered as a new Work.