Since this book was first published in 1898, under the title Thirty Years of American Finance, I have been repeatedly urged to bring the history up to date, in order to cover the remarkable financial episodes of 1901 and afterward. The undertaking did not then seem, feasible, because the movement of events in one direction was so swift that, so to speak, no stopping-place was obtainable for a broad and comprehensive survey of the period. Such a stopping-place seems to have been provided by the panic of 1907. I have therefore undertaken to treat the ten years in American finance, which followed 1897, as I had already treated the thirty years preceding.<br><br>I take this opportunity to thank the numerous educators, public men, and others who have written to me since the publication of the first edition, for their interest in, and appreciation of, what this book has endeavored to accomplish.