First published 1996
Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics
Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics by George Reisman is available as a free PDF, EPUB, and Kindle download at freecapitalists.org. The file here is the TJS Books edition.
- George Reisman
- First published
- 1996
- Edition here
- TJS Books edition
- Format
- PDF, EPUB, and Kindle
- Pages
- 1,046
- ISBN
- 978-1-931089-60-9
- Publisher
- TJS Books
- License
- Still in copyright. Published here by permission of George Reisman, granted 2026-09-08.
Markets, trade & industry Austrian theory & method
George Reisman was a student of Mises's, a translator of his work, and, as he demonstrates in this outstanding treatise, a leading theorist in the Misesian tradition. This mammoth exposition deals with the method and theory of economics, and particularly excels in its application to matters of policy. Its sections on price controls, money, banking, and environmentalism apply Misesian theory to new times and new literature. The author deals patiently but devastatingly with the arguments of the interventionists. The end result is an integrated understanding of the theory and ethics of the capitalist economy.
Which edition this is
The file served here is the author's own TJS Books edition
Source: . Verified 2026-09-08.
Also freely available from The author's own publisher, capitalism.net.
Chapter by chapter
What's in Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics
20 chapters. Page numbers are this edition's.
- Part One: The Foundations of Economics
-
Economics and Capitalismp. 15
Defines economics as the science that studies the production of wealth under a division of labor, and argues the subject cannot be separated from the institutions that make a division of labor possible. Includes the case that economic and political freedom are indivisible.
-
Wealth and Its Role in Human Lifep. 39
Argues that because reason gives man an open-ended capacity for new needs, the desire for wealth has no natural ceiling, and that this, rather than any fixed stock of things, is what sets economics its central problem.
-
Natural Resources and the Environmentp. 63
Holds that the supply of usable natural resources is set by knowledge and capital rather than by physical stock, and mounts a sustained critique of the environmental movement as an attack on the value of economic progress itself.
- Part Two: The Division of Labor and Capitalism
-
The Division of Labor and Productionp. 123
Traces the productivity of labor to the division of labor: multiplied knowledge, the leverage of genius, geographical specialization, economies of learning, and machinery. Answers the charge that specialization stunts the worker.
-
The Dependence of the Division of Labor on Capitalism Ip. 135
Shows the division of labor depends on private ownership of the means of production, saving, money, competition, and the freedom to be unequal, then lays the price-theory groundwork of demand, supply, and cost.
-
The Dependence of the Division of Labor on Capitalism II: The Price System and Economic Coordinationp. 172
The uniformity principles. Argues a free price system coordinates production with no planner: a uniform rate of profit sizes each industry to consumer demand, and speculation pulls prices toward uniformity across places and over time.
-
The Dependence of the Division of Labor on Capitalism III: Price Controls and Economic Chaosp. 219
Argues shortages are caused by price controls rather than by greed, hoarding, or conspiracy, and works the case through the 1970s oil and natural-gas crises, wartime rationing, and rent control.
-
The Dependence of the Division of Labor on Capitalism IV: Socialism, Economic Chaos, and Totalitarian Dictatorshipp. 267
Identifies socialism with universal price control, argues the resulting economic chaos drives a socialist state toward terror and forced labor, and closes with a program for privatizing a communist economy.
-
The Influence of the Division of Labor on the Institutions of Capitalismp. 296
Defends private ownership of the means of production, inheritance, and land rent on the ground that those who own nothing gain most from them. Then treats economic inequality, competition, comparative advantage, and free immigration.
-
Monopoly Versus Freedom of Competitionp. 375
Argues monopoly is a political phenomenon built out of government franchises, licensing, tariffs, and antitrust law, and rejects both the predatory-pricing doctrine and the model of perfect competition that condemns real firms for not resembling it.
-
The Division of Labor and the Concept of Productive Activityp. 441
Rebuilds the concepts of productive activity, capital goods, and consumers' goods, then argues from inside classical economics that profit, not wages, is the original and primary form of income. This is the argument that takes apart the Marxian exploitation theory.
- Part Three: The Process of Economic Progress
-
Money and Spendingp. 503
The quantity theory of money, the origin of money and of the present banking system, and a critique of the balance-of-payments doctrine. Introduces invariable money, the analytical device the rest of Part Three runs on.
-
Productionism, Say's Law, and Unemploymentp. 542
Defends production rather than consumption as the source of demand, restates Say's Law and the cases said to refute it, and argues mass unemployment comes from interference with wage rates rather than from any deficiency of spending.
-
The Productivity Theory of Wagesp. 603
Argues real wages are determined by the productivity of labor, which rests on capital accumulation, so wages rose under capitalism rather than through unions or legislation. Includes the critique of minimum-wage, maximum-hours, and child-labor law.
-
Aggregate Production, Aggregate Spending, and the Role of Saving in Spendingp. 673
Attacks national-income accounting for treating consumption as the bulk of spending, argues that saving and productive expenditure are the larger part of aggregate demand, and turns that result against the Keynesian multiplier.
-
The Net-Consumption/Net-Investment Theory of Profit and Interestp. 719
The book's most original theoretical chapter. Derives the economy-wide rate of profit from net consumption and net investment rather than from the supply of and demand for capital, and sets the result against both the productivity and the time-preference theories.
-
Applications of the Invariable-Money/Net-Consumption Analysisp. 809
Applies that theory: why capital accumulation does not drive the rate of profit to zero, how taxing profits and running budget deficits raise it, and why savings cannot outrun the uses for savings.
-
Keynesianism: A Critiquep. 863
Takes the IS-LM apparatus, the marginal efficiency of capital, the paradox of thrift, and liquidity preference in turn, and argues Keynesian policy consumes capital rather than securing full employment.
-
Gold Versus Inflationp. 895
Defines inflation as an increase in the quantity of money and disposes of the cost-push, wage-push, velocity, and consumer-greed alternatives, then makes the case for a 100-percent-reserve gold standard.
- Epilogue
-
Toward the Establishment of Laissez-Faire Capitalismp. 969
The political program: privatization, abolition of the welfare state and of income and inheritance taxes, gold as money, and separation of state from education and science, argued as a campaign to be fought on principle rather than expediency.
Questions
About this book and this copy
- Is Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics free to download?
- Yes. The complete book downloads from this page with no signup, no account and no paywall. George Reisman gave permission for it to be published here.
- Which edition of Capitalism is this?
- The author's own TJS Books edition, copyright 2024 and 1996, ISBN 978-1-931089-60-9. It is not the 1996 Jameson Books first printing. The text runs to 1,046 numbered pages in 20 chapters.
- Is Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics in the public domain?
- No. George Reisman holds the copyright and the edition reserves all rights. He gave permission on 2026-09-08 for this archive to publish the book and to convert it to other formats, on the condition that the PDF stays available. That permission covers this archive: it is not a licence to the public, and the book is neither public domain nor Creative Commons.
- How long is Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics?
- 1,046 numbered pages plus xl pages of front matter, in 20 chapters across three parts and an epilogue. It is a full treatise on economics rather than an introduction, though each chapter is written to be read on its own.
- Where else can I read Capitalism for free?
- George Reisman publishes the complete book as a free PDF on his own publisher's site, capitalism.net. That copy is locked against printing and copying; the copy here is not.
- What is the argument of Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics?
- That the productivity of labor, and so the standard of living, rests on the division of labor, which in turn depends on private ownership of the means of production and a free price system. Reisman builds that case from the classical economists and Ludwig von Mises, and adds his own net-consumption theory of profit in Chapter 16.
- Who wrote Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics?
- George Reisman (born 1937) took his doctorate at New York University under Ludwig von Mises, whose Epistemological Problems of Economics he translated into English. This archive holds 4 of Reisman's works.
Further reading: Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics on The Austrian Economics Wiki.
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