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The three treatises in On the Manipulation of Money and Credit were written in German between 1923 and 1931. Together they include some of Mises's most important contributions to monetary and trade-cycle theories and constitute a precursor to Mises's major work, Human Action. In the first essay, "Stabilization of the Monetary Unit from the Viewpoint of Theory", written during the period of German hyperinflation, Mises discusses the consequences of the fluctuating purchasing power of paper money. He explores such ideas as the outcome of inflation, that is, the result of the increase in the amount of money, and an emancipation of monetary value from the influence of government.
The second essay, "Monetary Stabilization and Cyclical Policy", written in 1928, presents Mises's business-cycle theory. Published on the eve of the Great Depression, the treatise critques schemes for stabilizing prices and for "measuring" purchasing power.
The third piece, "The Causes of the Economic Crisis", is a speech Mises delivered in 1931 exploring the nature and role of the market and cyclical changes in business conditions. He assesses the causes and effects of the crisis of the time and discusses various potential solutions to the problems of the Depression.

That book, titled in German Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel, appeared in 1912. Mises explained there that money was a market phenomenon, which developed out of barter as individuals traded with one another in the attempt to discover something they could use as a medium of exchange. After dealing with money, Mises discussed banking. In this 1912 book he first raised the possibility that the banks might lower interest rates below market rates by increasing their issue of fiduciary media. Mises even considered that a bank might increase the quantity of money so much that its purchasing power might go down to 1/100th of its previous value, or even less if the monetary increases were continued. In that case, he then posited its purchasing power might decline until businesses would avoid it altogether and find something else to use as a medium of exchange. His contemporaries dismissed and discounted this possibility.
…In reading these works, keep in mind that Mises used the term “liberal” in the classical sense to refer to a free society and the term “inflation” to mean an increase in the quantity of money and credit, rather than one of the inevitable consequences of that increase, higher prices. - Bettina Bien Greaves, Foreword, May 2008

Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (1881-1973) was the acknowledged leader of the Austrian School of economic thought, a prodigious originator in economic theory, and a prolific author. Mises’ writings and lectures encompassed economic theory, history, epistemology, government, and political philosophy. His contributions to economic theory include important clarifications on the quantity theory of money, the theory of the trade cycle, the integration of monetary theory with economic theory in general, and a demonstration that socialism must fail because it cannot solve the problem of economic calculation. Mises was the first scholar to recognize that economics is part of a larger science in human action, a science which Mises called “praxeology”. He taught at the University of Vienna and later at New York University. Mises wrote many works on two related economic themes: 1. monetary economics, inflation, and the role of government, and 2. the differences between government-controlled economies and free trade. His influential work on economic freedoms, their causes and consequences, brought him to highlight the interrelationships between economic and non-economic freedoms in societies, and the appropriate role for government.