How to Pay for the War developed from two long articles that Keynes wrote for The Times, which appeared 14 and 15 November 1939. These led to a voluminous correspondence and Keynes enlarged his ideas in the form of a small book published in February 1940. The original articles will be found in volume XXII.

How to Pay for the War was produced so hurriedly in the confused conditions of the time that many small errors crept into the text. As far as possible, these have been corrected, primarily from lists of errors in Keynes's Papers. A list of these corrections appears as Appendix V.

Brethren, Friends, Countrymen and Fellow Subjects,

What I intend now to say to you, is, next to your Duty to God, and the Care of your Salvation, of the greatest Concern to your selves, and your Children; your Bread and Cloathing, and every common Necessary of Life entirely depend upon it. Therefore I do most earnestly exhort you as Men, as Christians, as Parents, and as Lovers of your Country, to read this Paper with the utmost Attention, or get it read to you by others; which that you may do at the less Expence, I have ordered the Printer to sell it at the lowest Rate. […]