Abstract: An improved process for the continuous manufacture of polyamides by continuously conveying the aqueous solution of a salt of essentially equivalent amounts of a diamine, or of a mixture of several diamines, and of a dicarboxylic acid, or of a mixture of several dicarboxylic acids, or of mixtures of such salts with lactams and/or aminocarboxylic acids, through several reaction zones under polyamide-forming conditions, wherein the mixture of starting materials is heated, in a first reaction zone, to from 200.degree. to 300.degree. C, preferably from 220.degree. to 280.degree. C, at pressures which are above the corresponding saturation vapor pressure of water and prevent the formation of a vapor phase, the pressure action on the polycondensation mixture is released in a second reaction zone and condensation of the mixture, to form high molecular weight polyamides, is then completed in further reaction stages. According to the invention,A.