In my haste to post the 250th artifact, the MIT economics faculty group picture of 1976, I incorrectly identified the Associate Dean of the Sloan School. For subscribers that means you either need to note that “Abraham Siegel” and not “Jeremy Siegel” is the correct identification or go back to the posting.
Surely this is a teachable moment: it is worth checking back if you are interested in some particular post. As a rule my post-posting corrections are done without fanfare.
Back Row: Harold FREEMAN, Hal VARIAN, Jerome ROTHENBERG, Peter DIAMOND, Jerry HAUSMAN
4th Row: Paul JOSKOW, Anne FRIEDLAENDER, JOHN R. MORONEY (VISITOR TO DEPARTMENT)
3rd Row: Stanley FISCHER, Jagdish BHAGWATI, Rudiger DORNBUSCH, Robert SOLOW, Robert HALL
2nd Row: Edward KUH, Morris ADELMAN, Abraham J. SIEGEL, Richard ECKAUS, Martin WEITZMAN
1st Row: Evsey DOMAR, Paul SAMUELSON, Charles KINDLEBERGER, E. Cary BROWN, Franco MODIGLIANI, Sydney ALEXANDER, Robert BISHOP
Apparently didn’t get the memo and/or not pictured: Michael PIORE, Frank FISHER, Peter TEMIN.
Thanks to Robert Solow, the photo-bomber standing to Solow’s left in the picture has been identified as a guest from Tulane University, John Moroney. It is possible that I forgot some other person not included in this faculty picture.
I note that the entire front row has gone to that great Department of Economics in the Cloud.
Source: A graduate student buddy of mine who entered the MIT Ph.D. program in 1975/76.
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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled of which this is the 250th. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….
When John Bates Clark held lectures on the theory of distribution at Johns Hopkins University in autumn 1892, he was also holding down two academic jobs in Massachusetts where he was Professor of Political Science and History at Smith College and Professor of Political Economy at Amherst College.
One presumes what he taught in his Hopkins course were his papers “The Law of Wages and Interest” (Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1890) and “Distribution as Determined by a Law of Rent” (Quarterly Journal of Economics, April 1891) as well as his response to Walker’s criticism (QJE, July 1891) published as “The Statics and the Dynamics of Distribution” (QJE, October 1891).
Source: John Bates Clark: A Memorial. Privately printed, p. 10. For Smith College, see the faculty list in Smith College, Official Circular, No. 19 (1892), p. 50.
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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….
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A topical analysis of the subject, with references to important authorities, is made the basis of the work. In the class-room the course is carried on by means of recitations, discussions, lectures, abstracts, essays, and frequent examinations. A syllabus of the results attained is placed in the hands of each student daily.
First Term: four hours a week. — Economic Theory. An analysis of industrial society, the aim of which is thorough acquaintance with the Principles of PoliticalEconomy and correct methods of analysis. — Mill, Walker, Clark, Marshall.
Second Term: four hours a week. — The Silver Question; the Problem of Distribution; the Principles of Taxation, with especial reference to the Tariff Question; Theories of Free Trade and Protection; the History of Tariff Legislation in the United States; the Existing Tariff; Public Credit.
The work of this term is open to those only who have taken the first term.
Third Term: four hours a week. — The Theory of Distribution; the Labor Question; Socialism; Social Reform; Immigration.
The work of this term is open to those only who have taken the first term.
Source: Catalogue of Amherst College for the Year 1892-93, pp. 31-32.
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It was the object of the course to demonstrate the working of the forces that apportion the income of society among various claimants. To most men the gaining of a personal income presents itself as a process in distribution. A man does not keep the things that he himself produces, but secures for his own use a share of the things that others produce. The amount of the income appears to vary according to the terms that the recipient is able to make with those with whom he deals. That some law governs those terms is generally believed; but an accepted theory of distribution is lacking.
The course tried to make it clear that the law that is sought connects distribution with production. It causes the share of the social income that one recipient would receive, if conditions were quite normal, to correspond with the amount that he has contributed toward the creation of that income. Under natural law a man consumes things that other people make; but he gets and uses the value, or abstract quantum of wealth, that he himself brings into existence. “To each his product” is the rule, under free exchange and perfect competition.
In studying the mechanism by which this effect is secured, it is necessary, first, to ascertain, not what income accrues to particular men, but what attaches to the performing of certain functions. A man may perform several: he may be a laborer, a capitalist and an employer of laborer and capital. A purely economic theory of distribution accounts for the gains secured by working, by furnishing capital or by employing men and capital. A further and more distinctly sociological study accounts for the merging of various functions in the same men, and gives a resulting social distribution of wealth. The two studies together account for the size of the incomes of different persons and of different social classes.
In practical life static forces and dynamic ones are in action together. There are influences at work that would continue to produce their effects if society were reduced to a stationary state. Other influences depend on progress; these act when the economic world is in a transitional condition, leaving behind it one position of static equilibrium and advancing toward another. In life the dynamic influences succeed each other perpetually, and the stationary condition is never reached; but the static forces operate throughout the progressive movement. Isolating these forces and separately examining them affords one key to success in a study of distribution. The division of gains that takes place between employer and employed in one industry is to be kept in its true relation to the general distribution of the income of society as a whole. The non-competing groups and sub- groups that constitute an industrial society have been studied, and thereby the sources of the wages and interest earned in different employments have been determined.
The law that fixes the amount of wages and that of interest, in the whole social field, has been revealed by the use of a formula that is commonly applied in determining the rent of land. The central principle of the theory is that of so-called “diminishing returns.” In its broader and more scientific use the principle causes labor to become less productive per unit when more of it is applied in connection with a fixed amount of capital; and it causes capital to yield less per unit when an increasing quantity of it is used in connection with a limited amount of labor.
The character and effects of the chief dynamic influences were examined, and some of the conditions of the future well-being of society as a whole and of different social classes were determined.
Source: The Johns Hopkins University. University Circulars. Vol. XII, No. 105 (May 1893), p. 83.
Image Source: The Amherst Olio ’96 (1894).
When you look at the descriptions and reading lists for courses in economics departments on social reform or socialism/communism at American universities at the turn of the twentieth century and later, e.g. Edward Cummings at Harvard (1897-98), John Bates Clark at Columbia (1898-99), Thomas Nixon Carver at Harvard (1920) and Paul Douglas at Chicago (1938), you will be struck by the long historical run-ups to the second half of the 19th century. Marxian socialism in particular was generally seen as just one of many historically proposed utopias (even if Engels was quite particular about his product differentiation with respect to “utopian socialism” vs. “scientific socialism”).
The book, Utopias; or, Schemes of Social Improvement from Sir Thomas More to Karl Marx (1879), by the Englishman, Moritz Kaufmann, was an important link between the continental literature on socialism and the subsequent English-language literature. Today’s posting provides links to the entire French and German literature cited by Kaufmann.
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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….
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Kaufmann, Moritz. Utopias; or, Schemes of Social Improvement from Sir Thomas More to Karl Marx. London, 1879.
“The special interest taken in the sudden development of Modern Socialism, owing to recent events in Germany, has induced the author to collect a series of papers contributed to a periodical during the current year, which have received much kind attention into a volume. This may serve as a short and popular account of the principal socialistic schemes from the Reformation to the present day, and might not improperly be called a short History of Socialism…
…All the best known authorities on the subject have been carefully consulted in the composition of the present volume–works on Socialism, as well as the original sources, where these have been accessible.”
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Reybaud, Marie Louis. Études sur les Réformateurs, ou socialistes modernes. 1864;
Tome Premier. 7e. 1864. [Saint-Simon—Charles Fourier—Robert Owen—August Comte et la Philosophie Positive]
Tome Second. 7e. 1864. [La Société et le Socialisme. Les Communistes—Les Chartistes—Les Utilitaires—Les Humanitaires—Les Mormons]
J.-J. Thonissen. Le Socialisme et ses Promesses. 2e. Paris, 1851.
[Fourier, Owen, Cabet, Blanc, Proudhon]
Sudré, M. Alfred. Histoire du Communisme ou Réfutation Historique des Utopies Socialistes, 5e. Paris, 1856
[Ancient Greece through 16th century, Campanella, Morelly, Brissot, Fr. Rev. Cabet, Blanc, Proudhon]
Villegardelle, François. Histoire des Idées Sociales avant la Révolutions Française, ou les Socialistes Modernes, Devanceés et dépassés. Paris, 1846.
[Jesus Christ, New Testament, Early Christians, Albigeois, Vaudois, anabaptistes, Moraves, Faiguet, Laplombanie, Mercier; on usury; Necker, Mercier, Linguet, Thomas More, Mably]
Schäffle, Albert Eberhard Friedrich. Kapitalismus und Socialismus mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Geschäfts- und Vermögensformen. Vorträge zur Versöhnung der Gegensätze von Lohnarbeit und Kapital. Tübingen, 1870;
New Edition, 1878, forming the third volume of the author’s Bau und Leben des Socialen Körpers.
1. Band, Allgemeiner Theil. Tübingen, 1875
2. Band, Das Gesetz der sociale Entwickelung. Tübingen, 1878.
3. Band, Kapitalismus und Socialismus mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Geschäfts- und Vermögensformen, Zweite gänzlich umgearbeitet Auflage. Tübingen, 1878.
4. Band, Specieller Theil, zweite Hälfte. Tübingen, 1878.
[Proudhon, Karl Marx, Ferdinand Lassalle, Karl Marlo (Prof. Winkelblech, Carl Marlo is a pseudonym), St. Simon, Enfantin, Bazard, Fourier, Thomas More, Michel Chevalier, both Pereire, Robert Owen]
Stein, Lorenz von. Der Socialismus und Communismus des heutigen Frankreichs, ein Beitrag zur Zeitgeschichte, 2. umgearbeitete und sehr vermehrte Ausgabe. Leipzig, 1848.
1. Band. Der Begriff der Gesellschaft und die Bewegungen in der Gesellschaft Frankreichs seit der Revolution, 1849.
2. Band. Der französische Socialismus und Communismus [begins at page 199 in link]
Anhang, 1848.
[Saint-Simon, Fourier, Mennais, Lerour, Proudhon, Blanc, Babeuf]
English translation from 1850 edition, 1964).
Marlo, Karl (Pseudonym for Prof. Karl Georg Winkelblech). Untersuchungen über die Organisation der Arbeit oder System der Weltökonomie, zweite vervollständigte Auflage. 1850.
Rossbach, Johann Joseph. Geschichte der Gesellschaft. Würzburg, 1875.
I. Die Aristokratie (1868)
II. Die Mittelklassen im Orient und im Mittelalter der Völker des Occidents (1869)
III. Die Mittelklassen in der Culturzeit der Völker. I. Abtheilung (1869)
IV. Die Mittelklassen in der Culurzeit der Völker. II. Abtheilung (1871)
V. Der vierte Stand und die Armen. I. Abtheilung (1872)
VI. Der vierte Stand und die Armen. II. Abtheilung (1873)
VII. Der vierte Stand und die Armen. III. Abtheilung. Der Communismus und Socialismus. Zur Lösung der socialen Frage. (1875) [note: Engels mentioned but not Marx.]
VIII. Schlußbetrachtungen (1875)
Meyer, Rudolf Hermann. Der Emancipationskampf der vierten Standes. Berlin.
Lange, Friedrich Albert. Die Arbeiterfrage; ihre Bedeutung für Gegenwart und Zukunft, Dritte umgearbeitete und mermehrte Auflage. Winterthur, 1875
Mehring, Franz. Zur Geschichte der deutschen Sozialdemokratie. Ein historischer Versuch. Magdeburg, 1877.
Die deutsche Socialdemokratie: ihre Geschichte und ihre Lehre; eine historisch-kritische Darstellung. Second, revised and expanded edition. Bremen, 1878.
Booth, Arthur John. Robert Owen, the Founder of Socialism in England. London, 1869
Sargant, William Lucas. Social Innovators and their Schemes. London, 1858
[Sketches in introductory chapter: Plato, More, Bacon, Harringon. Chapters: Saint-Simon, Fourier, Louis Blanc, Proudhon, French Revolution of 1848, Emile de Girardin]
Holyoake, George, Jacob. History of Co-operation in Halifax: and of some other Institutions around it. London, 1867.
[Frost, John], “Social Utopias,” in Chambers’s Papers for the People, Vol. III, Philadelphia, 1857, pp. 37-68.
[Note: have not verified Kaufmann’s attribution of Frost’s authorship though presuming it is correct.]
* * * *
“Among the German pamphlets may be specially mentioned those of…”
Treitschke, Heinrich von. Der Socialismus und seine Gönner. Nebst einem Sendschreiben an Gustav Schmoller. Berlin, 1875.
I. Die Grundlagen der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft
II. Die socialen Partein der Gegenwart
III. Die gerechte Vertheilung der Güter. Offener Brief an Gustav Schmoller.
Schmoller, Gustav. Ueber einige Grundfragen des Rechts und der Volkswirtschaft. Ein offene Sendschreiben an Herrn Professor Dr. Heinrich von Treitschke. Jena, 1875.
[Note: This is a book that reprints articles that address the articles I and II of von Treitschke’s linked above. Treitschke’s article III above responds to this book of Schmoller.]
Sybel, Heinrich von. Die Lehren des heutigen Socialismus und Communismus. Bonn, 1872. Zwei Vorträge, gehalten in Barmen, am 9. und 16. März 1872)
Reprinted 1875 in Vorträge und Aufsätze, Zweite unveränderte Auflage. Berlin, 1875. pp. 81-130.
Scheel, Hans von. Die Theorie der sozialen Frage. Jena, 1871.
Contzen, Heinrich. Die sociale Frage; ihre Geschichte, Literatur, und ihre Bedeutung in der Gegenwart. Eine volkswirtschaftliche Studie, Zweite vermehrte und verbesserte Auflage. Leipzig, 1872.
Held, Adolf. Sozialismus, Sozialdemokratie und Sozialpolitik. Leipzig,1878.
Bamberger, Ludwig. Deutschland und Socialismus, Zweite unveränderte Auflage. Leipzig, 1878.
Image Source: Facsimile of the Island of Utopia from St. Thomas More’s Utopia (1516).
Henry L. Moore was an early pioneer of econometrics whose most important disciple was Henry Schultz who later brought econometrics to the University of Chicago. Today’s posting is a summary of Moore’s presentation to the “economics conference” at Johns Hopkins in March 1893. Moore’s dissertation,“Von Thünen’s Theory of Natural Wages”, was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. IX, Nos. 3 and 4 (April and July, 1895) and reprinted as a book with that title by George H. Ellis of Boston in the same year. An overview of Moore’s career is provided in George Stigler’s article in the International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences (1968).
While Moore was a graduate student at Johns Hopkins, John Bates Clark offered a series of lectures on the economics of distribution. The intense personal bond between Clark and Moore, at least felt on Moore’s side judging from the letters he wrote to his revered “Pater”, most certainly can be traced to that time.
Here is a “fun” link to the von Thünen Estate Museum in Tellow, Germany. While the website is in German, there are some nice pictures.
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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….
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Dr. [Sydney] Sherwood has conducted on alternate Fridays throughout the year a voluntary conference of nineteen graduate students, giving special attention to economics. The work was devoted mainly to the investigations of recent tendencies in economic theory, and was carried on with great enthusiasm by the members. Several valuable contributions were made to economic literature. Among the papers read and discussed at the Conference may be mentioned the following: “The Theory of Final Utility in its Relation to Money and the Standard of Deferred Payments,” by L. S. Merriam, published in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, January, 1893; “Value and its Measurement,” by David I. Green, published in abstract in the University Circulars, May, 1893; “The Place of Abstinence in the Theory of Interest,” by T. N. Carver, published in abstract in the above named Circular; “Mill’s Fourth Fundamental Proposition concerning Capital,” by J. H. Hollander, published in abstract in the above named Circular, “The Logical Content of the Terms Labor and Capital,” by Frank I. Herriott, published in abstract in the above named Circular; “The Wage Theory of Von Thünen,” by H. L. Moore, published in abstract in the above named Circular; and “Marshall’s Theory of Distribution,” by A. F. Bentley.
Source: Eighteenth Annual Report of the President of the Johns Hopkins University. (Baltimore, Maryland: 1893), p. 61.
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Johann Heinrich v. Thünen was descended from a noble Frisian family. He was born June 24, 1783, upon his father’s estate, Kanarienhausen, in Jeverland, and received his first training at the high school at Jever. Later, he studied agriculture under Thaer at Celle, and spent the two semesters of 1803-1804 at Gottingen.
In consequence of his betrothal to a lady of Mecklenburg, he left Jeverland, and in 1810, he purchased his Tellow estate in Mecklenburg, where he remained, pursuing his favorite studies agriculture and political economy until his death, September 22, 1850.
Von Thünen’s chief work is “Der Isolirte Staat.” [The Isolated State] The scope of the first part of this work, well indicated by its title: “Untersuchungen über den Einfluss, den die Getreidepreise, der Reichthum des Bodens und die Abgaben auf den Ackerbau ausüben,” [Investigations on the Impact of Grain Prices, Land Fertility and Levies on Agriculture] is more concisely pointed out by the statement of Rodbertus that it teaches “the law of the relative worth of each system of husbandry.” This part of the work first published in 1826, was translated into the French by Laverrière in 1851.
The second part of Der Isolirte Staat, which is by far the more important, is entitled “Der naturgemässe Arbeitslohn und dessen Verhältniss zum Zinsfuss und zur Landrente.” [The Natural Wage and it Relation to the Rate of Interest and Land Rent] It was published for the first time in 1850, and was translated into the French in 1857 by Mathieu Wolkoff under the title: “Le Salaire Naturel.”
This work, i. e. Der naturgemässe Arbeitslohn, like every other great work in economics, was the outgrowth of the spirit of the age in which it was written. The great labor agitations which originated in France about the time of the French Revolution did not reach Germany with all their force until shortly before the Revolution of 1848. Von Thünen was among the first to take up the discussion. He profoundly feared a dangerous conflict between the middle class and the proletariat, and went to work to avert, if possible, what he believed to be an impending calamity. After almost twenty-five years of labor, he completed his work, arriving at what he supposed to be a solution of the question.
The primary object of his work is to ascertain the natural wage. As, however, in complex modern society so many forces operate to obscure the proposed problem, von Thünen makes an ideal state the groundwork of his investigation. This state, isolated from the rest of the world by means of a wilderness capable of cultivation, is a plain of uniform fertility. Its only city, in which are concentrated all of its non-agricultural industries, is located at its centre. Neither railroads nor navigable waters are found in this ideal state. Its population is constant, and individual differences in the character of the laborers are not considered.
With these conditions placed upon the isolated state, von Thünen obtains by means of very complex mathematical reasoning the formula for the natural wage, viz.: 
A criticism of the formula cannot be given here, but the result to which it led must be noted. In the formula,
One peculiar feature of the system founded by von Thünen was that the share of the laborer was not paid him in cash, but was credited to his account. On the sum credited to each laborer, von Thünen allowed 4 1/6 per cent. interest, which was paid out in cash at Christmas. When the laborer was sixty years of age, he was permitted to draw the capital sum. If, however, he died before attaining that age, the sum went to his widow.
Although the heirs of von Thünen had full power to abolish the system which he established, they continued it with no important change. In a letter dated November 22, 1881, Herr A. von Thünen, the grandson of the economist, wrote Mr. Sedley Taylor the following: “The results of the participatory arrangement here are very gratifying.”
Von Thünen’s work was a masterly attempt to solve the great social question of his day, and in view of the fact that it was published before the works of Rodbertus, Marx, and Lassalle, it may reasonably be asked, “Why has von Thünen received so little attention?” The answer is found in the extremely abstract mathematical character of his work. Pythagoras himself could not have attached more importance to mathematics. Von Thünen confesses that in his work he is unable to make progress unless he has a mathematically secure foundation.
However, those who undismayed by the multiplicity of figures and formulas have studied the book would doubtless join Prof. Roscher in saying: “Sollte unsere Wissenschaft jemals sinken, so gehören die Werke von Thünen’s zu denjenigen, an denen sie die Möglichkeit hat, sich wieder aufzurichten.” [“Should our science ever be lost, von Thünen’s contributions would be among those works that would allow us to reconstitute it once again.”]
Source: The Johns Hopkins University Circular, Vol. XII, No. 105 (May 1893), pp. 88-89.
Image: Close-up of Thünen’s grave taken by Irwin Collier in June 2008.
During the academic year 1910-11 at Harvard, a pair of economic history courses were offered by Professor Edwin Francis Gay, assisted by a history department instructor, Julius Klein, who would go on to complete his Ph.D. in 1915. The first term course, Economics 6a, was dedicated to European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. The second term course, Economics 6b covered U.S. Economic and Financial History from colonial times up to 1900. Below we have the enrollment figures for Economics 6b and its reading list. One can see by the reliance on a textbook and relatively few standard sources that U.S. economic history was not Gay’s primary research interest. Biographical information on both Edwin F. Gay and Julius Klein can be found in the previous posting.
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Welcome to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can even subscribe to this blog below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….
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6b 2hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein.—Economic and Financial History of the United States.
13 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 52 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 7 Freshmen, 6 Other:
Total 119.
Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 49.
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Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)
Callender*, Economic History of the United States, pp. 6-63, 85-121.
Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q. J. E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-29; printed also in Ashley’s Surveys, pp. 309-335.
Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 36-51.
McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 1-102.
Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, pp. 273-307.
Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 5-158.
Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.
Lord, Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America, pp. 56-86, 124-139.
Taussig*, Tariff History of the United States, pp. 68-154.
Hamilton*, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-79, 103-107, (79-103).
Callender, Economic History, pp. 432-563.
Bolles, Industrial History of the United States, Book II, pp. 403-426.
Bishop, History of American Manufactures, Vol. II, pp. 256-505.
Pitkin, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States (ed. 1835), pp. 368-412.
Gallatin, Free Trade Memorial, in Taussig’s State Papers, pp. 108-213.
Commons, Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. IV, pp. 15-89; Vol. VI, pp. 311-353.
Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 146-183.
Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer. Econ. Assoc. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.
Callender*, Economic History, pp. 271-275, 345-404.
Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. IV, Thos. C. Purdy’s Reports on History of Steam Navigation in the United States, pp. 1-62, and History of Operating Canals in the United States, pp. 1-32.
Gephart, Transportation and Industrial Development in the Middle West, pp. 43-129.
Chevalier, Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States, pp. 80-87, 209-276.
Ringwalt, Development of Transportation Systems in the United States, pp. 41-54, 64-166.
Phillips, History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt, pp. 46-131.
Bishop, State Works of Pennsylvania, pp. 150-261.
Gallatin, Plan of International Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I, pp. 724-921 (see especially maps, pp. 744, 762, 764, 820, 830).
Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), pp. 531-581.
Chittenden, Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Vol. II, pp. 417-424.
Callender*, Economic History, pp. 597-692.
Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257; printed also in Q.J.E., Vol. I, pp. 169-183, 251-254.
Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 52-74.
Fite, Social and Industrial Conditions in the North during the Civil War, pp. 1-23.
Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1893, pp. 199-227.
Donaldson, Public Domain, pp. 1-29, 196-239, 332-356.
Hibbard, History of Agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin, pp. 86-90, 105-133.
Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways, Bulletin of Univ. of Wisconsin Econ., Pol. Sci. and Hist. Series, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 269-354.
Callender*, Economic History, pp. 738-819.
Cairnes, The Slave Power (2d ed.), pp. 32-103, 140-178.
Hart, The Southern South, pp. 218-277.
Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 34-119.
Commons, Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. I, pp. 309-375.
Russell, North America, its Agriculture and Climate, pp. 133-167.
De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (ed. 1838), pp. 336-361, or eds. 1841 and 1848, Vol. I, pp. 386-412.
Helper, Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, pp. 7-61.
Ballagh, Land System of the South. Publications of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1897, pp. 101-129.
Dewey*, Financial History of the United States, pp. 34-59, 76-117, 224-246, 252-262.
Catterall*, The Second Bank of the United States, pp. 1-24, 68-119, 376 map, 402-403, 464-477.
Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-93.
Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. I, pp. 15-37, 64-76.
Kinley, History of the Independent Treasury, pp. 16-39.
Kinley, The Independent Treasury of the United States (U. S. Monet. Comm. Rept.), pp. 7-208.
Sumner, Andrew Jackson (ed. 1886), pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.
Ross, Sinking Funds, pp. 21-85.
Scott, Repudiation of State Debts, pp. 33-196.
Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 1-43, 125-135.
Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, pp. 310-347.
Mitchell*, History of the Greenbacks, pp. 3-43.
Noyes*, Forty Years of American Finance, pp. 1-48, 234-256 (73-233).
Sprague*, History of Crises under the National Banking System, pp. 43-108.
Taussig, Silver Situation in the United States, pp. 1-157.
Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-26; printed also in Dunbar’s Economic Essays, pp. 227-247.
Howe, Taxation and Taxes in the United States under the Internal Revenue System, pp. 136-262.
Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. VII; Bayley, History of the National Loans, pp. 369-392, 444-486.
Hadley*, Railroad Transportation, pp. 1-23, 125-145.
Johnson*, American Railway Transportation, pp. 24-68, 307-321, 367-385.
Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.
Adams, Chapters of Erie, pp. 1-99, 333-429.
Davis, The Union Pacific Railway, Annals of the Amer. Acad., Vol. VIII, pp. 259-303.
Villard, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 284-312.
Dixon, Interstate Commerce Act as Amended, Q.J.E., Vol. XXI, pp. 22-51.
Vrooman, American Railway Problems, pp. 10-45, 218-264.
Meeker*, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 150-171.
Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.
Soley, Maritime Industries of the United States, in Shaler’s United States, Vol. I, pp. 518-618.
McVey, Shipping Subsidies, J.Pol.Ec., Vol. IX, pp. 24-46.
Wells, Our Merchant Marine, pp. 1-94.
Day, History of Commerce, pp. 553-575.
Industrial Commission*, Vol. XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-167.
Noyes*, Forty Years of American Finance, pp. 257-283.
Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. V, pp. xvi-xlii.
Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 120-226.
Quaintance, Influence of Farm Machinery, pp. 1-103.
Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-424.
Bemis, Discontent of the Farmer, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. I, pp. 193-213.
Wright, Wool Growing and the Tariff, pp. 308-273.
Noyes*, Forty Years of American Finance, pp. 114-152, 182-233.
Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.
Twelfth Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 725-748.
Wells, Recent Economic Changes, pp. 70-113.
Sparks, National Development, pp. 37-52.
Taussig*, Tariff History, pp. 155-229, 321-360.
Taussig*, Tariff Act of 1909, Q.J.E., Vol. XXIV, pp. 1-38, also in Tariff History (ed. 1910), pp. 360-408.
Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.
Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.
Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol VIII, pp. 1-39.
Tausssig, Sugar, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. CI, pp. 334-344 (Mar. 1908).
Taussig, Tariff and Tariff Commission, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. CVI, pp. 721-729 (Dec. 1910).
Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 610-647.
Wright, Wool Growing and the Tariff, pp. 274-328.
Robinson, History of the Two Reciprocity Treaties, pp. 9-17, 40-77, 141-156.
Laughlin and Willis, Reciprocity, pp. 311-437.
Willoughby*, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-115.
Noyes*, Forty Years of American Finance, pp. 284-354.
Twelfth Census, Vol. VII, pp. cxc-ccxiv.
Industrial Commission, Vol. XIII, pp. v-xviii.
Bullock, Trust Literature, Q.J.E., Vol. XV, pp. 167-217.
Industrial Commission*, Vol. XIX, pp. 724-746, 793-833.
Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 502-547.
United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, No. 18 (Sept., 1898), pp. 665-670; No. 30 (Sept., 1900), pp. 913-915; No. 53 (July, 1904), pp. 703-728.
Levasseur, American Workman, pp. 436-509.
Commons, Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. IX, pp. 55-117.
Mitchell, Organized Labor, pp. 391-411.
Twelfth Census, Special Report on Employees and Wages, p. xcix.
National Civic Federation, Industrial Conciliation, pp. 40-48, 141-154, 238-243, 254-266.
United States Census Bulletin*, No. 4 (1903), pp. 5-38.
Industrial Commission*, Vol. XV, pp. xix-lxiv.
Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 68-112.
Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 33-78.
Walker, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-451.
Hoffmann, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 250-309.
Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-228.
Twelfth Census Bulletin, No. 8.
United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, Nos. 14, 22, 32, 35, 37, 38, 48.
Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.
Stone, A Plantation Experiment, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 270-287.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1910-1911.”
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Image Source: Edwin Francis Gay and Julius Klein, respectively, from The World’s Work, Vol. XXVII, No. 5 (March 1914) and Harvard Album 1920.
Edwin Francis Gay (1867-1946) came to Harvard in 1902 as an instructor of economic history taking over William Ashley’s courses after having spent a dozen years of training and advanced historical study in Europe (Berlin, Ph.D. in 1902 under Gustav Schmoller, also he was in Leipzig, Zurich and Florence). He was given a five-year contract as assistant professor of economics in 1903, but in just four years he actually advanced to the rank of professor. He served as a principal advisor to Harvard President Charles Eliot in establishing the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1908. After the favored candidate to be the founding dean of the business school, William Lyon Mackenzie King (Ph.D., Harvard 1909) turned down the offer, instead continuing as deputy minister of labor in Canada then later becoming prime minister of Canada, President Eliot turned to Gay. In nine years Gay put his stamp on the Harvard Business School, apparently playing an instrumental role in the use of the case method (pedagogic transfer from the law school) with a strong emphasis on obtaining hands-on experience through practical assignments with actual businesses. He is credited with establishing the academic degree of the M.B.A. (Master of Business Administration), the credential of managers.
During WW I Gay worked as adviser to the U.S. Shipping Board and then went on to become editor of the New York Evening Post that would soon go under, giving Gay “an opportunity” to return to Harvard where he could teach economic history up through his retirement in 1936. Gay was among the co-founders of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Council of Foreign Relations. He and his wife moved to California where he worked at the Huntington library where his bulk of his papers are to be found today.
A reading list for his course Recent Economic History (1934-35) has been posted on Economics in the Rear-View Mirror earlier.
Assisting Gay in the 1910 course on European Economic History of the Nineteenth century was the history department instructor, Mr. Julius Klein (1886-1957).
Litt.B. (Univ. of California) 1907, Litt. M (ibid.) 1908, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1913, Ph.D. (Harvard Univ.) 1915.
Subject of Ph.D. History.
Special Field: Spanish History
Thesis: The Mesta; A Study in Spanish Economic History, 1273-1836.
Instructor in History, later assistant professor.
In 1932 he was Assistant Secretary, United States Department of Commerce.
While tracking down Julius Klein I came up with the following link to an artifact of the Harvard History Department:
“[Julius Klein] made this portrayal of departmental bigwigs, in ink with black and brown washes, in a style evocative of the Bayeux Tapestry, which chronicles the Norman conquest of England.”
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Welcome to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to this blog below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….
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[Economics] 6a 1hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein.—European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.
12 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 3 Other:
Total 61.
Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 49.
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Cunningham*, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Vol. III, pp. 609-669.
Hobson*, Evolution of Modern Capitalism, pp. 10-82.
Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, pp. 32-93.
Woolen Report of 1806; reprinted in Bullock, Selected Readings in Economics, pp. 114-124.
Walpole, The Great Inventions, in History of England, Vol. I, pp. 50-76; reprinted in Bullock, pp. 125-145, and Rand, Selections illustrating Economic History, chapter ii.
Chapman, The Lancashire Cotton Industry, pp. 1-112.
Webb, History of Trade Unionism, pp. 1-101.
Hutchins and Harrison, History of Factory Legislation, pp. 14-42.
Wallas, Life of Francis Place, pp. 197-240.
Mantoux, La Révolution Industrielle, pp. 179-502.
Cooke Taylor, The Modern Factory System, pp. 44-225.
Von Sybel*, French Revolution, in Rand, Selections, pp. 55-85.
Seeley*, Life and Times of Stein, Vol. I, pp. 287-297, in Rand, pp. 86-98.
Morier*, Agrarian Legislation of Prussia, “Systems of Land Tenure,” pp. 267-275, in Rand, pp. 98-108.
Brentano*, Agrarian Reform in Prussia, Econ. Jour., Vol. VII, pp. 1-20.
Four de St. Genis, La Propriété Rurale, pp. 80-164.
De Foville, Le Morcellement, pp. 52-89.
Von Goltz, Agrarwesen und Agrarpolitik, pp. 40-50.
Colman, European Agriculture (2d ed.), Vol. II, pp. 371-394.
Schulze-Gaevernitz, Volkswirtschaftliche Studien aus Russland, pp. 308-383.
Dawson, W. H., Evolution of Modern Germany, pp. 255-294.
Johnson*, A. H., Disappearance of the Small Landholder in England, pp. 7-17, 107-164.
Curtler*, W. H. R., Short History of English Agriculture, pp. 190-271.
Hasbach, History of the English Agricultural Labourer, pp. 71-116.
Taylor, Decline of Land-Owning Farmers in England, pp. 1-61.
Prothero, Pioneers and Progress of English Farming, pp. 64-103.
Broderick, English Land and English Landlords, pp. 65-240.
Caird, English Agriculture in 1850, pp. 473-528.
Colman, European Agriculture (2d ed.), Vol. I, pp. 10-109, 133-174.
Levy, Entstehung und Rückgang des landwirtschaftlichen Grossbetriebs in England.
Armitage-Smith*, G., Free Trade and its Results, pp. 39-94, 130-144.
Morley*, Life of Cobden, chapters vi, vii, xvi.
Levi, History of British Commerce, pp. 218-227, 261-272, 292-303; in Rand, pp. 207-241.
Ashworth, Recollections of Cobden and the League, pp. 32-64, 296-392.
Prentice, History of the Anti-Corn Law League, Vol. I, pp. 49-77.
Parker, Sir Robert Peel from his Private Letters, Vol. II, pp. 522-559; Vol. III, pp. 220-252.
Cunningham, Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement, pp. 27-99.
Tooke, History of Prices, Vol. V, pp. 391-457.
Curtler, Short History of English Agriculture, pp. 271-293.
Schulze-Gaevernitz, Britischer Imperialismus, pp. 243-375.
Ashley*, P. Modern Tariff History, pp. 3-62, 301-312.
Worms, L’Allemagne Économique, pp. 57-393.
Amé, Les Tarifs de Douanes, Vol. I, pp. 21-34, 219-316.
Perigot, Histoire du Commerce Français, pp. 77-185.
Lang, Hundert Jahre Zollpolitik, pp. 168-230.
Cunningham*, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Vol. III, pp. 689-703, 822-829, 833-840.
Andréadès*, History of the Bank of England, pp. 284-294, 331-369, 381-388.
Tugan-Baranowsky, Studien zur Theorie und Geschichte der Handelskrisen in England, pp. 38-54, 62-121.
Giffen, Growth of Capital, pp. 115-134.
Macleod, Theory and Practice of Banking (4th ed.), Vol. I, pp. 433-540; Vol. II, pp. 1-197.
Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. V, chapters 3 and 4 (3d ed), pp. 629-657.
Cairnes*, Essays, pp. 53-108; in Rand, pp. 242-284.
*Jevons, Investigations in Currency and Finance, pp. 34-92.
Leroy-Beaulieu, Traité d’Économie Politique, Vol. III, pp. 192-238.
Giffen, Economic Inquiries and Studies, Vol. I, pp. 75-97, 121-228.
Hooper, Recent Gold Production of the World, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1901, pp. 415-433.
Hadley*, Railroad Transportation, pp. 146-202.
Acworth*, Elements of Railway Economics, pp. 61-75, 99-159.
McLean, English Railway and Canal Commission of 1888, in Q. J. E., 1905, Vol. XX, pp. 1-55, or in Ripley, Railway Problems, pp. 603-649.
Acworth, Railways of England, pp. 1-56.
McDermott, Railways, pp. 1-149.
Porter, Progress of the Nation, pp. 287-339.
Edwards, Railways and the Trade of Great Britain, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1908, pp. 102-131.
Pratt, Railways and their Rates, pp. 1-184.
Colson, Legislation des Chemins de Fer, pp. 3-20, 133-182.
Kaufmann, Die Eisenbahnpolitik Frankreichs, Vol. II, pp. 178-284.
Guillamot, L’Organisation des Chemins de Fer, pp. 82-120.
Forbes and Ashford, Our Waterways, pp. 107-177, 215-252.
Léon, Fleuves, Canaux, Chemins de Fer, pp. 1-156.
Evans, A. D., British Railways and Goods Traffic, Econ. Jour., 1905, pp. 37-46.
Thompson, H. G., Canal System of England, pp. 1-73.
Hadley*, Railroad Transportation, pp. 236-258, [203-235].
Meyer*, Governmental Regulation of Railway Rates, pp. 92-188.
Acworth, Relation of Railways to the State, Econ. Jour., 1908, pp. 501-519.
Mayer, Geschichte und Geographie der Deutschen Eisenbahnen, pp. 3-14.
Lotz, Verkehrsentwicklung in Deutschland, pp. 2-47, 96-142.
Lenshau, Deutsche Wasserstrassen, pp. 9-56, 95-161.
Peschaud, Belgian State Railways, translated in Pratt, State Railways, pp. 57-107.
Tajani, The Railway Situation in Italy, Q. J. E., Vol. XXIII, pp. 618-653.
Pratt, Railways and their Rates, pp. 185-326.
Pratt, Railways and Nationalization, pp. 1-120, 253-293.
Bowley*, England’s Foreign Trade in the Nineteenth Century (ed. 1905), pp. 55-107.
Meeker*, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 1-95.
Cornewall-Jones, British Merchant Service, pp. 252-260, 306-317.
Glover, Tonnage Statistics of the Decade 1891-1900, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1902, pp. 1-41.
Ginsburg, British Shipping, in Ashley, British Industries, pp. 173-195.
LeRoux de Bretagne, Les Prime à la Marine Marchande, pp. 93-224.
Charles-Roux, L’Isthme et le Canal de Suez, Vol. II, pp. 287-339.
Von Halle, Volks- und Seewirtschaft, pp. 136-219.
Report on Agricultural Depression*, Royal Commission of 1897, pp. 6-10, 21-40, 43-53, 85-87.
Haggard*, Rural England, Vol. II, pp. 536-576.
The Tariff Commission, Vol. III, Report of the Agricultural Committee, 1906.
Thompson, Rent of Agricultural Land in England and Wales during the Nineteenth Century, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1907, pp. 587-611.
Hasbach, History of the English Agricultural Labourer, pp. 274-364.
Arch, Autobiography, pp. 65-144, 300-345.
Little, The Agricultural Labourer, Report to the Royal Commission on Labour, 1894, Vol. I, pp. 195-253.
Adams, Position of the Small Holding in the United Kingdom, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1907, pp. 412-437.
Plunkett, Ireland in the New Century (ed. 1905), pp. 175-209.
Bastable, Some Features of the Economic Movement in Ireland, Econ. Jour., Vol. XI, pp. 31-42.
Imbart de la Tour, Le Crise Agricole, pp. 24-34, 127-223.
Simkhovitch, The Agrarian Movement in Russia, Yale Review, Vol. XVI, pp. 9-38.
King and Okey, Italy Today, pp. 156-192.
Smart*, Return to Protection, pp. 14-27, 136-185, 234-259.
Balfour*, Economic Notes on Insular Free Trade, pp. 1-32. (Also in Fiscal Reform, pp. 71-95)
Chamberlain*, Imperial Union and Tariff Reform, pp. 19-44.
Ashley, W. J., Tariff Problem, pp. 53-210.
Marshall, Fiscal Policy of International Trade, pp. 30-82.
Pigou, Protective and Preferential Import Duties, pp. 1-117. (See also his Riddle of the Tariff, pp. 1-107.)
Cunningham, Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement, pp. 100-168.
Ashley, P., Modern Tariff History, pp. 78-112, 313-358.
Zimmermann, Deutsche Handelspolitik, pp. 218-314.
Meredith, Protection in France, pp. 54-129.
Balfour, Fiscal Reform, pp. 97-113, 2266-280.
Ashley*, W. J., British Industries, pp. 2-38, 68-92.
Howard*, Recent Industrial Progress in Germany, pp. 51-109.
Cox, British Industries under Free Trade, pp. 2-84, 142-175, 235-376.
Levasseur, Questions ouvrières et industrielles en France sous le troisième République, pp. 27-166.
La Belgique, 1830-1905, pp. 397-617.
Fischer, Italien und die Italiener (ed. 1901), pp. 240-267.
Machat, Le Developpement Économique de la Russie, pp. 157-229.
Jeans, J. S., Iron Trade of Great Britain, pp. 1-73, 100-111.
Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, pp. 37-65.
Helm, E., Survey of the Cotton Industry, Q. J. E., Vol. XVII, pp. 417-437.
Report of the Industrial Commission*, Vol. XVIII, pp. 7-13, 75-88, 101-122, 143-165.
Macrosty*, The Trust Movement in Great Britain, in Ashley, British Industries, pp. 196-232.
Macrosty, Trust Movement in British Industry, pp. 24-56, 81-84, 117-154, 284-307, 329-345.
Walker, Monopolistic Combinations in Europe, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 13-41.
Walker, Combinations in the German Coal Industry, pp. 38-111, 175-289, 322-327.
Walker, German Steel Syndicate, Q. J.E., Vol. XX, pp. 353-398.
Liefmann, Kartelle und Trusts, pp. 22-32.
Baumgarten und Meszlény, Kartelle und Trusts, pp. 83-152.
Chastin, J., Les Trusts et les Syndicats, pp. 23-127.
Bowley*, Wages in the United Kingdom, pp. 22-57, 81-127.
Shadwell,* Industrial Efficiency, Vol. II, pp. 307-350.
Wood, Real Wages and the Standard of Comfort since 1860, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1909, pp. 91-101.
Cost of Living of the Working Classes in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Report to the Board of Trade, 1909.
Webb, Trade Unionism, pp. 344-478.
Howell, Labor Legislation, pp. 447-499.
Willoughby, Workingmen’s Insurance, pp. 29-87.
Beveridge, Unemployment.
Ashley, W. J., Progress of the German Working Classes, pp. 1-65, 74-141.
Dawson, The German Workman, pp. 1-245.
Holyoake, History of Coöperation in England (ed. 1906), Vol. I, pp. 32-42, 70-162, 283-298; Vol. II, pp. 361-396.
Gide, Productive Coöperation in France, Q. J. E., Vol. XIV, pp. 30-66.
Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 394-397, 407-413.
Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, pp. 294-308.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1910-1911.”
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Image Source: Edwin Francis Gay and Julius Klein, respectively, from The World’s Work, Vol. XXVII, No. 5 (March 1914) and Harvard Album 1920.
In the early 1930’s Lloyd Mints alternated teaching the undergraduate money and banking course at the University of Chicago (Econ 230) with the doctoral student Albert G. Hart who held the ranks of teaching assistant/instructor before receiving his Ph.D. in 1936. In Hart’s papers at Columbia University there is a copy of material for his course kept for students in the Harper Reading Room at the University of Chicago. The “Report on Conduct and Content of Course” included in this posting presents a detailed outline of his course as of its third iteration. Square brackets are used where I have supplied specific page numbers for the textbook assignments that I have found elsewhere in the same folder with this Report.
In the Review section Hart includes among the “leading ideas” of the course: “… in fields where prices are sticky, inflation and deflation take themselves out on volume of sales and hence of production and/or employment…”
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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….
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230. Introduction to Money and Banking.—The material in the course includes a study of the factors which determine the value of money in the short and in the long run; the problem of index numbers of price levels; and the operation of the commercial banking system and its relation to the price level and general business activity. Prerequisite: Social Science I and II or equivalent. Summer, Hart; Autumn, Mints; [Spring], Hart.
Source: University of Chicago, Announcements [for 1933-34], Arts, Literature and Science, vol. 33, no. 8 (March 25, 1933), p. 266.
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Econ 230
A. G. Hart
My general policy (in which I follow the suggestions of Mr. Mints) has been to conduct the course definitely as a theoretical study, with the emphasis on analysis rather than history or factual description. Class meetings are devoted largely to discussion, with inevitable lapses into lecturing when historical or factual questions cannot be avoided. My reading assignments have been light (about 100 pages a week), but are of a character to call for mulling over. So far as possible I have avoided second-hand textbook material and gone to authoritative writers. On the necessary technical banking material a textbook is inevitable, and I have used Rodkey’s Banking Process twice and Bradford’s Banking once. (To my taste the former is definitely preferable.) On other subjects I have gone to standard authorities, as Irving Fisher, J. M. Keynes, Alvin Hansen, Wesley Mitchell, D. H. Robertson. These writers are emphatically not beyond the grasp of undergraduate classes here. Some points have been emphasized by written exercises; and I have tried by giving our examinations and by putting past examinations on reserve to make my examinations a guide to what I expected students to take away with them. Full assignments, as made this summer, and past examinations are in my assignment folder on reserve in Harper main reading room.
The following scheme is that given in my assignments; the order of various points somewhat altered from time to time, especially when current events bring certain sides of the course to the fore.
Explanation of purposes of the course; the notion of money in the broader notion of circulating medium; a summary of the history of the American circulating medium; brief analysis of the current statistics on money in circulation and on bank deposits. Emphasis is laid on the fact that the class of circulating media has no clear-cut boundary, but shades off into the realm of ordinary commodities, and on the importance of bank deposits in American circumstances. Reading: Robertson, Money, pp. 1-17. Class Time: usually two, perhaps three hours.
An analysis of the relations between quantity of money and bank deposits, their velocities, prices, and volume of transactions, through the Fisher equation. Emphasis is laid on the validity of the equation, the restricted conditions under which the Quantity Theory holds, and the consequent inadequacy of the Quantity Theory for short-period analysis; also on relative flexibility of different groups of prices. Reading: Fisher, Purchasing Power of Money, pp. 1-32, 47-54, 74-111, 184-97. Class Time: five or six hours.
A restatement of the Quantity Theory in “Cambridge” terms, using Keynes’ Monetary Reform as type. This is used to reinforce the analysis of the difficult “velocity” problem in the preceding section, and leads into some examination of the workings of inflation. The idea of forced saving is here brought out. Lately I am coming to doubt the pedagogical usefulness of the formulation in Monetary Reform; and I may take a different tack another time. Reading: Keynes, Monetary Reform, pp. 3-45, 46-80 [, 81-94]; Robertson, Money, e.g. 18-43. Class Time: three or four hours.
The concept of an index number of prices as reflecting changes in the value of a composite commodity of fixed make-up; index of quantity as reflecting valuations of different mixtures of goods at fixed prices. Necessity of index number analysis to put meaning into notion of price and output changes brought about by money. Emphasis is placed, of course, on fundamental notions and interpretation, not on the technique of index-number compilation. Reading: Fisher, Purchasing Power, pp. 198-233; memorandum of my own in assignment folder. I should assign Keynes [Treatise (optional), I, pp. 53-94] but for library difficulties. Written Assignment: problem in index-number computation, with simplified arithmetic, calculated to bring out differences among the various basic formulas. Class Time: three or four hours.
(In the Autumn Quarter, 1932 I put this before the treatment of monetary theory, which appears to be just about as satisfactory as the present arrangement.) Basic character of a bank; demand liabilities greater than quick assets, and demand liabilities serving as circulating medium. Mechanism of making and transferring deposits; clearing relations among banks. History of American banking. Study of bank reserves; of earning assets. Principle of credit pyramiding on increment of reserves. Reading: textbook passages [Rodkey, Banking Process, 1-86, 124-37, 137-54, 178-95, 201-224, 267-86; or Bradford, Banking, pp. 1-51, 52-96, 98-123]; Phillips, Bank Credit, chapter III [pp. 32-77]. Written Assignment or Hour Examination: reconstruction and interpretation of dismembered bank statement, involving comparison of two banks or one bank at two dates. Class Time: ten or twelve hours.
Analysis of open market, re-discount and clearing functions of the Federal Reserve Banks, and of the administration of the system and its influence on the member bank reserve position. I have made no attempt to cover foreign central banking except for an hour’s lecture on the Bank of England and incidental references from this point in the course on to practices of foreign central banks. This is not because I doubt the usefulness of treating foreign banking ceteris paribus; but the marginal utility of time in a one-quarter course is so high as to put this below the zone of profitable use of resources. Emphasis is placed on the essential simplicity of central banking — holding cash reserves and earning assets and swapping them on the open market according to the position of business—, on its necessary non-profit character, etc. The leading ideas in this section are largely modeled on Mr. Mints. One of the drawbacks of using Bradford as text is the necessity of scrambling sections V and VI together to follow its arrangement. Reading: textbook passages [Rodkey, Banking Process, pp. 36-123, 196-200, 224-238; or Bradford, Banking, pp. 125-144, 145-168, 170-222, 223-247, 248-274, 311-336, 337-355]; W. R. Burgess, Reserve Banks and the Money Market, pp. 206-229; passages in Federal Reserve Bulletin [March 1932, pp. 1-5]. Written Assignment or Classroom Work: Analysis of weekly statements of Federal Reserve Banks and weekly reporting member banks; calculation of Federal Reserve reserve and collateral requirements and of free gold. [take F.R. statement for July 13 (published in morning papers July 21). Compute gold reserve requirements against deposits and notes, calculate excess gold reserves. Compute gold collateral requirement on notes, with and without Glass-Steagal arrangement, and calculate free gold on each basis.] From this point in the course the statement is discussed at some length every Friday. Class Time: five or six hours, plus a short time each week toward the end of the quarter for study of the statement.
The mechanism of the exchange markets: acceptances, cable drafts, etc. The balance of payments and supply and demand of foreign funds; determination of the rate and adjustment of balances on and off the gold standard. Classical mechanism of adjustment; orthodox types of central bank intervention; post-war manipulative tricks in exchange market. Due largely to the trend of current events, emphasis has been placed on the determination of rates off the gold standard and on the short-run importance of flight from the currency and other types of speculative movements. Reading: as the topic is peripheral and cannot absorb much time, I have compromised between textbook readings and authoritative material, and have been assigning Taussig, Principles, vol. I, pp. 447-78 besides text-book passages. [Rodkey, Banking Process, pp. 155-68; or Bradford, Banking, 275-310; Robertson, Money, 69-91] Class Time: three or four hours.
Inapplicability of quantity theory (though not of Fisher equation) in “transition period”. Generalization of Fisher cash-transactions approach: can be used wherever flow of goods and flow of money which buys it can both be conceptually isolated. Analysis through income concepts. Hawtrey’s scheme as a special case of transactions approach; illustration of analysis by his cycle theories. Concept of forced savings. Reading: Fisher, Purchasing Power, 55-74; Robertson, Money, 92-116; Hawtrey, Currency and Credit, 1-64. Class Time: four to six hours.
Concept of business cycle; basic types of series showing cycle. Types of business cycle theories. Problems of “overproduction” in various senses. Reading: Mitchell, Business Cycles, the Problem and its Setting, pp. 1-60. Class Time: three to five hours.
General concept of stabilization – largely connotation with meaning vague. Monetary stabilization – constancy of index number or the exchange rate. Partial incompatibility of former and latter. Criteria of desirable indices to stabilize – full employment chief – point to desirability of gently raising money wages on average; consequences in other price groups. Central difficulty of price stickiness. Ways and means – inadequacy of central-bank control; inevitable influence of government finance. Savings-investment criterion of policy – its weaknesses. Reading: Robertson, Money, 144-194; Hansen, Economic Stabilization in an Unbalanced World, 3-27, 65-113, 271-314. Class Time: 4 to 6 hours.
When possible (it isn’t in the summer) I plan to devote four or five hours to systematic review. Leading ideas are brought out more clearly; especially: 1) the price level associated with the given flow of goods cannot rise, unless less goods of this group are sold or more money is spent on them; 2) when price movements are on foot the various forms of “price stickiness” make the movements of different speed and amplitude in different fields; 3) it is these relative price movements which are of practical importance; 4) in fields where prices are sticky, inflation and deflation take themselves out on volume of sales and hence of production and/or employment; 5) a banking system uncontrolled except by “qualitative” considerations will inevitably bring about inflation and deflation involving destructive movements of relative prices and of production; 6) in fact these considerations do not even enable a banking system to protect itself against a heavy proportion of failures in deflation.
It will be observed that the course as I have given it contains little or no discussion of two topics which occupy a great deal of the literature, viz.: bimetallism and the classification of money under various heads (commodity, token, fiat etc.) Both of course come in for incidental mention; but neither, it seems to me, belongs in a one-quarter course here and now. Bimetallism, as discussed in the books, is today rather a historical relic; the effective issue is not double versus single standard, but gold standard versus “paper standard”. Systematic classification of money has distinct uses; but I’m inclined to trust to the passage on the subject in Robertson and avoid wasting class time on it. The necessary discussion of monetary history affords opportunity to talk a bit about both these matters; but a student who had taken the course with me could probably not explain the relation (e.g.) between over-valued and under-valued metal, or between proper bimetallic and limping standards.
More serious than these omissions of subject-matter is another type of omission: the course as I give it makes little attempt to inoculate the student against cranks by systematic study and dismemberment of the work of theoretical bunglers. It is a rather serious pedagogical defect to include little reading with which the instructor thoroughly disagrees. My excuses firstly that the course must take up more material then can be so treated in a single quarter and secondly that it seems to me the line between correct and incorrect analysis is fairly clearly drawn in the elementary phases of monetary and banking theory here treated. But frankly I’m afraid I must lay more weight on the first excuse than the second.
Albert G. Hart.
Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Albert Gailord Hart Papers: Box 61, Folder “Assignments and Other Memoranda for Reserve in Harper Reading Room/Sec 2 Ec 230 1933 Chicago, Money (Summer Quarter)”.
Image Source: ditto.
Edwin Burmeister (MIT PhD, 1965) took the advanced theory course that was devoted to capital theory and economic growth during the fall term 1962-63. The course that term was co-taught by Robert Solow (2 hour 37 minute oral history interview at this link) and Edmund Phelps. Burmeister’s notes for the course are available in the Burmeister Papers at Duke University Rubenstein Library’s Economists’ Papers Project. The reading list for the course has a Part I, but I could find no corresponding part II. However, Burmeister’s notes appear to be complete otherwise so that it seems likely that Solow and Phelps wanted to divide the course into positive and normative parts with the reading list for optimal saving not ready at the start of the term. I have inserted five titles between Parts D and E that were explicitly mentioned in the lectures but not included in the Part I reading list.
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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….
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Lutz, “Essentials of Capital Theory”, The Theory of Capital (International Economic Association).
Scitovsky, T., Welfare and Competition, Chapter 9.
Lutz and Lutz, The Theory of the Investment of the Firm, Chapters 5 and 6.
Kaldor, N., Essays on Value and Distribution, Part IV.
Lange, O., “The Place of Interest in the Theory of Production”, REStud, 1935-36.
Dorfman, R., “Waiting and the Period [of] Production”, QJE, August 1959.
Robinson, “The Production Function and the Theory of Capital”, REStud, 1953-54.
Comment and Reply:
Solow, R., “The Production Function…”, REStud, 1955-56.
Robinson, Ibid.
Swan, T., Appendix to “Economic Growth and Capital Accumulation,” Ec Record, November, 1956.
Solow, R., “Substitution and Fixed Proportions in the Theory of Capital,” REStud, June, 1962.
Phelps, E., “Substitution, Fixed Proportions, Growth and Distribution,” Parts 1-3 and Appendix B only. CFDP [Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper] 133, Feb. 1962.
Samuelson, P., “The Surrogate Production Function,” REStud, June 1962.
N. & N. Ruggles, “Concepts of Real Capital Stocks and Services,” Output, Input and Productivity Measurement, No. 25 in Studies in Income and Wealth (NBER).
[handwritten addition: Wicksell, LECTURES]
Dickinson, H., “A Note on Dynamic Economics”, REStud, 1954-55.
Uzawa, H., “Neutral Inventions and the Stability of Growth Equilibrium,” REStud, Feb. 1961.
Fellner, W., “Two Propositions in the Theory of Induced innovation,” Econ. Journ., June 1961.
Johnson, H., “A Simple Joan Robinson Model of Accumulation with One Technique,” Osaka Econ. Papers, Feb. 1962.
Swan, T., “Economic Growth and Capital Accumulation,” op. cit.
Solow, R., “A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth,” QJE, Nov. 1956.
Pitchford, J., “Growth and the Elasticity of Factor Substitution,” Ec. Record, Dec. 1960.
Phelps, E., “Substitution, Fixed Proportions, Growth and Distribution,” CFDP [Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper] 133, Feb. 1962, Parts 4-5.
Arrow, K., “The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing,” REStud, June, 1962.
Kaldor, N., and J. Mirlees, “Growth and Obsolescence,” Ibid.
Solow, R., “Technological Change and the Aggregate Production Function,” REStat, August 1957.
Masslee, B., “A Dissaggregated View of Technical Change,” JPE, Dec. 1961.
Solow, R., “Investment and Technical Progress, “Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences, (Stanford, 1960).
Phelps, E., “The New View of Investment”, QJE, Nov. 1962.
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[Ramsey problem, optimal control à la Pontryagin]
von Weizsäcker, Carl Christian. Wachstum, Zins und optimale Investitionsquote. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Basel, 1961. Published in Veröffentlichungen der List Gesellschaft Bd. 26, Reiche B Studien zur Ökonomie der Gegenwart, Kyklos-Verlag, 1962
Phelps, Edmund. 1961. “The Golden Rule of Accumulation: A Fable for Growthmen”. The American Economic Review 51 (4): 638–43.
Robinson, Joan. 1962. “Comment”. The Review of Economic Studies 29 (3): 258–66.
Goodwin, R. M., 1961. “The Optimal Growth Path for an Underdeveloped Economy”. The Economic Journal,Vol. 71, No. 284: 756–74.
Chakravarty, S., 1962. “Optimal Savings with Finite Planning Horizon”. International Economic Review 3 (3): 338–55.
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Nelson, R., “The Simple Economics of Basic Scientific Research, JPE, June 1959.
Arrow, E., “The Allocation of Scientific Resources” in The Rate and Direction of Innovative Activity, (NBER).
Schultz, “Investment in Human Capital,” AER, March 1961.
Source: Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Edwin Burmeister papers, 1960-2008. Box 23.
Image Source: Robert Solow, MIT Web Museum.