Month: April 2022

Columbia. Reform of the PhD dissertation printing requirement, 1936-1940

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-04-29

The following extracts from the minutes of Columbia’s Faculty of Political Science (an amalgam of the Departments of History, Economics, Public Law, and Social Science) provide milestones along the tortuous bureaucratic road taken to implement a fairly modest reform in the publication-of-the-dissertation requirement for the Ph.D. at Columbia University back in the 1930s. The reform initiated sometime in early 1936 only saw the light of day first with the printed Faculty announcement published at mid-year 1940.

See: Courses Offered by the Faculty of Political Science for the Winter and Spring Sessions 1940-1941 published in Columbia University Bulletin of Information, 40^th Series, No. 29 (June 29, 1940), p. 14.

______________________

April 17, 1936

Professor [James Waterhouse] Angell [Economics] presented for consideration a Memorandum on the Printing Requirement for Ph.D. Dissertations in the Faculty of Political Science, signed by Professors [Robert Morrison] MacIver [Political Philosophy and Sociology], [Robert Livingston] Schuyler [History], [Robert Emmet] Chaddock [Statistics], [Carter] Goodrich [Economics], and [James Waterhouse] Angell [Economics], a copy of which is attached to these minutes. He also presented, and moved the adoption of a resolution providing for a modification of the present printing requirement. After amendments, offered by Professors [Samuel McCune] Lindsay [Social Legislation] and [John Maurice] Clark [Economics], had been accepted, the resolution read as follows:

WHEREAS, the Faculty of Political Science believes that the University printing requirement for dissertations imposes a heavy financial burden on candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under this Faculty; that the printing requirement as it actually works does not impose equivalent burdens on the candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in certain other parts of the University; that the printing requirement operates as a severe property qualification impeding the access of otherwise competent students to receipt of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under this Faculty, and that the printing requirement on occasion impels first-class graduate students, who apart from financial considerations would prefer to do their work for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Columbia, to go elsewhere; and

WHEREAS, in 1932 the Committee on Publications of this Faculty made a Report to the Faculty, and recommended a reconsideration of the printing requirement with a view to its relaxation; and

WHEREAS, the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction, after considering this Report, went on record as it that time favoring retention of the printing requirement, and in the absence of any definite proposal by the Faculty of Political Science did not recommend any change; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the Faculty of Political Science now records itself as desiring a modification of the printing requirement with respect to dissertations offered under the Faculty of Political Science, so that the requirement may be met in any one of three ways, at the option of the candidate, subject to the approval of the committee examining the dissertation, as follows:

(1) By publication of the original approved dissertation in full through a recognized publisher, or otherwise in a form approved by the Dean of the Faculty; or,

(2) By publication of an article, presenting the essential content and results of the dissertation and accepted as satisfactory by the Committee which examined the original dissertation, in a professional journal, or otherwise acceptable to the examining Committee; or,

(3) By publication of an abstract of the dissertation, presenting the essential content and results of the dissertation and accepted as satisfactory by the Committee which examined the original dissertation, in a series of abstracts of dissertations to be published at intervals as volumes in the Columbia University Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law. The abstracts should ordinarily not exceed 15 pages in length. The candidate will defray his pro rata share of the cost of publication.

Under the second and third alternatives, the candidate shall submit five copies of the proposed article or abstract at least three weeks in advance of the final examination in defense of the dissertation itself. Under such alterative, the requirements for the deposit of copies of the approved printed document and for its distribution to the members of the Faculty are those stated in the Graduate Announcement. In addition, if the dissertation is printed in abridged or abstracted form provision shall be made for preserving at least two legible copies of the original dissertation.

RESOLVED, further, that the foregoing Resolution be transmitted to the University Council, with the request that the Council take action permitting the Faculty of Political Science to realize its desire as above stated.

RESOLVED, further, that the attention of the University Council be also invited to the appended Memorandum on the Printing Requirement, prepared informally by certain members of the Faculty.

After a general discussion, in which fourteen members of the Faculty participated, Professor [Lindsay] Rogers [Public Law] moved that the following resolution be substituted for the resolution under consideration:

RESOLVED, that the Faculty of Political Science transit the pending resolution and the accompanying Memorandum prepared by certain or its members, to the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction and request that the Joint Committee inquire into the results of the publication requirement at Columbia University and the results of differing requirements at other universities and make the findings of such inquiry available to the Faculty of Political Science for the farther consideration of the publication requirement at the Faculty’s regular meeting in the autumn.

The Faculty being evenly divided, President [Nicholas Murray] Butler cast the deciding vote in favor of the resolution presented by Professor Rogers and it was adopted.

[…]

Appendix to Minutes

To the members of the faculty of Political Science:

We enclose herewith a memorandum on the printing requirement for Ph.D. dissertations in the Faculty of Political Science. It contains proposals which will be advanced formally at the meeting of the Faculty on April 17th next. By signing the memorandum we desire to indicate our belief that the questions raised and the proposals made deserve to be brought before the attention of the whole Faculty, but do not express our concurrence on all points.

R. M. MacIver
R. L. Schuyler
R. L. Chaddock
C. Goodrich
J. W. Angell

MEMORANDUM ON THE PRINTING REQUIREMENT FOR PH.D. DISSERTATIONS IN THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
[April 17, 1936]

The question of prolonging or abolishing the present temporary arrangement, under which Ph.D. dissertations may be offered for examination in typescript, must be passed on by the Faculty of Political Science at its meeting on April 17th. This provides on appropriate occasion for examining the whole question of the printing requirement in the Faculty.

At the present time, the situation is broadly this. The Faculty will accept dissertations in typescript for the purposes of the defense examination, and if the defense is successful a certification is given the candidate, announcing that he has met all the requirements for the Ph.D. degree except that of actual publication of the dissertation.

The degree itself is not awarded, however, until the candidate has secured actual publication — “publication” having recently been defined to include in effect some, though not all, of the non-printing forms of reproduction, such as photostating, and provided that certain conditions are met.

Columbia University and the Catholic University of America are apparently the only two large institutions of higher learning which have retained in full the printing requirement, which was once wide-spread in this country. By enforcing the requirement, Columbia imposes on itself a prime facie impairment of its power to attract first-class graduate students who will become candidates for the Ph.D. degree, and who are free to choose between the several leading institutions. No University has so many first-class students that it can afford to turn any away needlessly. If retention of the printing requirement is to be justified, it must be shown to yield benefits which offset this disadvantage.

In addition, the requirement works unevenly as between different, sections of the University. In the Faculty of Political Science, as in that of Philosophy, the requirement is extremely burdensome in financial terms to the average Ph.D. candidate. For that large proportion of candidates whose means are limited, its fulfillment imposes genuine hardship. In the Faculty of Political Science the typical dissertation is essentially literary in character, runs to at least 250 to 300 printed pages in length, and even after allowance for royalties usually costs the candidate $600 to $800 to publish — often much more. The fact that perhaps a quarter of the dissertations are published in the Studies at a saving to the candidate of 20% of the price charged by the University Press, does not greatly alter the situation, nor does it operate to lighten the average financial burden very much. For many students, the sum involved is equivalent to their total living expenses for 6 to 8 months or more: the burden is real. In the Faculty of Pure Science and in the Medical School, on the other band, the typical dissertation is not more than 20 or 25 pages in length (often less than 10), and is published in one of the technical or professional journals at no cost at all to the candidate. Moreover, though this is not relevant for present purposes, the Pure Science dissertation is commonly a joint product of the candidate and the supervising Faculty member, and is published under both signatures.

In defense of the retention of the printing requirement by the faculty of Political Science, the most common contention is that its abolition would lead to a disastrous lowering of our standards for the Ph.D. degree. This contention, of course, cannot be tested directly except from future experience. It is significant, however, that apparently none of the other leading American universities which had abolished the printing requirement has restored it. Moreover, it seems highly improbable that the existence of the printing requirement and the maintenance of high standards are related to one another as cause is related to effect. It could not be contended seriously that merely enforcing a printing requirement would enable a faculty of inadequate scholarly competence to maintain high standards, nor that the existence of a printing requirement would ensure, in such circumstances, the production of distinguished dissertations. Equally it cannot be contended that the modification or withdrawal of the printing requirement will alone cause a faculty of high scholarly competence to deteriorate its standards, nor that modification or withdrawal will alone lead to the production of low-grade dissertations under such a faculty. Indeed, to assert that such results would ensue is to imply that the members of such a faulty maintain high standards only from fear of being “found out”, should they lower their standards, through the publication of discreditable Ph.D. dissertations.

It is also contended that publication is an advantage to the candidate, in that it brings his name and work to the attention of other scholars and also helps him to get a better position. This is undoubtedly true to many cases. But the same or better general results can be obtained in a different way, to be suggested in a moment, which entails relatively little cost to the candidate. As things now stand, most candidates apparently feel that they would gladly forego the not always unequivocal advantages of this type of advertising, in order to void the expense and sacrifice now imposed upon them.

Finally, it is contended that the typescript dissertations found in the libraries of other Universities are in general less finished and sometimes less scholarly products then those which have undergone publication; and that they are less accessible to the generality of scholars. This last is of course true. The contention would have granter force as an argument in favor of retaining the publication requirement, however, if there were any way of shifting the bulk of the financial burden of publication to those other scholars who would allegedly be such large beneficiaries from the act of publication itself. It would also here greater force If any substantial number of other universities had indicated, by retaining the requirement, that they felt the cogency of these considerations. In actuality, and from their very nature, many and perhaps most Ph.D. dissertations in Political Science are not of sufficiently broad interest to merit publication as books. Some suggestions for publishing their essential contents, however, will be outlined presently. It is believed that adoption of these suggestions will give the authors and their work rather wider publicity than is now obtained, in the average case, and will do so without impairing the dissemination of scholarly knowledge.

The principal positive arguments against the retention of the printing requirement in the faculty of Political Science have already been indicated, directly or by implication. They are two in number. One turns on the financial costs and other burdens placed on the candidate. The great bulk of our students are not well-to-do. In the majority of cases, financing the publication of the dissertation exacts a genuine and often a disproportionately large sacrifice from the candidate or his family. It is not easy to see that the candidate of the University receives a return commensurate with this sacrifice. However, as the present system works out in practice it frequently means that the actual receipt of the Ph.D. degree itself is delayed by one or more years after the completion of the work, while the candidate is accumulating enough money to pay for publication. To the extent that this happens, as it seems to in what is not far from a majority of the cases, one of the alleged advantages of the publication requirement — that it helps the candidate secure a better position — may turn into a positive disadvantage, because of the delay involved. The present practice of examining on typescript has helped this situation somewhat, but apparently not as greatly as had been hoped; and of course, it still leaves the candidate with a serious financial burden to carry into future years, before he can obtain the actual Ph.D. degree. The fact that so large a proportion of our candidates now elect to be examined on typescript is surely not wholly unrelated to the matter of their financial ability or inability, at the time of the examination, to defray the cost of printing.

There is also some evidence that the existence of the printing requirement influences candidates to select topics for the Ph.D. dissertation with a view to the probable popularity of the topics, rather than with a view to their scholarly merit and interest alone, in order to lighten the burden of the printing costs.

The second argument against retention of the printing requirement in the faculty of Political Science turns on the best interests of the University itself. What we are really doing is to enforce a fairly severe property qualification for the Ph.D. degree, and one which is in effect inoperative in certain parts of the University. It is a property qualification imposed by only one other large University. There is much evidence to indicate that — as seems natural enough — this property qualification drives elsewhere many first-class students who would prefer, except for financial considerations, to come to Columbia for their Ph.D. work in the Political Science field. To repent what was said before, no University has so many first-class students that it can afford to turn any away needlessly. A property qualification is surely the wrong basis on which to select our Ph.D. candidates.

In connection with the earlier discussion of standards, it should also be pointed out that such a modification of the printing requirement as would eliminate its more serious disadvantages to the student would presumably contribute to the actual raising of the general standards of scholarship and performance prevailing, rather than to their deterioration. This would happen to the extent that the modification increased the number of high-calibre through impecunious students who come to us for their training.

Both the material evidence available and the logical argument against retention of the present form of publication requirement in the Faculty of Political Science are thus extremely strong. We therefore make two suggestions:

(1) At the meeting of the Faculty of Political Science on April 17th, action should be taken looking to the immediate modification of the printing requirement, in its present form, for Ph.D. dissertations under the Faculty. At the same time, however, in the interests of the Ph.D. candidates, of other scholars elsewhere, and of the University as a whole, it seems desirable to retain something of the advantages of the present requirement. Outright abolition of the requirement is therefore not proposed. It is suggested that it be modified as follows:

(2) Action should be taken by the Faculty to provide that, the printing requirement, subject to confirmation by the University Council, may be met in any one of three ways: namely either by,

(a) Publication of the complete dissertation under the present regulations; or, by,

(b) Publication of an article, presenting the essential features and results of the dissertation and to be approved by the examining committee, in one of the recognized professional journals; or by,

(c) Publication of an abstract of the dissertation, presenting briefly the essential features and results of the dissertation and to be approved by the examining committee, in a new annual or semi-annual volume of Abstracts to be published as a regular part of or supplement to the present Studies; the costs of publication and distribution of the volume to be paid by the candidates pro rata. The abstracts would not exceed perhaps 15 pages each, and the average cost to the individual candidate would probably be under $50. The numerical majority of the dissertations would presumably be handled through these new Abstracts.

In each of the three options, the present requirement for the deposit of 75 copies — whether of book, article or abstract — would be retained; and in the last two cases deposit of two copies of the original dissertation would also be required. Dissertations would be defended on typescript, unless the candidate himself preferred to defend on galleys.

These alternatives leave candidates who have the funds, or who can secure commercial publication without a subsidy, free to publish as heretofore. The alternatives take the present severe burden off those candidates who have not sufficient funds, however; and at the same time retain for them most of the advantages, from getting their names and work more widely known, which they obtain under the present arrangements. Indeed, it seems probable that the publicity they thus receive, and the accessibility of the main content of their work to other scholars, will be substantially greater under the proposed arrangements than under those now prevailing. The average sale of the present full-length dissertation hardly exceeds 250 to 300 copies; the circulation of the better-known professional journals runs to several thousand.

In order to make it easier to secure publication in full of most of the best dissertations, without placing an undue burden on the candidates, we also suggest that the present Studies be made substantially more selective in character than they now are, with a diminution in the number of volumes issued per year and with a higher average standard of quality required for acceptance. To illustrate, we suggest that not more than one or two full-length dissertations a year should be published in the Studies from each Department, apart from the proposed new volumes of Abstracts. We believe that the resulting increase in the average quality of the Studies, by increasing the average sales per volume would enable the Studies to carry a much larger proportion of the costs of publication then at present, perhaps 50% or more. We also believe that the improvement in quality and the decrease in number of issues per year would raise the general standing of the Studies to a basis of comparability with the similar series published by various other leading Universities. Probably the most nearly ideal arrangement would be one under which the publication of a dissertation in the studies would be in the nature of a prize award, entailing no cost at all to the successful candidate. Since financial limitations make this impossible at present, we suggest the arrangement just outlined.

R. M. MacIver
R. L. Schuyler
R. E. Chaddock
C. Goodrich
J. W. Angell

Source: Columbia University Archives. Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science 1920-1939 (April 17, 1936) pp. 759-775.

December 11, 1936

For the information of the Faculty the following memorandum was presented, concerning the action of the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction on the subject of the printing requirement for doctoral dissertations. At its April, 1936, meeting the Faculty of Political Science adopted a resolution transmitting to the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction a memorandum by certain members of the Faculty urging modification of the printing requirement for doctoral dissertations. On May 19, following, the Joint Committee appointed a sub-committee to study and report on the subject.

The sub-committee submitted its report, accompanied by a digest of information, to the Joint Committee at its meeting on November 9, and on November 16, 1936, the Joint Committee adopted the sub-committee report and its opinions as follows:

“For the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction:

Your sub-committee empowered to consider the question of the printing of doctoral dissertations, composed of the undersigned as chairman and of Professors Angell, Gray, Patterson, Pegram, and Rogers, has duly elicited the information as to the practice in this matter in the leading American universities as well as the pertinent sentiment of three hundred and twenty-one of our own recipients of the doctoral degree in the decade from 1924 to 1933 inclusive. A digest of the information as elicited is now available for the members of the Joint Committee.

After full consideration of this digest and of all other aspects of the question, your sub-committee would submit the following opinions:

That the present requirement of printing should be maintained. Our vote on this recommendation stands four to two, Professors Angell and Patterson dissenting.
That we regret the hardship which the printing of the dissertation now entails on certain of the recipients of the degree.
That it is advisable to make due effort to relieve this hardship as much as possible by any reduction that may be feasible in the cost of printing, and in particular by the establishment, if possible, of a subsidy from University funds to aid in the cost of printing; and that the Joint Committee, or its chairman, should make due inquiry into this possibility.

The second and third opinions were unanimous.”

While opinion in the Joint Committee was not unanimous on point (1) of the adopted report, discussion on certain amendments that were offered and not carried led the Committee to agree as to the substance of two points of the rejected amendment. A sub-committee consisting of Professors Pegram, MacIver, Rogers, and Wright was appointed to rephrase these two points for communication to the Faculties, which they have done as follows:

“(a) It was the sense of the Joint Committee that there may be cases in which the Ph.D. Examining Committee may consider it unnecessary to require the printing of all the supporting date which the Examining Committee may have before it in the five typed copies required by the rules. In such a case the Examining Committee may, with the approval of the Dean, accept as the dissertation a shorter form of the manuscript, or an article or series of articles, provided five copies of the same in form for publication have been circulated to the Examining Committee with the additional materials, and are before the Committee at the time of the final examination.

(b) It was the sense of the Joint Committee that the Dean has authority under the present regulations to accept dissertations printed in part or in whole by photo offset process or other manifolding process when there are special reasons, arising out of the nature of the dissertation (tabular and statistical matter, reproductions of texts, etc.), making such offset process appropriate.”

For the information of members of the Faculty of Political Science, it is to be noted that the problem of printing dissertations under the Faculty of Pure Science is rarely a serious one to students. Dissertations are short as compared to those in the other Faculties and are usually published in the professional Journals. In the Faculty of Philosophy the cost of printing dissertations is serious. That Faculty, at its November meeting, unanimously voted to place on record its opinion in favor of the three numbered paragraphs of the sub-committee report adopted by the Joint Committee.

The Joint Committee will proceed further with inquiry into means of reducing the cost of printing dissertations and into the possibility of securing funds for aiding publication.

Respectfully submitted,
George B. Pegram,
Chairman
Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction

In connection with the proposal of the Joint Committee that an effort be made to establish a subsidy from University funds to aid graduate students in the printing of doctoral dissertations, the President pointed out some of the administrative problems involved in providing for the judicious and far allotment of such aid. He stated, however, that if a satisfactory administrative method could be devised, a revolving fund of $25,000 or $30,000 would go far toward lightening the financial burden which the present printing requirement imposes on certain candidates for the doctoral degree.

The Chairman of the Committee on Instruction presented a memorandum (a copy of which is appended to these Minutes) reminding the Faculty that at its meeting in April, 1986, it had neglected to provide for the dissertation examination on typescript beyond June 30, 1936, but that the privilege had been extended to candidates under the Faculty with the consent of the Dean’s office. After discussion of the memorandum Professor [Vladimir Gregorievitch] Simkhovitch [Economic History] moved that the motion concerning examination on typescript, which lapsed on June 30, 1938, be re-enacted and remain in effect for a term of one year. The motion was adopted, after Professor [Philip Caryl] Jessup’s [International Law] amendment substituting “until revoked by the Faculty” for the words “for a term of one year”, had been accepted. As re-enacted, the resolution then read:

“RESOLVED; that candidates for the doctorate under the Faculty of Political Science, upon recommendation of the Department concerned, may be granted the privilege of examination on dissertations presented in typescript — five or more legible copies to be deposited in the Dean’s office for the inspection of the examiners at least three weeks prior to the examination, it being understood that the dissertations which in the judgment of the examining committee require extensive revision shall be rejected, without prejudice to subsequent examination after such revision.”

Discussion of the resolution emphasized the fact that permission to be examined on typescript is granted only on recommendation by the department. It would appear, therefore, that a department may refuse to make any recommendation, require its candidates to stand examinations on galley proofs, or it may recommend in some cases and refuse to recommend in other cases.

[…]

Memorandum Concerning Dissertation Examination on Type-script

At the meeting of the faculty of Political Science on December 9, 1932, Professor Schuyler, as chairman of the Committee on Publications, raised the question of substituting for the then requirement that the examination must be on galley proof, a requirement that dissertations must be presented in typescript. After discussion the Faculty amended Professor Schuyler’s proposal. The resolution as passed provided that for the remainder of the academic year, 1932-33, candidates for the doctorate under the Faculty of Political Science could be granted, upon the recommendation of the department concerned, the privilege of examination upon typescript four or more legible copies to be deposited in the Dean’s office for the inspection of the examiners at least three weeks prior to the examination, it being understood that dissertations which in the judgment of the examining committee required extensive revision should not be accepted subject to such revision, but should be rejected, without prejudice to subsequent examination after such revision. (Minutes, p. 699)

At its April meetings in 1933, 1934, and 1935 the Faculty continued the provisions of this resolution in affect for the ensuing academic years.

At the November 1935 meeting of the Faculty the Dean called attention to the fact that the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction had discussed the desirability or requiring five typescript copies of dissertations. the Faculty thereupon amended its regulations to require five instead of four copies.

At the April 1936 meeting the Faculty discussed the modification of printing requirement for dissertations. By inadvertence the Faculty neglected to provide for the examination on typescript alternative. with the consent of the Dean’s office, however, candidates under the Faculty of Political Science have been permitted to present their dissertations in typescript even though technically this privilege lapsed as of June 30, 1936.

Earlier this month a question rose in respect of the period which shall elapse between the presentation of the typescript copies and the date of the final examination. Under the terms of the resolution adopted by the Faculty of Political Science the period was three weeks. Under the printed terms of the regulations of the Faculties of Philosophy and of Pure Science the period is three weeks. As a matter of fact, this regulation is not enforced. Two weeks is deemed a sufficient period.

Source: Columbia University Archives. Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science 1920-1939 (April 17, 1936) pp. 783-790.

April 21, 1939

The Chairman of the Committee on Publications further reported that, on the initiative of the Managing Editor of the Studies, the Committee had given consideration to the problem of reducing the financial burden upon doctoral candidates who publish their dissertations in the Studies. In consequence of this discussion, upon the recommendation of the Managing Editor, and in accordance with a unanimous resolution of his Committee, he offered the following resolution which was unanimously passed;

Be it RESOLVED; That in order to afford to doctoral candidates an alternative method of publishing dissertations in the Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law at a lower cost than is possible under the existing requirements, these requirements be so modified as to permit, after October 1, 1939, at the option of the candidate,
1. the use of paper binding
2. the use of a double-column format, and of type smaller than that now employed, and
3. the relegation of footnotes to the end of each chapter.
Be it RESOLVED: That the Faculty of Political Science request the Trustees of the University to advance the sum of fifty dollars to each student publishing his dissertation in the Studies, said sum to be a first claim against the author’s royalties. In the event that said author’s royalties do not total fifty dollars within three years after the publication of the dissertation, the full receipts thereafter accruing to such volume shall be paid over to the University until such a time as the University is fully reimbursed for its advance.
Be it RESOLVED: That the Faculty of Political Science request the Trustees of the University to authorize the Library to pay to each doctoral candidate who had published his dissertation in the Studies, the sum of fifty dollars, upon his depositing with the Library one hundred copies of the said dissertation.

[…]

The Chairman of the Committee on Instruction reported that since receipt of the report of the Committee on the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (of which Professor Woodbridge was Chairman) the Committee on Instruction had given further consideration to the printing requirements. He submitted the following motions which were passed:

BE IT RESOLVED, that this Faculty favored such modification of the present requirement for the printing of the doctoral dissertation as would allow candidates certain options, as follows:
1. The dissertation may be printed from type and published in book form.
2. The dissertation may be published as an article or series of articles in a scholarly journal.
3. The dissertation may be reproduced by an offset process approved by the Dean of the Graduate Faculties.
BE IT RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Faculty that there may be cases in which the Ph.D. Examining Committee may consider it unnecessary to require the printing of all the supporting data which the Examining Committee may have before it in the five typed copies required by the rules. In such a case the Examining Committee may, with the approval of the Dean, accept as the dissertation a shorter form of the manuscript, or an article or series of articles, provided five copies of the same in form for publication have been circulated to the Examining Committee with the additional materials, and are before the Committee at the time of the final examination.
BE IT RESOLVED, that this Faculty, realizing that in the past insufficient attention has sometimes been paid to a student’s choice of subject, resulting in the necessity of the preparation of a manuscript of unreasonable length, calls attention to the need for considering the scope of the task when a topic for a dissertation receives its preliminary approval.
BE IT RESOLVED, that the next available edition of the Bulletin of the Faculty include the first resolution on this subject stated abo e, setting forth the three options, and that in the Bulletin this be followed by a paragraph substantially as follows:

The departmental approval mentioned above relates to both the content of the dissertation and to the form in which it is printed. Students are therefore advised to consult their departmental representatives before exercising the option.

BE IT RESOLVED, that the Faculty authorize its Committee on Instruction to prepare a special leaflet for the benefit of candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under this Faculty, the leaflet to contain a full explanation of all the regulations on this subject.

Source: Columbia University Archives. Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science 1920-1939 (April 21, 1939) pp. 842-3, 845-846.

Image Source: Low Memorial Library, Columbia University from the Tichnor Brothers Collection, New York Postcards, at the Boston Public Library, Print Department.

Tags AngellJW, Chaddock, ClarkJM, Goodrich, Simkhovitch

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exam questions for statistics and insurance/speculation. Allyn Young, 1911

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-04-22

If you were an important enough economist in your time, even shards of your course content are worthy of transcription and preservation as artifacts at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Allyn Young was a visiting professor of economics at Harvard from Stanford during the academic year 1910-11. According to the course announcements for the year, he was to teach a two-term statistics course and two one-term courses, mathematical economics (fall term) and insurance and speculation (spring term). It doesn’t look like the mathematical economics course was actually held (no enrollment figures were reported nor could I find a final exam for that course). Maybe the course was still unofficially still taught to auditors anyway, or maybe it was withdrawn due to lack of student interest, who knows?

The jewel of the post is the final exam for Young’s course on insurance and speculation. It appears to have been a one-off offering, but nonetheless an early attempt to bring risk/uncertainty into the finance curriculum. The year-end examination in Statistics has been transcribed and included below.

____________________________

Economics 4. Statistics.

Course Announcement

[Economics] 4. Statistics. Tu., Th., at 11. Professor Young (Leland Stanford Jr. University).

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1910-11, p. 63.

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 4. Professor Young (Leland Stanford Jr. University. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice.

Total 26: 5 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Freshmen, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 49.

Economics 4
[Mid-Year Examination, 1911]

[Note: no printed copy was found in the Harvard Archives collection of Mid-Year Examinations.]

Economics 4
[Year-End Examination, 1911]

Answer eight questions.

In what ways did (1) “German university statistics” and (2) “political arithmetic” differ from modern “statistics”?
What errors are found in age statistics?
In what ways may the death rates of two or more cities be accurately compared?
What are the best methods of measuring the change in the length of human life? What different things may be meant by the “length of human life”?
Discuss census statistics of manufactures, with special reference to the definitions of (1) “manufactures,” and (2) “capital.”
What are the chief uses of price statistics? How are the problems of (1) choosing quotations, and (2) weighting, affected by the intended use?
What different methods of “smoothing” a statistical diagram can you suggest? When should diagrams be “smoothed” and when not?
What refinements of method should be observed in making comparisons of the birth rate at different periods or for different classes of the population?
May it be expected that most frequency curves will approximate the normal curve of error? Why?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,… in Harvard College, June 1911 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1910-11), p. 42.

____________________________

Economics 27. Mathematical Economics.

Course Announcement

[Economics] 27 ¹hf. Mathematical Economics. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Professor Young (Leland Stanford Jr. University).

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1910-11, p. 64.

[No enrollment data were reported in the Report of the President of Harvard College 1910-11. A printed copy of the semester final examination was not included in the Mid-Year Examinations 1911 volume in the Harvard Archives. It appears that the course was in fact not offered during the first term of 1910-11 as originally planned.]

____________________________

Economics 28. Insurance and Speculation.

Course Announcement

[Economics] 28 ²hf. Insurance and Speculation. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Professor Young (Leland Stanford Jr. University).

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1910-11, p. 65.

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 28 ²hf. Professor Young (Leland Stanford Jr. University. — Insurance and Speculation.

Total 84: 3 Graduates, 27 Seniors, 35 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

* * * * * * * *

Note: Allyn A. Young published an article “Insurance and Speculation” in the Grolier series The Book of Popular Science (1924 edition, vol. 12) which was reprinted in the valuable collection edited by Perry G. Mehrling and Roger J. Sandilands, Money and Growth: Selected Papers of Allyn Abbott Young. Routledge, 1999.

* * * * * * * *

Economics 28
[Final Examination, 1911]

Answer eight questions.

What is self-insurance? What are its possibilities and its limitations?
Discuss briefly the advisability and the possibility of federal control of insurance.
What are “deferred dividend policies”? In what ways were they found to be objectionable?
Explain briefly the effects of speculation upon price fluctuations.
Describe the methods of a typical “hedging” operation on the part of the seller or buyer of an actual commodity.
What are “options”? Why are they discountenanced by the American exchanges?
What would be the probably economic effects of a prohibition of short-selling?
What do you consider to be the real evils of speculation? Suggest remedies.
Explain briefly the essential features of the methods of the New York Stock Exchange clearing house.

Image Source: The 1918 Cornell yearbook, The Cornellian (vol. 50), p. 18.

Tags Young

Economics Programs Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Economics Department Reports to the Dean, 1946-47 to 1949-50

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-04-18

This post adds the Chair’s annual reports on the Harvard Economics Department for the early post-WW II years to previously posted reports for 1932-33 through 1945-46.

Reports to the Dean of Harvard
from the Department of Economics.

1932-1941

1941-1946

___________________________

1946-1947

September 29, 1947

Dear Dean Buck:

You have requested a brief report on the work of the Department of Economies for the academic year 1946-47.

This report necessarily follows much the same pattern as the report for last year. Again our work has been dominated by the number of students, undergraduate and graduate, and the lack of a trained junior staff.

The number of undergraduates of course is entirely so beyond our control. In Economies A and in most of our “middle group” courses, the elections taxed our capacity for effective instruction. Under the most propitious conditions the crowded classrooms would have presented many problems but with a dearth of trained teaching fellows and annual instructors the load carried by the senior staff was unduly heavy. Foreseeing this range of problems, the Department voted on February 19, 1946 [sic, 1947 probably correct. In December 1946 departments wereallowed to withdraw from offering tutorials] to suspend tutorial instruction for a period of two years. It may be stated here that this was probably a wise decision. Concentration in Economics appears to have resumed the trend apparent before the war. In the current year the number of concentrators will approach, or perhaps exceed 800. Even should no consideration be given to the expenditure involved, the possibility of finding and training effective tutors even for honors candidates seems somewhat remote.

On the graduate level the problems of instruction were even more difficult. During the year the number of graduate students receiving instruction was approximately 286. Our course offering on this level is large. Nevertheless, the principal graduate courses were crowded to a point where the maintenance of standards was difficult. After the graduate student has completed his preliminary program and has been accepted as a candidate for the Ph.D, degree, the instruction is largely individual. In the last year we were just coming into the situation where a considerable proportion of the students were receiving such instruction. The full impact of this situation will be felt in the current year. Most members of the senior staff will be directing the theses of some 10 to 15 students. Some officers will be responsible for even larger numbers. With the numbers we are attempting to handle on the graduate level the single task of examining candidates in the general and special examinations becomes a major consideration. During the last academic year the staff conducted general and special examinations. Such an amount of examining and of individual instruction on the graduate level has its bearing on tutorial instruction for undergraduates.

The Department voted to accept the large number of graduate students now on our rolls only after considerable investigation and discussion. It is my own personal opinion that we have set our limit altogether too high. However, the pressure upon us for admission has been very strong and our obligations to the Littauer School, where the pressure is hardly less, just be observed.

This matter of the size of the Graduate School in the immediate future is one of our most difficult problems. It will receive our attention in the current year.

In the last two or three years these reports have noted certain experiments in instruction, especially in connection with Economics A. Such experiments are dependent upon the presence of a considerable number of able and mature young men with adequate teaching experience, as well as upon a margin of free time. Both of these factors are lacking to such a degree that substantial and outstanding progress could not be expected but the plans were active and some progress was made.

If full tutorial instruction is not resumed by the Department, experimentation in undergraduate courses is imperative and this we have planned. It is our expectation that a good deal in the way of individual guidance can be accomplished in connection with Economics A and some of our middle group courses. We believe that we can make our instruction more efficient with a much smaller personnel and at much less expense than the tutorial system would involve. However, a definitive decision has not been reached on all of these matters.

It is hardly necessary to emphasize that the heavy instructional demands discussed above affected our research projects. Furthermore, the officers of this Department are severely handicapped by the lack of research funds. This dearth of research funds is a question which has been placed before our Visiting Committee.

In spite of the difficulties involved, the contributions of the members of the Department were substantial. The following books were published:

Teoria de la Competencie Monopolica, by E. H. Chamberlin, Mexico, 1946. (Spanish translation of The Theory of Monopolistic Competition)

Economic Policy and Full Employment, by A. H. Hansen. McGraw-Hill. 1947.

The New Economics, S. B. Harris, editor and contributor Knopf. 1947.

The National Debt and the New Economics, by S. E. Harris. 1947.

Income and Employment, by T. Morgan. Prentice-Hall. 1947.

New enlarged edition of Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, by J. A. Schumpeter.

The Challenge of Industrial Relations, by S. H. Slichter, Cornell University Press, 1947.

Postwar Monetary Plans and other Essays, by J. Williams. Knopf, 3rd edition. 1947.

articles were published.

Although we are able to record only one new volume and one republication of an older volume in the Harvard Economic Series for the past year, four other volumes are in the hands of the printer and will appear in the current year.

In the area of distinctions or honors, I believe the only items to be noted concern Dean Edward S. Mason. Last spring he was appointed Economic Advisor to Secretary of State Marshall at the Moscow Conference. In July he was appointed a member of President Truman’s Committee on Foreign Aid.

Sincerely yours,
H. H. Burbank

Dean Paul H. Buck

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers (UAV 349.11), Box 2, Folder “Provost Buck—Annual Report of Dept.”

___________________________

1947-1948

September 30, 1948

Dear Provost Buck:

You have requested a brief report on the work of the Department of Economics for the academic year 1947-48.

The report on the work of the Department for the last year can be given in part in the same terms that have been employed in the last three reports. Our major problems have been quantitative and have presented the same difficulties that were emphasized in the other post-war reports. However, we believe that the last year did reach the peak of the load and that the pressure of numbers will abate steadily. The problem of building and maintaining an effective junior staff was hardly less than in the preceding years. Crowded classrooms and insufficiently trained assistants imposed unduly severe burdens upon the senior teachers responsible for course instruction. Some improvement, especially in the middle group courses, is in prospect for the coming year but it is probable that two to three years more will be necessary before these courses will be adequately staffed. In the introductory course which relies heavily upon a large number of young instructors and teaching fellows, the situation is still serious but latterly we have been able to utilize young men with more satisfactory preparation and training. Because of the heavy demands for the services of these young men by other institutions, the turnover is large leaving us each year with a relatively inexperienced staff.

Graduate instruction continues to make unusual demands upon the time and energy of the senior staff. During the past year we conducted 109 general examinations and 26 special examinations. Examining and the related task of directing the research of candidates for the higher degrees undoubtedly have an incidence upon undergraduate instruction which raises questions of fundamental importance. It is encouraging that the number of graduate students is, through the action of the Department, declining.

In spite of the difficulties presented by the numbers of undergraduates and graduates, the Department, perhaps belatedly, has given particular consideration to its commitments in the Areas and in General Education. A report on General Education is enclosed.

Also, the Department has considered at length and in detail various problems of instruction, particularly undergraduate instruction. These considerations will be continued in the current year. By completely revising the content of our basic courses it may be possible to increase the effectiveness of our instruction and reduce somewhat the number of courses offered. A preliminary report on this aspect of our work is included.

A year ago I noted that many of our senior officers were handicapped severely by the lack of research funds. As you know, it can now be recorded with sincere satisfaction that a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and that several projects under the auspices of the Research Marketing Act, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Charles H. Hood Dairy Foundation, the Ferguson Foundation Fund, and the Carnegie Corporation Fund, meet the situation effectively for some of our officers. The set-up of these projects promises not only to be of great value to the professors in charge of the research but it contributes heavily to the training of our most promising graduate students and younger officers.

The following books were published by members of the Department:

How Shall We Pay for Education? by Seymour Harris. Harpers.

Stabilization Subsidies by Seymour Harris. Historical Report Series, U.S. Gov’t.

Price Control of International Commodities by Seymour Harris. Archives Volume, Historical Records Office.

International Monetary Policies, by Gottfried Haberler (with Lloyd Metzler and Robert Triffin). Postwar Economic Series, Federal Reserve System Board of Governors.

Problemas de Conjuntura e de Politica Economica, by Gottfried Haberler. Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janiero.

Production in the United States, 1866-1914, by Edwin Frickey. Harvard University Press.

Seventy-eight articles have been published. Three books were published in the Harvard Economic Series during the past year. Five volumes are in the hands of the Press to be published later this year.

Professor Edward H. Chamberlin has been appointed to succeed Dr. Arthur B. Monroe as Managing Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Both the Quarterly Journal of Economies and the Review of Economic Statistics are well established intellectually and financially. With the demands of instruction and research, the editing of the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Review of Economics and Statistics, as well as the direction of the Harvard Economic Series, raises questions regarding the adequacy of the manpower within the Department.

In the area of distinctions or honors, Professor Joseph A. Schumpeter was chosen to be President of the American Economic Association for 1948. Dean Edward S. Mason was awarded an honorary degree, D. Litt, from Williams College, June, 1948.

Very sincerely,
H. H. Burbank

Provost Paul H. Buck
5 University Hall

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers (UAV 349.11), Box 2, Folder “Provost Buck—Annual Report of Dept.”

___________________________

1948-1949

September 28, 1949

Dear Provost Buck:

The pattern of the report of the Department of Economics on the work of the last year is essentially the same as the other reports for the post-war years. Indeed, not a little of the introduction to the report of a year ago could be utilized in the current report. The quantitative side of our work has been among our major problems. I think I was correct in predicting that the peak of the load would be passed in 1948-49. For the year 1949-50, numbers, particularly on the graduate level, will be approximately less although the total is still beyond the capacities of our senior staff.

Again I can repeat that the problem of building and maintaining a junior staff presents great difficulties. We have strengthened our position on the level of the assistant professor but we are unable to hold our most promising young Ph.D’s for appointment at the instructor level. All of our undergraduate instruction suffers because of this factor, but Economics 1 (the introductory course) is affected particularly. The demand for these young men by other institutions continues at a high level resulting in a high rate of turnover and leaving us sech year with a relatively inexperienced staff. [end of p. 1]

[Note: need to replace unfocussed image of page 2]

[p. 3 begins ] …expectation that we will be able to revise our general examination effectively.

In the post-war years the Department has been striving to meet its obligations to General Education and to the areas. We believe that we have made an excellent beginning in both General Education and in the Russian Area. We are still actively engaged in the attempt to strengthen our position in the Chinese Area. This is exceedingly difficult but I believe that some progress is being made.

Last year we were able to record with great satisfaction that some research projects were being established satisfactorily. These projects under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation and under the auspices of various groups interested in agriculture and marketing are now going forward successfully and up proving to be important for us not only as research projects but also because of their general effect upon a relatively large group of our graduate students. We can now give a type of training to our most promising men which would have been impossible without such projects. It should be emphasized at this point that other areas of interest need research funds.

The following books were published:

Collective Bargaining: Principles and Cases, Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1949, by John I. Dunlop.

Labor in Norway by Walter Galenson. Harvard University Press, 1949.

Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, by Alvin Hansen McGraw-Hill, 1949.

The European Recovery Program, by Seymour E. Harris. Harvard University Press.

Foreign Economic Policy for the U.S., edited by Seymour E. Harris, Harvard University Press.

Price Control of International Commodities, by Seymour E. Harris. Archives Volume for Historical Records Office.

Saving American Capitalism, edited by Seymour E. Harris. Knopf.

Economic Planning, by Seymour E. Harris. Knopf.

Post-war Monetary Plans and Other Essays, by John H. Williams. Oxford, Basil Blackwell.

The American Economy, Its Problems and Prospects, by Sumner H. Slichter. Knopf.

There were 62 articles published by members of the Department during the past year. Five books were published in the Harvard Economic Studies and two volumes are in the hands of the Press to be published later this year. There has been a total of 86 books published in the Harvard Economic Studies to this date.

It should be recorded that both the Quarterly Journal of Economics under the editorship of Professor Chamberlin and the Review of Economics and Statistics have prospered during the year. Again I do feel it necessary to refer to the fact that editing the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Review of Economics and Statistics and the carrying forward of the Harvard Economic Studies continues to raise questions regarding the adequacy of the manpower within the Department.

In the area of distinctions and honors, Professor Slichter was awarded honorary degrees (LL.D.) from the following universities: Lehigh University, Harvard University, University of Rochester, University of Wisconsin and Northwestern University. Professor

Haberler was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Economics (“Doktor der Wirtschaftswissenschaft honoris causa”) from Handelshochschule, St. Gallen, Switzerland. Dr. Galbraith was awarded the President’s Certificate of Merit, Medal of Merit Board, for services in Price Control and Economic Stabilization during the war.

Sincerely
[Harold H. Burbank]

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers (UAV 349.11), Box 2, Folder “Departmental Annual Reports to the Dean 1948-54”.

___________________________

1949-1950

[Draft] Report to Dean, October 2, 1950
Professor Burbank

In each of the reports for the last three years, emphasis has been placed upon two matters; our efforts to handle the increased numbers incident to the war, particularly on the graduate level, and our attempts to revise and improve our instruction, particularly on the undergraduate level.

With a good deal of satisfaction we are able to report that for the last year substantial progress has been made in each of these areas. Immediately after the war the number of our graduate students increased from approximately 100 to nearly 300. By raising the standards of admission and giving the most careful scrutiny to applications, the numbers on the graduate level are now well under 200, and will be reduced somewhat more for 1950-51.

The work of supervising and directing graduate students falls very unevenly upon the various members of the senior staff. Even with not over 150 graduate students some members of the staff will carry an inordinate part of individual instruction and of examining for the higher degrees. Further, large graduate classes tend to dilute the instruction.

On the undergraduate level the Department has revised its requirements for concentration, including the content of many of our key courses. This plan has been accepted by the Faculty and is now in operation. It is an ambitious scheme that involves not only a change in the content and coverage of our key courses but it also involves the strengthening the staff in these courses and an integration of course work with tutorial work. Undoubtedly it will take some years to complete this plan. Much depends upon our ability to build a strong junior staff, especially on the annual instructor level. When this reorganized instruction is in full operation it is expected that a number of courses now offered for undergraduates may be deleted.

Also it is with a good deal of satisfaction that after a period of suspension tutorial instruction has been reestablished and is developing steadily. The period of suspension was unfortunate but probably inevitable. We are now approaching a position with respect to both graduate and undergraduate instruction that at least approximates a normal situation, with a possibility of a carefully planned and well integrated system of undergraduate instruction. As a part of this plan increased attention has been given to reestablishing the General Examinations on something approximating the level of earlier years. Since we are lacking experienced tutors the establishment of tutorial instruction is a very real task but it is believed it can be done successfully.

We have been fortunate to have been able to attract to the Graduate School a group of unusually able young men. The very top of this group represents ability of the very highest order. Unfortunately only rarely can we retain the services of these young men even on the assistant professor level. However, the Department is keenly aware of the difficulties it faces in recruitment and every effort is being made to follow the progress of the product of other schools as well as the progress of our own young scholars.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers (UAV 349.11), Box 2, Folder “Provost Buck—Annual Report of Dept.”

___________________________

1949-1950

January 5, 1951

Provost Paul H. Buck
5 University Hall
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Dear Provost Buck:

I am now somewhat belatedly submitting the report of the Department of Economics for 1949-50.

I. Undergraduate Instruction

Four hundred eighty-two Harvard and Radcliffe students concentrated in economics in 1949-50 as compared with 608 in the previous year. The enrolment in Economics 1 was 402 as compared with 546 in the previous year. Seventy-seven students graduated with honors; 20 obtaining magna cum laude and 57 cum laude.

The entire senior staff gave courses at the undergraduate level— a practice that distinguishes Harvard sharply from institutions such as Columbia and Chicago which restrict the activities of some of the most talented members of the staff to graduate instruction. Nevertheless, the strength of our undergraduate teaching has depended very largely on the unusually fine group of assistant professors we now have on our staff.

During the past couple of years the Department has been gradually moving toward restoration of the tutorial system and last spring it decided finally to give tutorial instruction to all honors students in their junior and senior years,

II. Graduate Instruction

Two hundred graduate students in economics were in residence last year as compared with 234 the previous year. The Department gave 58 general examinations for the Ph.D. and 47 special examinations.

The number of graduate students is still too large to handle effectively with the present staff. The students themselves justifiably complain that they cannot see enough of the members of the faculty. However if they did see as much of the faculty as they wanted to, the faculty would have little time for reading and research and the quality of instruction would decline. We are planning to deal with this problem as far as possible by making sure that more graduate students attend reasonably small seminars and do have an opportunity to get to know at least one faculty member reasonably well.

I believe that the quality of our graduate work has suffered through overemphasis on course work and preoccupation with grades. We tend to make graduate instruction too much of a prolongation of undergraduate instruction. We also tend too much in the direction of specialization and provide too little encouragement for students to become coordinated in the whole economic field. The remedy for this state of affairs depends more upon the general attitude of the Department rather than any specific measures of reorganization. We shall do whatever is possible to encourage students in the feeling that their main function here is to acquire the maturity that is essential for scholarship rather than to accumulate a collection of pieces of isolated information.

III. Research

Professors Mason, Leontief, Black, Galbraith and Dunlop are all conducting organized research projects within the Department. Apart from their substantive value, these projects give a considerable number of graduate students an opportunity to take part in organized research activity. I believe these projects have an important part to play in the future of the Department as a whole rather than as special interests of individual members. However, I do not share the view that most of our intellectual activities should be directed towards organized research. There is danger that we may become a research bureaucracy and that the merits of individual scholarship may achieve less recognition than they deserve. While the research project is invaluable in training the students in specialized activity, it does little to cultivate the maturity that should be one of the most important products of our graduate training.

IV. The Staff of the Department

Professor Schumpeter’s death has meant a loss to the Department that cannot be covered by any individual that we now have on the staff or could get from the outside. The only way to make up for his absence is for the present members of the faculty to direct part of their attention to the aspects of economic thought in which Schumpeter was particularly interested. This has in part been done. I think it is true to say that since Schumpeter’s death his own work has received more attention in Harvard classrooms than it received while he was alive.

The only new additions to the to the staff at the professorial level in 1949-50 were assistant professors Orcutt and Sawyer. Orcutt is giving a course at the graduate level and the undergraduate level on empirical economies in which he stresses the quantitative aspects of economic theory. He is also a first-class statistician. Since the resignation of Professor Crum we have had only one professional statistician in the Department, and it seems highly desirable to have at least two. Sawyer will add considerable strength to the Department’s work in economic history although he will spend half of his time in the General Education program.

**VI. [sic] Distinctions**

Members of the Department received the following distinctions:

Professor Edward Chamberlin — An honorary degree (Dr.) awarded by the Universita Catholica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy. December 1949.

Professor Sumner Slichter — President, Industrial Relations Research Association.

Professor Gottfried Haberler — President, International Economic Association for 1950 (held by Professor Schumpeter at the time of his death).

I am attaching a bibliography of the writings of the members of the Department. [not included in this folder]

Sincerely yours,
Arthur Smithies

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers (UAV 349.11), Box 2, Folder “Departmental Annual Reports to the Dean 1948-54”.

Images Source: Burbank (left) from the Harvard Class Album 1946, Smithies (right) from the Harvard Class Album 1952.

Tags BlackJD, Burbank, Chamberlin, Crum, Dunlop, Frickey, Galbraith, Haberler, Hansen, Harris, Leontief, Mason, Metzler, Monroe, Orcutt, SawyerJ, Schumpeter, Slichter, Smithies, Triffin, WilliamsJH

Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Student Class Debate on Impact of Protection on Wages. Taussig, 1889

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-04-15

From the Harvard Crimson archive a chance discovery of the student debate briefs on whether a protective tariff would raise wages. This debate took place in a senior course jointly supervised by Frank Taussig during the first term of the 1889-90 academic year. I had never thought of checking whether Taussig ever taught an English Course.

Expanded versions of these briefs were later published (1908) in a collection of economic policy debates that have been transcribed for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror earlier.

I tried to track down all the literature cited but was unable to find a few items (e.g. Walker’s Pamphlet, Seank’s [sic] International Trade Report). Nonetheless most of the items have a link.

______________________________

Course Announcement

[English] 6. Oral Discussion of Topics in Political Economy and History. Half-course. Th., from 3-5. Asst. Professors Taussig and Hart, and Mr. Hayes.

Course 6 is open to Seniors only.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Harvard College for the Academic Year 1889-90 (May, 1889), p. 11.

______________________________

Debate of October 10, 1889.

Question: Resolved, That a high protective tariff raises wages.

Brief for the Affirmative.
R. D. [Reynolds Driver] Brown ‘90, and E. S. [Edward Stetson] Griffing ‘90.

Best general references.— Taussig, Forum VI. p 169; Thompson’s Ireland and Free Trade.

The United States is the best example of the effect of the tariff on wages.
Money wages are higher in the United States than in Europe — Walker’s Pamphlet, esp. pp. 4-5.
Real wages are also higher in the United States — Consular Report 40, p 304, et seq; 42, pp. 12-14; and 15; 45, pp. 117-118.
1. 1. Proven directly by the amount an American workman can save.
  2. Proven indirectly by his higher standard of living.
High authorities hold that a high protective tariff raises wages. — Thompson’s Pol. Econ., Carey’s Pol. Econ., International Review XIII, p. 455.
1. 1. Opinion of writers.
  2. Opinion of manufacturers.
It is shown historically that a high protective tariff raises wages —
1. 1. Effect of tariff in England and Ireland.
  2. Effect of tariff in Germany and United States — Porter’s “Bread Winners Abroad;” Seank’s [sic, possibly James Moore Swank, Our Bessemer Steel Industry, p. 23] International Trade Report.

Brief for the Negative.
F. F. [Francis Frederick] Causey [‘90] and F. L. [Frank LaMont] DeLong [‘90].

Best general reference: Professor F. W. Taussig’s article in Forum for October, 1888. Evils of the Tariff System, in North American Review, September 8, 1884; Sumner on Protective Taxes and Wages, in Fortnightly Review, vol. 37, p. 272.

Loose comparisons are untrustworthy.
1. 1. There is no uniform rate of wages in any country;
  2. Such comparisons prove too much — American Almanac for 1889, p. 103; Schoenhof’s, The Industrial Situation, p. 124; Wells’ Practical Economics, p. 137;
  3. There are many local causes which must necessarily make wages higher in one country than in another.
    1. 1. Natural advantages — D. A. Wells, Relation of Tariff to Wages, p. 2;
      2. Standing service — Wells as above;
      3. Question of unoccupied land — Sumner, Protective Taxes and Wages; North American Review, vol. 136, p. 270.
Careful use of statistics show higher relative wages under a low tariff.
1. 1. High wages in the United States are set by unprotected industries. Laughlin’s note to Mill, p. 619.
  2. Compare wages in protected industries in the United States and wages in those same industries in England — Report of J. G. Blaine, secretary of state, on the Button Goods Trade of the World, published by Department of State, Washington, June 25, 1881, (cited in Wells’, Relation of the Tariff to Wages); Wells’ Practical Economics, p. 143.
  3. Wages in United States higher than abroad before there was any protection in the United States — Nation, October 25, 1888.
  4. New South Wales is more prosperous than Victoria: The Results of Protection in Young Communities. — Fortnightly Review for March, 1882.
In a given country, changes in the rate of wages can only be produced by changes in the amount of capital distributed in wages, or by changes in the number of persons competing for work-Sumner, Protective Taxes.
1. 1. But since the number of persons competing for work is not changed by high protection, if high protection affects wages at all it must affect them through the amount of capital distributed in wages.
  2. Yet protection diminishes the amount of capital distributed in wages for two reasons:
    1. 1. The productiveness of industry being less, the product to be divided between capital and labor is less Wells’ Practical Economics, p. 135;
      2. and also the proportion in which that produced is divided is less favorable to labor.
  3. Evil effect of limiting the sale of commodities to a domestic market — Wells’ Practical Economics, p. 139.
The tariff increases the price of commodities, and thus puts them out of the reach of the poorer classes. Their real wages thus become less — Sumner, Protective Taxes and Wages.

Source: The Harvard Crimson, October 8, 1889.

______________________________

Links to many of the authorities cited by the students

American Almanac and Treasury of Facts. Statistical, Financial and Political, 1889. P. 103.

Carey, Henry Charles. Principles of Political Economy. Philadelphia: Carea, Lea & Blanchard, 1837.

Evils of the Tariff System. Essays by David Ames Wells, Thomas G. Shearman. J.B. Sargent, and W.G. Sumner. North American Review, vol. 139, No. 334 (September 1884), pp. 274-299.

Mill, John Stuart. Principles of Political Economy, abridged with commentary by J. L. Laughlin. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1884 , p. 619.

Porter, Robert P. Bread-Winners Abroad. New York: J.S. Ogilvie & Company, 1885.

Powell, G. Baden. Protection in Young Communities. The Fortnightly Review, vol. 31. New Series, March 1882.p. 369-379.

Roach, John. What the Tariff Laws have Done for Us. International Review, vol. 13 (November 1882) pp. 455-477.

Schoenhof, Jacob. The Industrial Situation and the Question of Wages. A Study in Social Physiology. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, 1885.

Sumner, W. G. Protective Taxes and Wages. North American Review, vol. 136, No. 316 (March 1883), pp. 270-276.

Swank, James Moore. Our Bessemer Steel Industry. Philadelphia, 1882.

Taussig, Frank W. How the Tariff Affects Wages. Forum, v. VI (October, 1888), pp. 167-175.

Thompson, Robert Ellis. Political Economy with especial Reference to the Industrial History of Nations (3^rd, revised edition) Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1882.

Thompson, Robert Ellis. Ireland and Free Trade: An Object Lesson in National Economy. Advertised as a tract that can had free from The American: A National Journal (September 8, 1888) vol. 16, No. 422.

Cf. Thompson’s contribution to the discussion “Irish Comments on an English Text” published in The North American Review, vol. 147 (September 1888), pp. 297-301

Wells, David Ames. Relation of the Tariff to Wages. (Questions of the Day, No. LIV). New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, 1888.

Wells, David Ames. Practical Economics. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, 1885.

The Evolution of the Wages Argument. The Nation October 25, 1888. Number 1217. Pp. 327-328.

United States Department of State. Reports from the Consuls of the United States on the Commerce, Manufactures, etc., of their Consular Districts.

Labor, Wages, and Living in Germany, in Vol. 12, No. 40 (April 1884), p. 304 ff.

Proposed Increase of the import Duties in Germany in Vol. 13, No. 42 (June 1884), pp. 12-14

The Effect of Protection on Labor in Germany, in Vol. 13, No. 42 (June 1884), p. 15.

An Industry Created by the New Protective Tariff of Germany, in Vol. 14, No. 45 (September 1884), pp. 117-118

Image Source: Frank W. Taussig ca 1885-1890. Harvard University Hollis Images.

Tags Taussig

Economists Gender Harvard Health Radcliffe

Radcliffe. Economics Ph.D. alumna, later pioneer health economist Mary Lee Ingbar, 1953

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-04-13

In this post we meet the economics Ph.D. alumna Mary Lee Gimbel Mack Ingbar (b. 18 May 1926; d. 18 September 2009). She and Lester Taylor wrote Hospital Costs in Massachusetts (Harvard University Press, 1968), a pioneering econometric study of hospital costs.

From the biography in the guide to her papers archived at the Harvard Medical School library:

She received an SB cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1946, an AM from Radcliffe Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1948, and an PhD from Radcliffe Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1953. She then received an MPH, cum laude, from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) as a member of the class of 1956. She was the first social scientist to be allowed to matriculate for the MPH degree.

MLI has remained professionally associated with Harvard during most of her career. She was Lecturer on Medical Economics at the HSPH’s Department of Public Health Practice from 1957 to 1961, and Research Associate at the Graduate School of Public Administration from 1961 to 1966…

Add a fun fact: Mary Lee Ingbar was the daughter of NBER staff economist Ruth Prince Mack (1903-2002).

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From Wedding Announcement

Mary Mack graduated from the Lincoln School of Teachers College, Columbia University and Radcliffe College.

Source: Mary Mack, Radcliffe Graduate Student, Married to Dr. Sidney Ingbar at Sherry’s,” The New York Times, May 29, 1950, p. 10.

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Awarded Bachelor of Science cum laude, June 1946

Mary Lee Gimbel Mack, in Economics

Source: Radcliffe College, Reports of Officers Issue, 1945-46 published in Official Register of Radcliffe College, Vol. XII, No. 7 (December 1946), p. 38.
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Awarded Master of Arts 1948

Mary Lee Gimbel Mack

Source: Radcliffe College, Reports of Officers Issue, 1947-48 published in Official Register of Radcliffe College, Vol. XIV, No. 6 (December 1948), p. 21.

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Awarded Ph.D. in Economics 1953

Mary Lee Gimbel Mack Ingbar, A.M.
Subject, Economics.
Special Field, Labor Problems
Dissertation, “The Factors Underlying the Relationship between Cost and Price: A Case Study of a Textile Firm”

Source: Radcliffe College, Reports of Officers Issue, 1952-53 published in Official Register of Radcliffe College, Vol. XIX, No. 5 (December 1953), p. 21.

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Mary Lee Ingbar,
pioneer in field of health economics, dies at 83
October 15, 2009

Mary Lee Ingbar, Radcliffe ’46, Ph.D. ’53, M.P.H. ’56, who was a pioneer in applying quantitative and sophisticated computer analysis to the developing field of health economics in the 1950s and 1960s, died in Cambridge, on Sept. 18.

Ingbar was especially interested in the relationships between cost, quality, and outcomes of medical care. She brought insights from the fields of econometrics and operations research to bear upon the variability of the costs of medical care from one health care setting to another; to this end, she developed what in all likelihood was the first comprehensive statistical and econometric computer software program for analyzing hospital costs. In this work, she collaborated closely with Professor John Dunlop of Harvard (later U.S. secretary of labor) and Lester D. Taylor. She and Taylor wrote “Hospital Costs in Massachusetts” (Harvard University Press, 1968), one of the first econometric studies of hospital costs ever to be published.

In the early 1970s, while associate professor of health economics at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical School, Ingbar was a member of the California Hospital Commission, where she participated in the design and implementation of an innovative program for detailed reporting of hospital expenses and health outcomes, which allowed comparisons of costs and efficiencies of care, and helped to establish the oversight of then-emerging forms of health care delivery, such as health maintenance organizations.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, Ingbar worked to advance the use of computerized databases to track health care events, costs, and outcomes in medical care delivery systems that were growing increasingly large and complex. During these years, she held professorships at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Ingbar remained a principal research associate of the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School for the remainder of her life. She served as an Overseer for the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and as a member of the Corporation of Partners Healthcare System. Ingbar was very active in the American Public Health Association (APHA); she was a member of the APHA Governing Council and a chairperson of the APHA Medical Care Section. She was consultant on health economics to many organizations, and in recent years served on the Council of the Alumni Association of the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Ingbar was born and raised in New York City. Her mother, Ruth P. Mack, was a noted economist. Her stepfather, Edward C. Mack, was a professor of English literature at the City College of New York. John E. Mack, her stepbrother, was a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and received the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for his biography of T.E. Lawrence

Mary Lee Ingbar was married to Sidney H. Ingbar, an internationally recognized expert on thyroid gland disease and William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is survived by her three sons, David Ingbar, M.D. ’78, of Minneapolis; Eric Ingbar of Carson City, Nev.; and Jonathan Ingbar of Portland, Ore.

Donations in honor of Mary Lee Ingbar may be made to the Lung Cancer Alliance and High Horses Therapeutic Riding Program. A memorial will be held at a later date.

Source: The Harvard Gazette (October 15, 2009).

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Biography from Mary Lee Ingbar papers, 1946-2008
Harvard University Medical School, Countway Library.

Mary Lee Ingbar (MLI), PhD, MPH, is a health economist who developed theories concerning interaction between managerial structures of health care programs, and their effectiveness in meeting constituency needs. She received an SB cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1946, an AM from Radcliffe Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1948, and an PhD from Radcliffe Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1953. She then received an MPH, cum laude, from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) as a member of the class of 1956. She was the first social scientist to be allowed to matriculate for the MPH degree.

MLI has remained professionally associated with Harvard during most of her career. She was Lecturer on Medical Economics at the HSPH’s Department of Public Health Practice from 1957 to 1961, and Research Associate at the Graduate School of Public Administration from 1961 to 1966, where with Lester Taylor, she undertook the first econometric study of hospital costs using United States data. Subsequently, she worked for several years on many national and regional committees, addressing such issues as medical costs, hospital planning, day care organization, and alcoholism.

In 1972, MLI relocated to San Francisco. There she served as Associate Professor of Health in the Division of Ambulatory and Community Medicine at University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine from 1972 to 1975. From 1974 to 1975, she was also Associate Program Director of The Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar Program at UCSF.

In 1976 MLI returned east, joining HMS as a Principle Research Associate in Preventive and Social Medicine. Simultaneously, she took a one year post as Visiting Professor of Health Economics at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College and the Department of Community Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. In 1977, MLI became Professor of Family and Community Medicine in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, remaining until 1982. She became Principle Research Associate in Social Medicine and Health Policy at HMS in 1980, and Principal Associate in Medicine and Health Policy in 1985, a post she held until 2003.

Throughout her career, MLI consulted on government projects concerning economic aspects of health care policy. She has held many city, state, and federal directorships and consultancies, including: Director of Program Development for the Department of Health, Hospital and Welfare of the City of Cambridge, MA, 1968-1972; Director of Research for the Office of Comprehensive Planning of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1970-1971; Regional Consultant for Health Economics and Public Health Advisor, US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Region I, Division of Finance and Health Economics, 1975-1976; and Consultant at the West Roxbury Veterans Administration Hospital in 1986.

MLI has directed or consulted on several specifically contracted, grant-funded projects, which have been the basis of much of her research and publications. These contracts include such research topics as: Economics and the Administration of Medical Care Programs, 1961-1966; Identification of the Data and Development if the Record-Keeping System Necessary to Evaluate the Cost-Benefit and/or Cost Effectiveness of Ambulatory Health Services Provided to Residents of Low Income Areas in Cambridge, MA, 1970-1972; Innovative Methods of Pricing Ambulatory Care Treatment (IMPACT) for Patients with Hypertension: A Means of Enhancing Positive Health Outcomes for Long-Term Care, 1980-1982; and Health Services Utilization and Cost Pre and Post Mental Health Treatment in Organized Fee for Service Health Care Settings: The Bunker Hill Health Center of the Massachusetts General Hospital, 1980-1982.

MLI has authored, co-authored, and edited dozens of articles, original reports, and monographs for professional publication, primarily hospital costs. Topics include a range of interests pertinent to a health economist, including efficient record-keeping, cost of nursing services, and teaching cost containment in medical schools. In 1990, MLI contributed to the inaugural issue of Thyroid, a tribute to her late husband, Sidney H. Ingbar, MD.

MLI maintains active memberships in many professional societies, including the Association of University Programs in Health Administration, the Massachusetts Public Health Association, Academy Health, the International Health Economies Association, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), and the American Public Health Association, in which she has held many chairmanships and served on the Governing Council.

Source: From the Collection overview to the Papers, 1946-2008, (Harvard University. Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. Center for the History of Medicine.)

Image Source: 1946 Radcliffe Yearbook, Forty and Six, p. 92.

Tags Dunlop, Ingbar, MackRP, TaylorLD

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Economics Course Examinations, 1898-99

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-04-12

Another year of staffing, enrollments and semester examinations for the economics department at Harvard has been transcribed for the Economics in the Rear-view Mirror test-bank.

Worth noting is that half of the questions in the second semester exam for Frank Taussig’s advanced course on methodology (Economics 13) were in German. John Cummings’ course “Ethnology in its Applications to Economic and Social Problems” (Economics 17) was entirely what one would expect from a turn-of-the-century course of racist anthropology — e.g. “What do you understand by ‘cephalic index’? of what is it an index? Consider its validity as a test of (a) race origin, (b) of individual capacity”

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1898-99 Course Announcement
Outlines of Economics.

[Economics] 1. Outlines of Economics. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor [Frank William] Taussig, Asst. Professor Edward Cummings, Dr. John Cummings, Dr. [Morton Arnold] Aldrich, Mr. [Edward Henry] Warren, and Mr. [Charles] Beardsley.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 351.

1898-99 Enrollment
Outlines of Economics.

[Economics] 1. [Outlines of Economics] — Professor [Frank William] Taussig, Asst. Professor Edward Cummings, Dr. John Cummings, Dr. [Morton Arnold] Aldrich, Dr. [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague, Mr. [Edward Henry] Warren, and Mr. [Charles] Beardsley. Lectures (2 hours); recitations and conferences (1 hour) in 14 sections.

Total 443: 26 Seniors, 88 Juniors, 259 Sophomores, 13 Freshmen, 57 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 72.

1898-99.
Economics 1.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.

It has been said that “the laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths.” Do you believe this to be true of the “laws and conditions” which Mill sets forth as to the accumulation of capital? as to the increase of production from land?
Suppose greater and greater amounts of capital to be saved and invested, other things remaining the same: would wages rise or fall? profits? Would there be a limit to the rise or fall in either case?
If all landlords owning advantageous sites remitted to tenants all economic rent, would the prices of commodities produced on those sites be affected? If so, how? If not, why not?
Would you expect wages in agreeable occupations to be high or low? Why? Are they in fact high or low? Why?
“The value or purchasing power of money depends, in the first instance, on demand and supply. But demand and supply, in relation to money, present themselves in a somewhat different shape from the demand and supply of other things.” Wherein different, and why?
“The sequel of our investigation will point out many qualifications with which the proposition must be received, that the value of the circulating medium depends on the demand and supply, and is in the inverse ratio of the quantity; qualifications which prove the proposition an extremely incorrect expression of the fact.” What are the qualifications? and how far do they make the proposition incorrect?
Wherein do the causes determining the level of prices remain the same, wherein become different, when specie has been displaced by inconvertible paper money?
What determines the exchange value of
an ounce of gold bullion,
a bale of wool,
English wheat in England,
Dakota wheat in Dakota,
Dakota wheat in England.
If American shoes sell at the same price in New York and in Mexico (allowance being made for cost of transportation) can it be said that their value in the one case is determined by cost of production, in the other case not?
What do you say to the common opinion that it is to a country’s advantage to dispose of an increasing quantity of exported goods?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-years 1898-1899.

1898-99
Economics 1.
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions,
Answer concisely.
Take nine questions, and from each group at least two.

Does the rate of interest depend on the abundance of money? does the rate of discount? If so, how? if not, why not?
Is the exportation of specie from a country to be regarded with apprehension?
In what way is the price of landed property likely to be affected by a rise in the rate of interest? by an increase in the quantity of money? by a growth of population?

II.

Assuming Mill’s theory as to the causes determining the rate of wages to be sound, how far can trade union action influence the rate? State concisely whether you accede to Mill’s theory, and why or why not.
What light does the experience of English coöperators throw on the contention that the discontent of the workingmen would cease if coöperative organization were extended to all branches of industry?
Brentano’s reasoning as to the nature of the bargaining between employer and workman, and the policy therefore necessary on the workman’s part; and your own opinion as to his conclusion.

III.

(a) In what manner the exigencies of a commercial crisis are best met by banking institutions; (b) how far the legislation of England and the United States aids, in a time of crisis, in the pursuance of the best policy by the banking institutions of these countries.
Does the mode of regulating the issue of bank-notes in Germany proceed on a principal essentially different from that in England? Does the mode of regulation under the National Bank system?
Arrange in their proper order the following items:

Capital	$1,000,000
Specie	$1,100,000
Notes	$ 400,000
Surplus	$ 200,000
Securities	$ 450,000
Loans	$4,200,000
Deposits	$4,100,000
Undivided Profits	$ 100,000
Expenses	$ 50,000

Consider how the account would stand if the bank sold $100,000 of securities for cash, and with the proceeds met demands by depositors for the like sum; and whether the bank, before or after this operation, could carry on its operations as a National Bank?

IV.

How the resumption of specie payments in the United States was promoted by the condition of international trade and by the course of prices in the years preceding resumption.
Are there important differences between the modes in which the functions of money are fulfilled in the United States by National Bank notes, deposits in National Banks, legal tender notes, silver certificates?
Explain to whom and in what manner what manner the changes in general prices during the last twenty years have been harmful.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1899) in bound volume Examination Papers 1898-99, pp. 26-27.

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1898-99 Course Announcement
Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century

[Economics] 2. Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Professor Taussig.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 352.

1898-99 Enrollment
Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century.

[Economics] 2. Professor Taussig. — Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century. Discussion of selected passages from leading writers. The history of theory. Lectures and recitations (3 hours).

Total 67: 5 Graduates, 27 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 10 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 72.

1898-99.
Economics 2.
[Mid-Year Exam, 1899]

Are the high wages earned by some kinds of skilled laborers cause or effect of high prices of commodities made by them?
Many Americans annually visit European countries, and there spend freely. Supposing this to be the only cause, beside the imports and exports of merchandise, affecting the international trade of the United States, what would you expect the usual relation of its imports and exports to be? and what the usual flow of specie to or from the country?
“What a nation is interested in is, not in having its prices high or low, but in having its gold cheap — understanding by cheapness not low value, butlow cost — a small sacrifice of ease and comfort; and it generally happens that cheap gold is accompanied by a high scale of prices.”
How does a country gain from having its gold cheap? and why need cheap gold not be accompanied by a high scale of prices?
“The distinction, then, between capital and non-capital does not lie in the kind of commodities, but in the mind of the capitalist — in his will to employ them for one purpose rather than another; and all property, however ill adapted in itself for the use of laborers, is a part of capital, so soon as it, or the value to be received from it, is set apart for productive reinvestment.” Is this true?
“The multitudes who compose the working class are too numerous and too widely scattered to combine at all, much more to combine effectually. If they could do so, they might doubtless succeed in diminishing the hours of labor, and obtaining the same wages for less work. But if they aimed at obtaining actually higher wages than the rate fixed by demand and supply — the rate which distributed the whole circulating capital of the country among the working population — this could only be accomplished by keeping a part of their number permanently out of employment. . . . The workpeople collectively would be no better off than before, having to support the same numbers out of the same aggregate wages.”
Whom do you suppose to be the writer of this passage? What would Cairnes say to it? Professor Taussig?
“If the efficiency of labor could be suddenly doubled, whilst the capital of the country remained stationary, there would be a great and immediate rise in real wages. The supplies of capital already in existence would be distributed among the laborers more rapidly than would otherwise be the case, and the increased efficiency of labor would soon make good the diminished supplies. The fact is that an increase in the efficiency of labor would bring about an increase in the supply of capital.” — Marshall.
Why? or why not?
Do you believe Walker’s discussion of the theory of wages has promoted the better understanding of the causes affecting the welfare of laborers? If so, how? If not, why not?
“The extra gains which any producer or dealer obtains through superior talents for business, or superior business arrangements, are very much a similar kind [to rent]. If all his competitors had the same advantages, and used them, the benefit would be transferred to their customers, through the diminished value of the article: he only retains it for himself because he is able to bring his commodity to market at a lower cost, while its value is determined by a higher. All advantages, in fact, which one competitor has over another, whether natural or acquired, whether personal or the result of social arrangements . . . . assimilate the possessor of the advantage to a receiver of rent.” — Mill.
Wherein does Walker’s doctrine differ from this?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-years 1898-1899.

1898-99.
Economics 2.
[Year-end Exam, 1899.]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

Three questions from this group.

J. S. Mill’s contributions to economic theory, and his position as regards the development of theory.
“Cost of production” and “expenses of production”: what Marshall designates by these phrases; whether he believes that “expenses” measure “cost”; and how far Cairnes and Mill believed “expenses” to measure “cost.”
It has been said that the wages-fund doctrine grew out of the industrial conditions of England during the Napoleonic wars, — capital having then been accumulated to such an extent as to enable employers to pay their laborers by the month, week, or day, without waiting for the marketing of the product. It has been said also that its general acceptance was favored by the fact that it afforded a complete justification, as to wages, for the existing order of things. — Give your opinion as to the historical accuracy of these statements as to the origin and the ready acceptance of the doctrine.
Marshall’s conclusions on the relation of cost and of utility to the value of a commodity, —

(a) for long periods, if it be subject to the law of constant returns;
(b) for short periods, if it be subject to the law of constant returns;
(c) for long periods, if it be subject to the law of increasing returns.

Which among these conclusions has been heretofore most dwelt on by economists? and which is applicable to the greatest range of phenomena?

II.

Three questions from this group.

Explain “consumers’ rent” (or “surplus,”) “producers’ rent,” “savers’ rent,” “quasi-rent”; and consider how far any or all of these conceptions are analogous to the traditional one of “economic rent.”
The effect on consumers’ rent of a tax on a commodity subject to the law of diminishing returns; and the mode in which the reasoning would be affected according as the commodity were tobacco or diamonds.
Admitting that interest is the reward of “abstinence,” does it follow that the rate of interest is a measure of the “abstinence” undergone by the several receivers of interest? Why or why not?
The rent of rare natural abilities may be regarded as a specially important element in the income of business men, so long as we consider them as individuals. In relation to normal value, the earnings even of rare abilities are, as we have seen, to be regarded rather as a quasi rent than as a rent proper.” Is the rent of rare abilities specially important in the case of business men? if so, why? and why not to be regarded as rent in relation to normal value?

III.

Two questions in this group.

“ The instructed man of today desires that the world generally and all other countries should have a full circulation, while he would like for his own country, if that were possible, a trifle less than its distributive share of that supply, so that it may be a good country to buy in and not a very good country to sell in. He desires to have prices everywhere sustained, in order that trade may be good. He would like, if that were possible, to have prices in his own country permanently lower, though only a shade lower, than anywhere else, in order that his countrymen may get the largest share of that trade.’ Walker
Would you agree?
Your conclusion as to whether in general a régime of falling prices is a cause of depression and an obstacle to prosperity; and whether the actual fall in prices during the past generation has had ill effects of this sort.
The compensatory action of bimetallism, in regard to the ratio between the metals, and in regard to their stability in value: is it made out in either way? in both ways?

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1898-99 Course Announcement
The Principles of Sociology

[Economics] 3. The Principles of Sociology. —Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30. Asst. Professor E. Cummings.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 352.

1898-99 Enrollment
Principles of Sociology.

[Economics] 3. Asst. Professor Edward Cummings. — The Principles of Sociology. Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. Lectures (2 or 3 hours) and conferences. 4 reports or theses.

Total 83: 4 Graduates, 42 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 72.

1898-99.
Economics 3.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

Answer the questions in the order in which they stand.

What as a matter of history, has been the contribution of the family to
a) Social organization?
b) Social ideals?
What does Spencer mean by saying, The Salvation of every society, as of every species, depends on the maintenance of an absolute opposition between the regime of the family and the regime of the State?
a) Does Haycraft agree?
b) Does Kidd?
c) Does Plato?

II.

“Man has been supposed to be a ‘free agent,’ which meant that there were no laws to which his activities were subject. There could be no science of man and hence no science of society.
a) What do the authors we have examined think?
b) What do you think about it?

III.

“In his Social Evolution he makes religion the mainspring of human progress and charges reason with anti-social and anti-progressive tendencies.”
“Religion is rational through and through.”
a) Expound and discuss these views.
b) Do you see any way of reconciling the demands of Biology and Ethics. — progress and justice?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-years 1898-1899.

1898-99.
Economics 3.
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

“The whole history of the world bears witness to the different endowments of races, and even to the unequal capacity of the nations which have grown out of them.” (Explain and illustrate.)
State some of the theoretical consequences drawn from these alleged differences.
How far can you trace the influence, good or bad, of biological conceptions in Bluntschli’s theory of the State? For example, in his analysis of sovereignty, division of powers, and the like.
“Another error, which is almost childish, is that which treads the organism of the State as a logical syllogism.” Discuss.
Contrast Tarde’s analysis of Social phenomena with the legal and biological conceptions of other writers with whom you are familiar.
The modern conception of the State and of its relation to the individual, contrasted with the ancient and the mediaeval.
State briefly the work done on your last report and the conclusions you reached.
Does the realization of social justice make for “equality” or the reverse? Why?
Does social progress call for the sacrifice of the weak to the strong or of the strong to the weak? Why?

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1898-99 Course Announcement
Statistics.

[Economics] 4. Statistics. — Theory, Method, and Practice. — Studies in Demography. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. J. Cummings.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 353.

1898-99 Enrollment
Statistics.

[Economics] 4. Dr. John Cummings. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice. Studies in Demography. Lectures (3 hours) and conferences; 2 reports; theses.

Total 19: 10 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 73.

1898-99.
Economics 4.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

Devote one hour to A and the remainder of your time to B.

A.
Take two.

The growth of modern cities and the laws governing the migrations of population as illustrated in the growth and constitution of the populations of London, Berlin, and other large cities.
Define fully a “normal or life-table population,” considering its age and sex constitution and its movement.
Discuss the development and predominance of the statistical method, and the gradual limitation of the field of statistical science.

B.
Take six.

What do you understand by the “law of large numbers”? Discuss some of the principles which should govern the formation of statistical judgments.
The “new law of population.”
The value of criminal statistics and the nature of the statistical proofs that the value of punishments is over-estimated.
“Several tests are employed to measure the duration of human life, and we are at present concerned to determine their precise value, and the relationship existing between them.” What are some of these tests, their precise value and inter-relationship?
What is the nature of the statistical evidence that the “influx of the population from the country into London is in the main an economic movement”?
The rate of mortality in urban and in rural populations.
Decline in the rates of natality in the populations of Europe and the United States.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-years 1898-1899.

1898-99
Economics 4.
[Year-end Exam, 1899.]

Devote at least one hour, but not more than one hour and a half, to A, and the remainder of your time to B.

Statistics of wages, manufactures, and capital in the eleventh census of the United States.
Movement of population and the standard of living. Consider in connection with the growth of population the movement of wages, prices, efficiency of labor and capital, the exploitation of new natural sources of power and wealth, and the relative movements of industrial groups.

B.
Take six.

Average wages as an index of social condition.
Statistical indexes of pauperism.
What is the statistical basis for calculating the doubling period of a population and of what is that period an index?
Define normal distribution of population (a) by sex, (b) by age.
Show how the economic value of a population is affected by its age and sex distribution.
To what extent may the prison population of the United States as given in the eleventh census be accepted as an index of criminality for the population of the United States?
The growth of cities and the movement of population. Consider the effect of “urbanization” upon rates of criminality, natality, and mortality.

_______________________

1898-99 Course Announcement
Railways and Other Public Works.

[Economics] 5¹ hf. Railways and other Public Works under Public and Corporate management. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Mr. [Hugo Richard] Meyer.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 353.

1898-99 Enrollment
Railways and Other Public Works.

[Economics] 5¹ hf. Mr. Meyer. — Railways and other Public Works under Public and Corporate Management. Lectures (3 or 2 hours).

Total 85: 1 Graduate, 49 Seniors, 16 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 73.

1898-99.
Economics 5¹.
[Mid-year (Final) Exam, 1899]

Omit one of the last four questions.

“And the Commission elsewhere says that the question of rates is not so much one between the railroads and the body of shippers, as between different classes of shippers, or rival localities.” — Railroad Gazette, June 22, 1888.
Illustrate by means of the following complaints brought before the Interstate Commerce Commission:

- - Rates on sugar from Pacific Coast points to Fargo and St. Paul; V. 234.
  - Relative rates on wheat from certain “common territory” to Minneapolis and Duluth; V, 571.
  - Relative rates on salt from Hutchinson and St. Louis to certain “common points” in Texas; V, 299.
  - Export rates on wheat: III, 137.
  - Relative rates from Atlantic sea-board points to the interior on imported commodities and domestic; IV, 448.
  - Group rates on vegetables shipped from points between Mobile and East St. Louis; VII, 43.
  - Group rates on milk shipped from points in New York State to Jersey City; VII, 93.
  - Relative rates on hogs, dressed pork, and dressed beef: IV, 611.

To what extent have Germany, France, and the Australian Colonies been able to enforce their rigid schemes of railroad charges? What is the nature of the evidence that such enforcement has prevented the railroads from fully developing traffic? Why has not enforcement of these schemes worked with greater friction?
“Had [railroad] building been checked by the censorship of a board of commissioners, and charters granted by the State only upon a showing of necessity, to be determined by the population, density of traffic, and like warrantable reasons, a large percentage of the roads which to-day constitute the disturbing element of interstate commerce, would never have been built.” — Clark: State Railroad Commissions.
Give your reasons for accepting or rejecting the statement that the control here suggested could not possibly have been exercised.
State Railroad Control and Politics in California.
Why was the Interstate Commerce Commission unable to enforce the prohibition of special rates?
Contrast the working of the state ownership of railways in Prussia with the working of the state ownership of railways in Australia.
The Massachusetts Gas and Electric Light Commission.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-years 1898-1899.

Also: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1899) in bound volume Examination Papers 1898-99.

_______________________

1898-99 Course Announcement
Economic History of the U.S.

[Economics] 6. The Economic History of the United States. Tu., Th., at 2.30, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Dr. [Guy Stevens] Callender.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 352.

1898-99 Enrollment
Economic History of the U.S.

[Economics] 6. Dr. Callender. — The Economic History of the United States. Lectures (2 hours) and discussions of assigned reading (1 hour). 2 theses.

Total 122: 6 Graduates, 60 Seniors, 38 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 73.

1898-99.
Economics 6.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

“Between England and the American Colonies there was a real interchange of services. England gave defence in return for trade privileges. In the middle of the last century, at the time when the American quarrel began, it was perhaps rather the colonies than the mother country that had fallen into arrears.” — Seeley.
Do you agree with this view of English Colonial Policy?
Compare the following statement, with what you know of the views of commercial policy entertained by leading American statesmen during and after the Revolution:
“From all this (i.e. the tariff acts passed by the various States between 1783 and 1789) it is clear enough that the States sought protection for the sake of building up manufactures. It was natural that they should. To suppose that they had any special predilection for free trade, at a time when restriction was the policy of the world, and while the mercantile system had not yet lost its grip save among a few economists, is to suppose them far ahead of their time.
“Nor would their policy have been different if England had practiced perfect reciprocity with them at the beginning.” — Kelley. Quarterly Journal of Economics II, 481.
What were the “Great Inventions” and how did they chiefly influence the economic growth of the United States down to 1860?
How would you explain the absence of commercial banks in America in Colonial times?
According to Adam Smith “there seems to be two cases in which it will generally be advantageous to lay some burden upon foreign for the encouragement of domestic industry.” Do you think the tariff act of 1816 could be fairly considered as coming under either of his exceptions to general free trade principles?
“It is now proper to proceed a step further, and to enumerate the principal circumstances from which it may be inferred that manufacturing establishments not only occasion a positive augmentation of the produce and revenue of the society, but that they contribute essentially to render them greater than they could possibly be without such establishments.” — Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures.
Mention as many of these “circumstances” as you can, and discuss one.
How do you explain the prevalence of much higher protective duties since the civil war than before it?
Mention three cases in which high duties have failed to cause any considerable growth of the industries affected, and compare these with any others in which the high duties did cause a growth of industry, pointing out a reason for the difference in result.
Compare the conditions which gave rise to the trade on the western rivers between 1815 and 1845 with the conditions which caused the growth of trade in the English colonies between 1700 and 1760.
To what extent have the people of the United States relied upon the assistance of government to supply transportation facilities? How would you explain the tendency to state intervention in this industry in the United States before 1850?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-years 1898-1899.

1898-99.
Economics 6.
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

Select at least eight questions and answer them concisely.

“The Southern States, then, are reduced to the very same relation to the tariff states, in point of principle, as that in which all the colonies formerly stood to Great Britain….
I confidently assert that the restrictions imposed by the tariff states upon the commerce of the planting states, are more injurious and oppressive than all the colonial restrictions and taxes which Great Britain ever imposed upon the commerce of our forefathers…” — McDuffie.
Do you think there is any grounds for such a comparison as this?
“It is sometimes loosely said, that America has been settled by the European races, and different portions are distinguished, as settled by the English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. The truth really is, that America, including its islands, has been settled chiefly from Africa, and by negroes….” — Weston.
How did African slavery affect the settlement and growth of the thirteen continental colonies?
How far has the United States applied the protective system to agriculture? Compare its policy in this respect with that of Continental Europe.
Point out the main causes of agricultural discontent in the following sections of the country: the South; the northern states east of the Mississippi River; the northern states west of the Mississippi River.
“Trusts have not yet been properly discriminated, and such a discrimination is necessary to a correct understanding of them. Some of the trusts have in them permanently vicious elements, whilst others, although not by any means harmless in their effect on political right, are so incapable of working prolonger and serious mischief that they may be left to the usual methods of relief or to their own inevitable dissolution.” — Bonham.
Discuss this proposition, pointing out the circumstances which render the power of a trust formidable to competitors, and how far all trusts are in possession of such advantages.
What reasons can you give for the failure of competition to regulate railway rates so as to secure justice to both buyer and seller of transportation? How far does the same reasoning apply to such industries as the manufacture of steel rails, and coal mining?
“Before inquiring as to general changes in our national condition which may justify a change of opinion and policy in this respect (i.e. restriction of immigration), let us deal briefly with two opinions regarding the immigration of the past, which stand in the war of any fair consideration of the subject. These two opinions were, first, that immigration constituted a net reinforcement of our population: and secondly, that, in addition to this, or irrespective of this, immigration was necessary, in order to supply the laborers who should do certain kinds of work, imperatively demanded for the building up of our industrial and social structure, which natives of the soil were unwilling to undertake.” — Walker. Discuss one of these opinions.
“In the early days of cotton growing it had been supposed that the cultivation of this staple would be carried on by white labor… It was a misfortune for Southern agriculture that slave labor was ever applied to the cultivation of the cotton plant. As has been pointed out in the preceding chapter, cotton culture offered many and great advantages over other crops for the use of slave labor; but slavery had few, if any, advantages over free labor for the cultivation of cotton…” — Hammond.
“Taking infants, aged, invalid, and vicious and knavish slaves into account, the ordinary and average cost of a certain task of labor is more than double in Virginia what it is in the adjoining free states.” — Olmsted.
Granting the truth of these statements how would you explain the growth of slavery in the United States after 1790? Compare these conditions with those existing in Virginia one hundred years earlier.
Sketch briefly the history of the legal tenders from the close of the civil war to the resumption of specie payments.
Compare the condition of the United States Treasury so far as its ability to maintain gold payments was concerned, in the years 1884-1885 and 1891-1893.
“…Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the great West. The existence of an area of free land, its constant recession, and the advance of American settlements westward, explain American development.” — Turner.
What features of American social and political development have been influenced or determined by the conditions here referred to?
Describe what you consider to be the most important change which has taken place in the South as a result of Emancipation.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1899), pp. 32-34. In bound volume Examination Papers 1898-99.

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1898-99 Course Announcement
Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects

[Economics] 8² hf. Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects. (Mediaeval and Modern.) Half-course(second half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12. Dr. [William] Cunningham (Trinity College, Cambridge, England).

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 352.

1898-99 Enrollment
Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects.

[Economics] 8² hf. Dr. Cunningham. — Western Civilization, mediaeval and modern, in its Economic Aspects. Lectures (3 hours). 4 reports.

Total 105: 13 Graduates, 41 Seniors, 15 Juniors, 23 Sophomores, 1 Freshmen, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 72.

Course Reading List (1899)

https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-economic-aspects-of-western-civilization-cunningham-1899/

1898-99.
Economics 8².
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

Answer the first 3 questions and any 3 of the later questions.

“In any community where there is wealth to spare, which can be sunk in magnificent buildings or other public works, there is a permanent record of its greatness or of the riches of its rulers. On the whole, when the characteristic buildings of each civilization were erected was the time of its greatest material prosperity; this gives us the means of gauging most definitely the precise nature of its contribution to the growth of Western Civilization as a whole.”
Explain and criticise.
Take any two of the evils of which complaint is made in the “Common Weal of the Realm.” What were the causes of those evils given in the dialogues? Were they, in your opinion, the real causes?
Why can we obtain a greater knowledge of medieval Europe generally through the study of a single country than we could obtain for modern Europe by the use of a similar method?
Trace the change from a natural to a money economy in agriculture, and in taxation.
Compare the policy of a medieval town with the national policy of European States which followed.
In what new direction and with what results was capital invested at the close of the Middle Ages?
Compare the commercial policies of Portugal, Holland, and England with reference to the East India trade.
(Take one.) For what is Western Civilization indebted to:

(a) The monastery.
(b) The crusades.
(c) The craft guild.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1899), p. 34. In bound volume Examination Papers 1898-99.

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1898-99 Course Announcement
Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.

[Economics] 9. The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Asst. Professor E. Cummings.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 352.

1898-99 Enrollment
Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.

[Economics] 9. Asst. Professor Edward Cummings. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. Lectures (3 hours) and conferences; 2 reports; thesis.

Total 129: 2 Graduates, 51 Seniors, 42 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 73.

1898-99.
Economics 9.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

So far as possible discuss both the historical and the theoretical aspects of the questions.

Is the principle of coöperation capable of indefinite extension and application? If not what are its limits?
Compare the English Trade Union congress with the annual convention of the American Federation of Labor.
Is the programme of trade unionism inconsistent with the coöperative ideal?
What do you understand by the English working classes; and what proportion do they bear to other classes in the community?
Indicate the manner in which English working people have met the exigencies of sickness, accident, old age, out of work.
What proportion of the working classes is identified with

a) the coöperative movement?
b) trade unionism?
c) the various forms of insurance?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-years 1898-1899.

1898-99.
Economics 9.
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

On what elements does the strength of a trade union depend? In what directions does it seem to you that American trade unions most need to develop in the future? In what specific respects may they profit by the policy and experience of European organizations?
“The workers should certainly not fail to realize how important is the recognition by them that only by unity and solidarity is there any hope for protection and progress.” — President Gompers.
Do the various forms of workingmen’s organizations give evidence of any distinctly differentiated wages class in the United States? Discuss carefully the evidence as to the extent and the limitations of class feeling among American workingmen.
“If unemployment insurance should follow trade lines, every argument would seem to indicate that such efforts should be made through existing organizations of workingmen.” Discuss the various forms of insurance against unemployment, and indicate the advantages and disadvantages of each form.
“France has joined Germany, Austria, Great Britain and Norway in the indorsement of the principles so boldly inaugurated by the first of these countries, — that the compensation of injured workmen should be compulsory upon their employers.”

(a) Explain the differences between the systems adopted in the countries named.
(b) Discuss the present status of employers’ liability and of accident insurance in the United States.

Contrast the condition of workmen in the United States, England, and on the Continent as regards earnings, conditions of employment, cost of living, and effectiveness of organization, — taking the condition of railway labor as the basis of your comparison.
Discuss the relative merits of the form which government interference on behalf of working people has taken in the United States and in European countries.
State briefly the most important conclusions which you have arrived at regarding the subject assigned you for special investigation

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1899), p. 35. In bound volume Examination Papers 1898-99.

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1898-99 Course Announcement
Industrial Revolution in England

[Economics] 11² hf. The Industrial Revolution in England. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Dr. [William] Cunningham (Trinity College, Cambridge, England).

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 352.

1898-99 Enrollment
Industrial Revolution in England.

[Economics] 11² hf. Dr. Cunningham. — The Industrial Revolution in England. Lectures (2 hours) and conferences. 6 reports.

Total 98: 8 Graduates, 30 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 17 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 21 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 72.

1898-99.
Economics 11².
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
Take the first 2 and any 3 of the later questions.

(Devote at least one third of your time to this question.) Compare industry before and after the Industrial Revolution with reference to —
1. The function of capital.
2. The control of the capitalist or entrepreneur over production.
3. Status of the artisan, which should include discussion of mobility of labor, stability of employment, and extent and objects of associated activity.
Give some account of Francis Place and his importance as a social reformer.
An account of the silk industry in England. Show how it illustrates the economic policy of England during the 17^th and 18^th century?
Why was the mercantile policy ultimately given up? Was that policy, in your opinion, advantageous to England during the 18^th century?
Arrange in order of importance causes of distress in the factory towns during the first quarter of this century. To what causes may the subsequent improvement be ascribed?
Discuss distress among the agricultural population in the same way.
Contrast the English Corn Laws of the 18^th century with the law of 1815 with special reference to its results on different elements in the agricultural interest.
Describe the chief improvements which have been introduced into English mines with special reference to the work of Alexander Macdonald.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1899), p. 36. In bound volume Examination Papers 1898-99.

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1898-99 Course Announcement
Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems

[Economics] 12¹ hf. Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems. Half-course (first half-year).Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor [Charles F.] Dunbar.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 353.

1898-99 Enrollment
Banking and the History of the Leading Banking Systems.

[Economics] 12¹ hf. Professor [Charles F.] Dunbar. — Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems. Lectures (3 hours).

Total 61: 2 Graduates, 41 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 73.

1898-99.
Economics 12¹.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

Reserve ONE THIRD of your time for questions under section B. Answer ALL the questions under A, and TWO of those under B.

Explain carefully the following terms:

(a) Safety or Guaranty Fund;
(b) Free banking;
(c) Reserve;
(d) Surplus;
(e) Daily Redemption;
(f) Clearing House Loan Certificates.

Compare Ricardo’s scheme for a national bank with the existing law for the bank of England.
What are the most striking advantages of the Scotch system of note issue?
Why is the Bank of France able to maintain a more uniform rate of discount than the Bank of England?
What provisions are made by the German bank law protecting, or tending to protect,

(a) notes;
(b) deposits?

White says [Money and Banking, p. 327], “In 1845 the State of Massachusetts passed a law providing that no bank should pay out over its counter any notes but its own.”
Was this law necessary for the working of the Suffolk Bank System?
What are the chief arguments for and against a system of banking with a central reserve as in England?

Discuss the following extract, and its consistency with the author’s aphorism that “money is that money does”:—
“Bankers’ deposits or liabilities are not money. Inscribed on the books of the bank itself, divided into no definite parts, constituting no tangible thing, having no outside course to run, with no separate identifiable existence, they are not money: they are simply an instrumentality for saving the use of money.” [Walker, in Quarterly Journal of Economics, October, 1893, p. 69.]
In what ways, if any, do the different proposals for modifying our present banking system appear to fall short of a theoretically perfect system of banking for the United States?
What are the circumstances which, beginning with 1865, have caused and kept up the great inequality observed in the distribution of national banks among the different sections of the Union?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-years 1898-1899.

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1898-99 Course Announcement
Methods of Economic Investigation

[Economics] 13. Methods of Economic Investigation. — English Writers. — German Writers. Tu., Th., at 1.30. Professor Taussig.

Course 13 may also be taken in either half-year as a half-course.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 352.

1898-99 Enrollment
Methods of Economic Investigation.

[Economics] 13. Professor Taussig. — Methods of Economic Investigation. Rapid reading in English and German books, and discussion of questions of method and scope. Lectures and conferences. 2 hours.

Total 5: 2 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Junior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 72.

1898-99.
Economics 13.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

Point out, as to one of the subjects named below, the nature of the problems in economics according as its scope is believed to be that of a positive science, a normative science, an art formulating precepts:

Bimetallism.
Economic Rent and the “nationalization” of land.
Wages and Trade Unions.

The nature and extent of the aid given by statistical and historical inquiry in solving the problems of international trade and of tariff legislation.
Adam Smith’s and Ricardo’s methods of reasoning on wages and profits.
“The method by which Economic Science should be carried into regions never penetrated by Ricardo was simple. It was only necessary to draw from the actual observation of affairs fresh premises relating to forces of what we have called the secondary order.”
Consider how far this general proposition is illustrated or confirmed by (1) Cairnes’s reasoning on the relation between cost, value, wages in different occupations; (2) Marshall’s reasoning as to demand-schedules, supply-schedules, and the theory of value and distribution.
The questions of definition arising as to the terms capital, rent, money; and your grounds for believing one or another use of these terms to be advantageous.
Keynes’s conclusions as to the mode in which economic history bears on economic theory; and your own.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-years 1898-1899.

1898-99.
Economics 13.
[Year-End Exam, 1899]

“Alle konkreten volkswirthschaftliche Organisationsfragen sind also bedingt durch die Vorfrage, wie die psychologischen Grundtriebe bei dem fraglichen Volke durch Sitte und Recht modifiziert sind. Darum ist mir auch die Lehre von dem Egoismus oder dem Interesse, als dem psychologischen steten und gleichmässigen Ausgangspunkt aller wirthschaftlichen Handlungen nichts als eine bodenlose Oberflächlichkeit.” — Schmoller.
Explain; and give your own opinion.
“Die Geschichte bietet den Wissenschaften vom Staate und von der Volkswirthschaft . . . ein Erfahrungsmaterial ohne gleichen. Dieses Erfahrungsmaterial dient nun, wie jede gute Beobachtung und Beschreibung, dazu [1] theoretische Sätze zu illustrieren und zu verifiziren, die Grenzen nachzuweisen innerhalb deren bestimmte Wahrheiten gültig sind, [2] noch mehr aber neue Wahrheiten induktiv zu gewinnen. [3] Zumal in den komplizierteren Gebieten der Volkswirthschaftslehre ist nur auf Boden historischer Forschung voranzukommen; z. B. über die Wirkung der Maschineneinführung auf die Löhne, der Edelmetallproduktion auf den Geldwert, ist jedes bloss abstrakte Argumentieren wertlos. [4] Noch mehr gilt dies in Bezug auf die Entwickelung der volkswirthschaftlichen Institutionen und Theorien, sowie auf die Frage des allgemeinen wirthschaftlichen Fortschrittes.” – Schmoller.
Explain; and give your opinion as to the several conclusions as numbered.
“Das ist das Dilemma, vor welchem der Socialismus steht. Gelingt es ihm nicht, dem ersten Motiv noch eine genügende Wirksamkeit für die Arbeitsleistungen, für den technischen Fortschritt zu belassen, was nicht unmöglich, aber schwer, wen überhaupt mit den sonstigen Principien des Socialismus … in Einklang zu setzen ist; vermag er nicht das dritte, vierte, und vor Allem das fünfte Motiv in seinem System zu ordentlicher, mächtiger, wiederum mit seinen Principien aber noch vereinbarer Function zu setzen … was wen möglich, jedenfalls wieder ausserordentlich schwierig ist … so bleibt eben nichts Anderes übrig, als auf Zwang, Strafandrohung, kurz auf das zweite Motiv zurückzugreifen.”
Explain; and consider whether the difficulties and inconsistencies which Socialism must face are equally strong with the first motive as with the others referred to.
“Die Ergebnisse jedes der beiden Verfahren [Deduktion und Induktion] für sich allein haben hiernach ohne oder vor der Prüfung mittelst des anderen Verfahrens in Bezug auf die Wirklichkeit der Erscheinungen und auf deren Erklärung stets nur einen solch hypothetischen Werth.” — Wagner.
The reasoning which led to this conclusion; and your own opinion.

Answer summarily as many of the following as time permits.

Schmoller’s and Wagner’s statements of the ideal which the theory of distribution should set forth.
How far the scope of economics is differently defined by Cairnes, by Schmoller, by Wagner; and how far their conclusions as to methods of investigation rest on their demarcation of the science.
Schmoller’s views as to the nature of the services rendered by Adam Smith for economic theory; and your opinion as to the justice of these views.
The mode in which Wagner thinks the development of motives was affected by the system of restriction (e.g. guild system) and has been affected by the modern system of free competition.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1899), pp. 38-39. In bound volume Examination Papers 1898-99.

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1898-99 Course Announcement
Selected Topics in U.S. Financial Legislation

[Economics] 16. Selected Topics in the Financial Legislation of the United States. Tu., Th., at 2.30, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor [Charles F.] Dunbar.

Course 16 may be taken as a half-course during either half-year.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 353.

1898-99 Enrollment
Selected Topics in U.S. Financial Legislation.

[Economics] 16. Professor [Charles F.] Dunbar. — Selected Topics in the Financial Legislation of the United States. Lectures (2 hours). 4 reports.

Total 22: 4 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Sophomore, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 73.

1898-99.
Economics 16.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

Give one half of the time allowed for this examination to the discussion under Section B.

Give the reasons which would lead you to justify, or reject, the following sentence:
“It is sometimes said that Mr. Hamilton believed in a perpetual debt, and when one notices the form into which he threw the obligations of the United States, the only escape from this conclusion is to say that he was ignorant of the true meaning of the contracts which he created.” [H. C. Adams, Public Debts, p. 161.]
What is the historical value of Jefferson’s account of the adopting of the funding and assumption measure, given in his Ana?
The plan on which the first Bank of the United States was organized has been criticised as unsound,
(a) because subscriptions for stock could be paid in part in “public debt” instead of cash;
(b) because of the provision as to the mode of paying the subscription to stock made by the government.
Give your own judgment as to the weight of these criticisms.
What was the real importance of the resort to excise duties as a regular source of revenue under the Federalist administration?
Suppose that in collecting the direct tax of 1798 it had been found that a part of the taxpayers in the State of X were unable to pay the amount assessed upon them, — would this deficiency have remained as a debt due by the State, or would it have been lost by the United States?
What untoward events, tending to defeat calculations made as to the income and expenditure of the government, occurred between 1794 and 1800?

Discuss the following extract,

(a) with respect to the statement of fact;
(b) with respect to the conclusion arrived at:—

“The result of financial operations during the twelve years of Federalist administration was to increase rather than to decrease the Federal debt. Upon January 1, 1791, the amount of outstanding obligations was $75,463,476; upon the corresponding date for 1795 the debt had risen to $80,747,587. While Wolcott was Secretary of the Treasury, the operations of the sinking-fund made no impression whatever upon the amount of indebtedness, and there was left by the Federalists as a legacy to the Jefferson administration a debt of $80,700,000. Nothing is here said in criticism of the fact that the debt increased. That may have been a necessity under the circumstances. Nor do we undertake to decide whether this necessity was due to inefficiency on the part of the Federalist administration, or to the carping criticisms of the Republicans out of office; our only conclusion is, that it is unwise to play at paying a debt while the debt is in reality growing. This leads to false security, and becomes a most prolific source of new loans.” [H. C. Adams, Public Debts, p. 266.]

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-years 1898-1899.

1898-99.
Economics 16.
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

In answering those questions do not change their order.

In what ways did the revulsion of 1873 affect the question of specie resumption?
Has the coinage of silver dollars since 1878 at any time been a seriously inflating influence? If not, how and when has its influence been counteracted?
What modes of redemption of legal tender notes are contemplated by the act of 1890, or are practicable under its terms? How is the gold reserve affected by redemptions thus carried on?
What special phenomena gave an unusual character to the financial crisis of 1893?
What was the seignorage bill of 1894, its purpose, and its fate?
What were the operations by which the syndicate of 1895 undertook to protect the Treasury against demands for gold?
What is the precise relation between “the endless chain” and deficient revenue?

Choose one of these two subjects, and discuss it carefully, devoting to it at least one-third of your time.

The possibility of returning to the specie basis after the great depreciation of the Civil War, without contraction, either open or disguised.
Sherman’s qualities and rank as a financier, as exhibited in the history of the great financial measures with which, as Senator or as Secretary, he has associated his name.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1899), pp. 39-40. In bound volume Examination Papers 1898-99.

_______________________

1898-99 Course Announcement
Ethnology in its Applications to Economic and Social Problems.

[Economics] 17² hf. Ethnology in its Applications to Economic and Social Problems. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Dr. J. Cummings.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 353.

1898-99 Enrollment
Ethnology in its Applications to Economic and Social Problems.

[Economics] 17² hf. Dr. John Cummings. — Ethnology in its Applications to Economic and Social Problems. Lectures and discussions (3 or 2 hours); conferences; 2 reports; 2 theses.

Total 16: 1 Graduate, 4 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 73.

1898-99.
Economics 17².
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

Devote one hour, but not more than one hour and a half, to A, and the remainder of your time to B.

“When the skulls are compared of the various human races, belonging to the past and present, it is found that the races in which the volume of the skull presents the greatest individual variations are the most highly civilized races. … Anatomical and physiological equality only exist in the case of individuals of quite inferior races.”
“The superior races are distinguished from the inferior races by their character as well as by their intelligence. … Character is formed by the combination, in varying proportions, of the different elements which psychologists are accustomed at the present day to designate by the name of sentiments.”
“The inequality between the different individuals of a race is greater in proportion to the superiority of the race.”
“Whether in the race or the individual a correlation exists between the psychological character, the cerebral structure and the form of the skull.”
Consider each of these statements carefully and comment at length.
The race history of the French people.

B.
Two questions may be omitted.

The colored population of the United States: its physical, moral, and intellectual character and progress since emancipation.
What do you understand by “cephalic index”? of what is it an index? Consider its validity as a test of (a) race origin, (b) of individual capacity.
“The constant immigration from all countries (to America) brings to light the question of adaptability and non-adaptability of the different races to the special conditions of American life.”
How is this question being answered in America? in other countries? Consider in this connection the ethnical composition of the slum populations of American cities, and some social problems which arise in connection with these populations.
In what sense are Anglo-Saxons as a race more hostile to socialism than other races?
Take one:—

The French Canadian population of the United States.
The population of the city of Boston.

State and explain some of the more important “laws” of Anthropo-Sociology.
The growth of cities and social selection.
“Anthropology is destined to revolutionize the political and social sciences as radically as bacteriology has revolutionized the science of medicine.” Comment upon and explain.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1899), pp. 40-41. In bound volume Examination Papers 1898-99.

_______________________

1898-99 Course Announcement
Seminary in Economics

[Economics] 20. The Seminary in Economics. Mon., at 4.30.

Subjects for 1898-99:—

(a) The Theory of Money. Professor [Charles F.] Dunbar.
(b) Local Taxation in the United States. Professor Taussig.
(c) Socialism and Communism. Asst. Professor E. Cummings.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Science 1898-99 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1898), p. 353.

1898-99 Enrollment
Seminary in Economics.

[Economics] 20. The Seminary in Economics. — Conferences (weekly); open meetings (fortnightly); thesis. Instructors and topics for 1898-99:

(a) Professor [Charles F.] Dunbar. — The Theory of Money. 1 Graduate.
(b) Professor Taussig. — Local Taxation in the United States. Total 7: 6 Graduates, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1898-99, p. 73.

Topics and Speakers at the
Seminary of Economics,
1898-99

Aids in economic investigation. Professor Taussig.
Economic study in England. Dr. O.M.W. Sprague.
The growth and the constituent elements of the population of Boston. Mr. F. A. Bushée (2).
Some operations of the United States Treasury in 1894-96. Professor Taussig.
The Interstate Commerce Act as interpreted by the courts. Mr. F. Hendrick.
The English industrial crisis of 1622. Dr. O. M. W. Sprague.
The earlier history of the English income tax. Dr. J. A. Hill.
The theory of savers’ rent and some of its applications. Dr. C. W. Mixter.
The working of the French Railway Conventions of 1883. Mr. F. Hendrick.
The adoption of the gold standard by England in 1816. Mr. D. F. Grass.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1899-1900, p. 417.

Image Source: Walter Babcock Swift (Photographer), Harvard Square looking south, ca. 1900. Harvard University Archives, Hollis Images.

Tags AldrichMA, Beardsley, Callender, CummingsEdward, CummingsJohn, Cunningham, MeyerHR, Sprague, Taussig, WarrenEH

Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Twenty years of graduate economic history exams. Gay and Usher, 1930-1949

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-04-09

This has turned into a post that is over fifty pages long when printed as a normal text document. It began with materials in a folder found in Alexander Gerschenkron’s papers at the Harvard archives that contained a test-bank of two of his predecessors in economic history at Harvard, Edwin F. Gay and Abbott Payson Usher, starting with the 1929-30 academic year. I thought this was a convenient collection to transcribe but soon found myself going through other archival material I have collected to fill in the inevitable “missing observations”. There are still a few gaps I am sorry to report, but not enough to stop me from posting this incredible collection of the exams for graduate courses in economic history at Harvard spanning twenty years during the first half of the 20th century.

Harvard’s catalogues of courses long distinguished between those “primarily for undergraduates”, “for undergraduates and graduates” and “primarily for graduates”. The exams transcribed below are from courses “primarily for graduates”.

__________________________________

Previous posts
(for 1921-1941)

Biographical info for Edwin F. Gay and Abbott Payson Usher.

Readings for undergraduate european economic history (Economics 2a). Usher, 1921.

Final Exam Questions for undergraduate European Economic History (Economics 2a). Usher, 1922.

Readings and final exam for undergraduate/graduate History of Commerce to 1750 (Economics 10a). Usher, 1929-30.

Readings and Exam for undergraduate European Economic History since the Industrial Revolution (Economics 2a) Gay, 1934.

Course outline, readings, and exam for undergraduate/graduate Development of Industrial Society (Economics 10b). Usher, 1934.

Readings for Recent Economic History (Economics 23). Gay, 1934-35.

Readings and paper topics for Economic History to 1450 (Economics 21) Usher, 1934-35.

Topics/readings for Modern Economic History Seminar (Economics 136). Usher, 1937-41.

__________________________________

1929-30

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY

Economics 23 ¹hf. Economic History to 1450

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

[Economics 24. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Gay.

Omitted in 1929-30.

Economics 25. Recent Economic History

Tu., Th., at 4. Professor Gay.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXVI (September 19, 1929), No. 44, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1929-1930 (Second Edition), p. 124.

Enrollment

Economics 23 ¹hf. Associate Professor Usher. — Economic History to 1450.

Total 1: 1 Graduate.

Economics 25 Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 47: 40 Graduates, 7 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1929-30, p. 78.

1929-30.
Harvard University.
Economics 23¹.
[Mid-year Exam, 1930]

Answer five questions.

What distinction may be drawn between the process of invention and the process of achievement? Give illustrations.
What reasons may be advanced for considering the beginning of the Christian Era a line of demarcation of primary importance?
Comment on the individual terms and the general doctrine of the following passage:
For centuries the Roman adhered to his “two-field system” of agriculture, and rectangular fields, and the Germans preserved the ancestral “strip system” of fields of their village communities. Even the reduction of these free villages to manorial villages and the fiscal pressure of the manorial regime failed completely to fuse or even much to modify these immemorial farming practices.
Discuss the meanings of the terms “civitas”, “oppidum”, “portus” and their relation to the problem of the origin of the medieval towns.
What distinctions may be drawn between the “free” craft and the “worn” craft? What were the functions of the wardens of a craft guild?
Describe the general features of a radiate market system, and explain the broader characteristics of its price structure in normal times.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1929-30
Harvard University.
Economics 25
[Mid-year Exam, 1930]

PART I

(An hour to an hour and a half)
Write an essay on one of the following topics.

The practical triumphs of the Ricardian economies before 1850.
The “movement of liberation,” or “laissez-faire,” as applied to the condition of the industrial workers.
An outline history of any decade between 1790 and 1860. In Europe and the United States, emphasizing the economic factors, and giving reasons for the choice of decade.

PART II

Write on three of the following questions.

Comment on the following statement:
[As compared with England] “the postponement of personal freedom gave the continental serfs one signal advantage. Emancipation was accomplished without the sacrifice of their rights in the soil.”
Give a definition or a concise description of the “putting-out” system; justify your inclusions and exclusions.
Describe briefly the relations between the agricultural development of the United States and Europe before 1860.
Outline the attitude of the government to railroads in England, the United States, and France, before 1860.
On two occasions in his life — 1819 and 1844 — Sir Robert Peel thought that he had placed the English monetary system on a sure foundation. Why?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 12, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1929-30.

1929-30
Harvard University.
Economics 25
[Year-end Exam, 1930]

Adequate and appropriate historical evidence must be presented in support of any opinions and generalizations.

Answer four of the following questions.

Discuss the following statement, especially emphasizing the relations between banking and agriculture in American economic history:
“It is hardly too much to say that the political as well as economic history of America has been dominated by real estate speculation and by the cheap money controversy, largely an offshoot from the former.”
F. H. KNIGHT, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit (1921), p. 17.
Explain and illustrate the following passage from Alfred Marshall, Industry and Trade (1919), p. 746:
“[The English classical economists] overlooked the fact that many of those indirect effects of Protection which aggravated then, and would aggravate now, its direct evils in England, worked in the opposite direction in America. For the more America exported her raw produce in return for manufacture, the less the benefit she got from the Law of Increasing Return….”
Compare and criticize the two theories of the development of the Industrial Revolution implied in the two following quotations:
“La préponderance économique du commerce, trait dominant de la phase économique qui s’étend du commencement du XVI^e siècle à la fin du XVIII^e, va decroître relativement à l’industrie naissante.”
B. Nogaro and W. Oualid, L’Évolution du Commerce, du Crédit et des Transports (1914), p. 9.
“…it was this slow process of finding out the opaque matters of fact that make up the material of technological science that occupied several generations of the British before the Germans took over any appreciable portion of it. The first acquisition of this material knowledge is necessarily a slow work of trial and error, but it can be held and transmitted in definite and unequivocal shape, and the acquisition of it by such transfer is no laborious or uncertain matter.”
T. Veblen, Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution (1915), p. 185.
Discuss the tendency toward aggregation and control in industry in the United States, Germany, and England, with comment on the following statements:
1. “Our people cannot live and thrive under the regime of bureaucracy that threatens unless industry solves its own problems. It was the abuses attendant upon an unregulated national industrial impulse that brought upon our country that legislative monstrosity known as the Sherman anti-trust law…. It is industry’s own neglect … that gives us a growing number of boards, commissions and tribunals to add their weight to the burden of industry.” American Federation of Labor (1924)
  “The state is not capable of preventing the development of the natural concentration of industry.”
  S. Gompers, Presidential Address to the American Federation of Labor, 1899.
  “Our big business has not justified the fears of our people.” Owen D. Young.
2. As contrasted with the growth of industrial combination in other countries, a French writer thinks that “trusts” have arisen in the United States because the government has “done too little or too much” — i.e. too little intelligent and effective regulation (including the regulations of railroads) and too much protection by tariffs.
What have the successive booms and crises, the upward and downward swings of business cycles, during the last century taught the banker, the manufacturer, and the wage-earner?
Comment on the accompanying statistical table:

Net tonnage of leading mercantile fleets, 1850-1920
(in thousand tons)

		1850	1870	1890	1910	1920
United Kingdom	sail	3,397	4,578	2,936	1,114	625
United Kingdom	steam	168	1,113	5,043	10,443	12,026
United States (in foreign trade)	sail	1,541	2,449	749	235	937
United States (in foreign trade)	steam	45	97	198	557	8,626
German Empire	sail		900	710	507	342
German Empire	steam		82	724	2,397	221
France	sail	674	918	444	636	267
France	steam	14	154	500	816	1,746
Norway	sail	298	1,009	1,503	628	225
Norway	steam		14	203	897	1,149
Japan	sail			48	413	203
Japan	steam			94	1,234	1,900

Note: The figures for the year 1920 have been obtained from another source, and are not reliably comparable with the figures for the earlier years. There is particular suspicion of error in the figures for United States shipping in that year.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, New Testament, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science (January-June 1930) in Vol. 72 Examination Papers, Finals 1930.

__________________________________

1930-1931

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY

Economics 23 ¹hf. Economic History to 1450

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

[Economics 24. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Gay.

Omitted in 1930-31.

Economics 25. Recent Economic History

Wed., Fri., at 3. Professor Gay.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXVII (September 17, 1930), No. 42, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1930-1931 (Second Edition), p. 125.

Enrollment

Economics 23 ¹hf. Associate Professor Usher. — Economic History to 1450.

Total 2: 1 Graduate, 1 Senior.

Economics 25 Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 50: 41 Graduates, 9 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1930-31, p. 77.

1930-31
Harvard University
Economics 23.
[Mid-year Exam 1931]

Answer five questions.

What distinctions may be drawn between the process of invention and the process of achievement? Give illustrations.
What reasons may be advanced for considering the beginning of the Christian Era a line of demarcation of primary importance to economic history?
Sketch the history of the “colonus” in Roman Gaul and in the Frankish kingdoms.
Discuss the meanings of the terms “civitas”, “oppidum”, “portus” and their relation to the problem of the origins of the medieval towns.
What distinctions may be drawn between the “free” craft and the “sworn” craft? What were the functions of the wardens of a craft gild?
Describe the general features of a radiate market system, and explain the broader characteristics of its price structure.
Write briefly on any one of the following topics:

shipping partnerships and sea-loans,
towns and trade routes of the Mohammedan world,
Venice, Genoa, and the crusades.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1930-31
Harvard University
Economics 25
[Mid-Year Exam, 1931]

Write an essay on one of the topics in Part I, and answer briefly two questions in Part II.

The relation between the development of economic theory and the experiences of the period of the Industrial Revolution in England.
English Liberalism: its component elements as a body of doctrine, and its expression in political action before 1865, with especial emphasis upon its attitude toward economic policy.

Summarize in parallel columns the outstanding events in the economic history of England and the United States between 1840 and 1850.
Do the same for England and France between 1850 and 1870.
How closely is the history of transportation in England before 1870 related to the long and the short fluctuations in general business activity?
Outline the chief points you would treat in a chapter on Money and Banking for an Economic History of the Nineteenth Century to 1865.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 12, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1930-31.

1930-31
Harvard University
Economics 25
[Year-end Exam, 1931]

I
Write an essay on one of the following statements:

“The machine, the child of laissez faire, has slain its parent.”
“You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”
“The one-crop system has been the bane of American agriculture.”
“In England the Reform Act initiated and the Corn Law decreed the conquest of town over country, factory over farm; in the United States a similar revolution is in process.”
“The Sherman Act, like Canute’s throne, was set to stem the advancing tide. Now the question is, shall it be submerged or dragged back to higher land.”

II
Write concisely on two of the following questions:

What are four outstanding developments of banking from about 1790 to the present time? Compare and contrast these movements in Western Europe and the United States.
In what successful ways did Western Europe meet the invasion of American agricultural products after 1870?
Place in their order of industrial and commercial importance, at 1750, 1880 and 1930, the following countries: Holland, Germany, France, England and the United States. Give your reasons.
Trace the connection, if any, between (a) the swings of business cycles and secular trends and (b) the development of the combination movement and trade unionism.

__________________________________

1931-1932

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY

Economics 23 ¹hf. Economic History to 1450

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

[Economics 24. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Gay.

Omitted in 1931-32.

Economics 25. Recent Economic History

Wed., Fri., at 4. Professor Gay.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXVIII (September 24, 1931), No. 45, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1931-1932 (Second Edition), p. 127.

Enrollment

Economics 23 ¹hf. Associate Professor Usher. — Economic History to 1450.

Total 1: 1 Graduate.

Economics 25. Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 65: 54 Graduates, 11 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1931-32, p. 72.

1931-32
Harvard University
Economics 23
[Final Exam 1932]

Answer five questions.

Write briefly on any one of the following topics:

the development of the mechanical clock,
the development of the sailing vessel, 1200-1450,
the application of power to milling, 100B.C.-1300 A.D.

May any of the industrial establishments of ancient Greece or Rome be properly classified as factories? Why, or why not?
What was the significance of the types of establishment whose classification is involved in such doubts?
Describe the general features of the organization of the craft gilds.
In what respect do we find differences in the various regions of Europe?
Describe the legal and economic features of villein tenure in France and England in the middle ages.
How may we explain the development of towns in Italy and Northern Europe after the ninth century?
What were the distinctive privileges of a town?
Describe the operations of banks of deposit in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and discus their significance in the development of credit.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1931-32
Harvard University
Economics 25
[Mid-Year Exam, 1932]

Write an essay on one of the topics in Part I, and answer briefly three questions in Part II.

“The changes of the Industrial Revolution in England were interrelated both serially and laterally, i.e., as between commerce, industry and agriculture.”
“The policy of Free Trade has dislocated the whole structure of English society.”
Peasant proprietorship in Western Europe.

Estimate the significance of Peel’s administration (1842-46) in the economic history of England.
Discuss the “home-market” argument in United States tariff history.
Comment on the statement: “Between 1830 and 1840 the issue between individualists and collectivists was fairly joined.”
“The introduction of railways marks a stage in the Industrial Revolution in England, not as in some countries its beginning.” Give illustrations for three countries of this statement.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 12, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1931-32.

1931-32
Harvard University
Economics 25
[Year-End Exam, 1932]

Write an essay (not more than half your time) on any one of the following questions, and answer more briefly two other questions.

Compare the governmental railroad policies of the United States, England and Germany since 1870.
Explain the movement toward a protective tariff policy since 1860, with illustrations drawn from the economic history of two countries which led in the movement.
Does historical experience support the arguments of the advocates of ship subsidies for the United States?
Discuss the following statements:
“Virtual monopoly is an incident of our industrial development.” Senator Aldrich.
“The trust movement was and is a direct response to certain forces inherent in modern industry, and if it ought to be controlled, it must be controlled with those forces in mind.” Professor Jenks.
It is said that the labor movement in the United States is a generation behind that of England. Give your reasons for or against this statement.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Vol. 74 (HUC 7000.28) Examination Papers, Finals 1932.

__________________________________

1932-1933

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY

Economics 23 ¹hf. Economic History to 1450

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

[Economics 24. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged, Professor Gay.

Omitted in 1932-33.

Economics 25 ¹hf. Recent Economic History

Half-course (first half-year). Wed., Fri. at 4. Professor Gay.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXIX (September 19, 1932), No. 41, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1932-1933 (Second Edition), p. 126.

Enrollment

Economics 23 ¹hf. Associate Professor Usher. — Economic History to 1450.

Total 4: 4 Graduates.

Economics 25 ¹hf. Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 51: 39 Graduates, 12 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1932-33, p. 66.

Note: Have found no copy of the Economics 23¹ exam as of yet for 1932-33.

1932-33
Harvard University
Economics 25¹
[Mid-year Final Exam, 1933]

Write an essay (not more than half your time) on any one of the following questions, and answer concisely three other questions.

Compare governmental regulation of railroads, as developed in the United States, with governmental ownership as in Germany, emphasizing the merits and defects of the two methods of control. Do these historical experiences throw any light upon the present railroad problem in the United States?
Is free trade responsible for the relative decline of the British iron and steel industry as compared with that of the United States and Germany? Enumerate and weigh the chief factors accounting for the development of the industry in these countries.
(a) Trace the successive steps in banking reform in England and the United States. Is there any parallelism?
(b) How do you explain the differences between the two countries in regard to the movements of banking concentration and industrial combination?
Outline a series of chapters in a book on the agricultural “world invasion” of European markets.
“Among the agencies which labor has chosen to defend its interests are the trade union, the cooperative society, and political action.” What has been the relative importance of these agencies at three stages of the British labor movement?
Discuss critically Dice’s views concerning “collectivism” and its causes.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science (January-June 1933) in Vol. 75, Examination Papers, Finals 1933.

__________________________________

1933-1934

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 21 ²hf. (formerly Economics 23) Economic History to 1450

Half-course (second half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

[Economics 22. (formerly Economics 24) Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Gay.

Omitted in 1933-34; to be offered in 1934-35.

Economics 23 ²hf. (formerly Economics 25) Recent Economic History

Half-course (second half-year). Wed., Fri., at 4. Professor Gay.

[Economics 24. Topics in American Economic History]

Hours to be arranged. Professor A. H. Cole.

Omitted in 1933-34.

[Economics 25. (formerly Economics 30). Economic Problems of Latin America]

Tu., Th., at 3.

Omitted in 1933-34.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXX (September 20, 1933), No. 39, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1933-1934 (Second Edition), pp. 127-128.

Enrollment

Economics 21 ²hf. (formerly Economics 23). Associate Professor Usher. — Economic History to 1450.

Total 3: 2 Graduates, 1 Seniors.

Economics 23 ²hf. (formerly Economics 25). Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 18: 13 Graduates, 5 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1933-34, p. 85.

Note: Have not found exam for Economics 21 ²hf. (formerly Economics 23) Economic History to 1450

1933-34
Havard University
Economics 23²
[Final Exam 1934]

Write an essay (not more than half your time) on any one of the first six questions, and answer concisely three other questions (including question 7).

Discuss the following statements:
“The present agricultural depression differs in its origin and character in many respects from the general depression of the period 1873-96, but in the conditions which brought about the depression of 1873-96 there are important points of similarity with the post-war situation.”
“The European attitude toward agriculture is entirely different from that of the great exporting countries beyond the seas.”
“The choice (in railway management) is between rationalization and nationalization.” (Sir Eric Geddes.)
“The trend, in all forms of transport and over a long period, is inevitably toward amalgamation. As between private monopoly and public ownership the choice is clear; the only question is as to the form which public ownership shall take.”
Comment on these views. In what respects does the experience of the United States differ from that of England and Germany?
The Webs say that there was a time at the middle of the nineteenth century when capitalism “could claim that it had produced a surprising advance in material civilization for greatly increased populations. But from that moment to the present it has been receding from defeat to defeat, beaten ever more and more hopelessly by the social problems created by the very civilization it has built up.”
A critic of the present governmental policies has recently declared that, with the various restrictions on output, wage and price regulations, and codes of business practice, the United States is returning to the Age of Diocletian or to the medieval gild-system, and thereby imperiling the chief gains of the great technological and economic progress since the Industrial Revolution.
Comment on the two points of view, and give reasons for your own view as to the present direction of economic and social development.
Compare the history of banking reforms since 1815 in England and the United States with reference to the successive business cycles.
What part, according to the Macmillan Report, has the United States played in the post-war economic situation; and in the proposals for monetary and banking reform, made in this Report, what is practicable for the United States?
“The Cooperative movement is one of the constituent elements in the socialist state.”
“No social group, on the Continent of Europe, is more important, and none more intensely individualistic, than the peasant landholders.”
Which of these assertions is more nearly true? Can they be reconciled?
Which among the books you have read in this course do you regard as the best? State your reasons and discuss that book critically.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1934-1935

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 21 ¹hf. Economic History to 1450

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

Economics 22. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Gay

Economics 23 Recent Economic History

Tu., Th., at 4. Professor Gay.

[Economics 24. Topics in American Economic History]

Hours to be arranged. Professor A. H. Cole.

Omitted in 1934-35

[Economics 25. Economic Problems of Latin America]

Tu., Th., at 3.

Omitted in 1934-35.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXI (September 20, 1934), No. 38, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1934-1935 (Second Edition), p. 128.

Enrollment

Economics 21 ¹hf. Associate Professor Usher. — Economic History to 1450.

Total 4: 2 Graduates, 2 Seniors.

Economics 23. Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 22: 16 Graduates, 1 Senior, 4 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1934-35, p. 82.

Economics 21. Economic History to 1450.
Readings and paper topics, Usher. 1934

1934-35
Harvard University
Economics 21
[Final Exam. Jan 18, 1935]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay upon some topic selected from the reading period assignments, or upon one of the following topics:
1. a multilinear concept of historical process,
2. systems of agriculture in the open field villages of England and Europe.

II
Answer three questions

Describe the rights and obligations of the peasant cultivator in two types of the perpetual leases of Roman and medieval law.
Describe the primary features of an organized market, and the simple and radiate forms of market systems.
Discuss the nature and importance of capitalistic control of industry in medieval Europe.
Describe the characteristic functions and features of religious gilds in England.
Sketch the early history of deposit banking in medieval Europe.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1934-35
Harvard University
Economic 23
[Mid-year Exam 1935]

Write an essay (not more than half your time) on any one of the following questions and answer concisely three other questions.

Discuss critically the following statements:
1. In England, up to the middle of the eighteenth century, “production was regulated by local consumption…After an apprenticeship of greater or less length everyone became a master; the State guaranteed the guilds a monopoly of production and secured the interests of the consumer by requiring all products to pass certain standard tests. But this patriarchal state of things suddenly gave way before a movement which has been justly called the Industrial Revolution. To these gigantic changes (machinery, steam, factories, wide markets, chain of middle-men) the guild system soon showed itself inadequate.” (Guido de Ruggiero, History of European Liberalism.)
2. For about fifty years before the middle of the eighteenth century in England, “trade had been freed from the oppression of the dying guilds, but machinery had not yet come to the aid of capitalism to enable it to overturn and destroy the whole social fabric and especially the livelihood of the poor.” (R. W. Postgate.)
“Metallurgy and the metal workers have an absolute primacy in the history of modern manufacturing industry.” (Clapham.)
Illustrate this statement for England.
Is it equally true for all countries?
“It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil of any human being.”
Was this true when John Stuart Mill wrote it in 1848? If so, why?
Outline a chapter (or a book) on the Agrarian Revolution in England.
Describe the development of the Zollverein, distinguishing the economic and the political factors.
The significance of the decade of the forties in European economic history.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1934-35
Harvard University
Economics 23
[Year-end Exam, 1935]

Write an essay not more than half your time) discussing one of the quotations or topics in this paper, and comment concisely on three others.

“It is believed that, had it not been for the free-trade policy of Great Britain, the manufacturing system of America would at the present time have been much more extensive than it is.” (Ellison, 1858.)
“There is some truth in the view of the cynical British exporter who thanked God for the American tariff, but for which American manufacturers would have driven him out of the world markets.’ (London “Economist,” 1912.)
“In my belief, both Free Trade of the laissez-faire type and Protection of the predatory type are policies of Empire, and both make for War.” (H. J. Mackinder, 1919.)
Do you find any confirmation for these views in your reading of American tariff history? Illustrate from the cotton or iron industry.
“On voit apparaître chaque jour davantage tout ce que l’Angleterre, depuis cent ans, devait à des circonstances que les contemporains avaient cru permanantes et qui n’etaient que passagères.
L’hégémonie économique anglaise coincide dans l’histoire avec le règne de la machine à vapeur; la période victorienne, apogée de prosperité et de puissance, évolue tout entière sous le signe du charbon….C’est ainsi qu’a pu s’édifier, sur al base étroite d’un territoire plus que médiocre, cette paradoxale superstructure manufacturière, et parallèlement s’épanouir cette population aujourd’hui trop dense, si dangereusement dépendante, pour sa subsistance, des produits importés….
Dans ces conditions, le jeu parfaitement agencé de la doctrine libre-échangiste paraissait avoir été concu tout exprès pour l’Angleterre, par les soins d’une Providence attentive et partiale.” (Siegfried, 1931.)
The National Banking system is “not only a perfectly safe system of banking, but it is one that is eminently adapted to our political institutions.” (Hugh McCulloch, 1863.)
“American banking has not yet distinguished between solvency after an interval, and readiness to meet demands at once and without question… At present the characteristics of the American business man seem to fit him to do most things better than banking.” (Hartley Withers, 1909.)
“Everybody will agree to-day that it would be difficult to imagine a banking system more cruel and inefficient than that prevailing in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century — a system which, instead of scientifically regulating the flow of credit and money so as to secure the greatest possible stability, was designed automatically to produce instability.” (Paul Warburg, 1930.)
“The technological revolution of the last hundred years furnishes the ultimate explanation of agricultural progress and of agrarian discontent both in Europe and America.” (ca. 1925)
“Though the mechanization of industrial processes is almost universal, the great majority of farmers throughout the world are content with the simple instruments used by their forefathers.” (“World Agriculture,” 1932.)
“The significant fact is that the periods of prosperity and the great depressions in agriculture have coincided with periods of monetary expansion and monetary contraction. Though other factors must not be ignored, the agricultural history of the last hundred years shows that favorable monetary conditions are essential to recovery.” (“World Agriculture,” 1932.)
“The Merchant Marine of the United States is not a burden upon the tax-payer’s back, but an economy of the first water, keeping millions in the country, giving employment to thousands of persons, aiding in the development of foreign markets and backing up the nation’s forces in any contingency that may arise.” (Senator Royal S. Copeland, 1934.)
“Our own vessels carry only about 40 per cent of our foreign trade. We are dependent on our competitors to carry 60 per cent of our trade to market. Of course, the result is that they help themselves and hamper us. Parity in merchant ships is only less important than parity in warships. We ought to make the necessary sacrifices to secure it.” (Calvin Coolidge, 1930.)
D. H. Robertson, writing in 1923, concerning the American Railroad Act of 1920 and the increased powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, says:
“The home of free enterprise has furnished us with experiments in positive State control on a scale which finds no parallel outside Communist Russia.”
Louis D. Brandeis in 1912 wrote: “The success of the Interstate Commerce Commission has been invoked as an argument in favor of licensing and regulating monopoly.” This argument, he held, was not valid. Do you agree? Why or why not?
In a period when traditional standards have broken down and when the legal system is supported by laissez-faire theory, the movement toward industrial combination is “a remorseless sort of profit-seeking.” (M. W. Watkins, 1928.)
“The only argument that has been seriously advanced in favor of private monopoly is that competition involves waste, while the monopoly prevents waste and leads to efficiency. This argument is essentially unsound. The wastes of competition are negligible. The economies of monopoly are superficial and delusive. The efficiency of monopoly is at the best temporary.” (L. D. Brandeis, in Harper’s Weekly, 1913.)
“Our evidence goes to show that most of the Trusts and Cartels have been, in their origin at any rate, defensive movements.” (D. H. MacGregor, 1912.)
Industrial combinations must be recognized as “steps in the greater efficiency, the increased economy, and the better organization of industry.” (Minority Report of the Parliamentary Committee on Trusts, 1918.)
Write on the topic which, in your reading for this course, has most interested you.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1935-1936

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

[Economics 21 ¹hf. Economic History to 1450]

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

Omitted in 1935-36.

Economics 22. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Gay

Economics 23 Recent Economic History

Wed., Fri., at 4. Professor Gay.

Economics 24. Seminar. Topics in American Economic History

Hours to be arranged. Professor A. H. Cole.

[Economics 25. Economic Problems of Latin America]

Tu., Th., at 3.

Omitted in 1935-36.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXII (September 18, 1935), No. 42, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1935-1936 (Second Edition), p. 140.

Enrollment

Economics 23. Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 31: 24 Graduates, 7 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1935-36, p. 83.

1935-36
Harvard University
Economics 23
[Mid-year Exam, 1936]

Write an essay (not more than half your time) discussing one of the quotations or topics in this paper, and comment concisely on three others.

(a) “The essence of the Industrial Revolution is the substitution of competition for the medieval regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of wealth.”
(b) The use of machinery “began by being the resultant of these two phenomena (the extension of the exchange of commodities and the increase in the division of labor), at one of the decisive moments in their evolution. This crisis, distinguished by the appearance of machinery, best defines the industrial revolution.”
The relations between the industrial and agrarian revolutions in England.
(a) The chief measures of factory legislation in England.
(b) To what extent and why, on the continent of Europe, did factory legislation lag behind that of England?
(a) In 1850 Porter wrote: “The laissez faire system has been pregnant with great loss and inconvenience to the country in carrying forward the railway system.” Heaton has recently remarked: “Considering the novelty of the car and the strangeness of the route, parliament could retort to Porter that it had been a fairly competent back-seat driver.”
(b) A French writer in 1883 explained the contrast between private enterprise in English railway management and public control or ownership in France and Germany as resulting mainly from the more advanced state of English economic development.
“The safest lesson to draw from the experience of Germany is the simple fact that changes in tariff policy were only one, and commonly not the most important, amongst the many causes of her economic progress.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1935-36
Harvard University
Economics 23
[Year-end Exam, 1936]

Write an essay (not more than half your time) discussing one of the questions in this paper, and comment concisely on three others.

Taussig finds that the development of trusts under protection does not “confirm the doctrine that the tariff matures monopolies permanently. … The industrial influence of the protective tariff tends to become less and less.” Illustrate with any two of his three cases — steel rails, tin plate and sugar refining. What is the basic historical relationship between the movements toward industrial combination and toward protectionism in Europe and America?
“The significant fact is that the periods of prosperity and the great depressions in agriculture have coincided with periods of monetary expansion and monetary contraction. Though other factors must not be ignored, the agricultural history of the last hundred years shows that favorable monetary conditions are essential to recovery.” (“World Agriculture,” 1932.) Give your reasons for agreement or criticism. What weight do you give to the “other factors”?
“A general view of the monetary history of the entire period of our national existence shows that each generation had to learn for itself and at its own expense the evils of unsound money and of defective banking.” Is the assertion also true of modern Europe? In outlining and comparing the experience of both America and Europe, distinguish between inherent unsoundness and lags of development.
“It remains clear that the Industrial Revolution is not a closed episode; we are living in the midst of it, and the economic problems of to-day are largely problems of its making.” (W. C. Mitchell, 1929.)
“Unregulated capitalism is being superseded by a regulated, organized and controlled capitalism.” (Hansen, 1932.)
“In the United States the profit motive . . . worked to the end of blind self-destruction.” (Childs, 1936.)
How far are these statements true and consistent with each other? In what respects are they questionable?
Clapham quotes a competent German observer of the English working classes, writing in the 80’s, as finding “an improvement . .. beyond the boldest hopes of even those who, a generation ago, devoted all their energies to the work.”
A recent writer, declaring that we must choose between security and progress, asks: “Have we reached a sufficiently high standard of per capita productivity to warrant stabilization at the present standard of living?”
Does Clapham agree that the German estimate was justified? What connections do you see between the two quotations?
“For all the exaggeration in the statements that English unionism has sounded the death-knell to English industrial leadership, it remains true that the absence of firmly entrenched unions in the cotton and iron manufactures has facilitated the march of improvement in the United States.”
“The English, by labor organization and social legislation, have built a platform over the abyss.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

Summer School of Harvard University
August 15, 1936
Economics S20 (Economics 23)

Write an essay (not more than half your time) discussing one of the questions in this paper, and comment concisely on three others.

(a) “The Napoleonic wars exercised the same influence upon subsequent commercial policy in France (though for different reasons) as the Civil War in the United States.” (Percy Ashley)
(b) “The British protective system up to 1846 had been maintained chiefly for the sake of agriculture; the German protective system from 1848 to 1860 had been dictated by the interests of manufacturers; now (in 1879) an effort was to be made to harmonize these two and to give a fair measure of protection to all.” (Percy Ashley)
“It remains clear that the Industrial Revolution is not a closed episode; we are living in the midst of it.” (W. C. Mitchell, 1929)
“Two contrasting theories of banking were put forward at the beginning of the nineteenth century and subsequently they controlled the banking development of the different countries.”
State precisely the two theories and their historical effects.
(a) “The one-crop system has been the bane of American agriculture.”
(b) In what ways did Western Europe meet the invasion of American agricultural products after 1870?
Trace the connection, if any, between (a) the fluctuations of business cycles and secular price trends, and (b) the development of the railroad network and railroad governmental policies in England and the United States since 1830.
“Among the agencies which labor has chosen to defend its interests are the trade union, the cooperative society, and political action.” (Webb) What has been the relative importance of these agencies at three stages of the British Labor movement? Compare and explain the differing development of American labor history.
“The wastes of competition are negligible. The economies of monopoly are superficial and delusive. The efficiency of monopoly is at the best temporary… Excesses of competition lead to monopoly, as excesses of liberty lead to absolutism.” (L. D. Brandeis, 1912)
“We are persuaded by our study of the combination movement at home and abroad that it is essentially a movement making for economy, efficiency, and better relations in business.” (Seager and Gulick, 1932)
What is your view, supported by what evidence?
Select the ten-year period in English and American economic history of the nineteenth century which you believe to be the most important, giving your reasons, and then summarize in parallel columns the outstanding events of that decade for both countries.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1936-1937

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

[Economics 131 ¹hf. (formerly 21). Economic History to 1450]

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Usher.

Omitted in 1936-37.

Economics 133 (formerly 23). Recent Economic History

Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 4. Professor Usher.

[Economics 136 (formerly 22). Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor —

Omitted in 1936-37.

Economics 137 ²hf. (formerly 24). Seminar. Topics in American Economic History

Half-course (second half-year). Hours to be arranged. Professor A. H. Cole.

[Economics 138 (formerly 25). Economic Problems of Latin America]

Tu., Th., at 3.

Omitted in 1936-37.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXIII (September 23, 1936), No. 42, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1936-1937 (Second Edition), p. 146.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133 (formerly 23). Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History.

Total 36: 31 Graduates, 5 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1936-37, p. 93.

[NOTE: the final exams volume for 1936-37 binds January-June, 1937 together so for full courses it appears only the June exam were included.]

1936-37
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Year-end Examination, 1937]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the historical significance of the theory of monopolistic competition; the concept of interregional equilibrium.

II
(About two hours)
[Handwritten addition: Answer three questions]

Answer (a) or (b).
1. In what respects did the Ricardian group misjudge the structure of the London money market of their day?
2. Sketch the development of contacts between the United States Treasury and the New York money market in the period, 1869-1914.
Answer (a) or (b).
1. Sketch the history of the petroleum industry in the United States during the decade 1870-1879.
2. Discuss the development and the significance of any single cartel in Great Britain or Germany.
Describe briefly the position of British agriculture during the period 1878-1895, and discuss the relative significance of the factors primarily involved.
Answer (a), (b), or (c)
1. Discuss the relations between sugar growing in Hawaii and the position of Hawaiian products in the markets of the United States.
2. Is tariff protection likely to afford Great Britain an adequate solution to the problem of foreign dumping?
3. Discuss the relative importance of political and economic factors in the tariff policies of France or Germany since 1871.
Answer (a), (b), or (c).
1. Discuss the significance of recent tendencies toward centralized control of power production in Great Britain and continental Europe.
2. Sketch the development of the Royal Dutch-Shell Petroleum Company and discuss the significance of its position in the world market.
3. Discuss the relative importance of birth rates and death rates in the history of population in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1937-1938

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133 (formerly 23). Recent Economic History, 1820-1914

Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 4. Professor Usher.

Economics 136 (formerly 22). Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Usher.

[Economics 137 ²hf. (formerly 24). Seminar. Topics in American Economic History]

Half-course (second half-year). Hours to be arranged. Professor —.

Omitted in 1937-38.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXIV (October 1, 1937), No. 44, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1937-1938 (Second Edition), p. 153.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133 (formerly 23). Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History, 1820-1914.

Total 33: 25 Graduates, 2 Business School, 1 Public Administration, 4 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

Economics 136 (formerly 22). Professor Usher. — Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History.

Total 7: 7 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1937-38, p. 86.

1937-38
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Mid-year Exam, 1938]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic based upon the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the concept of social evolution as a multilinear process; the development of free trade in Great Britain.

II
(About two hours)

Answer three questions:

What were the more important factors underlying the differences in the rates of growth of the cotton and the woollen industries in the period, 1750-1850?
Answer a, b, c, or d.
1. Describe and discuss the characteristic features of railway rates in Trunk line territory before 1887.
2. Discuss the general features and the significance of the consolidation of railways in Great Britain in 1921.
3. Sketch the history of the French railway network through 1883.
4. Discuss the significance of water competition for the railways of Germany.
Describe the primary factors in the location and development of London, Paris, or New York city.
Discuss the problems presented by the proposal to include Austria in the German Customs Union, 1848-1863.
Answer a, b, or c.
1. Discuss the place of the small holding in Great Britain, with special reference to its development since the agricultural depression (1878-1895).
2. Describe the factors affecting the development of small peasant holdings in France.
3. Describe the organization and routine on some of the large slave plantations of the old south.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-Year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 13. Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (January-Febrary 1938) included in bound volume Mid-Year Examinations 1938.

1937-38
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Year-end Exam, 1938]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period or on one of the following topics: planning in free societies; modern tendencies toward autarchy.

II
Answer THREE questions.

Answer (a) or (b).
1. Discuss the policies used by the Bank of England between 1825 and 1910 in establishing its rate of discount.
2. What considerations seem to have led Biddle to apply in January 1832 for an extension of the charter of the Second Bank of the United States?
Discuss the characteristic practices of pools and cartels in the United States up to 1899.
Discuss: “The Corn Law of 1815 like the Agriculture Act of 1920 attempted to stabilize returns to the British wheat grower, but the machinery of the act of 1920 was even less adapted to its purpose than the machinery established in 1815.”
Answer (a), (b), (c), or (d).
1. Does the history of the silk manufacture in the United States afford decisive evidence of the significance of protection to young industries? Why, or why not?
2. Discuss the argument that protection will make it possible for Britain to maintain her “standard of life.”
3. Discuss: “In France, protection has been the parent as well as the child of fear. It has strengthened the force, which in conjunction with ignorance, gave it birth.”
4. What principles and purposes dominated the fiscal policy of Bismarck?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 4. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (June 1938).

__________________________________

1938-1939

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

[Note change in course numbering]

Economics 133. Recent Economic History, 1820-1914.

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 4. Professor Usher.

Economics 136. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Usher.

[Economics 137 ²hf. Seminar. Topics in American Economic History]

Half-course (second half-year). Hours to be arranged. Professor —.

Omitted in 1938-39.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXV (September 23, 1939), No. 42, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1938-1939 (Second Edition), p. 150.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133. Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History, 1820-1914.

Total 46: 40 Graduates, 2 Public Administration, 2 Radcliffe, 2 Others.

Economics 136. Professor Usher. — Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History.

Total 10: 9 Graduates, 1 Senior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1938-39, p. 99.

1938-39
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Mid-year Exam, 1939]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: feudal tenures as a basis for land utilization; the significance of the quantitative method in economic history.

II
Answer THREE questions

Sketch the history of the application of machinery in the textile industries of Great Britain, France, Germany, or the United States for any period of 100 years between 1700 and 1900.
Describe the salient features of the railway network in any one country, and discuss the merits of public policy in respect of railway construction in that country.
Within what limits of accuracy may we compute the quantitative significance of the following inventions: Darby’s process for smelting iron with coke, Fourneyron’s turbine, the Jacquard loom action?
Sketch the development of the fiscal policy embodied in Peel’s budget of 1842, and discuss its significance.
Answer (a) or (b).
1. Discuss: “The long succession of preemption acts were but premonitions of a free land policy, a policy destined to come, but hindered by sectional interests and differences for many years.”
2. Discuss the economic and the political significance of the major compromises embodied in the ordinances creating the national domain in the United States.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1938-39
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Year-end Exam, 1939]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the bullionists and the Bullion Report; the anti-monopoly policy in the United States.

II
Answer three questions

Answer (a) or (b).
1. What were the lessons of the crisis of 1847? In what ways did this crisis affect the policies of the Bank of England?
2. What were the merits and the defects of the organization of the call loan market in New York prior to 1914?
Answer (a), (b), or (c).
1. Discuss the attempts to establish international control of the sugar trade between 1926 and 1932.
2. Sketch the development of trusts and cartels in Great Britain after 1914.
3. Describe the characteristic types of “concern” in post-war Germany.
Answer (a), (b), (c), or (d).
1. Has the United States gained enough from the development of the Beet Sugar culture to justify the costs?
2. Can policy of tariff preferences between Great Britain and her dominions be defended on economic grounds?
3. Discuss the theories which served as the basis for the development of protection in France after 1889.
4. Sketch the development of agrarian influences upon German tariff policy after 18790 and discuss briefly the merits of the basic demands.
Discuss the influence of the development of hydro-electric power sites upon the industrial future of Italy.
What changes in the Malthusian theory of population are necessary to bring its broader elements into conformity with the historical record of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

__________________________________

1939-1940

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133. Recent Economic History, 1820-1914

Mon., Wed., Fri. at 3. Professor Usher.

[Economics 136. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Usher.

Omitted in 1939-40; to be given in 1940-41.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXVI (September 22, 1939), No. 42, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1939-1940 (Second Edition), p. 158.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133. Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History, 1820-1914.

Total 50: 41 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Public Administration, 4 Radcliffe, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1939-40, p. 100.

1939-40
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 133
[Mid-Year Exam, 1940]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the concept of nodality, the effective sphere of pure competition in the industrial societies of the nineteenth century.

II
Answer three questions

Answer a, b, c, d, or e.
1. How many of the basic forms of industrial organization were to be found in the textile industries of the United States between 1790 and 1830? What was their relative importance?
2. Describe the distinctive features in the organization, equipment, and management of the Boston Manufacturing Company in Waltham in its early years.
3. Discuss: “Those who draw all their illustrative material from the textile industries fall into serious errors in their judgment of the effect of machinery upon labour.”
4. Describe the position of organized labor in Germany towards the close of the nineteenth century.
5. Sketch the development in the use of iron and its products in England between 1800 and 1890.
In what ways and to what extent do geographic factors affect the rate structure of a given railway network?
Answer a, or b.
1. What considerations led the various groups of German states to accept the leadership of Prussia in the Customs Union?
2. Sketch the activities of M. Chevalier in the negotiation of the Anglo-French Treaty of Commerce of 1860.
Answer a, b, or c.
1. What elements of ambiguity made it difficult to interpret and enforce the resolutions of the French National Assembly of August 4 and 11, 1789? What interpretation was finally established by the legislation of 1792 and 1793?
2. Does the experience of France and Germany in the late nineteenth century warrant the belief that the number of small holdings can be now increased or even maintained without tariff protection or financial aid?
3. Discuss: “Although southerners have persistently asserted that the interstate slave trade was of no substantial significance, the structure of slave prices provides decisive evidence that the trade was vital to the perpetuation of slavery as a system.”
Discuss: “Southern systems of settlement were based on a policy of free land, and the actual introduction of such modes of settlement on the Public Domain was largely due to southern influence, but formal recognition of the policy was long and successfully opposed by southern members of Congress.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1939-1940
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 133
[Year-End Exam, 1940]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: Malthus and the theory of population; technological factors underlying tendencies towards integration in the production and distribution of electricity.

II
Answer THREE questions

Answer (a) or (b).
1. “In actual operation, the Bank Act of 1844, instead of tying the currency more closely to gold, injected an additional amount of credit into the reserves of the English banking system.” Discuss.
2. Sketch the development of the Suffok banking system and discuss its significance.
Describe the conditions in the American iron industry that led to the formation of the United States Steel Corporation. What may we presume to have been the effect of this achievement upon competition in the industry?
Answer (a) or (b).
1. Discuss the effectiveness of the British Wheat Act of 1932.
2. Describe the organization of the Russian collective farms and their influence upon productivity.
Answer (a), (b), (c), or (d).
1. Discuss the relation of the changes in the duties on wool and woolens in the U. S. tariff act of 1913 to the general concept of a competitive tariff.
2. Does Beveridge offer a satisfactory defense for a continuance of a free trade policy in Great Britain? Why, or why not?
3. Discuss the concepts of tariff policy held by Protectionists and Liberals in France, with special reference to the precise points of difference between them.
4. Describe and discuss Bismarck’s theories of taxation and fiscal policy.
Does the development of hydro-electric power significantly affect either the immediate or the ultimate location of economic activity in Europe and the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 5. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (June 1940).

__________________________________

1940-1941

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133. Recent Economic History, 1820-1914

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 3. Professor Usher.

Economics 136. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Usher.

[Previous post for the Economics 136 Seminar]

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXVII (March 4, 1940), No. 7, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1940-1941 (Provisional Announcement), p. 161.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133. Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History, 1820-1914.

Total 41: 31 Graduates, 4 Public Administration, 6 Radcliffe.

Economics 136. Professor Usher. — Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History.

Total 10: 9 Graduates, 1 Senior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1940-41, p. 59.

1940-41
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Mid-year Exam, 1941]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: typical deviations from a “normal” distance principle in railway rate structures; elements of a concept of social evolution implicit in the work of Bentham and Malthus.

II
Answer THREE questions

What were the primary changes in the processes of producing malleable iron in the late eighteenth century? In what fields did these changes extend the use of iron products?
Describe the changes in ocean shipping services that resulted in the organized attempt to control rates through shipping conferences. Do you feel that these rate agreements imposed undesirable restrictions upon free competition?
Under what circumstances is labor “externally conditioned”? Do such phenomena make the location of economic activity indeterminate?
Answer (a) or (b).
1. What were the objectives of the Middle German Commercial Union? What were the basic factors in its failure?
2. Describe the protectionist groups in Germany between 1833 and 1865, and point out the reasons for the ineffectiveness of their activities.
Describe the broader features of the concentration of ownership of land in England, France, and Prussia in the late nineteenth century. Have we reason to believe that the degree of concentration was affected by the agrarian reforms of the period 1750-1850?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 14, Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science in a bound volume, Mid-Year Examinations—1941.

1940-41
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Year-end Exam, 1941]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the significance of locational theory for the restatement of the theory of international trade; the fallacies and dangers in the concept of a closed economy.

II
Answer THREE questions

Answer (a) or (b).
1. Sketch the development of the Bank of England as a central bank.
2. Describe the nature and the extent of the concentration of bank reserves in New York city under the old National Banking system. Was this a desirable or adequate means of achieving centralization of reserves? Why, or why not?
What were Adam Smith’s views on the use of the corporate form in private business, both as to public policy and private administration?
Does the history of private business corporations in the United States belie the wisdom of Smith’s judgment? Why, or why not?
Answer (a) or (b).
1. Discuss the place of wheat growing in British farming, and the effect upon agriculture in general of policies affecting wheat culture.
2. Were the countries of South Eastern Europe suffering from over-population in 1930? Why, or why not?
Answer (a), (b), (c), (d), or (e).
1. What circumstances led to the revision of the United States tariff in 1909? In what measure were the objectives of revision actually achieved?
2. Have we grounds for presuming that the development of the iron and steel industry of the United States was significantly influenced by the protection given it? Why, or why not?
3. What changes have taken place since 1880 in the position of Great Britain in the export markets of the world?
4. Discuss: “The agrarian interests in France made a fatal mistake in the decade of the eighties by seeking to share in protection instead of seeking reductions in the duties on manufactures.”
5. Discuss the program of the agrarian party in Germany towards the close of the last century.
Do changes in the expectation of life afford a significant measure of material well-being? Why, or why not?

__________________________________

1941-1942

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133. Recent Economic History, 1820-1914

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 3. Professor Usher.

[Economics 136. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Usher

Omitted in 1941-42.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXVIII (September 18, 1941), No. 54, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1941-1942, p. 61.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133. Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History, 1820-1914.

Total 34: 26 Graduates, 4 Public Administration, 4 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1941-42, p. 64.

1941-42
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Mid-year Exam, 1942]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic based upon the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the postulates of liberalism; the influence of improvements in transport upon the importance of primary nodes.

II
Answer THREE questions

Sketch the broader features of the process of achievement, and indicate explicitly its relation to the process of invention.
Discuss: “The Marxian concept of the labor problem was largely implicit in the Marxian concept of the factory. Careful analysis of the conditions of employment in factories affords a basis for a significant restatement of the problems of labor.”
Answer (a), (b), (c), or (d).
1. Sketch the development of railroad rebates in the United States and discuss the elements of danger to shippers and to the public.
2. Describe the procedure of railway amalgamation in Great Britain in 1921, and discuss briefly the treatment of basic problems.
3. Describe the reorganization of French railways in 1921, and discuss the advantages of the plan.
4. Does the sketch of German railway policy in Barker actually support the conclusions he draws in respect of the advantages of state ownership?
In what respects does the history of the iron industry show the importance of a dominant material on the location and the structure of an industry? Draw illustrative material from the history of the industry in Great Britain, France, Germany, or the United States.
Answer (a), (b), or (c).
1. In what ways and in what degree did crop rotations lead to improvements in productivity and to more adequate differentiation of land use?
2. Sketch the development of the procedures and the policy of making grants of public lands to further internal improvements.
3. In what ways did the defects of the Harrison Act of 1800 lead to a demand for the revision of the general principles of public land policy?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 15, Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, History of Religions,…Economics,…, Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1942 in bound volume Mid-year Examinations—1942.

1941-42
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Year-end Exam, 1942]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: concepts and measures of material well-being, the gold standard in the nineteenth century.

II
Answer THREE questions.

Answer (a) or (b).
1. What were the essential features of the credit policy proposed by the Banking School, 1820-1840? In what respects was it unsound?
2. Sketch the development of the Free Banking system in the United States. Discuss its advantages and disadvantages.
Discuss the issues of fact raised by the prosecution of the United States Steel Corporation. Do you feel that the position taken by the Court was sound? Why, or why not?
Discuss the policy of Great Britain towards agriculture during and since the great depression. Do you feel that agriculture was sacrificed to misguided loyalty to a free trade policy?
Describe the effects of technical development upon units of management in the production and distribution of electricity since 1890.
Answer any one of the following:
1. Discuss the relative merits of proration and unit operation as solutions of the problem of regulating the production of petroleum.
2. Sketch the history of the reservation of oil lands by the government of the United States, and the development of their exploitation.
3. Sketch the development of oil production and trade in eastern Europe and the Dutch East Indies from 1900 to 1924.
4. Sketch the development of British oil policies, 1900-1924.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1942
Harvard University
Economics S133

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on the selected topic.

II.
Answer three questions: exclusive of the general topic of the essay.

Answer a or b:
1. Sketch the development of the factory system from its origins to a position of clear dominance in Great Britain, or in Germany
2. Sketch the development of the factory system in the United States to 1880.
Answer a, b, c, or d:
1. Describe and discuss the characteristic features of railway rates in Trunk line territory before 1887.
2. Discuss the general features and the significance of the consolidation of railways in Great Britain in 1921.
3. Sketch the history of the French railway network through 1883.
4. Discuss the significance of water competition for the railways of Germany.
Under what circumstances is labor “externally conditioned”? Do such phenomena make the location of economic activity indeterminate?
Answer a or b:
1. Discuss the contributions of Peel and Cobden to the establishment of Free Trade in Great Britain.
2. Sketch the progress of negotiations leading to the German Customs Union during the years 1828 to 1834.
Answer a or b:
1. Sketch the development of the Bank of England as a central bank.
2. Sketch the development of contacts between the United States Treasury and the New York money market in the period, 1869-1914
Answer a or b:
1. Sketch the history of the petroleum Industry in the United States from 1859-1879.
2. Discuss the development and the significance of any single cartel in Great Britain or Germany.
Answer a, b, c, d, or e:
1. What was the purpose of the compensating duties in the woollen and worsted schedules of the United States tariff of 1867, 1883, and 1890? Did the duties as levied achieve this purpose?
2. Describe the different forms of dumping. How did the forms prevalent in the United States before 1914 affect the development of our domestic industries? Was dumping disadvantageous to the consumers of similar goods in the United States?
3. Does imperial preference meet the essential needs of ether Great Britain or her dominions? Why, or why not?
4. Discuss: “The history of protection in France shows clearly the impossibility of securing trustworthy objective evidence of its effect, but the record of the nineteenth century affords no presumption that the benefits of protection offset the palpable increases in the cost of living due to the tariffs.”
5. Has the experience of Germany thrown new light upon the effects of protection to agriculture? Why, or why not?
Answer a or b:
In what ways and to what extent have technological changes, since 1900, affected the regional balance of primary resources in Europe and the world at large?
What changes in the Malthusian theory of population are necessary to bring its broader elements into conformity with the historical record of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1942-1943

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133. Recent Economic History, 1820-1914

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 3. Professor Usher.

Economics 136. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Usher.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXIX (September 23, 1942), No. 53, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1942-1943, p. 56.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133. Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History.

Total 15: 10 Graduates, 3 Public Administration, 2 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1942-43 p. 48.

1942-43
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Mid-year Exam, 1943]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the shortcomings of Victorian liberalism, out-standing definitions of the factory and their significance.

II
Answer THREE questions.

Answer (a) or (b).
1. Discuss the changing conditions of competition among the various textile products from 1750 to 1851.
2. Describe the out-standing technical improvements in the iron industry in England in the late eighteenth century.
Answer one of the following:
1. Describe the devices employed by railroads in the United States to make personal discriminations in favor of particular shippers. What success has been achieved in the suppression of these practices?
2. Describe and discuss the primary features of the British Railway Act of 1921.
3. Discuss the relative significance of the benefits to the railroads and the new liabilities involved in the Conventions of 1883 between the great railroad companies and the French government.
4. Describe the inland waterways of Germany and discuss their place in the transport system.
What are the more important weight-losing materials? What is their relative significance for the localization of economic activity at the present time?
In what ways and to what extent did purely fiscal motives enter into the reform of the British tariff in the first half of the nineteenth century?
Answer (a), (b), or (c).
1. In what ways did new problems of land use affect the character of agrarian reforms in England and in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?
2. What compromises were involved in the adjustments of the claims to western lands?
3. Sketch the development of the political agitation for free land through the passage of the Homestead Act.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1942-43
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Year-end Exam, 1943]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: modern formulations of autarky as an objective of economic policy; Victorian Liberalism — its prestige as a gospel, its deficiencies as a social philosophy.

II
Answer three questions.

Answer (a) or (b).
1. Describe the primary features of the London money market in the early nineteenth century, indicating essential specialization of function.
2. Describe the various elements in the Democratic party that were hostile to the Second Bank of the United States. In what ways, and to what extent did they influence Jackson?
Was the Sherman Law an appropriate and well designed instrument to prevent the kinds of abuse of economic power that were emerging in the United States about 1890? Why, or why not?
Answer (a) or (b).
1. Discuss British policy towards wheat growing before and after World War I.
2. Does German trade under exchange controls offer an adequate solution to the problems of the agricultural areas of south eastern Europe? Why, or why not?
Sketch the development of centralized power production in Great Britain and Germany.
In what respects does the record of population growth in Great Britain reveal the presence of factors unsuspected by Malthus?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1943-1944

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133a. Economic History, 1750-1860

Half-course (summer term; to be repeated in spring term). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 3. Professor Usher.

Students will attend classes in Economics 33a and do supplementary work for [graduate] credit in this course.

Economics 133b. Economic History, 1860-1914

Half-course (winter term). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 3. Professor Usher.

Students will attend classes in Economics 33b and do supplementary work for [graduate] credit in this course.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XL (March 29, 1943), No. 4, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1943-1944, p. 40.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133a. (winter term) Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1750-1860.

Total 16: 12 Graduates, 2 Public Administration, 2 Radcliffe.

Economics 133b. (winter term) Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1860-1914.

Total 23: 16 Graduates, 2 Public Administration, 4 Radcliffe, 1 Other

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1943-44 p. 57.

1943-44
Harvard University
Economics 33a, 133a
[Final Examination, June 1944]

Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: Bentham’s contribution to the content of liberalism: the theory of invention.

II
(About two hours)
Answer THREE questions.

Answer (a) or (b).
1. What were the characteristic features of the agrarian reforms in France, 1750-1815?
2. Have we reason to presume that the plantation would have developed significantly in southern United States if slave labor had not become available? Did slave labor make the plantation more profitable than farming with free labor? Why, or why not?
Why has it been misleading to develop a concept of an “Industrial Revolution” that is to be identified with the period 1760-1800?
The generalization of the factory system created new problems in labor relations which were very imperfectly covered by the methods of collective bargaining even at their best.
In what ways did the development of steam navigation create new problems in merchant service and in national policy?
What is the significance of water and water power for the location of economic activity?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1943-44
Harvard University
Economics 33b, 133b
[Final Exam, February 1944]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period, or on one
of the following topics: planning in a free society, the significance of monopolistic competition theory for the formulation of policies for the control of business.

II
Answer THREE questions.

Answer (a) or (b):
1. Describe the structure of the Bank of England under the Bank Act of 1844. What was the significance of the distinctive features of the new structure?
2. Sketch the development of the Suffolk Bank system.
Answer (a) or (b):
1. In what ways does the topography of a region exert an influence on the pattern of the railway network? What typical patterns of networks may be distinguished?
2. Describe the broader features of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. Do you feel that the courts were at fault for the disappointments experienced by the advocates of strict control?
Answer (a), (b), or (c):
1. What factors enabled the Standard Oil group to secure transport differentials from the railroads and from the pipe line companies?
2. What factors have controlled the development of integration of industry in Great Britain since 1870?
3. What changes have taken place in the structure of big business in Germany since 1919? How may we explain this development?
Describe the place of water power in the power system of the United States. Discuss the problems of policy involved in the full and effective utilization of these water powers.
What modifications of the Malthusian theory of population are necessary to bring its broader features into conformity with the historical record of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1944-1945

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133a. Economic History, 1750-1860

Half-course (winter term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Professor Usher.

Students will attend classes in Economics 33a and do supplementary work for [graduate] credit in this course.

Economics 133b. Economic History, 1860-1914

Half-course (winter term; to be repeated in spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 2. Professor Usher.

Students will attend classes in Economics 33b and do supplementary work for [graduate] credit in this course.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLI (September 15, 1944), No. 19, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1944-1945, pp. 36-37.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133a. (winter term) Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1750-1860.

Total 20: 14 Graduates, 3 Public Administration, 3 Radcliffe.

Economics 133b. (winter term) Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1860-1914.

Total 17: 15 Graduates, 4 Public Administration, 7 Radcliffe [sic]

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1944-45 p. 64.

1944-45
Harvard University
Economics 33a, 133a
[Final Exam, February 1945]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: liberalism; the structure and objectives of a free society.

II
Answer three questions

Answer a, b, or c.
1. In what ways did the rights enjoyed by English “landlords” of the eighteenth century fall short of being rights of unqualified ownership?
2. Discuss: “Homestead settlement had its essential roots in the practices of southern United States, but the formal adoption of the policy was persistently opposed by southern members in Congress.”
3. Sketch the various types of labor management used on southern plantations.
What are the essential features of the system of quantity production? Was the date of its significant introduction determined primarily by economic or by technological conditions?
Answer a or b.
1. Discuss the critical problems involved in the definition of a factory.
2. Describe the more conspicuous abuses in the administration of the old poor laws. Comment on the reform accomplished in 1834.
What conditions stood in the way of an early development of the operation of ocean going steamships by American builders and owners?
Why did the application of power to industry and transport alter the significance of surplus food supplies for the location of economic activity?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 10. Papers Printed for Final Examinations Winter Term [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (February 1945).

1944-45
Harvard University
Economics 33b, 133b
[Final Exam. June 1945]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: revisions and restatements of the theory of population; the future of the liberal concept of economic statesmanship.

II
Answer three questions

Answer (a) or (b).
1. What were the primary contentions of the Bullionist writers? In what respects would their positions now be criticized?
2. What tendencies towards centralization of banking appeared in the United States in the early nineteenth century?
Answer (a) or (b).
1. Under what circumstances does value of the transport service modify the rate structure of a railway network? Are discriminations of this nature “reasonable”?
2. In what ways did the Hepburn Act (1906) extend the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission? Were the new powers adequate?
Answer (a) or (b).
1. Describe the position of the United States Steel Corporation in the industry about the time of the decision of the Supreme Court. Do you feel that the Court was justified in finding that “full and free competition” existed in the industry?
2. Does the experience of Germany indicate that the “cartel” is a satisfactory and permanent means of organizing big business enterprises? Why, or why not?
What is, at present, the relative significance of coal, oil, and water power as sources of mechanical energy? Are there grounds for believing that the future development of water power will significantly alter the pattern of industrialization in the world?
Describe recent tendencies toward centralization of power production in Great Britain and continental Europe. Discuss the economic and social consequences of these changes.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 10. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (June 1945).

__________________________________

1945-1946

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133a. Economic History, 1750-1860

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher.

Economics 133b. Economic History, 1860-1914

Half-course (spring term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLII (March 31, 1945), No. 8, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1945-1946, p. 40.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133a. (fall term) Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1750-1860.

Total 54: 34 Graduates, 1 Junior, 1 Freshman, 4 Public Administration, 14 Radcliffe.

Economics 133b. (spring term) Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1860-1914.

Total 79: 58 Graduates, 1 Sophomore, 9 Public Administration, 11 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1945-46, p. 59.

1945-1946
Harvard University
Economic 133a
[Final Exam, August 1946]

Answer all questions. Question 1 is given double weight. Please write clearly and in ink.

Write an essay of one hour on the factors which appear to have controlled the timing and rate of industrial development of areas, using illustrative material from the industrial history of England, France, Germany, and the United States. What recommendations respecting policy would you make to a government of a backward nation anxious to achieve, not only parity in industrial development and technology, but also a position of leadership in these fields?
Compare the major features of the structures of land ownership and use, and of agricultural organization during the first half of the nineteenth century in two of the following regions: Great Britain, France, the southern United States, the American West. Discuss fully the economics of each of the two systems considered and criticize in the light of this discussion the public and private policies involved in each.
Explain how the Industrial Revolution and the factory system in Great Britain altered the position of the workers in the economic system, and discuss in the light of the prevailing concepts of economic and political organization the problems of government labor policy which arose.
Analyze the remarkable boom in the American shipping and ship-building industries between 1830 and 1856, and the subsequent collapse. In this connection, what features of American and British merchant marine policy appear to have been important, and which of these policies might be criticized as being undesirable or ill-conceived from the American point of view?
Discuss the evolution of the structure of the British money market and banking system between the late eighteenth century and the mid-nineteenth century, showing the major changes which occurred, and analyzing the primary problems which arose.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1945-1946
Harvard University
Economics 133b
[Final Exam, August 1946]

Answer all questions. Please write clearly and in ink.

Compare the primary features since 1860 of railway organization and public railway policy in two of the following countries: the United States, Germany, France, Great Britain. Analyze the points of strength and weakness which you find in each of the two cases.
Analyze the reasons for the continued failure of American foreign-trade shipping to make progress between 1860 and 1914. In particular, what problems were encountered in the use of ship subsidies, and what conclusions do you draw from this experience, and that of other countries, regarding the essentials of a good subsidy policy?
Analyze the reasons for the development of industrial integration in the United States, and explain the timing of the movement. In this connection compare and criticize the integration movements and associated public policies in the United States and in Germany or Britain.
What major problems have arisen in connection with the control and exploitations of major sources of energy for capitalistic economies? How has the energy problem conditioned the economic development and basic policies of western nations?
Analyze the factors responsible for the agricultural maladjustments of the period 1914-1939. In what respects does this period differ from that from 1870 to 1914?
Write an essay discussing those features of the economic history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which seem to you evidences of progress, and those which seem the reverse. What concept and test of progress, or of the lack of it, do you consider valid.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1946-1947

From Course Announcements

III

[NOTE: the announcement of courses of instruction no longer distinguishes “Economic history” courses from others in group III…cf: Group I Theory/Group II Statistics]

Economics 133a. Economic History, 1750-1860

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher.

Economics 133b. Economic History, 1860-1914

Half-course (spring term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLIII (September 3, 1946), No. 21, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1946-1947, p. 45.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133a. Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1750-1860 (F).

Total 68: 46 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 1 Junior, 10 Public Administration, 8 Radcliffe.

Economics 133b. Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1860-1914 (Sp).

Total 73: 50 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Junior, 12 Public Administration, 9 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1946-47, p. 71.

1946-47
Harvard University
Economics 133a
[Final Exam, January 1947]

I
About one hour

Write an essay based on the work of the reading period or on one of the following topics: the Marxian concept of the factory and its problems: British and American shipping subsidies.

II
Answer three questions.

What were the essential features of the rotation systems developed in Great Britain and in Europe? In what ways and to what extent did the introduction of the rotations require reform of tenure and of village organization?
Discuss: “Recent developments of science and of scientific methods have made invention a laboratory process; it has become a group activity independent of particular individual endowments.”
What are the characteristic features of craft industry? Describe and define the different kinds of relationships to be found in the craft industries.
Is Weber’s treatment of transportation costs as uniform ton-mile rates a satisfactory basis for the theoretical analysis of the location of economic activity? Why, or why not?
Answer a or b.
1. What political and economic circumstances led to the success and significance of the German Customs Union?
2. In what respects was the liberal philosophy of the nineteenth century unsound or incomplete?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1946-47
Harvard University
Economics 133b
[Final Exam, May 1947]

I
About one hour

Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the legal concept of “free competition” in U. S. statutes and case decisions; the significance of the value of transport in railroad rate structures.

II
Answer THREE questions

Answer (a) or (b).
1. What were the merits and defects of the defense of the policies of the Bank of England made by the officers of the Bank, in the period 1820-1840?
2. Describe the tendencies toward centralization of banking activity in the state banking systems of the United States prior to 1860.
Answer (a), (b), or (c).
1. Sketch the development of British policy towards railroad construction and regulation, 1830-1914.
2. In what ways did the government of France give financial aid to the construction and operation of railroads prior to World War I?
3. What were the characteristic features of the rate structure in the southern United States prior to World War I?
In what ways did the development of the Bessemer Converter and the Open Hearth process affect the structure and organization of the iron and steel industry?
Discuss the social and economic problems embodied in the doctrine of “capture” as developed in the United States in respect of property rights in petroleum.
Discuss: “The Malthusian principles of population were not essentially incorrect, though the formulation by Malthus was infelicitous and incomplete, and later discussion has commonly exaggerated the defects of the original presentation.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1947-1948

From Course Announcements

III

Economics 133a. Economic History, 1750-1860

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher and Assistant Professor Rostow.

Economics 133b. Economic History, 1860-1914

Half-course (spring term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher and Assistant Professor Rostow.

Economics 136a. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Half-course (spring term). Hours to be arranged. Professor Usher and Assistant Professor Rostow.

Economics 136b. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Half-course (spring term). Hours to be arranged. Professor Usher and Assistant Professor Rostow.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLIV (September 9, 1947), No. 25, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1947-1948, p. 74.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133a. Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1750-1860 (F).

Total 77: 59 Graduates, 11 Public Administration, 7 Radcliffe.

Economics 133b. Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1860-1914 (Sp).

Total 65: 50 Graduates, 8 Public Administration, 6 Radcliffe, 1 Other

Economics 136a. Professor Usher. — Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History (F).

(F) Total 7: 5 Graduates, 1 Junior, 1 Radcliffe

Economics 136b. Professor Usher. — Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History (Sp).

(Sp) Total 5: 5 Graduates

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1947-48, p. 91.

1947-48
Harvard University
Economics 133a
[Final Exam, January 1948]

I.
About one hour

Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the place of energy resources in the economy of a region, the concept of the factory.

II.
Answer three questions

Answer a, b, or c.
1. How did copyhold tenures arise in England? In what respects, and on what grounds, were the relations of the copyholder to his lord modified by judicial interpretation?
2. Discuss: “The National Assembly destroys entirely the feudal régime, and decrees the abolition without compensation of all feudal dues.” Resolution of Aug. 11, 1789.
3. Discuss the political and economic issues involved in granting rights of preemption to squatters on the Public Domain.
Answer a, or b.
1. What were the more important stages in the development and application of the hydraulic and steam turbines?
2. Describe the official and unofficial procedures for establishing wage rates in England in the eighteenth century.
Describe the various types of improved inland waterways, and discuss the effectiveness of competition between waterways and railroads.
What types of industries can be most advantageously located at wholesale market sites? why?
Discuss: “The function of state coercion is to override individual coercion; and, of course, coercion exercised by any association of individuals within the state.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1947-48
Harvard University
Economics 133b
[Final Exam, May 1948]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: “malefactors of great wealth,” the judicial concept of competition.

II
Answer THREE questions.

Answer (a) or (b):
1. “The Bank Act of 1844 is an outstanding illustration of erroneous policy: the act failed to achieve any of its essential purposes; it remained on the statute books because it secured incidental conveniences that were really without importance.” Discuss.
2. Describe the relations between the United States Treasury and the National Banks, 1865-1913.
Answer (a), (b) or (c):
1. What are the obstacles to the adoption of cost of service as a test of the “reasonableness” of railroad rates?
2. In what ways, and to what extent did the British government encourage competition among railroads in the nineteenth century?
3. Did the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 provide adequate remedies for the abuses against which it was directed? Why, or why not?
Describe the technical factors affecting the size of the enterprise in the iron and steel industry, or the electric power industry.
Discuss the competitive position of coal as a source of energy since 1900.
In what ways and to what extent do vital statistics throw light upon the relative well-being of different populations?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1948-1949

From Course Announcements

Note: Usher’s last year, Gerschenkron’s first year.

III

Economics 233a (formerly 133a). Economic History, 1750-1860

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher and Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

Economics 233b (formerly 133b). Economic History, 1860-1914

Half-course (spring term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher and Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

Economics 236 (formerly 136a and 136b). Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Full-course. Wed., 4-6. Professor Usher and Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLV (September 15, 1948), No. 24, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1948-1949, p. 78.

Enrollment

III

Economics 233a (formerly 133a). Economic History, 1750-1860 (F). Professor Usher and Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

Total 43: 38 Graduates, 1 Senior, 2 Public Administration, 5 Radcliffe. [sic]

Economics 233b (formerly 133b). Economic History, 1860-1914 (Sp). Professor Usher and Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

Total 42: 38 Graduates, 2 Public Administration, 2 Radcliffe

Economics 236 (formerly 136a and 136b). Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History (Full Co.) Professor Usher and Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

(F) Total 2: 2 Graduates
(Sp) Total 4: 2 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Public Administration

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1948-49, p. 78.

1948-49
Harvard University
Economics 233a
[Final Exam, January 1949]

I
About one Hour

Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the process of invention, the copyhold tenure.

II
Answer three questions

Answer a, b, or c.
1. Describe the primary features of the métayage tenures in France. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the tenure.
2. In what ways did the defects of the Harrison Act of 1800 lead to a demand for the revision of the general principles of public land policy?
3. Discuss the problems of determining the effective costs of slave labor on the plantations of the southern United States.
In what ways and to what extent did the development of the factory system modify the position of the capitalist or entrepreneur?
In what way did the development of steam navigation affect the character of competition and the organization of oceanic shipping in the second half of the nineteenth century?
Answer a or b.
1. What factors must be considered in computing the capacity of a railroad? What are the more conspicuous kinds of unused capacity?
2. Describe the primary features of the patterns of procurement and distribution costs in a material oriented industry.
Answer a or b.
1. Discuss the relative significance of Peel’s budget of 1842 and the repeal of the Corn Laws as the date line for the establishment of the Free Trade principle.
2. What were the distinctive contributions of Bentham to the development of liberalism?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 16. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (February 1949) in the bound volume Final Examinations Social Sciences, Feb. 1949.

1948-49
Harvard University
Economics 233b
[Final Exam, June 1949]

I
(About one hour)

Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the legal concept of competition in the United States; the measurement of material well-being.

II
Answer three questions.

Answer (a) or (b).
1. Describe the policies and functions of the Bank of England 1790-1819. Were the policies of the Bank essentially sound?
2. What problems were presented in the choice of a monetary standard in the United States? What were the defects of the Mint Act of 1792?
Answer (a) or (b).
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of organizing a railway network under a principle of regulated regional monopoly?
2. Describe the Trunk Line’ Rate system in the United States. Discuss its significance for theoretical analysis of railroad rate structures.
Answer (a) or (b).
1. Describe the tensions and difficulties in the steel industry of the United States in the decade 1890-1900. Did the formation of the United States Steel Corporation provide a sound and satisfactory solution for these problems?
2. In what ways and to what extent did the development of industrial consolidation in Germany after 1919 lead to the formation of more fully integrated enterprises than the older cartels?
Discuss the purposes and primary features of the British Electricity Supply Acts of 1919 and 1926.
How may we explain the changes in the birth rates and death rates in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

Image Source: Edwin F. Gay (left) and Abbott P. Usher (right) from Harvard Class Album 1934.

Tags Gay, Gerschenkron, RostowWW, Usher

Bibliography Chicago Fields

Chicago. Reading List for Industrial Organization. Stigler, 1959

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-04-03

The following (graduate) reading list comes from Zvi Griliches’ papers at the Harvard University Archives. In structure and content it matches George Stigler’s reading list from the University of Chicago in 1973 previously transcribed and posted, so there is no doubt where and from whom the reading list has come. There are indeed some additions and subtractions between the 1959 and 1973 versions which are indications of how the field evolved over those years, at least in George Stigler’s mind.

______________________________

READING LIST
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION
1959

I. The Firm-Structure of Industries

1. The competitive concept in theory and quantitative studies

A. P. Lerner, “The Concept of Monopoly,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. I
R. Triffin, Monopolistic Competition and General Equilibrium Theory, pp. 125 ff.
J. M. Clark, “Toward a Concept of Workable Competition,” American Economic Review, June 1950 or Readings in Social Control of Business
A. Marshall, Principles of Economics, Bk. V, Ch. 12
F. H. Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, pp. 76 ff.
E. Chamberlin, Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Ch. 1
G. Stigler, “Perfect Competition, Historically Contemplated,” Journal of Political Economy, 1957
R. Bishop, “Elasticities, Cross-elasticities, and Market Relationships,” American Economic Review, December 1952, June 1955
G. Rosenbluth, “Measure of Concentration,” in Business Concentration and Price Policy
T.N.E.C. Monograph 27, The Structure of Industry, Part 5
T. Scitovsky, “Economic Theory and Measurement of Concentration,” in Business Concentration and Price Policy

2. Some statistical studies

National Resources Comm., The Structure of the American Economy, Ch. 7, Appendix 7
Clair Wilcox, Competition and Monopoly, T.N.E.C. Monograph 21
The Structure of Industry, T.N.E.C. Monograph 27
Berle and Means, The Modern Corporation, Bk. II
G. Stigler, “Competition in the United States,” Five Lectures on Economic Problems
F.T.C., The Concentration of Productive Facilities
A. C. Harberger, “Monopoly and Resource Allocation,”American Economic Review, May 1954
A. D. Kaplan, Big Enterprise in a Competitive System

3. The trend of the structure

T.N.E.C. Monograph 27, Part I
G. W. Nutter, The Extent of Enterprise Monopoly
M. A. Adelman, “Measurement of Industrial Concentration,” in Industrial Organization and Public Policy
F.T.C. Changes in Concentration in Manufacturing, 1935 to 1947 and 1950

II. Factors Influencing Firm-Structures

1. Economies of scale

Cost Behavior and Price Policy, esp. Ch. 10
E. A. G. Robinson, The Structure of Competitive Industry, Ch. 2-7
J. M. Clark, Economics of Overhead Costs, Ch. 5, 6
W. Crum, Corporate Size and Earning Power
J. McConnell, “Corporate Earnings by Size of Firm,” Survey of Current Business, May 1945
J. Johnston. “Labour Productivity and Size of Establishment,” Oxford Institute of Statistics, 1954
R. C. Osborn, Effects of Corporate Size on Efficiency and Profitability
Caleb Smith, “Survey of Empirical Evidence,” in Business Concentration and Price Policy
J. S. Bain, “Economies of Scale, ….” in Industrial Organization and Public Policy
G. J. Stigler, “The Economies of Scale,” Law and Economics, 1958

2. Mergers

F.T.C., The Merger Movement
A. S. Dewing, “A Statistical Test of the Success of Consolidations,” Q.J.E., 1931
S. Livermore, “The Success of Industrial Mergers,” Q.J.E., 1935
A. S. Dewing, Corporate Promotions and Reorganizations, Ch. 20, 21
G. Stigler, “Monopoly and Oligopoly by Merger,” in Industrial Organization and Public Policy
Butters and Linter, “Effect of Mergers on Industrial Concentration,” Review of Economics and Statistics 1950
F.T.C. Report on Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions
J. Markham, “Survey of the Evidence and Findings on Mergers,” in Business Concentration
F. Machlup, Political Economy of Monopoly, pp. 105-17
J. F. Weston, The Role of Mergers in the Growth of Large Firms
G. Stigler, “The Statistics of Monopoly and Merger,” Journal of Political Economy, 1956

3. Raw materials

W. Y. Elliott, ed., International Control in the Non-ferrous Metals, essays on Nickel and Aluminum
E. A. G. Robinson, Monopoly, Ch. 3
R. H. Montgomery, The Brimstone Game, Ch, 4-9
D. H. Wallace, Market Control in the Aluminum Industry

4. Patents

A. Plant, “Economic Theory Concerning Patents for Invention,” Economica, 1934 (also companion article on copyrights)
Proceedings, American Econ. Assoc., May 1948 roundtable on patents
T.N.E.C. Monograph 31, pp. 109-15, 93-103
Seager and Gulick, Trust and Corporation Problems, pp. 280-303
Stocking and Watkins, Monopoly and Free Enterprise, Ch. 14
R. MacLaurin, “Patents and Economic Progress,” J.P.E., 1950

5. Taxation and tariffs

D. H. MacGregor, Industrial Combinations, pp. 127 ff.
Linter and Butters, “Effects of Taxes on Concentration,” in Business Concentration
T.N.E.C. Monograph No. 10

6. Unfair Competition

J. S. McGee, “Predatory Price Cutting,” Law and Economics, 1958

III. The Effects of Concentration

1. Collusion

R. B. Tenant, The American Cigarette Industry
W. Fellner, Competition Among the Few
W. Nicholls, Imperfect Competition Within Agricultural Industries, pp. 120-130
F. Machlup, Economics of Sellers’ Competition, Ch. 13

2. Prices

a. Discrimination

Burns, Decline of Competition, pp. 272-372
N.I.C.B., Public Regulation of Competitive Practices, pp. 63-85
J. P. Miller, Unfair Competition, Ch. 7-9
J. Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition, Bk. V
F. Machlup, The Basing Point System
J. M. Clark “Basing Point Methods,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, 1938
F.T.C., Price Bases Inquiry
T.N.E.C. Monograph 42
G. Stigler, “A Theory of Uniform Delivered Prices,” A.E.R. 1949
C. Kaysen, “Basing Point Pricing and Public Policy,” in Industrial Organization and Public Policy

b. Rigidity

G. Means, Industrial Prices and their Relative Inflexibility
Burns, Decline of Competition, Ch. 5
E. S. Mason, “Price Inflexibility,” Review of Economic Statistics, 1938
T.N.E.C., Monograph No. 1
Sweezy and Stigler, Articles in Readings in Price Theory
A. C. Neal, Industrial Concentration and Price Inflexibility
Machlup, Economics of Sellers’ Competition, Ch. 14

3. Profits

J. S. Bain, “The Profit Rate as a Measure of Monopoly Power,” Q.J.E., 1941
R. C. Epstein, Industrial Profits in the United States
J. S. Bain, “Relation of Profit Rate to Industry Concentration,” Q.J.E., August 1951

IV. Topics in Industry Behavior with Oligopoly

1. Advertising

E. Chamberlin, Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Ch. 6-7
N. Buchanan, Advertising Expenditures, J.P.E. 1942
N. Kaldor, “Economic Aspects of Advertising,” Review of Economic Studies, 1950

2. Vertical Integration

Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. I, Ch. 3
Marshall, Principles of Economics, Bk. IV, Ch. 10-13
A. Young, “Increasing Returns and Economic Progress,” E.J. 1928 (and in Clemence’s Readings in Economic Analysis 2 Vols.)
J. Jewkes, Factors in Industrial Integration, Q.J.E., 1930
S. Dennison, Vertical Integration and the Iron and Steel Industry, E.J. 1939
A. R. Burns, Decline of Competition, Ch. 9
Stigler, “Division of Labor is Limited by the Extent of Market,” J.P.E. 1951
M. Adelman, “Concept and Measurement of Vertical Integration,” in Business Concentration and Price Policy

3. Schumpeter’s Theory

Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Ch. 7-8
K. Boulding, “In Defense of Monopoly,” Q.J.E., 1945
D. H. MacGregor, Industrial Combination, Ch. 12
G. Stigler, “Industrial Organization and Economic Progress,” in State of the Social Sciences.

V. Large Number Industries

1. Cartels

Stocking and Watkins, Cartels in Action, Ch. 4-11
Stocking and Watkins, Cartels or Competition, Ch. 3-7
C. Edwards, Economic and Political Aspects of International Cartels
Ben Lewis, Price and Production Controls in British Industry
A. F. Lucas, Industrial Reconstruction and the Control of Competition
R. Michels, Cartels, Combines and Trusts in Post-War Germany
R. Liefman, Cartels, Concerns and Trusts
C. Wilcox, Public Policies Toward Business, Ch. 16

2. Trade Associations

V. Mund, Government and Business, Ch. 11
Burns, Decline of Competition, Ch. 2
T.N.E.C. Monograph No. 18
H. Levy, Retail Trade Associations
Stocking and Watkins, Monopoly or Free Enterprise, Ch. 8, 10, 11

3. Retailing: Resale Price Maintenance

W. Bowman, “Prequisites and Effects of Resale Price Maintenance,” University of Chicago Law Journal, 1955
E. Grether, Price Control under Fair Trade Legislation
F.T.C., Resale Price Maintenance
W. Bowman, “Resale Price Maintenance,” Journal of Business, 1952
Mund, Government and Business, Ch. 21, 22

4. Government Cartels: Agriculture and Coal

W. Wilcox and W. Cochrane, Economics of American Agriculture Part VI
Readings on Agricultural Policy, Part II
C. Wilcox, Public Policy Toward Business, Ch. 15-16

VI. Anti-trust Policy

1. Early History

J. D. Clark, Federal Trust Policy
W. H. Taft, The Anti-trust Act and the Supreme Court
V. Mund, Government and Business, Ch. 10, 15, 16
H. B. Thorelli, The Federal Antitrust Policy

2. Major Dissolutions

E. Jones, Trust Problem in the United States, Ch. 18
Hale, “Trust Dissolution” in Columbia Law Review, 1940
W. S. Stevens, Industrial Combinations and Trusts, Ch. 14-15
S. Whitney, Antitrust Policies, 2 Vols.

3. Law of Conspiracy

U.S. v. Trenton Potteries, 273 U.S. 392 (1927)
F.T.C. v. Cement Institute, 68 Sup. Ct. 793 (1948)
M. Handler, T.N.E.C. Monograph 38
Report of Attorney-General’s National Committee on the Anti-trust Laws

4. Recent Decisions

U.S. v. Columbia Steel, 334 U.S. 495 (1948)
U.S. v. Aluminum Co., 148 F. (2nd) 416 (1945), 91 Fed Supp. 333 (1950)
Standard Oil v. Fed. Trade Comm., 71 Sup. Ct. 240 (1951)
E. H. Levi, “The Anti-trust Laws and Monopoly,” University of Chicago Law Journal, 1947
Economic Consequences of Some Recent Anti-trust Decisions, A.E.R., May 1949

5. Foreign Policy

F. A. McGregor, “Preventing Monopoly, — Canadian Techniques,” in Monopoly and Competition and their Regulation ed. by E. Chamberlin
C. D. Harbury and Leo Roskind, “The British Approach to Monopoly Control,” Q.J.E., 1953
M. Cohen, “Canadian Anti-trust Laws,” Canadian Bar Review, Vol. 16 (1938)
L. Reynolds, The Control of Competition in Canada
J. Jewkes, “British Monopoly Policy, 1944-56,” Law and Economics, 1958

6. Some Proposals and Issues

H. Simons, Economic Policy for a Free Society, Ch, 2, 3, 4.
C. Edwards, Maintaining Competition, esp. Ch. 4-8
The Sherman Act and the Enforcement of Competition, A.E.R., May 1918
Mund, Government and Business, Ch. 20, 24
S. C. Oppenheim, “Federal Antitrust Legislation,” Michigan Law Review, June 1952

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches, Box 130, Folder “Syllabi and exams, 1955-1959”.

Image Source: George Stigler (1960). University of Chicago Photographic Archive (apf1-07960). Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Tags Stigler

Bibliography Harvard

Harvard. Short Bibliography on Thrift Institutions for “Serious-minded Students”, Sprague, 1910

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-04-01

In 1910 Harvard published 43 short bibliographies covering “Social Ethics and Allied Subjects”, about half of which were dedicated to particular topics in economics and economic sociology. The project was apparently coordinated by Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, Francis G. Peabody.

This post provides the ninth such short bibliography, this one on “Thrift Institutions” prepared by O. M. W. Sprague. Links have been provided to eleven of the thirteen items in Sprague’s bibliography.

________________

Previously posted short bibliographies

I.1. Harvard. Short Bibliography of Economic Theory for “Serious-minded Students”, Taussig, 1910

I.7. Harvard. Short Bibliography on Social Statistics for “Serious-minded Students”, Ripley, 1910

II.3. Harvard. Short Bibliography of Taxation for “Serious-minded Students”, Bullock, 1910

IV.5 Harvard. Short Bibliography of the Economics of Socialism for “Serious-minded Students”, Carver, 1910

IV.6 Harvard. Short Bibliography on Socialism and Family/Christian Ethics for “Serious-minded Students”, McConnell, 1910

IV.7. Harvard. Short Bibliography of Trade Unionism for “Serious-minded Students”, Ripley, 1910

IV.8. Harvard. Short Bibliography of Strikes and Boycotts for “Serious-minded Students”, Ripley, 1910

IV.13. Harvard. Short Bibliography of Social Insurance for “Serious-minded Students”, Foerster, 1910

________________

IV.12. THRIFT INSTITUTIONS

OLIVER M. W. SPRAGUE

Building and loan associations. Ninth report of the United States Commissioner of Labor. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1893, pp. 719.

In addition to statistical data, the report contains the laws of all of the states, and much useful matter regarding organization, premium policy and the distribution of profits.

DEXTER, SEYMOUR. A treatise on coöperative savings and loan associations. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1889, pp. viii, 299.

The classical work on building and loan associations. The analysis of the principles involved is admirable. The appendices contain examples of accounting methods, the laws of some of the states and forms of organization.

HAMILTON, JAMES H. Savings and savings institutions. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902, pp. 436.

The most comprehensive work on the subject. More than one third of the book is given to postal savings banks.

HANGER, G. W. W. Building and loan associations in the United States. Bulletin of the United States Department of Labor. Washington: Government Printing Office (November), 1904, pp. 1491-1572.

The most recent comprehensive account. Full of well-arranged information.

HENDERSON, CHARLES R. Industrial insurance in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1909, pp. 429.

A comprehensive survey of the many varieties of workman’s insurance. A good working bibliography will be found in the appendix.

Proceedings of the United States league of local building and loan associations, 1893-1909, Cincinnati: Press of the American Building Association News, 1893-1909.

An invaluable repository of information and of useful papers upon every aspect of this successful method of social betterment.

WELLDON, SAMUEL A. Digest of state banking statutes. National Monetary Commission publications. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1910, pp. 745.

A work which greatly diminishes the labor of the student of legal aspects of the savings bank problem.

WILKINSON, J. FROME. Mutual thrift. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1891, pp. xii, 324.

An historical account of friendly societies in Great Britain, together with an analysis of their actuarial and financial experience.

WILLOUGHBY, WILLIAM F. Workingmen’s insurance. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1898, pp. 386.

A general survey of the entire field of both voluntary and compulsory insurance. The discussion of the principles involved is excellent.

WOLFF, HENRY W. Coöperative banking; its principles and its practice, with a chapter on coöperative mortgage credit. London: P. S. King & Son, 1907, pp. 317.

WOLFF, HENRY W. People’s banks: a record of social and economic success. Third edition. London: P. S. King & Son, 1910, pp. 587.

Taken together, these books give a sympathetic, enthusiastic and authoritative treatment of a group of institutions which are designed to encourage thrift and also “make the workman his own capitalist. “

Workmen’s insurance and benefit funds in the United States. Twenty-third report of the United States commissioner of labor. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1908, pp. 810.

This report covers the entire field indicated by its title, except the industrial insurance departments of the regular companies.

ZARTMAN, LESTER W. Yale readings in insurance. Vol. I, Life insurance. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1909, pp. viii, 405.

Twenty-six chapters selected from a variety of sources. About one half the book is devoted to the technique of the subject; history, and economic and public aspects are the concern of the other half.

Source: Teachers in Harvard University, A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, Lists of Books and Articles Selected and Described for the Use of General Readers. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1910, pp. 200-202.

Tags Sprague

Columbia Economist Market Economists

Columbia. Major wave of economics appointments. Stigler, Polanyi, Hart, Nurkse, Bergson. 1947

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-04-01

The economics department of Columbia University could rightly boast of its bumper crop of faculty appointments for the 1947-48 academic year. I’ll be surprised if I ever come across a press release announcing a correspondingly large wave of resignations anywhere. However, it is not uncommon for members of rival departments to comment on the movement of colleagues from one department to another as the result of such movement raising the average in both departments. But no doubt, quite a proud moment for economics at Columbia.

_______________________________

Columbia University Press Release
August 28, 1947

Public Information Office
Columbia University
Morningside Heights
New York 27, N.Y.
———————–
Robert Harron, Director

Appointments of several noted scholars in the field of economics, effective with the new academic year, were announced yesterday (Wednesday) by Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal, acting president of Columbia University.

Dr. George Joseph Stigler, who has been a member of the faculty of Brown University, has been appointed professor of economics. Dr. Stigler was graduated from the University of Washington in 1931, and received advanced degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. He has held research positions with The National Resources Committee and the National Bureau of Economic Research, and is the author of “Production and Distribution Theories: the Theory of Price.” [sic, actually two different books: Production and Distribution Theories, The Formative Period (1941) and The Theory of Price (Revised 1952)]

Dr. Karl Polanyi, former lecturer at Oxford, the University of London, and Bennington College, has been named as visiting professor of economics. Dr. Polanyi, who was born in Vienna and was from 1924 to 1934 on the staff of the “Oesterreichische Volkswirt”, then a leading financial weekly, has been a naturalized British citizen since 1940. In 1944 he wrote “The Great Transformation, [1944]” which attracted international attention. It is an analysis of free enterprise capitalism as it affects western society. He was at Columbia during the recent Spring Session.

Three who were visiting professors during the past year have accepted permanent status. They are Albert Gailord Hart, visiting professor of economics; Ragnar Nurkse, visiting professor of international economics, and Abram Bergson, visiting associate professor of economics.

Professor Hart was educated at Harvard and the University of Chicago, has taught at Iowa State and the University of Chicago, and has served as research economist for the Committee for Economic Development. He is the author of “Anticipations, Uncertainty, and Dynamic Planning,” “Debts and Recovery, 1929-1937,” “The Social Framework of the American Economy” (with J.R. Hicks) and, with collaborators, “Paying for Defense.”

Professor Nurkse, a native of Estonia, worked with the economic and financial section of the League of Nations and has had major responsibility for a number of its publications, notably the volume, “International Currency Experience.” He holds an advanced degree from the University of Edinburgh. His work will be largely in the School of International Affairs.

Professor Bergson, who came to Columbia a year ago as a member of the Russian Institute staff, was trained at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, and has taught at the University of Texas. During the war he served with the office of Strategic Services as Chief of the Economic Subdivision, U.S.S.R. Division. He was also consultant on Russian financial questions to the Department of State and a member of the U.S. Reparations Delegations to the Moscow and Potsdam conferences.

Newly appointed to the department, whose executive officer is Professor Carter Goodrich, are Lawrence Abbott, a graduate of Harvard who has taught at Hotchkiss School, and Aaron W. Warner, former instructor in labor law at the University of Denver. Mr. Abbott will be an instructor in Columbia College. Mr. Warner will be in charge of economics in the School of General Studies.

Source: Columbia University Archives. Historical Subject Files, Series I: Academics and Research, Box 23, Folder 5 “Economics, Dept. of, 1915—”.

Image Source: George Stigler (left) at the 1947 Mt. Pelerin Society meeting from the Milton Friedman Papers at the Hoover Institution Archives. Karl Polanyi (1947) (right) picture found multiple times on webpages without attribution.

Tags AbbottL, Bergson, Goodrich, HartAG, Nurkse, Polanyi, Stigler, WarnerAW

April 17, 1936

Appendix to Minutes

MEMORANDUM ON THE PRINTING REQUIREMENT FOR PH.D. DISSERTATIONS IN THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE [April 17, 1936]

December 11, 1936

Memorandum Concerning Dissertation Examination on Type-script

April 21, 1939

Economics 4. Statistics.

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment

Economics 4 [Mid-Year Examination, 1911]

Economics 4 [Year-End Examination, 1911]

Economics 27. Mathematical Economics.

Course Announcement

Economics 28. Insurance and Speculation.

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment

Economics 28 [Final Examination, 1911]

Reports to the Dean of Harvard from the Department of Economics.

1946-1947

1947-1948

1948-1949

1949-1950

[Draft] Report to Dean, October 2, 1950 Professor Burbank

1949-1950

I. Undergraduate Instruction

II. Graduate Instruction

III. Research

IV. The Staff of the Department

VI. [sic] Distinctions

Course Announcement

Debate of October 10, 1889.

Question: Resolved, That a high protective tariff raises wages.

Links to many of the authorities cited by the students

From Wedding Announcement

Awarded Bachelor of Science cum laude, June 1946

Awarded Master of Arts 1948

Awarded Ph.D. in Economics 1953

Mary Lee Ingbar, pioneer in field of health economics, dies at 83 October 15, 2009

Biography from Mary Lee Ingbar papers, 1946-2008 Harvard University Medical School, Countway Library.

1898-99 Course Announcement Outlines of Economics.

1898-99 Enrollment Outlines of Economics.

1898-99. Economics 1. [Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Economics 1. [Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century

1898-99 Enrollment Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century.

1898-99. Economics 2. [Mid-Year Exam, 1899]

1898-99. Economics 2. [Year-end Exam, 1899.]

1898-99 Course Announcement The Principles of Sociology

1898-99 Enrollment Principles of Sociology.

1898-99. Economics 3. [Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99. Economics 3. [Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement Statistics.

1898-99 Enrollment Statistics.

1898-99. Economics 4. [Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Economics 4. [Year-end Exam, 1899.]

1898-99 Course Announcement Railways and Other Public Works.

1898-99 Enrollment Railways and Other Public Works.

1898-99. Economics 51. [Mid-year (Final) Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement Economic History of the U.S.

1898-99 Enrollment Economic History of the U.S.

1898-99. Economics 6. [Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99. Economics 6. [Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects

1898-99 Enrollment Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects.

Course Reading List (1899)

1898-99. Economics 82. [Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.

1898-99 Enrollment Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.

1898-99. Economics 9. [Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99. Economics 9. [Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement Industrial Revolution in England

1898-99 Enrollment Industrial Revolution in England.

1898-99. Economics 112. [Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems

1898-99 Enrollment Banking and the History of the Leading Banking Systems.

1898-99. Economics 121. [Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement Methods of Economic Investigation

1898-99 Enrollment Methods of Economic Investigation.

1898-99. Economics 13. [Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99. Economics 13. [Year-End Exam, 1899]

MEMORANDUM ON THE PRINTING REQUIREMENT FOR PH.D. DISSERTATIONS IN THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
[April 17, 1936]

Economics 4
[Mid-Year Examination, 1911]

Economics 4
[Year-End Examination, 1911]

Economics 28
[Final Examination, 1911]

Reports to the Dean of Harvard
from the Department of Economics.

[Draft] Report to Dean, October 2, 1950
Professor Burbank

**VI. [sic] Distinctions**

Mary Lee Ingbar,
pioneer in field of health economics, dies at 83
October 15, 2009

Biography from Mary Lee Ingbar papers, 1946-2008
Harvard University Medical School, Countway Library.

1898-99 Course Announcement
Outlines of Economics.

1898-99 Enrollment
Outlines of Economics.

1898-99.
Economics 1.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99
Economics 1.
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement
Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century

1898-99 Enrollment
Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century.

1898-99.
Economics 2.
[Mid-Year Exam, 1899]

1898-99.
Economics 2.
[Year-end Exam, 1899.]

1898-99 Course Announcement
The Principles of Sociology

1898-99 Enrollment
Principles of Sociology.

1898-99.
Economics 3.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99.
Economics 3.
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement
Statistics.

1898-99 Enrollment
Statistics.

1898-99.
Economics 4.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99
Economics 4.
[Year-end Exam, 1899.]

1898-99 Course Announcement
Railways and Other Public Works.

1898-99 Enrollment
Railways and Other Public Works.

1898-99.
Economics 5¹.
[Mid-year (Final) Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement
Economic History of the U.S.

1898-99 Enrollment
Economic History of the U.S.

1898-99.
Economics 6.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99.
Economics 6.
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement
Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects

1898-99 Enrollment
Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects.

1898-99.
Economics 8².
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement
Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.

1898-99 Enrollment
Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.

1898-99.
Economics 9.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99.
Economics 9.
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement
Industrial Revolution in England

1898-99 Enrollment
Industrial Revolution in England.

1898-99.
Economics 11².
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement
Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems

1898-99 Enrollment
Banking and the History of the Leading Banking Systems.

1898-99.
Economics 12¹.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement
Methods of Economic Investigation

1898-99 Enrollment
Methods of Economic Investigation.

1898-99.
Economics 13.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99.
Economics 13.
[Year-End Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement
Selected Topics in U.S. Financial Legislation

1898-99 Enrollment
Selected Topics in U.S. Financial Legislation.

1898-99.
Economics 16.
[Mid-year Exam, 1899]

1898-99.
Economics 16.
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement
Ethnology in its Applications to Economic and Social Problems.

1898-99 Enrollment
Ethnology in its Applications to Economic and Social Problems.

1898-99.
Economics 17².
[Year-end Exam, 1899]

1898-99 Course Announcement
Seminary in Economics

1898-99 Enrollment
Seminary in Economics.

Topics and Speakers at the
Seminary of Economics,
1898-99

Previous posts
(for 1921-1941)

1929-30.
Harvard University.
Economics 23¹.
[Mid-year Exam, 1930]

1929-30
Harvard University.
Economics 25
[Mid-year Exam, 1930]

1929-30
Harvard University.
Economics 25
[Year-end Exam, 1930]

1930-31
Harvard University
Economics 23.
[Mid-year Exam 1931]

1930-31
Harvard University
Economics 25
[Mid-Year Exam, 1931]

1930-31
Harvard University
Economics 25
[Year-end Exam, 1931]

1931-32
Harvard University
Economics 23
[Final Exam 1932]

1931-32
Harvard University
Economics 25
[Mid-Year Exam, 1932]

1931-32
Harvard University
Economics 25
[Year-End Exam, 1932]

1932-33
Harvard University
Economics 25¹
[Mid-year Final Exam, 1933]

1933-34
Havard University
Economics 23²
[Final Exam 1934]

Economics 21. Economic History to 1450.
Readings and paper topics, Usher. 1934

1934-35
Harvard University
Economics 21
[Final Exam. Jan 18, 1935]

1934-35
Harvard University
Economic 23
[Mid-year Exam 1935]

1934-35
Harvard University
Economics 23
[Year-end Exam, 1935]

1935-36
Harvard University
Economics 23
[Mid-year Exam, 1936]

1935-36
Harvard University
Economics 23
[Year-end Exam, 1936]

Summer School of Harvard University
August 15, 1936
Economics S20 (Economics 23)

1936-37
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Year-end Examination, 1937]

1937-38
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Mid-year Exam, 1938]