Categories
Courses Exam Questions Suggested Reading

Harvard. European Central Banking. Schumpeter, 1945

Course offerings in money and monetary policy at Harvard in the late 1930s and most of the 1940s  were dominated by John H. Williams and Alvin Hansen. An exception was the course, “The Theory and Policy of Central Banking: European Experience,” that was offered just once (Fall term 1945-46) by Joseph Schumpeter. I was only able to find what appears to be a hastily assembled, provisional list of suggested readings provided at the start of the semester with a promise that “References to material and literature will be given currently”. The list of final examination questions for the course that I found in Schumpeter’s papers at the Harvard Archives at least gives us some indication of the broad themes of the course.

_________________________________

 

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 142a. (fall term) Professor Schumpeter.—The Theory and Policy of Central Banking: European Experience.

4 Graduates, 1 Junior, 5 Public Administration, 1 Radcliffe:   Total 11

 

Source: Harvard University, Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1945-46, p. 60.

_________________________________

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
1945-6
Economics 142a

This course aims at working out the role of central banks both in the capitalist and in the planned economy, and at reviewing a number of theoretical and historical problems in the field of money and credit, relevant tot he main theme. References to material and literature will be given currently. The following list is confined to general suggestions.

 

  1. General works on central banking.

A. C. Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, 6th ed., 1927.
C. H. Kisch and W. A. Elkins, Central Banks*, 1928.
E. Victor Morgan, Theory and Practice of Central Banking, 1797-1913, 1942.
V. C. Smith, The Rationale of Central Banking, 1936.
R. G. Hawtrey, The Art of Central Banking*, 1932.
M. H. de Kock, Central Banking, 1939.

  1. Works on the History of Banking Theory.

W. T. C. King, History of the English Discount Market*, 1936.
H. E. Miller, Banking Theories in the U. S. before 1860, 1927.
E. Wood, English Theories of Central Banking Control, 1819-1858, 1939.

  1. For Prewar Figures on Central Banks, see

League of Nations, Money and Banking 1938-9, Vol. I, 1939.

  1. Miscellaneous Suggestions.

J. W. Angell, The Behavior of Money, 1936.
P. Einzig, The Theory of Forward Exchange, 1937.
C. R. Whittlesey, Bank Liquidity and the War, (National Bureau of Economic Research, Our Economy in War, Occasional Paper 22).
A. Youngman, The Federal Reserve System in wartime, (the same, Occasional paper 21).

* These are especially recommended.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1945-46 (2 of 2)”.

_________________________________

 

Final Examination Questions

 

1945-46

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 142A

One question may be omitted. Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.

  1. Discuss the issue: “Control of Money” or “Control of Credit.”
  2. If you were to frame the plan for a Central Bank, for instance in one of the South-American states, would you give it the right to do business with customers other than banks?
  3. In 1910, the Governor of the Bank of England declared that the following types of finance bills were “legitimate”: (a) bills that represent exchange transactions; (b) bills created in order to finance the carrying of stocks of commodities or securities; (c) bills drawn in anticipation of public loans. Comment.
  4. Suppose that a country which has been using paper money, adopts an unrestricted gold standard. Disregarding the period of transition, would you expect Bank Rate to keep on a higher level after the gold standard has been established than it did under the paper standard? Assume that the rest of the world is on the gold standard.
  5. State the main points of difference between the constitutions and policies of the Bank of England, the Bank of France and the Bank of Germany in the last quarters of the 19th century and explain briefly their significance and causes.
  6. Explain the reasons for the decline in importance of the Domestic Bill during the half-century before 1914. Had this decline anything to do with the legislation about central banks? And had it, in turn, any influence upon their policy?

Final. January, 1946.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Joseph Schumpeter Papers. Lecture Notes, Box 3, Folder “misc. notes”.

 

Image Source: Selection from “Joseph A. Schumpeter and other at dinner table, ca. 1945”, Harvard University Archives HUGBS 276.90p (4).