Cambridge. Economics Tripos Examinations, 1921

 

The following eighteen examinations constituted the Economics Tripos at Cambridge University in 1921. Fifteen exams covered economic theory, policy, history and statistics with three exams covering politics and international law.

Previously posted Cambridge economics exams have been posted at the following links:

Guide to Moral Sciences Tripos 1891
Economics Tripos 1931
Economics Tripos 1932

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ECONOMICS TRIPOS
PART I

Monday, May 30, 1921. 9–12.
GENERAL ECONOMICS. I.

1. Comment on the following passage: “Les vérités d’économie politique pure fouruiront la solution des problèmes les plus importants, les plus débattus et les moins éclairés d’économie politique appliquée et d’économie sociale.”
2. “Prices may be determined over a short period by demand and supply; but in the long run they are governed by the superior force, Cost of Production.” Comment on this statement.
3. What do you understand by the term, Joint Products? Would you apply the term to the production of chocolate and cocoa by the same factory? What principles govern the prices of Joint Products?
4. “The ordinary progress of a society, which increases in wealth, is at all times tending to augment the incomes of landlords.” Discuss this statement. What effect would you expect a great development of internal transport facilities to exert upon urban rents?
5. Consider the relative advantages of wages settlements for any industry (a) upon a uniform national basis, (b) upon varying district bases.
6. Compare the attempts of trade unions to raise wages with those of combinations to raise prices as regards (a) the methods which they employ, (b) the economic conditions of their success.
7. Distinguish the various types of business which it is customary to describe as Cooperative, indicating in each case the strong and weak points and potentialities of future development.
8. Comment on the following passage: “General low wages never caused any country to undersell its rivals; nor did general high wages ever hinder it from doing so.”
9. Is there any inconsistency between the views that the foreign exchanges are determined (a) by the demand for and supply of bills of exchange, (b) by the relative purchasing power of the currencies of the countries concerned? What do you consider the correct view of the matter?
10. “It is impossible for any country to finance a great war without an inflation of the currency.” Discuss this statement.

 

Monday, May 30, 1921. 1½–4½
RECENT ECONOMIC AND GENERAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

1. Show how Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations influenced the economic policy of England. What influence had it outside England?
2. Outline the different measures which have been taken since 1783 for reducing the burden of the National Debt.
3. What were the main objects which Mr. Gladstone had in view, when selecting the sources from which his revenue was to be derived?
4. What light is thrown by railway and banking history on the attitude of Parliament towards monopoly?
5. How far was the distress of the hand-loom weavers and frame-work knitters in the middle of the nineteenth century caused by the introduction of steam power?
6. What happened to the surplus agricultural population which before the Poor Law of 1834 was maintained, wholly or in part, at the expense of the parish?
7. (a) “Down to 1870 England’s colonial policy was a policy of drift.”
   (b) “The theorists of 1830 were animated by a mastering passion for liberty, and it is because they succeeded in making it the basic principle of England’s colonial policy that the British Empire is to-day a fact of such cardinal importance in the world.”
   Which seems to you the more correct view, and why?
8. “The discovery of gold precipitated Australia into manhood.”
   Discuss this; and point out the social problems confronting a new country which possesses precious metals in abundance.
9. Describe the chief forms of land tenure existing in India, and account for their diversity.
10. Examine the methods which have been adopted in different parts of the British Empire for the avoidance and settlement of industrial disputes.

 

Tuesday, May 31, 1921. 9–12.
SUBJECTS FOR AN ESSAY.

1. “Une extrême justice est souvent une injure.”
2. “In all essentials the problem of industrial peace resembles that of international peace.”
3.  “The economic relationship of nations is essentially one of cooperation, rather than of rivalry: the prosperity of each country is to the advantage of the others.”
4. “The nineteenth century was the outcome of French ideas and English technique.”
5. The Restoration of the Gold Standard.

“From this unrest, so, early wrecked,
A future staggers crazy,
Ophelia of the Ages, decked
With woeful weed and daisy.”

 

Tuesday, May 31, 1921. 1½–4½.
RECENT ECONOMIC AND GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES.

1. Contrast the map of Europe, as it was in 1815, with the map of Europe as it is to-day.
2. To what causes do you attribute the instability of the political institutions of France between 1789 and 1870?
3. “The German Empire was built more truly on coal and iron than on blood and iron.”
   What evidence is there to support this statement?
4. “Le Gouvernement provisoire de la République française s’engage à garantir l’existence de l’ouvrier par le travail;
   Il s’engage à garantir du travail à tous les citoyens.” (Moniteur du 26 fevrier 1848.)
   What was the origin of this decree, and to what did it lead?
5. “Gewiss ist es der Kaiser gewesen und konnte nur der Kaiser sein, der den Fürsten schliesslich entlassen hat, aber die moralische Autorität des Mannes, der das deutsche Reich geschaffen und 27 Jahre an der Spitze der Regierung gestanden hatte, war so ungeheuer, dass es für den Kaiser, der noch so wenig Regierungserfahrung hatte, eine moralische Unmöglichkeit gewesen wäre, sich von ihm zu trennen, wenn nicht eben der Kanzler durch sein Verhältniss zur Majorität des Reichstags sich in eine unhaltbare Position gebracht hätte.”
   Do you agree with this explanation of Bismarck’s dismissal? Give reasons for your answer.
6. “In France the average unit of agriculture remains as small as ever it was, and its typical manager is still the working peasant or the very small farmer.”
   Why is it that the small farmer has held his own so successfully in France?
7. Outline the main stages in the growth of the German Zollverein.
8. Compare the railway systems of Germany and the United States, with particular regard to
   (a) the purposes for which they were planned;
   (b) the part played by the State in their development and control.
9. How was it that the United States, which Huskisson regarded as our most serious shipping rival, had so small a mercantile marine in the second half of the nineteenth century?
10. Why were the attractions of Canada, as a field for immigration, inferior to those of the United States during the greater part of the nineteenth century?
11. What were the chief issues between North and South which led to the American Civil War?

 

Wednesday, June 1, 1921. 9–12.
GENERAL ECONOMICS. II.

1. “If we wish to get a clear view of English industrial inefficiency at the present time we have only to contrast the average output per worker in American industrial establishments with the average output in English establishments; or to set side by side the average output of each cotton spindle employed in Japan with the corresponding figure for English spindles. In both comparisons England’s position is unsatisfactory almost beyond belief.” Criticise this argument.
2. What meanings can be attached to the statement that a country is “over-populated”? In what sense, if any, can the statement be applied to this country at the present day?
3. “The socialistic activities of modern states, by checking the natural play of those forces that tend to bring about the elimination of the relatively unfit, threaten a progressive deterioration of the qualities of the race.” Discuss this statement.
4. Indicate the chief difficulties in the way of estimating accurately the change in the real earnings of any group of wage-earners in 1921, as compared with 1914.
5. Are trade unions well advised (a) in attempting to prohibit the entry of female workers into specific occupations, (b) in insisting on equal pay for male and female workers in occupations where both are normally employed?
6. “Plasticity of wage rates would be the sovereign remedy for the evil of unemployment.” Discuss this view.
7. Analyse the various causes, both temporary and relatively permanent, which may bring about a disparity between a country’s recorded exports and imports. Illustrate from actual instances.
8. Discuss the effects of increasing supplies of gold upon the short period and the long period rate of interest in a gold-standard country.
9. “It is not an essential part of the principle of a gold standard that gold coins should freely circulate within the community adopting that principle, or even that gold coins should be freely minted.” Discuss this statement.
10. “If all citizens were intelligently alive to their own interests and could also be depended on to be strictly honourable in all their dealings with the State, no taxes on commodities would be tolerated.” Comment.

 

Wednesday, June 1, 1921. 1½–4½.
EXISTING POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

1. “Distrust of the elected legislature is the outstanding feature of the new German constitution.” Discuss this statement.
2. Compare the functions and the effective powers of the Senate of the United States with those of any one other existing Senate.
3. Indicate the limitations under which the Referendum is usually instituted, giving reasons for the precautions adopted.
4. Contrast, in broad outline, the stages by which responsible government has been developed in the Dominions with the steps taken towards its establishment in India.
5. Describe the relations of the Executive and the Legislature in modern Switzerland. What are their chief advantages and drawbacks? How far could the same system be made applicable in England?
6. “British and American constitutionalism especially safe- guards the independence of the judiciary in order to ensure the liberty of the subject; European practice aims rather at rendering the powers of the administrators of the law effective against the individual with a view to the safety of the State.” Indicate the extent to which this may be considered a correct statement.
7. “In America the President and his Cabinet possess executive and administrative functions only; the British Cabinet’s essential functions are of a widely different character.” Comment.
8. “A written constitution is not the same as a rigid constitution.” Explain this dictum, illustrating from existing constitutions.
9. Compare Canada with either Australia or the United States as a type of federal state.
10. In what various ways are the powers of local authorities limited and controlled in the United Kingdom?
11. “In a unitary state it is impossible to maintain two co-equal legislative chambers.” Comment on this.

 

Thursday, June 2, 1921. 9–12.
GENERAL ECONOMICS. III.

1. “Eine Grubenabgabe keine Rente ist, mag sie auch oft so genannt werden. Denn ausgenommen den Fall, dass Gruben, Steinbrüche und so weiter praktisch unerschöpflich sind, muss der Überschuss ihres Ertrages über die direkten Auslagen zum Teil wenigstens als der Preis aus dem Verkaufe aufgespeicherter Güter angesehen werden.” Comment on this statement.
2. “C’est un fait remarquable dans le cas de l’or, que d’un côté les prix des marchandises ayant augmenté depuis 1914 à cause de la diminution sur le marché et pour des autres raisons, la puissance d’achat de l’or à l’égard de ces marchandises a diminué et que d’un autre côté, l’or fait prime parce que de nombreux pays—spécialement les pays d’Asie—montrent une préférence marquée en sa faveur.” Indicate the phenomena thus summarised and investigate the conclusions arrived at.
3. “It is often said that a high rate of interest hampers production and makes it dearer. This is false.” Examine this view.
4. Is it to the advantage of a country like Great Britain that its people should invest abroad a large proportion of their annual savings? Discuss the probable economic consequences of attempts to restrict the export of capital.
5. Examine the effect upon international trade of the payment of a large indemnity by one country to other countries. Is it the case that Great Britain could only receive an indemnity from Germany by increasing her imports of German goods to a corresponding extent?
6. “A vast unfunded debt is a standing menace to the stability of the banking and currency position.” Discuss.
7. What data would you require in order to form an opinion as to whether the inhabitants of any European country were under-taxed or over-taxed in comparison with those of other countries?
8. “Monopolistic combinations promise both steadier levels of prices and steadier conditions for the wage earner than can be expected under the present system of anarchic competition.”
   Discuss this opinion.
9. “There can be no rise in the value of labour without a fall of profits.” Ricardo. Critically examine this theory.
10. Discuss the economic significance and consequences of modern advertising.
11. Comment on the following: “The art of making yourself rich in the ordinary sense is equally and necessarily the art of keeping your neighbour poor.” Ruskin.

 

PART II

Monday, May 30, 1921. 9–12.
ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES.

1. Write short notes on (a) elasticity of demand and supply, (b) consumer’s surplus, (c) economic rent, (d) quasi-rent.
2. What determines the selling price of an article under conditions of (a) free competition of purchasers and producers, (b) monopoly?
3. Examine the relation between the rate of interest and the supply of capital in various classes of investment.
4. Define “normal profits,” and explain the part played by this conception in Marshall’s theory of distribution.
5. Consider the advantages of fixing wages on a sliding scale based (a) on the cost of living, (b) on the selling price of the product of the industry, (c) on the aggregate output of the industry. Give instances of each method.
6. Consider the arguments for and against a countervailing import duty on goods imported from a country, of which the currency is greatly depreciated in terms of the currency of the importing country.
7. Would it be beneficial if a State Bank, having the right to issue inconvertible notes, were to make loans for all approved purposes without interest, provided the borrower was able to furnish war loan or similar stock with a 10 per cent, margin as security? Frame your answer so as to persuade a person inclined to hold the opposite view to your own.
8. What would be your test of over-population? Apply it in a general way to present conditions in India, Germany, England and the United States.
9. “On peut trouver entre les faits d’ordre économique des relations de dépendance que l’on peut essayer d’exprimer par des formules algébriques, alors même qu’on ne pourrait pas les traduire en chiffres.”
   Give three or four examples of this.
10. “Kapital ist der Teil des Vermögens, welcher, selbst Produkt menschlicher Arbeit, wieder zur Produktion bestimmt ist. Nach dem Sprachgebrauche liegt sowohl der Begriff des Vorrats für künftige Nutzung, wie der des Erwerbsmittels darin doch erscheint es richtiger, das Kapital im Gegensatz zur Natur als bestimmten Teil des Vermögens hinzustellen und den Nachdruck auf die Art der Verwendung zu legen, welche die Güter finden sollen, weil sich so die schärfste Abgrenzung des Begriffs durchführen lässt. Es sind nicht darunter zu begreifen die Güter, deren Wert nicht geschätzt werden kann, wie persönliche Fähigkeiten, der Staat usw. und die freien Güter.”
    Restate the salient points of this definition in your words, and point out the respects in which a different view has been or might be taken.

 

Monday, May 30, 1921. 1.30–4.30.
THE ECONOMIC FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT.

1. “Now that Public Finance is deliberately used as an engine for the redistribution of wealth, the conception of justice in taxation has become meaningless.” Examine this view.
2. On what principles should the cost of elementary education be distributed between the National Exchequer and the Local Authority concerned?
3. Consider the case for the State endowment of motherhood.
4. “Taxes on business transactions are open to all the same objections as taxes on commodities, and should be entirely abolished.” Consider this contention.
5. Investigate the view that even in ordinary times the State should control the price and ration the supplies of essential articles of food.
6. How far can the allocation of public funds be made in such a way that the marginal pound will yield equal advantage in each direction of public expenditure?
7. Discuss with illustrations the obligation which rests on a modern State to take steps to conserve the wasting natural resources contained within its borders.
8. “A municipality should not undertake to supply any article or service unless it is prepared to become the sole supplier.” Do you consider that this advice is sound?
9. “In einer Zeit, in der man eifrig nach neuen Steuereinnahmen Umschau zu halten hat, ist es begreiflich, dass insbesondere angesichts der Umwerfungen der Werte in rasch aufblühenden Gemeinwesen nicht nur bei radikalen Bodenreformern, die zunächst eine Verstaatlichung des Bodens, eine Wertzuwachsteuer immerhin als Abschlagszahlung wünschten, sondern über diese Kreise hinaus der Ruf ertönte nach einer Steuer die 1. mühelos erworbene Gewinne für die Gesamtheit möglichst stark mit Beschlag belegen sollte, 2. auf die Benützer des Bodens nicht überwalzbar erschien.” Discuss.
10. “Entre les trois procédés de couvrir les dépenses de la guerre par l’impôt, par l’emprunt, ou par l’association des deux, M. Helfferich est demeuré bien en arrière de ses collègues d’Angleterre et même de Russie. L’Angleterre a couvert par les recettes de l’impôt 25% des énormes dépenses de guerre.”
    Consider the arguments for the various policies pursued by the belligerents in this respect.

 

Tuesday, May 31, 1921. 9–12.
STRUCTURE AND PROBLEMS OF MODERN INDUSTRY.

1. “The liner she’s a lady.”
   “The black Bilbao tramp.”
   Explain the problem of ocean freights, as between these two services.
2. Discuss the advantages of the holding company and the merger respectively as methods of combination, (a) with reference to industrial efficiency, (b) from the financial standpoint.
3. Consider the problem of “Key industries,” (a) as to definition, (b) as to a right policy of development.
4. Describe the prevailing systems of land tenure in England. What is there to be said in favour of the landlord?
5. “Unfair methods of competition are hereby declared un- lawful.” (Federal Trade Commission Act, Sect. 5.)
   By what principles should a Court be guided in enforcing this clause? Illustrate by reference to special practices.
6. What features of the existing structure of industry lead to proposals for the limitation of profits ? Give instances of such proposals, and discuss their effects.
7. Suppose a scheme to be established for the benefit of operatives, e.g. in the cotton or in the engineering industry; how would you define the “industry” for this purpose? Show by examples the problems which would arise.
8. Compare the organisation of the Cotton and the Wool Textile Industries as regards (a) the market for the raw material, and (b) the market for the finished articles.
9. On what grounds has the present organization of the British coal industry been criticised from the standpoint of efficiency?

 

Tuesday, May 31, 1921. 1.30–4.30.
DISTRIBUTION AND LABOUR.

1. Examine the probable effect on the real incomes of house-owners if the cost of building increases, other prices generally remaining unchanged, (a) when there is no legal restriction on rent, (b) under such an act as is now in force.
2. Suppose a gradual transference in income, owing to rising prices and wages, from owners of securities bearing fixed rates of interest to workmen. How is the rate of saving affected, and what are likely to be the ultimate effects on national income if the transference results in a higher standard of living for workmen?
3. Discuss the incidence of compulsory provision of insurance against (a) unemployment, (b) sickness, if the contributions are paid in part by the state, in part by employers and in part by wage-earners.
4. Examine the conditions under which the establishment of a minimum wage in an industry does not result in diminution of employment, illustrating your answer from the experience of Australia or of the Trade Boards Acts in the United Kingdom.
5. Among the effects of the wage-changes in 1915 to 1920 were the diminution of inequalities of wages between industries, between occupations and between localities. How far were such inequalities due to economic causes and how far to custom or to accident?
6. A workman’s needs generally increase between the ages of 20 and 40, while in many occupations wages are irrespective of age. Can any methods be suggested by which this anomaly can be avoided?
7. The causes of poverty can be roughly classified as economic or personal. Indicate some methods by which trade organisation can remove the former and state organisation the latter.
8. Analyse the difference between the methods of settling wage disputes by compulsory arbitration, voluntary arbitration, and such organisations as Whitley Councils, giving illustrations from the practice of this or any other country.
9. During the generation before the war there is evidence of a steady increase of the number of salaried persons relatively to the number of wage-earners. Consider the effects of this tendency on the statistics of the growth of the national income as they are usually classified.

 

Wednesday, June 1, 1921. 9–12.
MONEY, CREDIT, AND PRICES.

1. Write a brief essay on the Quantity Theory of Money, describing in outline at least two methods of approach, and stating which you yourself prefer.
2. State the chief theoretical difficulties in compiling an index number of the cost of living which shall be valid for comparisons between different places over a considerable period of time. Is there any important theoretical distinction between “cost of living” index numbers and index numbers of the value of money generally?
3. Analyse and compare the different ways in which the term inflation is used by the wise and the foolish.
4. How do you explain the fall of prices during the past twelve months? Do you expect it to continue?
5. Compare the position of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board in the banking system of the U.S. with that of the Bank of England in the British system.
6. Give an account of the probable career from start to finish of a cotton bill drawn to finance the purchase of American cotton by a Liverpool merchant.
7. Give a careful account of the chief factors which influence the foreign exchanges, and forecast, with your reasons, the probable level of the dollar, franc and mark exchanges six months hence.
8. Restate the theory of international trade for the case of a set of countries of which the currencies are not on a gold basis but consist of unrelated inconvertible paper moneys.
9. Make practical proposals for obtaining from Germany as large as possible a sum in payment of Reparation.

 

Wednesday, June 1, 1921. 1.30–4.30.
SUBJECTS FOR AN ESSAY.

1. The Money Motive.
2. Business men in politics.
3. Frontiers.
4. Types of national leadership in Industry.
5. Education and Industry.
6. Bolshevism.

 

Thursday, June 2, 1921. 9–12.
MISCELLANEOUS ECONOMIC QUESTIONS.

1. “Light is the sovereign antiseptic, and the best of all policemen.” Do you regard this maxim as an adequate guide for the State to follow in its dealings with industrial combinations?
2. Consider how far the ordinary arguments against artificial interference with prices are relevant to arrangements for controlling the price and rationing the supplies of bank loans.
3. “The great national Trade Unions, by their insistence on uniformity of conditions, are really hindering the workman in his attempt to better his lot and to secure a greater share in the government of industry.” Comment on this opinion.
4. Examine the view that there is a danger of experiments in scientific management being carried further than the true interest of the nation demands.
5. “The policy of giving subsidies to unemployed workmen necessarily involves inflation of currency, and therefore aggravates the evils it is designed to cure.” Discuss this statement.
6. In what ways, if any, could the State usefully intervene to check the wastes caused by competitive advertisement?
7. Examine the arguments for compelling railway companies to carry workmen going to and from their work at unremunerative rates.
8. Consider the proposal that wage agreements negotiated by bodies representing the majority of employers and employed in any trade should be made legally binding on the remainder of the trade.
9. Can you suggest any practicable scheme for the issue of an international currency by the League of Nations, in order to facilitate the resumption of international trade?

 

Thursday, June 2, 1921. 1.30–4.30.
THE THEORY OF STATISTICS.

1. “The precision of the average of the measurements of n objects selected at random from a large group is proportional to .” Explain carefully the meaning of this statement, discuss the conditions under which it is true, and give examples of its use.
   What modification is needed if n/N is not negligible, where N is the number of objects from which selection is made?
2. How does the analysis, which gives the ordinate of the normal curve of error as the limit of _nC_pn+xp^pn+xq^qn-x when n is great, break down if pn is not great, and what is the resulting form?
3. Distribution according to age of railway guards.

Age	Number of persons per 1000
Under 15 years	0
15—	8
20—	48
25—	252
35—	334
45—	223
55—	125
65—	10
75 and over	0
	1000

Estimate by any method of interpolation the relative numbers in the age groups 30 to 35 and 35 to 40 years. State the hypotheses on which the method rests.

4. For the frequency group in question 3 calculate the average, median and mode, and obtain one measurement of deviation and of asymmetry.
   Give a verbal description of the group, using your results, in language which avoids technicalities as far as possible.
5. A six-faced die is thrown seven times; the numbers of the pips shown in the first five throws are added (x) and also of those shown in the last five (y). Show that if the experiment is repeated the value of the product-sum coefficient of correlation between x and y tends to be 3/5.
   Discuss the question whether any useful meaning can be given to the coefficient of correlation (obtained by the product-sum formula) in a case where nothing is known of the genesis of x and y and their distribution is not normal.
6. Describe any one method by which association between non-measurable attributes (such as intellectual ability of pairs of brothers) can be tested, and consider whether a valid numerical measurement of association can be obtained.
7. Find (by any method) the equation of a regression plane applicable to the following table, regarding each of the 15 entries as of equal importance.
   Compute the corresponding values from the equation and comment on the differences between the observed and computed numbers.
   What further information would be needed to calculate regression coefficients’?

   Age of wife at marriage	Children born per 100 couples by age of husband
   	15 – 25	25 – 35	35 – 45
   15–20 years	813	714	629
   20–25	661	595	540
   25–30	498	462	434
   30–35	364	341	322
   35–40	171	160	150

8. In a certain population the number of males over 25 years old is 875712, and the numbers who were 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 years last birthday respectively 29556, 29336, 29078, 28816, 28542. From these data, fill in the following, where the letters have the meanings usual in life tables:
   

   Age	lx	Lx	dx	qx	mx
   24
   26
   27
   28
   29

If q_x is the rate of mortality, m_x the central death rate, and  the force of mortality, show that and approximately .

9. What data are necessary for measuring how far a low birth-rate is compensated by low infant and child mortality? Show in some detail the form of statistical results obtainable.

 

Thursday, June 2, 1921. 1.30–4.30.
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 1823-1828,
AND CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL THOUGHT.

1. Give an account of Place’s efforts to defeat the reactionary intentions of the Government in 1825 with regard to the Combination Act of 1824.
   How far is he justified in his statement that “Ultimately the Act (of 1825) differed very little from Mr Hume’s Act. It is substantially the same”?
2. On what grounds did Huskisson advocate
   (a) the retention of the “long haul” clause in the Navigation Act,
   (b) imperial preference?
   Was the U.S.A. justified in regarding the latter as a continuance of the old tariff discriminations?
3. “The question, then, looking at it practically, is this: In what degree is Prohibition better, as against smuggling, than a well-regulated duty?—by which I mean, a duty sufficient to protect the British manufacturer, without being so high as to afford a premium to the smuggler.” (Huskisson: Speech on the Silk Manufacture, Feb. 1826.)
   Show how this consideration guided Huskisson in the changes which he made in the customs tariff.
4. What were the leading ideas in the programme of the early London Cooperators, and from what source or sources were they derived?
5. Why were the problems of the Irish Poor and the English Hand-loom Weavers treated by the Emigration Committees of 1826 and 1827 as a single problem?
6. Show how the fear of a redundant population dominated the recommendations of the Emigration Committees of 1826 and 1827.
7. “In Lancashire there appear to be among the Hand-loom Weavers two classes almost wholly distinct from each other; the one who, though they take in work in their own homes or cottages, are congregated in the large manufacturing towns; and the other, scattered in small hamlets or single houses in various directions throughout the manufacturing country.” (Emigration Committee, 1827.)
   Was this distinction of long standing? Was it peculiar to Lancashire?
8. Illustrate from the Rural Rides Cobbett’s first-hand acquaintance with agricultural conditions.
9. “The Ricardian Socialists, though fairly unanimous in their criticisms of the existing system, differed greatly as to remedies.”
   Illustrate this from the writings of William Thompson, Thomas Hodgskin and J. F. Bray.
10. If you were engaged in an investigation into social conditions in England (1823-8), which are the trades about which you would find it most difficult to obtain information, and why?

 

Thursday, June 2, 1921. 1.30–4.30.
INTERNATIONAL LAW.

1. Describe the system of Colonial Mandates in the Covenant of the League of Nations. Indicate what are the important changes introduced and, in particular, consider the question of the sovereignty over the mandated areas.
2. How far do you consider that the principle of “Self- Determination” has a basis in International Law?
   Comment on the following statement of Mr Lansing: “It is an evil thing to permit the principle (i.e. of Self-Determination) to continue to have the apparent sanction of the nations when it has been thoroughly discredited.”
3. Compare the position in International Law of the Suez and Panama Canals.
4. Examine the following statement of Lord Stowell: “In my opinion there exists a general rule in the maritime jurisprudence of this country by which all trading with the public enemy, unless with the permission of the sovereign, is interdicted. It is not a principle peculiar to the maritime law of this country.”
   On what grounds is such a principle to be justified?
5. Comment on one of the following passages:
   (a) “II y a donc, voulue par la conscience universelle, une certaine limitation aux moyens d’hostilités, limitation encore bien imparfaite et qu’il est ambitieux de décorer du nom pompeux de lois de la guerre. Disons, plus modestement, qu’il existe des usages de la guerre dont le droit international demeure le guide moral et l’inspirateur.”
   (b) “Gegenüber der rechtmässigen Ausübung des Anhaltungs-, Durchsuchungs- und Wegnahmerechts gibt es für das Kauffahrteischiff kein Recht der Notwehr. Die Notwehr ist begrifflich die Verteidigung gegenüber einem rechtswidrigen Eingriff in ein Rechtsgut. Dies gilt allgemein für die neutralen wie für die feindlichen Kauffahrteischiffe. Die letzteren nehmen keine Ausnahmestellung ein. Auch sie besitzen kein Recht der Notwehr.”
6. To what treatment are merchant ships belonging to the citizens of a belligerent state which are in the ports of the other belligerent at the outbreak of war subjected by International Law?
   What course was taken by Great Britain, with regard to German and Austrian ships in British ports at the outbreak of the war in 1914?
7. Discuss the origin and development of the doctrine of “Continuous Voyage.”
8. Do you consider that any violation of neutrality has been committed in any of the following cases?
   (a) The export of munitions by neutral manufacturers to one of two belligerents.
   (b) The granting permission by a neutral state for the passage through its territory of the sick and wounded of a belligerent’s army.
   (c) The granting of permission by a neutral state to belligerent warships to effect repairs in its ports.
9. Discuss the propriety of the use of the term “Blockade” in relation to the measures taken by Great Britain under the Order in Council of 11 March 1915.
10. What is the effect of lapse of time upon the binding force of a treaty?
    Discuss the action of Austria in annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908.

 

Friday, June 3, 1921. 9–12.
POLITICAL SCIENCE.

1. “By Liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in what he believes his duty, against the influence of authority and majority, custom and opinion.” (Acton.)
   Use this opinion to show how you define Liberty.
2. How has the argument regarding the rights of property been affected by the development of modern industrial conditions?
3. State and examine Rousseau’s distinction between the General Will and the Will of All.
4. Discuss Mill’s view of the conditions essential to the success of representative government.
5. What are the conditions or grounds of objection which give a minority the strongest right to refuse obedience?
6. On what principle should the relations between a first and a second chamber be regulated in a modern democracy?
7. Give a critical estimate of the position which has developed between the State and Labour, through the Social Reform movement of the last generation in England.
8. Explain the alternative implied in Weltmacht oder Niedergang. What reactions on the life of the great State have been attributed to the development of colonial possessions?
9. What are the main considerations which determine a sound theory of punishment?
10. “The separation of powers in politics corresponds to the fixity of species in natural science; and both ignore evolution.”
    Comment on this statement.

Source: Cambridge University Economics Tripos Papers, 1921-1926. With the papers set in the Qualifying examinations 1925 & 1926. Cambridge at the university press 1927, pp. 1-21.

Image Source: Kings College, Cambridge England. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540.