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Business Cycles Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking Syllabus

Harvard. Exams and assigned reading for money, banking, commercial crises. Williams and Harris, 1938-1939

 

In the previous post, Economics 41, 938-39 (Paper topics), historians of modern economics will find a transcription of 31 typed pages of paper topics with suggested references for the Harvard undergraduate course “Money, Banking and Commercial Crises” taught by Professor John H. Williams and Associate Professor Seymour E. Harris in 1938-39.

Today’s post adds enrollment figures, course reading assignments (when found) and the final exams for that course.

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Course Material from a Few Other Years

1937-38
1940-41
1941-42

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Course Announcement

Economics 41. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises

Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 2. Professor Williams and Associate Professor Harris

Source: Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction during 1938-39 (second edition), p. 148.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 41. Professor Williams and Associate Professor Harris. — Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises.

Total 181: 1 Graduate, 37 Seniors, 106 Juniors, 32 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1938-39, p. 98.

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First Term Reading List
[Note: First term reading list is identical to that for 1937-38]

ECONOMICS 41
Readings: First Term

  1. The Nature and Functions of Banking
    1. Dunbar, “Theory and History of Banking”, Chs. 1, 2, 3, 4, pp. 1-60
    2. White, “Money and Banking”, Ch. 16, pp. 349-372
  2. The Creation of Deposits
    1. Phillips, “Bank Credit”, Ch. 3, pp. 32-77
    2. Currie, “Supply and Control of Money in the U.S.” Chs. 5, 6, 7, pp. 46-63.
  3.  Note Issue
    1.  Dunbar, “Theory and History of Banking”, Ch. 5, pp. 60-81
    2. Currie, “Supply and Control”, Ch. 10, pp. 110-115
  1. Commercial Loan Theory
    1. Robertson, “Money”, Ch. 5, рр. 92-117
    2. Currie, “Supply and Control”, Ch. 4, pp. 34-46
  2. U.S. Banking History
    1. White, “Money and Banking”, Chs. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, pp. 387-529
  3. The Federal Reserve System
    1. Dunbar, “Theory and History”, Ch. 6, pp. 81-110
    2. Burgess, “Federal Reserve Banks and the Money Market”, pp. 1-327
    3. Federal Reserve Bulletin, July, 1935: “Supply and Use of Member Bank Reserve Funds”, pp. 419-428
    4. Currie, “Supply and Control”, etc., Chs. 8, 9, pp. 83-110
    5. Hardy, “Credit Policies of the Federal Reserve System”, Chs. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, рр. 34-243
  4.  Recent Banking Changes
    1. White, “Banking”, Chs. 29, 30, pp. 670-738.
  5. Foreign Banking Systems
    1. Dunbar, “Theory and History”, Chs, 8, 9, 10, pp. 139-235
Reading Period
January 5-18, 1939

Economics 41: Read one of the following:

Hardy, Federal Reserve Policy.
Hawtrey, Art of Central Banking, pp. 116-303.
Keynes, Treatise on Money, Vol. II, Book VII.

Reading Period
May 8-31, 1939

Economics 41: Read one of the following:

  1. a. Robertson and Pigou, Economic Essays and Addresses, pp. 95-138.
    b. Robertson, Banking Policy and Price Level.
  2. Durbin, Problems of Credit Policy.
  3. Keynes, Tract on Monetary Reform.
  4. Keynes, Treatise on Money, Ch. 30 and Book VII.
  5. Committee on Finance and Industry (Macmillan Report), Report and Addenda 1 and 3.
  6. Wicksell, Interest and Prices.
  7. Hawtrey, Capital and Employment, Chs. 7-11 inclusive.
  8. Harrod, Trade Cycle.
  9. Marget, Theory of Prices, Chs. XI-XVI.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003.Box 2, Folder “Economics 1938-1939”.

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1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 41
Money and Banking
[Mid-Year Examination]

  1. (One hour.) The Supply and Use of Member Bank Reserve Funds.
(In millions of dollars)
From June 1927
to Dec. 1927		 From Dec. 1927
to June 1928
Bills discounted +132 +423
Bills bought +170 –163
U.S. Government securities +227 –391
Other Reserve Bank credit –11 –14
Monetary gold stock –204 –282
Treasury currency +3 +1
Money in circulation +238 –345
Treasury cash and deposits with Federal Reserve banks –12 –14
Non-member deposits –6 +1
Other Federal Reserve accounts +6 +21
Member Bank reserve balances +91 –89

(a) What is the meaning of each of the above items?

(b) Present, in the form of a balance, a statement indicating the effects of changes in the above items on member bank reserve balances for each of the two periods.

(c) What conclusions do you draw regarding (1) the condition of the money market, (2) member bank policy, (3) Federal Reserve policy?

  1. Write on one of the following questions.

(a) What is the “Commercial Loan Theory” of bank assets? Would banking policy, based on this theory, provide the right quality of bank assets? the right quantity of money?

(b) Discuss the functions of reserves in a modern banking system, distinguishing the case of member banks from that of central banks, and give your views on the various solutions that have been proposed for the reserve problem.

(c) What are the attributes of a good bank note? Give your critical opinion of the following: the national bank note, the Bank of England note, the Bank of France note, the Federal Reserve note.

  1. Trace

(a) the evolution of Federal Reserve objectives since the establishment of the system and indicate to what extent you think these objectives have been attained;

or

(b) the development of instruments of control of the Federal Reserve system, and evaluate their effectiveness.

  1. Discuss the banking weaknesses in the U.S. revealed by crises in the period (a) before the war, or (b) after the war.
  2. Write on one of the following: (Reading period.)

(a) Keynes: Compare the effectiveness of central bank control over the supply of money in England and the U.S.

(b) Hardy: Discuss Federal Reserve policy and speculation, 1927 to 1929.

(c) Hawtrey: Using historical illustrations, discuss the effect of the experience of the Bank of England on current central bank theory and practice.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year Examinations 1852-1943. Box 12.  Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Government, Economics, … , Naval Science (January-February, 1939) in the bound volume Mid-Year Examinations—1939.

1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 41
[Year-end Examination]

Answer Question 1 and two others.

  1. Reading Period
    Present and comment upon the views expressed in the reading period assignment on the relation between (a) money and prices or (b) money and economic fluctuations.
  2. Monetary authorities try increasingly to influence the rate of interest. Are they likely to be reasonably successful? If they are successful in controlling the rate of interest, are they likely to attain what you consider the proper objectives of monetary policy?
  3. Answer (a) or (b).
    1. Is it your view that the recent breakdown of the gold standard is to be explained by poor management or by fundamental economic factors?
    2. What advantages over the gold standard has a system of free or variable exchanges?
  4. Discuss one of the following:
    1. Under-consumption theories of the trade cycle
    2. Investment theories of the trade cycle
    3. Monetary theories of the trade cycle
  5. Compare the treatment of velocity in the Fisher and the Cambridge versions of the quantity theory.
  6. “Nowhere do conservative notions consider themselves more in place than in currency; yet nowhere is the need of innovation more urgent.” Discuss.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 4: Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Government, Economics, … , Naval Science (June, 1939).

Image Source: 1935 one U.S. dollar silver certificates.  From the United States Paper Money Currency webpage at the U.S. Paper Money website.

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Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Enrollment and final exam for money and banking. Andrew, 1907-1908

Sen. Nelson W. Aldrich next to a horse labeled "Central Bank" which he is offering to Uncle Sam who inspects the horse's teeth labeled "Wall St. Interests"

The historical roots of the field “Money and Banking” were firmly established at Harvard by its economics department founder Charles Franklin Dunbar during the last dozen or so years of the 19th century. Dunbar was followed in matters monetary by Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague and then Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr.

Fun Fact: Senator Nelson W. Aldrich (see Q. 6 in the Economics 8b exam below) who became the major political figure behind the establishment of the U.S. Federal Reserve System was the grandfather of Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York. The New York Times, Oct. 24, 2015.

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Previous course materials for
Money and Banking 

1900-01(Meyer and Sprague)
1901-02 (Andrew, Sprague, Meyer)
1902-03 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)
1903-04 (Andrew and Sprague)
1904-05 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)
1905-06 (Andrew’s money and banking exams)
1906-07 (Andrew’s money and banking exams)

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Course Enrollment
Money. General Survey
(1st term)

Economics 8a 1hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times.

Total 72: 6 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 39 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 8a
Money. General Survey.
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. To what extent is money a measure, like measures of time, weight, and capacity.
  2. Define and give examples of:
    1. limping standard;
    2. parallel standard;
    3. double standard;
    4. Gresham’s law.
  3. Under what circumstances, if any, would the levying of a seignorage cause prices to rise? to fall? to remain unchanged?
  4. How will large additions to the money supply tend to effect the rate of interest? the rate of profits? the price of land? of bonds? of stocks?
  5. Describe the conditions which brought about the successful redemption of the greenbacks. Upon what grounds was resumption opposed? Were any of these grounds reasonable?
  6. Is it fair to say that England “blundered into monometallism unwittingly”? Explain why or why not.
  7. Is it fair to say that the world stampeded to gold in the seventies “because the increased output of silver in America had produced an excess of its supply as compared with gold”? Explain why or why not.
  8. In your opinion is any confirmation of the “quantity theory” to be found in the experience of :
    1. Holland between 1873 and 1875?
    2. India between 1893 and 1899?
    3. Austria between 1876 and 1890?
      Can these experiences be explained in any other way?
  9. Enumerate the different kinds of money now current in the United States, and state briefly the origin and history of each.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

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Course Enrollment
Banking and Foreign Exchange
(2nd term)

Economics 8b 2hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Banking and Foreign Exchange.

Total 108: 7 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 41 Juniors, 36 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 8b
Banking and Foreign Exchange
Year-end Examination, 1907-8

  1. Describe and account for the relative proportions of national banks, state banks, and trust companies (a) in some of the New England States, (b) in some of the middle Western States.
  2. Describe the functions of the more important sorts of banks in England, France, and Germany, and explain the tendencies of their recent development.
  3. Describe the relation of the government to the banks as regards (a) bank management, (b) government finance in England, France, Germany, and the United States.
  4. Of what significance in the history of English banking were
    1. the Bullion Report?
    2. Peel’s Act?
    3. Bagehot’s “Lombard Street”?
  5. Explain the system of note issue in the Canadian banks and its supposed advantages. State any differences between conditions in Canada and the United States which would render its equal success here uncertain.
  6. Explain the main features of the Fowler, Aldrich and Vreeland bills of the last Congress, and give your opinion of their respective merits.
  7. Explain the following statements:—
    1. “The principal European exchanges are regulated chiefly by the relative value of money.”
    2. “The effect on the exchanges of a given difference in the discount rates is not always the same.”
    3. “The French cheque-rate frequently rises above the specie point.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1908), p. 33.

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. American Economic and Financial History. Gay, 1907-08.

Lincoln and Chase working on the national banking legislation. Painted by N.C. Wyeth

The materials for this post come from the second time Edwin Francis Gay solo-taught the course on U.S. economic and financial history at Harvard. Other than having its bibliographic furniture rearranged, the course content is virtually identical to that of the 1906-07 version of the course.

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Previously…

Assistant Professor Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the Harvard course “Economic History of the United States”/ “Economic and Financial History of the United States” in 1901-02 (with James Horace Patten), 1902-03, 1903-04, and 1904-05. The course was taken over in 1905-06 by Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay after Sprague left for a full professorship at the Imperial University of Japan. The Taussig/Gay reading list and final exam for 1905-06. Gay taught this course alone in 1906-07.

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 6b 2hf. Professor Gay. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 143: 14 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 33 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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[Except for a minor rearrangement in the sequence of topics, the course reading list for 1907-08 is, with only one exception, identical to that for 1906-07.]

Course Reading List
Economic and Financial History
of the United States

ECONOMICS 6b (1908)

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

1. Colonial Period.

*Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-29; printed also in Ashley’s Surveys, pp. 309-335.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 36-51.

McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 1-102.

Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, pp. 273-307.

Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 5-158.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.

Lord, Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America, pp. 56-86, 124-139.

1776-1860.
2. Commerce, Manufactures, and Tariff.

*Taussig, Tariff History of the United States, pp. 68-154.

*Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-79, 103-107, (79-103).

Bolles, Industrial History of the United States, Book II, pp. 403-426.

Bishop, History of American Manufactures, Vol. II, pp. 256-505.

Pitkin, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States (ed. 1835), pp. 368-412.

Gallatin, Free Trade Memorial, in Taussig’s State Papers, pp. 108-213.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 146-183.

Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer. Econ. Assoc. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.

3. Internal Improvements.

*Callender, Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 111-162; printed also separately, pp. 3-54.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. IV, Thos. C. Purdy’s Reports on History of Steam Navigation in the United States, pp. 1-62, and History of Operating Canals in the United States, pp. 1-32.

Chevalier, Society, Manners and Polities in the United States, pp. 80-87, 209-276.

Ringwalt, Development of Transportation Systems in the United States, pp. 41-54, 64-166.

Gallatin, Plan of Internal Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I, pp. 724-921 (see especially maps, pp. 744, 762, 764, 820, 830).

Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), pp. 531-581.

Chittenden, Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Vol. II, pp. 417-424.

4. Agriculture and Land Policy. – Westward Movement.

*Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257 printed also in Q.J.E., Vol. I, pp. 169-183, 251-254.

*Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 67-119.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 52-74.

Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1893, pp. 199-227.

Donaldson, Public Domain, pp. 1-29, 196-239, 332-356.

Hibbard, History of Agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin, pp. 86-90, 105-133.
[Replaces “Sato, History of the Land Question in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, IV. Nos. 7-9, pp. 127-181” from the 1906-07 reading list.]

Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways, Bulletin of Univ. of Wisconsin Econ., Pol. Sci. and Hist. Series, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 269-354.

Hart, History as Told by Contemporaries, Vol. III, pp. 459-478.

5. The South and Slavery.

*Cairnes, The Slave Power (2d ed.), pp. 32-103, 140-178.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 34-66.

Russell, North America, its Agriculture and Climate, pp. 133-167.

De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (ed. 1838), pp. 336-361, or eds. 1841 and 1848, Vol. I, pp. 386-412.

Helper, Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, pp. 7-61.

6. Finance, Banking and Currency.

*Dewey, Financial History of the United States, pp. 34-59, 76-117, 224-246, 252-262.

*Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States, pp. 1-24, 68-119, 376 map, 402-403, 464-477.

Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-93.

Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. I, pp. 15-37, 64-76.

Kinley, History of the Independent Treasury, pp. 16-39.

Sumner, Andrew Jackson (ed. 1886), pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.

Ross, Sinking Funds, pp. 21-85.

Scott, Repudiation of State Debts, pp. 33-196.

Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 1-43, 125-135.

Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, pp. 310-347.

1860-1900.
7. Finance, Banking and Currency.

*Mitchell, History of the Greenbacks, pp. 3-43, 403-420.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 1-72, 234-254, (73-233).

Taussig, Silver Situation in the United States, pp. 1-157.

Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-26; printed also in Dunbar’s Economic Essays, pp. 227-247.

Howe, Taxation and Taxes in the United States under the Internal Revenue System, pp. 136-262.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. VII; Bayley, History of the National Loans, pp. 369-392, 444-486.

8. Transportation.

*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 1-23, 125-145.

*Johnson, American Railway Transportation, pp. 24-68, 307-321, 367-385.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.

Adams, Chapters of Erie, pp. 1-99, 333-429.

Davis, The Union Pacific Railway, Annals of the Amer. Acad., Vol. VIII, pp. 259-303.

Villard, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 284-312.

Dixon, Interstate Commerce Act as Amended, Q.J.E., Vol. XXI, pp. 22-51.

9. Agriculture and Opening of the West.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-167.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 167-187.

Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. V, pp. xvi-xlii.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 120-226.

Quaintance, Influence of Farm Machinery, pp. 1-103.

Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-424.

Bemis, Discontent of the Farmer, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. I, pp. 193-213.

10. Industrial Expansion.

*Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. VII, pp. clxx-clxxviii.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 113-126.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.

Twelfth Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 725-748.

Wells, Recent Economic Changes, pp. 70-113.

11. The Tariff.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 155-229.

Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.

Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.

Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol. VIII, pp. 1-39.

Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, p. 610-647.

Robinson, History of Two Reciprocity Treaties, pp. 9-17, 40-77, 141-156.

Laughlin and Willis, Reciprocity, pp. 311-487.

12. Commerce and Shipping.

*Meeker, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 150-171.
[This reading has been switched to required status in 1907-08.]

Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.

Soley, Maritime Industries of the United States, in Shaler’s United States, Vol. I, pp. 518-618.

McVey, Shipping Subsidies, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. IX, pp. 24-46.

Wells, Our Merchant Marine, pp. 1-94.

13. Industrial Concentration.

*Willoughby, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-115.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 188-209.

Twelfth Census, Vol. VII, pp. cxc-ccxiv.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIII, pp. v-xviii.

Bullock, Trust Literature, Q.J.E., Vol. XV, pp. 167-217.

14. The Labor Problem.

*United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, No. 18 (Sept., 1898), pp. 665-670; No. 30 (Sept., 1900), pp. 913-915; No. 53 (July, 1904), pp. 703-728.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 3-16, 502-547.

Levasseur, American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Mitchell, Organized Labor, pp. 391-411.

Twelfth Census, Special Report on Employees and Wages, p. xcix.

National Civic Federation, Industrial Conciliation, pp. 40-48, 141-154, 238-243, 254-266.

15. Population, Immigration and the Race Question.

* United States Census Bulletin, No. 4 (1903), pp. 5-38.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XV, pp. xix-lxiv.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 68-112.

Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 33-78.

Walker, Discussions in Economies and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-451.

Hoffmann, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 250-309.

Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-228.

Twelfth Census Bulletin, No. 8.

United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, Nos. 14, 22, 32, 35, 37, 38, 48.

Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.

Stone, A Plantation Experiment, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 270-287.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1907-1908”.

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ECONOMICS 6b
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. Briefly:—
    1. The Bland-Allison and Sherman Acts.
    2. The National Banking Act.
    3. The Homestead Law.
    4. Reciprocity since 1890.
  2. Compare the condition of manufactures in the United States in 1791 (Hamilton’s report) with that in 1900.
  3. Why has the cotton industry developed more satisfactorily than the woolen industry?
  4. Compare in its chief features the state of Southern agriculture before and after the Civil War.
  5. [Farm indebtedness and tenancy]
    1. Farm indebtedness in the United States 1885-1900; its relation to agricultural prices and the demand for monetary reform.
    2. Farm tenancy in the United States.
  6. Is railroad “pooling” permitted in the United States? Should it be permitted? What do you think of Anti-Trust Legislation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1908), pp. 31-32.

Image Source: Website of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Webpage: History. Lincoln and the Founding of the National Banking System.

“Lincoln and Chase working on the national banking legislation. N.C. Wyeth painted this mural in the lobby of what was then the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The former bank building is today the Langham Hotel.”

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam for 19th century European Industry and Commerce. Gay, 1907-1908

Edwin F. Gay was promoted to the rank of professor in 1906 and served as the acting chairman of the Harvard economics department during Thomas Nixon Carver’s leave of absence. He then became the chair of the department in 1907. In the following year he was appointed the first dean of the newly established Graduate School of Business Administration which is likely the reason that European economic history was reduced to a single semester course.

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Earlier, related posts

A brief course description for Economics 11 plus the exams from 1902-03.

Exams for 1903-04.

Exams for 1904-05.

Exams for 1905-06.

Exams for 1906-07.

A short bibliography for “serious students” of economic history assembled by Gay and published in 1910 has also been posted.

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 6a 1hf. Professor Gay. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 90: 16 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 34 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 66.

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ECONOMICS 6a
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. What was the “Movement of Liberation” in the economic history of the nineteenth century? Do you consider this movement completed?
  2. Gladstone wrote in 1846: “Mr. Cobden has throughout argued the corn question on the principle of holding up the landlords of England to the people as plunderers and knaves for maintaining the corn law to save their rents, and as fools because it was not necessary for that purpose.”
    1. Do you regard this as a fair characterization of Cobden’s Anti-Corn Law agitation? Give reasons for your opinion.
    2. What converted Peel to Free Trade?
  3. [Tariffs]
    1. What was the Cobden treaty and in what lay its chief importance?
    2. Describe the protectionist reaction in France and state its causes.
  4. [France and Germany]
    1. Compare the railway policy of France with that of Germany, giving briefly history and results.
    2. Make a similar comparison of the policies of France and Germany in regard to shipping subsidies.
    3. May any conclusions of value for other countries be drawn from the experience of France and Germany? State the grounds for your view.
  5. Comment on the following (from a speech by Mr. Chamberlain, 1903): “In thirty years the total imports of manufactures which could just as well be made in this country have increased £86,000,000, and the total exports have decreased £6,000,000. £92,000,000 of trade that we might have done here has gone to the foreigner, and what has been the result for our own people? The Board of Trade tells you that you may take one-half of the export as representing wages. We therefore have lost £46,000,000 a year in wages during the thirty years. That would give employment to nearly 600,000 men at 30s. per week of continuous employment. That would give a fair subsistence for these men and their families, amounting to 3,000,000 persons.”
  6. What has been the attitude of European governments toward the so-called Trust Problem?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

Image Source: “The Corn Laws Part 2–Real”at the website “British Food: A History”.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Transportation

Harvard. Enrollment and final exam for economics of transportation. Ripley and Daggett, 1907-1908

Judging from the final examination questions, it would appear that this “the economics of transportation” was dedicated to “railway economics”. But what’s in a name?

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Earlier exams etc. for Economics 5

1900-01 (Hugo Richard Meyer alone)
1901-02 (Ripley with Hugo Richard Meyer)
1903-04 (Ripley alone)
1904-05 (Ripley with Stuart Daggett)
1905-06 (Ripley with Stuart Daggett)
1906-07 (Ripley with Stuart Daggett and Walter Wallace McLaren)

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 5 1hf. Professor [William Zebina] Ripley and Dr. [Stuart] Daggett. — Economics of Transportation.

Total 126: 15 Graduates, 21 Seniors, 67 Juniors, 18 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 66.

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ECONOMICS 5
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. Define: Financial Reorganization; Floating Debt; Collateral Trust Bond; Debenture; Commodity Rate.
  2. On two roads, the figures for certain operating statistics were:
    3,855,000 ton miles per mile, and 428,000 ton miles per mile respectively. What is this called? What is its full financial significance?
  3. In comparing the operating results of two roads, in what way, if any, may the balance sheets be used? How did you analyze them in your report?
  4. What has been the course of developments concerning the attitude of the United States Supreme Court toward the legislative branches of the government in respect of rate regulation?
  5. What states have attempted specific valuations of railway property: and what has been the leading motive in each case?
  6. Name three peculiar features of German States railway practice, as contrasted with American conditions.
  7. How far has actual railroad consolidation progressed in the Southern States, and why?
  8. Discuss the proposition that railroad capitalization and the rates for service charged are entirely independent of one another.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

Image Source: Built in 1907, the Union Pacific 618 at Heber Valley Historic Railroad. Photo by Evan Jennings, Oct, 2004. Wikimedia Commons.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Mid-year exam for Statistics. Ripley, 1907-1908

William Zebina Ripley

William Zebina Ripley taught at Harvard from 1901/02 through 1932/33. He was a statistician in the time of pre-mathematical statistics but he truly made his mark as an expert on the institutions of organized labor, industrial organization, and transportation. 

A meager harvest of a course artifact for Ripley’s 1907-08 round of statistics is transcribed below. But big or little, such remains the archival stuff needed for the foundation of grand historical narrative of the future (probably above my pay-grade). 

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Statistics (Econ 4), previous years

1901-02.
1902-03.
1903-04.
1904-05.
1905-06 [omitted]
1906-07. [offered but no printed exam found]

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Course Enrollment
1907-08 

Economics 4. Professor Ripley. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice.

Total 14: 4 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 66.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. Criticise the following table as indicating the relative fecundity of mixed marriages:—

Fathers.

 Mothers. No. Mar. No. Births Children per Marriage.
1896. 1896. 1896. 1895.

1894.

United States

 United States 11,551 19,892 1.7 1.8 1.8
dto. Canada 848 1,743 2.1 2.0

1.9

dto.

 Ireland 41 117 2.9 2.5 2.6
dto. Germany 323 637 2.0 2.4

2.3

dto.

 All 13,388 23,142 1.7 1.8

1.8
  1. Why is the arithmetical rate best adapted to forecasting movements of population in America? Is it theoretically sound?
  2. Why is the average length of life not an index of mortality?
  3. Suppose the age and sex composition of the white and colored populations of the United States to be entirely different. Describe how their mortality rates could be reduced to a strictly comparable basis by standardization.
  4. What has been the most significant feature of the movement of birth rates during the last thirty years? How has it been accounted for? Give relative figures.
  5. Why should the death rate enter into the calculation of the value of an annuity? Of a tontine policy?
  6. Why should the Supplementary Analysis of the Census rely entirely upon the “proportion of children to adults” as an index of fecundity, and omit all reference to birth rates?
  7. What do the statistics of suicide show? State the main conclusions as set forth by Mayo-Smith.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

Note: No printed end-of-year examination for 1907-08 was found in the Harvard University archive collection of final examinations.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives.  William Zebina Ripley [photographic portrait, ca. 1910], J. E. Purdy & Co., J. E. P. & C. (1910). Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Philosophy Socialism

Harvard. Final examination for Ethics of the Social Questions. Peabody, 1905-1906

 

 

In 1905-06 Francis Greenwood Peabody’s popular course on the ethics of the social questions was listed for the first time as one of the course offerings in a new sub-departmental unit “Social Ethics” within the Philosophy Department. In previous years the course was listed as “Philosophy 5”. It was a relatively popular field chosen for economics Ph.D. general examinations.

More about Professor Peabody can be found in the earlier post for 1902-03 together with the final examination questions from that year. Here the course description and exam from 1904-05. Readings and final exam for social ethics in 1906-07.

A fully linked transcription of Peabody’s own short bibliography of social ethics published in 1910 is also of interest.

Note: the items cited in the exam are found in the original printed exam. Links to the corresponding passages have been added.

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A Peek into Likely Course Content 

Cf. Francis Greenwood Peabody’s The Approach to the Social Question (New York: Macmillan, 1912). “The substance of this volume was given as the Earle Lectures at the Pacific Theological Seminary in 1907.”

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Course Enrollment
1905-06

Social Ethics 1 2hf. Professor Peabody and Dr. Rogers. — Ethics of the Social Questions. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 10.

Total 165: 5 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 50 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 11 Divinity, 14 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 75.

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SOCIAL ETHICS 12
Year-end Exam, 1905-06

This paper should be considered as a whole. The time should not be exhausted in answering a few questions, but such limits should be given to each answer as will permit the answering of all the questions in the time assigned.

  1. The place in the ethics of industry of :—
    The Civic Federation.
    Mundella.
    Conseils de Prud’hommes.
    Employers’ Associations. (Adams and Sumner, page 279.)
  2. The Social-Democratic Party in Germany; its history and principles.
  3. Economic and ethical criticisms on the programme of Revolutionary Socialism.
  4. “The labor movement in America already exhibits a manifest tendency in the same direction [towards organized socialism] in which it moves in older countries.” (Sombart, Sozialismus und sozialistische Bewegung, s. 249.) How far is this judgment justified by the history of Collectivism, and by the present attitude of Tradesunionism [sic], in the United States?
  5. Industrial education, in its relation to child-labor and to economic efficiency. (Lecture of R. A. Woods.)
  6. The methods and policies of labor-organization in the United States. (Adams and Sumner, pages 245 ff.)
  7. “Have the conditions of employment and the material comfort of the working classes really improved since the introduction of the factory system?” (Adams and Sumner, page 502.) The answer of these authors to their own question, and some of the evidence which they cite.
  8. Compare, in their importance for the ethics of industry, the system of profit-sharing and the system of industrial partnership.
  9. “Trade-agreements,” considered in their relations to the rights of the people.
  10. The relation of the drink-habit in the United States to poverty and crime; and the economic forces now operating for temperance, (“The Liquor Problem,” Chapter IV, pages 108-134.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), p. 59.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Sociology

Harvard. Exam questions for principles of sociology. Carver, 1907-1908

Thomas Nixon Carver was back at the lectern in 1907-08 following his European sabbatical year. His teaching portfolio was pretty broad and it included the field of sociology which had not yet escaped the gravitational pull of the economics department.  

One presumes the course text was Thomas Nixon Carver’s book of course readings (over 800 pages!): Sociology and Social Progress: A Handbook for Students of Sociology. Boston: Ginn & Company, 1905.

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Sociology exams from earlier years.

1901-02 (taught by T. N. Carver)

1902-03 (taught by T. N. Carver and W. Z. Ripley)

1903-04 (taught by T. N. Carver)

1904-05 (taught by T. N. Carver and J. A. Field)

1905-06 (taught by T. N. Carver)

1906-07 (taught by J. A. Field)

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 3. Professor Carver. — Principles of Sociology. Theories of Social Progress.

Total 49: 8 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 66.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 3
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. Discuss the relation of sociology to economics.
  2. Describe the development of ancestor worship according to Spencer, and show the influence of a system of ancestor worship upon political organization.
  3. What does Spencer mean by “industrialism”?
  4. Can education effect any progressive improvement in the innate physical and mental capacities of a race?
  5. Explain the term “eugenics,” and discuss the obstacles to the practical application of eugenic principles.
  6. How does Kidd define religion? What is the function of religion thus defined?
  7. Explain and criticise Stuckenberg’s theory of “Sociation.”
  8. In what sense can interests be said to be harmonious, and in what sense are they antagonistic?
  9. What is meant by “consciousness of kind,” and how is it related to sympathy?
  10. Discuss the question, Is work a blessing?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1907-08.

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ECONOMICS 3
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. Comment upon the following passage: “Every great historical epoch and every variety of social organization must be explained on the basis of factors and forces now at work, and which the student may study at first hand.”
  2. Can you, consistently with modern evolutionary philosophy, define social progress in terms of well-being? Explain.
  3. Comment upon the following passage:—
    “So that as law differentiates from personal commands, and as morality differentiates from religious in junctions, so politeness differentiates from ceremonial observance. To which I may add, so does rational usage differentiate from fashion.”
  4. Comment upon the following passage: “The fundamental fact in history is the law of decreasing returns.”
  5. Compare Gidding’s conception of the “ultimate social fact” with that of Adam Smith.
  6. Describe some of the agencies for the storing of social energy.
  7. What is meant by “animated moderation” and how is it developed.
  8. Compare the mediaeval prince and the modern political boss.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1908), p. 29.

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver. The World’s Work. Vol. XXVI (May-October 1913) p. 127. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Enrollment and semester examinations for principles of economics. Taussig, Bullock and Andrew. 1907-1908

Frank W. Taussig, Charles J. Bullock, A. Piatt Andrew

In addition to the 1907-08 exam questions for Principles of Economics taught at Harvard by Frank W. Taussig, Charles J. Bullock, and A. Piatt Andrew, this post provides links to the previously transcribed 36 years worth of exams.

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Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1906/07

1871-75.
1876-77.
1877-78.
1878-79.
1879-80.
1880-81.
1881-82.
1882-83.
1883-84.
1884-85.
1885-86.
1886-87.
1887-88.
1888-89.
1889-90.
1890-91.
1891-92.
1892-93.
1893-94.
1894-95.
1895-96.
1896-97.
1897-98.
1898-99.
1899-00.
1900-01.
1901-02.
1902-03.
1903-04.
1904-05.
1905-06.
1906-07.

________________________

Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 1. Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Asst. Professors [Charles Jesse] Bullock and [Abram Piatt] Andrew, assisted by Dr. [Charles Phillips] Huse, and Messrs. [?] Hall, [Probably: Walter Max Shohl, A.B. 1906] Shohl and [Abbott Payson] Usher [A.B. 1904]. — Principles of Economics.

Total 482: 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 76 Juniors, 290 Sophomores, 66 Freshmen, 41 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 66.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. Does saving lead to investment? Does investment lead to the increase of capital? Does the increase of capital lead to the decline of interest? If so, explain in each case why and how; if not, why not?
  2. Suppose that by the use of more prolific seeds the yield of agriculture were very greatly increased; what immediate consequences would you expect as to
    1. The price of agricultural produce;
    2. Economic rent on agricultural land;
    3. The earnings of farmers?

Wherein might the ultimate consequence be different?

  1. Is there any inconsistency between the propositions that
    1. Value is governed by demand and supply;
    2. Value is governed by marginal utility;
    3. The price of a monopolized commodity may be different for different purchasers?
  2. How far does the price of a copyrighted book depend on its cost? How far does its cost depend on its price?
  3. Explain what is meant by “non-competing groups,” and how the situation indicated by that phrase is connected with questions concerning trade-unions and the closed shop.
  4. What effect has the unattractiveness of an employment on the wages of those engaged in it? How do you explain the current scale of wages for unskilled labor? For “sweated” laborers? For domestic servants?
  5. Is it beneficial to laborers as a class that there should be (1) great mobility and free competition between business men and investors; (2) great mobility and free competition between the laborers themselves?

One of the following questions may be omitted.

  1. Suppose coöperative production were universally adopted, how would business profits be affected? Suppose profit-sharing were universally adopted, how would they be affected? Suppose all laborers organized in trade-unions, how would they be affected?
  2. What is the significance for labor questions of
    1. “Making work”;
    2. Luxurious expenditure by the rich;
    3. Jurisdiction disputes?
  3. Explain precisely what social movement you associate with the following:—
    1. Rochdale Pioneers;
    2. Leclaire;
    3. Knights of Labor;
    4. American Federation of Labor.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. Wherein is there resemblance, wherein difference, between the causes that determine the value of

a ton of coal;
an ounce of gold;
a dollar of inconvertible paper?

  1. Wherein, if at all, are the following subject to the law of monopoly value:—

urban sites;
the output of a protective industry;
railway transportation?

  1. It is said that “charging what the traffic will bear” may rest on two different causes. Do you find either or both of the causes in (a) railway rates; (b) the prices of illuminating oil; (c) the prices of cotton-seed oil?
  2. Explain the following terms:—

index number;
bimetallism;
limping standard;
Independent Treasury system;
Gresham’s Law.

  1. In the year 1906 the exports of merchandise from the United States exceeded the imports by about 500 million dollars. In the same year the imports of gold were about 50 million dollars.

(a) Can such a disparity continue for a long period of years? If so, why? If not, why not?

(b) So long as it continues, do you regard the situation as favorable for the people of the United States?

  1. Explain the measures taken in periods of great financial stress in (a) England, (b) Germany, (c) the United States; and mention in each case to what extent these measures were contemplated by existing legislation.
  2. What determines the selling-price of (a) an urban site advantageous for business; (b) the shares of a street railway corporation; (c) the shares of a “trust” whose capitalization much exceeds its tangible property? In which of these cases, if in any, can it be said that there is “over-capitalization”?
  3. Suppose the public-service industries (“monopolies of organization”) to be placed under government management. Do you think wages would be lower or higher in these industries? Would the general level of wages in the community be higher or lower?
    On the same supposition, do you think prices of the commodities or services supplied by those industries would be higher or lower? Would the general level of prices be higher or lower?
  4. Does the encouragement of domestic industries through tariff duties cause a saving by doing away with the expense of transporting goods from foreign countries? Are such duties likely to bring a charge on the foreign producer or on the domestic consumer?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1908), pp. 26-27.

Image Source: Faculty portraits of Frank W. Taussig, Charles J. Bullock, A. Piatt Andrew. The Harvard Class Album, 1906. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Exams for Introductory and Advanced Political Economy. Dunbar and Laughlin, 1878-1879

 

Like the previous post, this one plugs a gap (1878-79) in the time series of Harvard political economy exams from the 19th century. Charles Dunbar was still at the top of his game and the young Dr. James Laurence Laughlin enters the picture. 

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Political Economy [first course].

Course Enrollment

[Philosophy] 6. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — Financial Legislation of the United States. Three times a week. Prof. [Charles Franklin] Dunbar and Dr. [James Laurence] Laughlin.

Total 121: 1 Graduate, 45 Seniors, 71 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1878-79, p. 60.

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PHILOSOPHY 6.
Mid-year Examination, 1878-79

(Do not change the order of the questions.)

  1. State the argument for raising the whole of the supplies of state by taxation within the year. Illustrate by the experience d England from 1793 to 1817, and of the United States in the recent war.
  2. Examine the assertion that, if the rich increase their unproductive expenditure, the now unemployed working classes will be benefited.
  3. If all land were of equal fertility, and all required for cultivation, would it pay Rent? Give the reasons for your answer.
  4. By what reasoning, irrespective of value or price, does Mr. Mill arrive at the law of Rent?
  5. State the general laws of value, and show what modifications are necessary for articles produced in foreign countries. Complete the whole theory by any peculiar cases of value.
  6. (1) Show that capitalists cannot secure themselves against a general increased cost of labor by raising the prices of their goods. (2) On what does Cost of Labor depend?
  7. Illustrate Gresham’s Law by the causes which led to the Suffolk Bank System, and the Coinage Act of the United States in 1834.
  8. Point out the fallacy in the theory that an increase of the currency is desirable because it quickens industry.
  9. When our imports regularly exceed our exports, what will be the rate charged in New York for sight bills on London? What is the par of exchange between Paris and London?
  10. What is to be said as to the doctrine that the advantage to a country from foreign trade is found in the surplus of exports over imports?
  11. Explain the system of the Bank of Amsterdam, and the reasons for establishing it.
  12. Arrange the following resources and liabilities of the Bank of England in the proper form, separating the Issue and the Banking Departments:
Notes Issued £41.5 Government Securities £14.2
Other Deposits 27.9 Reserve 9.4
Other Securities (Loans) 27.9 Public Deposits 5.6
Coin and Bullion 26.5 Rest 3.2
Government Debt., &c. 15.0 Seven-day Bills 0.3
Capital 14.5
  1. Having arranged the account, show what changes would be made in it, if the Bank increased its loans by 3 millions and sold 1 million of government securities, and depositors at the same time withdrew 2 millions to be sent abroad.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Bound Volume 1878-79, Papers Set for Mid-Year Examinations in Rhetoric, Logic, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Music, Fine Arts in Harvard College, February 1879, pp. 8-9.

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PHILOSOPHY 6.
Year-End Examination, 1878-79

  1. What is the cause of the existence of profit? And what, according to Mr. Mill, are the circumstances which determine the respective shares of the laborer and the capitalist?
  2. Explain the statement that “high general profits cannot, any more than high general wages, be a cause of high values. . .. In so far as profits enter into the cost of production of all things, they cannot affect the value of any.”
  3. On what does the minimum rate of profit depend? What counterforces act against the downward tendency of profits?
  4. State the theory of the value of money (i.e. “metallic money”), and clear up any apparent inconsistencies between the following statements: (1) The value of money depends on the cost of production at the worst mines; (2) The value of money varies inversely as its quantity multiplied by its rapidity of circulation; (3) The countries whose products are most in demand abroad and contain the greatest value in the smallest bulk, which are nearest the mines and have the least demand for foreign productions, are those in which money will be of lowest value.
  5. What is the error in the common notion “that a paper currency cannot be issued in excess so long as every note represents property, or has a foundation of actual property to rest on?”
  6. What are the conditions under which one country can permanently undersell another in a foreign market?
  7. On whom does a tax on imports, if not prohibitory, fall?
  8. Discuss the following:—
    “A man with $100,000 in United States bonds comes to Boston, hires a house …; thus he lives in luxury… I am in favor of taxing idle investments such as this, and allowing manufacturing investments to go untaxed.”
  9. If depositors in the Bank of England withdraw £3,000,000 in specie and send it abroad, how does this withdrawal of gold from the vaults of the Bank affect the currency in actual circulation?
  10. Describe the plan on which a national bank of the United States is organized, the security for its notes, the provision for their redemption and the extent to which the law makes them receivable.
  11. When were the legal-tender, compound interest notes issued, and what was their peculiar characteristic as a currency? How did their action as currency differ from that of the other issue of interest-bearing legal-tender notes?
  12. Describe the Resumption Act of 1875. What circumstances have promoted its success?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Bound Volume 1878-79, Papers Set for Annual Examinations in Rhetoric, Logic, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Music, Fine Arts in Harvard College, May 28 to June 4, 1879, pp. 13-14.

__________________________

Advanced Political Economy.

Course Enrollment

[Philosophy] 7. Advanced Political Economy. Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science. — Lectures. Three times a week. Prof. Dunbar.

Total 36: 2 Graduates, 31 Seniors, 3 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1878-79, p. 60.

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PHILOSOPHY 7.
Mid-year Examination, 1878-79

(Write your answers in the same order as the questions.)

  1. Give a careful and logical summary of the laws determining the values of all commodities, monopolized or free, domestic or foreign, using the corrected definition of Cost of Production. [Forty minutes]
  2. As a new country fills up, what changes may be expected in the normal prices of meat, timber, grain and wool?
  3. Why is it unlikely that any formula will be devised, embracing in one statement the law of the value of commodities and the law of the value of labor, i.e. the law of wages?
  4. Give a summary of Mr. Cairnes’s restatement of the wages-fund theory.
  5. Analyze this statement:
    “An article which a farm laborer has produced in a day does not exchange for one which a watchmaker has spent an equal time in producing, because the latter is a more skilful operative.”
  6. Explain the statement that “the high scale of industrial remuneration in America, instead of being evidence of a high cost of production in that country, is distinctly evidence of a low cost of production.”
  7. What effects upon foreign trade have general changes in the rates of wages, and what have partial changes? Give the reasons.
  8. What effect has the existence of a large debt payable to foreigners, upon the ability of a country to keep up a metallic circulation?
  9. The Governor of M. is informed,
    “That the longer continuance of the provisions of the treaty with Great Britain, permitting the free importation of fish from the Provinces, will be most disastrous to the fishing interest; and that the permanent maintenance of this policy will insure its complete destruction. This would involve the decay of our fishing ports and the loss of millions of capital, and drive from their occupation thousands of deserving citizens. … This class has been the nursery of the navy of the Union. It has manned our mercantile marine.”
    Discuss the suggestion that for these reasons the provisions of the treaty referred to should be abrogated.
  10. Give some account of the Economistes and of their doctrines.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Bound Volume 1878-79, Papers Set for Mid-Year Examinations in Rhetoric, Logic, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Music, Fine Arts in Harvard College, February 1879, p. 10.

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PHILOSOPHY 7.
Year-end Examination, 1878-79

  1. What are Mr. Cairnes’s reasons for doubting whether any great improvement can be made in the condition of the laboring class, so long as they remain mere receivers of wages?
  2. How is the statement that “a rise or fall of wages in a country, so far forth as it is general, has no tendency to affect the course of foreign trade” to be reconciled with the fact, that in the last two or three years the United States have been able to export certain manufactured goods in increased quantities, in spite of competition?
  3. What is the explanation of the statement that “what a nation is interested in is, not in having its prices high or low, but in having its gold cheap”?
  4. How does Mr. Shadwell’s definition of value differ from that adopted by the school of Ricardo?
  5. Discuss the following extract:—
    “As a cause must precede its effect, increase of population cannot be the cause of an increase of food, nor of its increased dearness, which is consequent on the resorting to poorer soils in order to raise a larger quantity. If, then, the cost of food has any tendency to increase as society advances, it must be because farmers are prompted by some motive or other to resort to poorer soils, while richer ones are to be had. But such a supposition is contrary to the principle that every one desires to obtain wealth by the least possible labor, and is therefore inadmissible. Poor land is taken into cultivation not because the population has increased, but because some discovery has been made which renders it possible to obtain as much profit as from the worst previously cultivated, and this discovery enables the quantity of food to be increased, and an increase of population is the effect and not the cause.”
  6. Also the following :-
    “Agricultural profits cannot fall unless recourse is had to poorer land, but such land will never be cultivate, since capitalists can never be willing to submit to a fall of profit; and the very meaning of the expression that some land is not worth cultivating, is, that it will not yield the ordinary profit to the farmer who should attempt to reclaim it. It appears, then, that the rate of profit is stationary in agriculture, and, consequently, in all other trades; and that whatever rate be established in an early stage of society, it must remain the same throughout its subsequent development.”
  7. “Why then should we suppose that the supply of paper substitutes for coin (like the supply of corn) would not be best maintained by allowing bankers and their customers to bring them into circulation in whatever quantities, and at whatever times, they find to be mutually convenient?”
  8. In what forms was the French indemnity finally received by Germany (bills of exchange being a mere instrument of transfer)? How did the payment probably affect Austria and the United States?
  9. A considerable party in England now propose “Reciprocity,” — that is, the admission without duty of the goods of such countries only as in turn admit English goods without duty. What practical objections and what theoretical ones can be urged against this proposition?
  10. “No act of Parliament,” it is said, “or convention of nations can prevent (between gold and silver) changes in value resulting from variations in the conditions of production, or of the action of demand and supply.”
    To this M. Cerunschi replies, — “You confound money with merchandise. To speak of merchandise is to speak of competition, supply and demand, purchase and sale, price. To speak of money is nothing of the kind.
    “Whether he produces little or much at a profit or at a loss, no miner can ever sell his metal money either dearer or cheaper than other miners, for the simple reason that the metal money is not sold or bought; it is itself its price…
    “When the monetary law is bi-metallic, therefore, no competition [is] possible between the producer of gold and the producer of silver, no purchase and sale, no discount, no price between one metal and the other. Without their being offered, without their being demanded, the circulation absorbs them both at the legal par, and cannot refuse them. When the monetary law is everywhere bi-metallic, neither gold nor silver, coined or uncoined, is merchandise. That is the secret.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Bound Volume 1878-79, Papers Set for Annual Examinations in Rhetoric, Logic, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Music, Fine Arts in Harvard College, May 28 to June 4, 1879, pp. 14-15.

Image Source: Harvard Library, Hollis Images. Charles F. Dunbar (left) and James Laurence Laughlin (right). Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.