Category: Harvard

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Exam Questions Harvard International Economics

Harvard. Enrollment, course description, and final exam for international trade and payments. Sprague, 1904-1905

Puck. 13 March 1901.

At the beginning of the 20th century international economics was covered within a single semester course. Now it is at least a two semester sequence for international trade and international payments, respectively…and one such sequence at the undergraduate and again at the graduate level. The banking specialist, Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague, would have been more interested in the payments part of the course, but the top dog in the department, Frank W. Taussig, left a strong tradition with a focus on real trade theory and commercial policy as can be seen in the exam questions below.

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 12a 2hf. Asst. Professor Sprague. — International Trade.

Total 18: 5 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 12a 2hf. International Trade. Half-course (second half-year) Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri. at 10. Asst. Professor Sprague.

Course 12a begins with a careful study of the theory of international trade, and of the use and significance of bills of exchange. The greater portion of the time will be devoted to an analysis of the foreign trade of the United States and Great Britain in order to distinguish the various factors, permanent and temporary, which determine the growth and direction of international commerce. With this purpose, also, a number of commodities important in foreign trade and produced in more than one country will be studied in detail. Each student will be given special topics for investigation which will familiarize him with sources of current information upon trade matters, such as trade journals, consular, and other government publications. In conclusion, certain topics of a general nature will be considered, among which may be mentioned, foreign investments, the effects of an unfavorable balance of payments under different circumstances, and colonial trade.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 45.

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ECONOMICS 12a
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. “The tendency of commerce is to bring about a more equal distribution of industry all the world over, and to give more and more importance to purely geographical conditions.” — Chisholm.
    Explain and illustrate.
  2. The extent to which coal supplies seem to determine the localization of industries in England, in Germany, and in the United States.
  3. Analyze carefully the effects upon the foreign trade of a country of a large increase in its production of gold.
  4. May free trade under any circumstances cause a decline in the population of a country?
  5. Why have commercial treaties proved an ineffective means of securing greater permanent freedom of trade?
  6. Discuss the policy and effects of “dumping.”
  7. The character and significance of the iron and steel exports of the United States.
  8. The purely commercial aspects of shipping subsidies.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 31-32.

Image Source: “Weighed and Not Wanting.” From Puck (March 13, 1901). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Mediaeval and Modern Economic History of Europe. Enrollments, descriptions, exam. Gay, 1904-1905

An assistant professor gotta do what an assistant professor has gotta do. Edwin Francis Gay was 37 years of age by the 1904-05 academic year with courses covering nearly a millennium of European economic history.  His biographer (and former student) Herbert Heaton described this period as being a strenuous time for Gay (pp. 64-65).

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Related posts

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

Exams for 1903-04.

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
1904-05

Economics 10 1hf. Asst. Professor Gay. — Mediaeval Economic History of Europe.

Total 1: 1 Graduate.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 10 1hf. The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and(at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Asst. Professor Gay.

After a preliminary examination of early economic and social institutions, this course aims to give a general view of the economic development of society during the Middle Ages. Among other topics, the following will be considered: mediaeval agriculture and serfdom; the manorial system and the economic aspects of feudalism; the beginnings of town life and the gild-system of industry; and the Italian and Hanseatic commercial supremacy.
A thesis will be required from each student, and occasional oral reports and discussions may be expected, but the work is conducted mainly by lectures with supplementary reading.
It is desirable that students should possess some acquaintance with mediaeval history and some reading knowledge of Latin.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 44.

No printed exam at mid-year for this course was found in the Harvard archives
(but of course only one student)

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 11. Asst. Professor Gay. — Modern Economic History of Europe.

Total 7: 3 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 11. The Modern Economic History of Europe. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 10. Asst. Professor Gay.

This course, while Course 10 may usefully precede it, will nevertheless be independent, and may be taken by those who have not followed the history of the earlier period.
At the outset a survey will be made of economic and social conditions in the chief European countries at the close of the Middle Ages. The history of trade, industry, and agriculture in the succeeding periods down to the nineteenth century will then be treated in some detail, together with the corresponding forms of social life and the advance in economic thought. England will receive the emphasis due to its increasing importance during this period.
A considerable amount of supplementary reading will be expected and two thesis subjects will be assigned.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 44.

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ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. Explain briefly:—
    (1) lettre de maîtrise
    (2) métayage
    (3) the Steelyard
    (4) goldsmith’s notes
    (5) enumerated commodities
    (6) Merchant Adventurer’s
  2. What are the chief facts you associate with the names of
    (1) Bodin, (2) Colbert, (3) Paterson, (4) Law?
  3. (1) Who were the Fuggers? What type of company organization do they represent?
    (2) Describe the development in the company organization of the English East India Company. How and why did this company’s history differ from that of the Dutch East India Company?
  4. Enumerate the forms of indirect taxation in use in England in the seventeenth century.
  5. How do you distinguish the domestic system of industry from the handicraft and factory systems? Give some examples of different forms of the domestic system.

Take one of the following questions.

  1. It is stated that the total value of exports and imports for England and France were as follows for the years here given:
England
£		 France
livres
1613   4,628,586
1750 20,471,120 1750 355,202,357
1800 62,639,398 1789 758,104,000

Are these figures of equal statistical value? What are the sources of error?

  1. (1) In 1655 a London merchant shipped raisins and oil to Hamburg, but finding this market not so good as the English desired to ship the goods back to England in the same ship that carried them to Hamburg, paying customs and excise on the reimportation. He petitioned the Council for license to do this. State precisely why.
    (2) In 1665 a Dutch merchant desired to send to England from Amsterdam a lading of silk and linen cloth, loaf sugar, paper (all of Dutch manufacture), Bordeaux wine, tobacco and pepper. Could he do this, and if so, how?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 30-31.

Image Source: Edwin F. Gay, seated in office, 1908. From Wikipedia. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Industrial Organization

Harvard. Enrollment, Course description, Final exam. Economics of Corporations. Ripley and Custis, 1904-1905

William Zebina Ripley

In 1904-05 Professor William Zebina Ripley of Harvard co-taught his course on the economics of corporations with his dissertation student Vanderveer Custis, who went on to teach economics at the University of Washington and later at Northwestern University where he attained professorial rank. The economics of corporations course was at least implicity paired to a course on labor problems (material found in the previous post). The common thread through the sequence would have been the study of market power through combination of laborers (trade unions) on the one hand and corporations (trusts) on the other.

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Other Corporations/Industrial Organization Related Posts
for William Z. Ripley

Problems of Labor and Industrial Organization, 1902-1903.

Economics of Corporations, 1903-1904.

Economics of Corporations, 1914-1915.

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Course Readings

Cases for the course are most certainly found in Trusts, Pools and Corporations (1905), edited with an introduction by William Z. Ripley. From the series of Volumes Selections and Documents in Economics, edited by William Z. Ripley published by Ginn and Company, Boston.

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 9b 2hf. Professor Ripley and Mr. Custis. — Economics of Corporations.

Total 190: 17 Graduates, 31 Seniors, 95 Juniors, 34 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 9b 2hf. Economics of Corporations. Half-course (second half-year) Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor Ripley.

The work of this course will consist of a discussion of the problems connected with the fiscal and industrial organization of capital, especially in the corporate form. The principal topic considered will be industrial combination and the so-called trust problem. This will be treated in all its phases, with comparative study of the conditions in the United States and European countries. The growth and development of corporate enterprise, promotion, capitalization and financing, publicity of accounting, the liability of directors and underwriters, will be Illustrated fully by the study of cases, not from their legal but from their purely economic aspects; and the effects of industrial combination and integration upon efficiency, profits, wages, the rights of investors, prices, industrial stability, the development of export trade, and international competition will be considered in turn.

The course is open to those students only who have taken Economies 1. Systematic reading and report work will be assigned from time to time.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 43-44.

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ECONOMICS 9b
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. In what respect did the English Company Law of 1900 fall short of providing an adequate remedy for abuses which had developed?
  2. What was the gist of the Federal decision in the Knight (Sugar Trust) case; and how does it bear upon the present situation?
  3. What is the form of the Anti-Trust laws of the different states? Discuss the feasibility of this remedy.
  4. What are Meade’s final propositions as to the need and nature of reform in corporate management?
  5. Compare the two principal methods of administering corporate sinking funds.
  6. Outline three important cases showing the attitude of the English common law toward monopoly.
  7. What appears to you as the most serious social evil in the present situation? Distinguish carefully between economic, social, and political aspects.
  8. How has economy in the matter of freights been sought by industrial combinations, and with what success?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 30.

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
Economists Exam Questions Harvard Labor

Harvard. Enrollment, Course description, Final exam. Problems of Labor. Ripley and Custis, 1904-1905

Professor William Zebina Ripley of Harvard had comfortably settled in his fields of statistics, labor problems and corporate finance/industrial organization by 1904-05. In that year he co-taught his labor course with his dissertation student Vanderveer Custis, who went on to teach economics at the University of Washington and later at Northwestern University where he attained professorial rank.

Fun fact: According to the 1907 University of Washington yearbook Tyee (p. 22), Assistant Professor of Economics Vanderveer Custis was a lineal descendant of Martha Custis Washington.

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Other Labor Related Posts
for William Z. Ripley

Problems of Labor and Industrial Organization, 1902-1903.

Problems of Labor, 1903-1904.

Short Bibliography of Trade Unionism, 1910.

Short Bibliography of Strikes and Boycotts, 1910.

Trade Unionism and Allied Problems, 1914-1915.

Problems of Labor, 1931.

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Vanderveer Custis
[1878-1961]

Chicago, June 17. Vanderveer Custis, Emeritus Professor of Economics at Northwestern University, died today in a rest home in Arlington Heights. He was 82 years old.

Mr. Custis studied at Harvard University, where he took degrees of Bachelor of Arts [1901], Master of Arts [1902] and Doctor of Philosophy [1905].

He taught economics at the University of Washington from 1905 until 1922, when he went to Northwestern as Associate Professor of Economics. He was made a full professor in 1937 and retired in 1944.

Source: New York Times (18 June 1961).

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Vanderveer Custis
Ph.D. exams

Special Examination in Economics, Wednesday, June 7, 1905.
General Examination passed May 20, 1904.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Ripley, Bullock, Sprague, and Wyman.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1897-1901; Harvard Graduate School, 1901-04; A.B. (Harvard) 1901; A.M. (ibid.) 1902.
Special Subject: Industrial Organization.
Thesis Subject: “The Theory of Industrial Consolidation.” (With Professor Ripley).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1904-1905”.

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 9a 1hf. Professor [William Zebina] Ripley and Mr. [Vanderveer] Custis. — Problems of Labor.

Total 128: 10 Graduates, 29 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 23 Sophomores, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 9a 1hf. Problems of Labor. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 1.30. Professor Ripley.

The work of this course will be concerned mainly with the economic and social questions relating to the relations of employer and employed, with especial reference to legislation. Among the topics included will be the following, viz.: methods of remuneration, profit sharing, cooperation, collective bargaining; labor organizations; factory legislation in all its phases in the United States and Europe; strikes, strike legislation and legal decisions, conciliation and arbitration; employers’ liability and compulsory compensation acts; compulsory insurance with particular reference to European experience; provident institutions, friendly societies, building and loan associations; the problem of the unemployed; apprenticeship, and trade and technical education.

Each student will be expected to make at least one report upon a labor union, from the original documents. Two lectures a week, with one recitation, will be the usual practice.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 43.

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ECONOMICS 9a1
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. State two objections to a general policy of insurance against unemployment, as tried in Switzerland.
  2. What peculiar trade conditions may make the National Union outweigh the locals in importance? Illustrate.
  3. State the two principal grounds on which employees were first denied damages for injuries about 1837.
  4. As a commercial venture how does compulsory insurance, as in Germany, differ from ordinary insurance, as it exists in the United States.
  5. What is the present status of the “closed shop” before English and American courts?
  6. In what respects does the British Trades Union Congress differ from the Annual Convention of the British Federation of Labor?
  7. What were the main causes of the downfall of the Knights of Labor? How is the American Federation protecting itself in these regards?
  8. How far has arbitration in labor disputes by governmental agency proceeded in the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 29-30.

Image Source: The 1907 edition of the University of Washington yearbook, Tyee.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Historical and comparative look at banking systems. Enrollment, course description, final exam. Sprague, 1904-1905

The run on the bank: a crisis in the affairs of the great financial institution. The most animated and realistic scene ever shown on the stage.

Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the banking course that together with Andrew Piatt Andrew’s currency course constituted the money and banking sequence at Harvard’s economic department in the first decade of the twentieth century. Both economists later made major contributions to the work of Senator Nelson W. Aldrich’s National Monetary Commission. 

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Related, earlier posts

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 8b 1hf. Asst. Professor Sprague. — Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems.

Total 82: 5 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 37 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 8b 1hf. Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems. Half-course (first half-year).Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Asst. Professor Sprague.

In Course 8b, after a summary view of early forms of banking in Italy, Amsterdam, and Hamburg, a more detailed account is given of the development, to the middle of the nineteenth century, of the system of banking in which notes were the principal form of credit and the chief subject of discussion and legislation. The rise and growth of the modern system of banking by discount and deposit is then described. The work is both historical and comparative in its methods. The banking development, legislation, and present practice of various countries, including England, France, Germany, Scotland, and Canada, are reviewed and contrasted. Particular attention is given to banking history and experience in this country: the two United States banks; the more important features of banking in the separate states before 1860; the beginnings, growth, operation, and proposed modification of the national banking system; and credit institutions outside that system, such as state banks and trust companies.

The course of the money markets of London, Paris, Berlin, and New York will be followed during a series of months, and the various factors, such as stock exchange dealings, and international exchange payments, which bring about fluctuations in the demand for loans, and the rate of discount upon them will be considered. In conclusion the relations of banks to commercial crises will be analyzed, the crises of 1857 and 1893 being taken for detailed study.

Written work, in the preparation of short papers on assigned topics, and a regular course of prescribed reading will be required of all students.

The course is open to those who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 42-43.

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ECONOMICS 8b
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. What influences gave the Bank of England its “monarchical” position? What was Bagehot’s explanation?
  2. Why does New York exchange on London, on Paris, and on Berlin tend to move in the same direction?
  3. French banks of issue other than the bank of France.
  4. The relation of “Other Deposits” to the market rate of discount in London.
  5. The use of certified checks in connection with Stock Exchange dealings.
  6. Did the establishment of the national banking system create a demand for government bonds?
  7. Discuss the proposal to repeal the ten per cent. tax on State bank notes.
  8. Reasons for depositing the money of the government with the banks.
  9. The history and present practice of note redemption under the national banking system.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 29.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Course enrollment, description, and final exam for currency legislation, experience, and theory. Andrew, 1904-1905

Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. (1911)

 

The field of monetary economics used to be called “Money and Banking” where money in earlier times was understood to mean currency used for payment as opposed to the checkable deposits held in commercial banks. Abram Piatt Andrew was to money as Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague was to banking in theHarvard economics department at the start of the 20th century. I don’t know why the courses 8a for money and 8b for banking were offered in the reverse order (8b in the fall term, 8a in the spring term). If I ever find out why that was the sequence in 1904-05, I’ll update this post.

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Related, previous posts

Abram Piatt Andrew’s home and private life was the subject of an earlier post.

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Course Enrollment
1904-1905

Economics 8a 2hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times.

Total 68: 5 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 28 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 8a 2hf. Money. — A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Asst. Professor Andrew.

In this course the aim will be to show how the existing monetary systems of the principal countries have come to be, and to analyze the more important currency problems. The course will begin with a brief history of the precious metals, which will be connected, in so far as possible, with the history of prices and the development of monetary theory. The history of coinage legislation in England and Europe and the United States will be traced, and will lead to an extended consideration of the various aspects of the bimetallic controversy. At convenient points, the experiences of various countries with paper money will be reviewed, and the influence of such issues upon wages, prices, and trade examined. Attention will also be given to the non-monetary means of payment and the questions of monetary theory arising from their use. Among other subjects treated will be the several methods of measuring exchange value, various aspects of the labor and commodity standards, the explanation of price movements, the relations between prices and the rate of interest, and the reasons for the divergence in the value of money in different countries.

Systematic reading will be expected and will be tested by monthly examinations.

Course 8a is open to those who have taken Course 1.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 42.

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ECONOMICS 8a
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

Omit one question.

  1. “The cost of production of money being given, the quantity will depend upon the rapidity of circulation.” How far is this true? and why?
  2. Suppose the single gold standard universally adopted. How then would the universal authorization of free silver coinage at the ratio of 16 to 1 affect (a) the circulating medium, (b) the standard of value?
    Consider both the immediate and the eventual results.
  3. What conclusions of general significance are to be drawn from the history of the Latin monetary union?
  4. State briefly the circumstances which led to the issue and the withdrawal of the American trade dollar.
  5. What influences in brief caused the cessation of free silver coinage in
    (a) England?
    (b) the United States?
    (c) Germany?
  6. Suppose the market ratio between gold and silver were to decline to 22 to 1, what would be the effect upon the currency of
    (a) Great Britain.
    (b) British India.
    (c) The United States.
    (d) The Philippines.
  7. Do falling prices “necessarily enhance the burden of all debts and fixed charges”?
    Illustrate by the experience of the United States during the period from 1873 to 1896, pointing out possible differences between agricultural and mercantile debts.
  8. Explain the respective merits of the labor standard, and the commodity standard, and show their exemplification in the history of the precious metals between 1873 and 1896.
  9. What conditions favorable to bimetallism existed ten years ago which do not exist today?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 28.

Image Source: 1911 portrait of Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. by Anders Born at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Wikimedia Commons.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance

Harvard. Course enrollment, description, and final exam for theory and methods of taxation. Bullock, 1904-1905

The Fountain of Taxation

The field of public finance was covered at Harvard in 1904-05 in two semester courses taught by Charles Jesse Bullock. The previous post contains material from the first course in the sequence, an introduction to public finance. The second semester’s focus was on the theory and methods of taxation with enrollment figures, a course description and the final exam transcribed and posted below.

A short bibliography “for serious students” on taxation published in 1910 by Bullock has been transcribed earlier (with many links to the items).

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 7b 2hf. Asst. Professor Bullock. — Theory and Methods of Taxation.

Total 45: 5 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 16 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 74.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 7b 2hf. The Theory and Methods of Taxation. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Asst. Professor Bullock.

In this course the tax systems of England, France, and Germany are first studied. Then the theory of taxation is examined, attention being given to such subjects as the classification, the just distribution, and the incidence of taxes. Finally, the existing methods of taxation in the United States, will receive careful consideration.

Systematic reading will be required, and most of the exercises conducted by the method of informal discussion. Graduate Students and candidates for Honors will be given the opportunity of writing theses.

The course is open to students who have taken Economies 1.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 41-42.

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ECONOMICS 7b2
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. Make a list of the different taxes employed in the United States, and state by what governments — federal, state, or local — each tax is employed.
  2. What taxes are employed by (a) the German Empire, (b) the Kingdom of Prussia, (c) the local governing bodies of Prussia?
  3. What taxes are employed by the national government in England which our own national government does not employ? How can you account for the differences between the two systems of national taxation?
  4. Compare the British and the Prussian income taxes.
  5. Describe the taxation of inheritances in Great Britain and in France.
  6. Write a brief history of direct apportioned taxes levied by our national government.
  7. What are the chief constitutional limitations upon the taxing power of the states of the American Union?
  8. If called upon to draft a general corporation tax for an Ameri can state, what plan would you follow in order to make the tax (a) constitutional, (b) productive, (c) as just as possible?
  9. Describe the taxation of mortgages in Massachusetts and California, and describe the results secured in each state.
  10. Discuss in some detail the methods of taxing personal property in Massachusetts and the results secured.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 27.

Image Source: Library of Congress. Puck, 23 June 1909. “The fountain of taxation”. Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann, Puck Building.

A large fountain with four basins, at top, supported by a crown and scepters, is a basin labeled “Millionaire”, next resting on a cornucopia is “Well-To-Do”, then the “Middle Class” basin supported by an octopus, and at the bottom is the largest basin labeled the “Laboring Class”. The fountain is standing on a platform labeled “Tax System”; the water, cascading from top down is labeled “Burden of Taxation”.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance

Harvard. Course enrollment, description, final exam. Public finance. Bullock, 1904-05

Gore Hall, the Harvard University library, 1838-1913

The systematic transcription of economics exam questions and course materials through the years can be tedious even for the curator of the artifacts collected here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror, so I’ll try to make such posts a bit livelier adding a dash or two of additional anecdotal material about the instructor or the course itself.

From the obituaries for Charles Jesse Bullock inserted immediately below we learn that in his pre-economics life Bullock taught Latin and Greek. This perhaps accounts for his interest in early, as in ancient Greek early, economic thought. Also interesting is to learn that after his retirement from Harvard that he served as the chief of the research division for the Republican National committee and provided advice to the 1936 Republican presidential nominee, Alf Landon.

Bullock’s pre-Harvard career is sketched in a note taken from the Williams College yearbook, The Gulielmensian (1900).

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A Pair of Obituaries

FORMER WILLIAMS TEACHER IS DEAD
Prof. Charles J. Bullock,Retired Harvard Economist,
on Faculty Here at Century’s Turn.

The North Adams Transcript (March 20, 1941)

Dr. Charles Jesse Bullock, professor emeritus of economics at Harvard university, a nationally known tax authority and a former member of the Williams college faculty, died Monday at his home in Hingham. He was 72 years old.

From 1899 until 1903 when he went to Harvard, Dr. Bullock taught at Williams, first as an assistant professor of economics and sociology and then as Orrin Sage professor of history and political science. He became a full professor at Harvard in 1908 and continued to teach there until 1935 when he took the title of professor emeritus.

Prof. Bullock was the author of many books and articles on economics. In the presidential campaign year of 1936, after his retirement, he served as chief of the research division of the Republican National committee and conferred with Alfred M. Landon, the Republican candidate, on many occasions.

A native of Boston, Dr. Bullock was graduated from Boston university in 1889. He taught Greek and Latin in New England schools and served as principal of the Middlebury, Vt. high school before entering the University of Wisconsin to study economics. He earned a doctorate there in 1895.

Prof. Bullock returned to Williamstown in 1921 to receive an honorary degree of doctor of laws from Williams.

Dr. Bullock married Helena M. Smith of Washington in 1895 and they had one daughter, Grace Helena Bullock.

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Prof. Chas. J. Bullock

Middlebury Register and Addison County Journal (Mar 28, 1941)

Word has been received in Middlebury of the death at Hingham, Mass. on Mar. 17 of Prof. Charles Jesse Bullock of Harvard University, who was principal of Middlebury High School in 1891 and whose wife was the former Helena Smith of Middlebury. Funeral services were held Mar. 19. After he left Middlebury Prof. Bullock served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin, Cornell, Williams, and Harvard. He became widely noted as an economist, specializing in taxation and monetary problems. In an editorial tribute to him the Boston Herald said: “He saw the necessity of elevating the standards of business and of giving some of the aspects and ideals of the professions. It was due largely to his quiet preliminary work over a considerable period that the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration was initiated and endowed liberally. . . It was not the least of his services that he made academic and nonacademic circles understand each other better, and work together in harmony and with mutual respect.”

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 7a 1hf. Asst. Professor Bullock. — Introduction to Public Finance.

Total 26: 5 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 74.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 7a 1hf. Introduction to Public Finance. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Asst. Professor Bullock.

This course is designed to cover the general field of Public Finance exclusive of Taxation. After a brief survey of the scope and history of Public Finance, the following subjects are studied: Public Expenditures, Public Revenues other than Taxes, Public Debts, Financial Administration, and Budgetary Legislation. Attention is given both to theory and to the practice of various countries.

A systematic course of reading will be prescribed, and most of the exercises conducted by the method of informal discussion. Graduate Students and candidates for Honors will be given the opportunity of writing theses.

The course is open to students who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 41.

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ECONOMICS 7a1
Final Examination, 1904-05

PUBLIC FINANCE

  1. Discuss the history of federal expenditures in the United States since 1860.
  2. What can you say concerning the probable future of the following classes of public expenditures: outlay for external defence, out lay for police purposes, outlay for dependent and defective classes, outlay for the benefit of industry and commerce?
  3. What is your opinion of the arguments advanced in favor of municipalization of the lighting and street-transportation industries?
  4. Discuss the past and the present policy of the United States with respect to its public lands.
  5. Discuss in broad outline the history of the British national debt from 1630 to 1815 and that of the French national debt from 1815 to the present day.
  6. Should a national debt be repaid? State and criticise the theory of Pitt’s sinking fund of 1786.
  7. What is your opinion of the proposition to pay off a national debt by accumulating a fund which, invested and improved at interest, will be sufficient to meet the principal of the debt at maturity?
  8. Compare British and American methods of preparing and voting the national budget.
  9. What are the comparative merits of the British and the French methods of public accounting?
  10. Describe in outline the experience of the United States with the independent treasury from 1846 to the present day.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1904-05. Copy also available in Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 26-27.

Image Source: Interior of Gore Hall, the library at Harvard University from 1838 to 1913. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.  For a colorized mugshot of Charles Jesse Bullock.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Course enrollment, description and final exams. U.S. economic history. Sprague, 1904-1905

 

Judging from his faculty photos published in the Harvard Classbook Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague (1873-1953) was an assistant professor of economics with boyish good looks. His main field was banking and finance but he carried on Charles Dunbar’s interest in monetary and financial history in both his teaching and his research. He was sort of a Charles Kindleberger in his day, see his History of crises under the national banking system (Washington, Gov’t Print. Off., 1910, 1911).

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 6. Asst. Professor Sprague. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 79: 9 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 42 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 74.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 6. The Economic and Financial History of the United States. Tu., Th., Sat., at 9. Asst. Professor Sprague.

Course 6 gives a general survey of the economic history of the United States from the close of the eighteenth century to the present time, and aims to show on the one hand the mode in which economic principles are illustrated by American experience and, on the other, the extent to which economic conditions have influenced social and political development. The following are among the subjects considered: aspects of the Revolution and commercial relations during the Confederation and the European wars; the history of the protective tariff policy and the growth of manufacturing industries; the settlement of the West and the history of transportation, including the early canal and turnpike enterprises of the states, the various phases of railway building and the establishment of public regulation of railways; various aspects of agrarian history, such as the public land policy, the growth of foreign demand for American produce and the subsequent competition of other sources of supply; certain social topics, such as slavery and its economic basis, emancipation and the present condition of the Negro, and the effects of immigration. Comparisons will be made from time to time with the contemporary economic history of Europe. Finally the more important features of our currency and financial history are reviewed.

The course is taken advantageously with or after History 13. It is open to students who have taken Economics 1, and also to Seniors who are taking that course.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 40-41.

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ECONOMICS 6
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

  1. Mention at least five of the means by which, according to Hamilton, manufactures may be encouraged. Comment upon the one which he considers at greatest length, and as probably the most effective.
  2. Compare the views of Hamilton and Gallatin upon the effect which the trade policy of other countries should have upon that of the United States.
  3. What section of the country suffered most severely from the separation from England?
  4. (Take seven.) Whitney, Slater, Dallas, Cheeves, Biddle, McDuffie, Guthrie, Taney, Walker, Morrill.
  5. United States monetary legislation, 1830-1860.
  6. What lessons may be drawn from the financial experience of the Government during (a) the War of 1812; (b) the years following the Crises of 1837 and 1857?
  7. Mention by date and character (more or less protective) the chief tariff acts between 1810 and 1860.
  8. The relation of tariffs to crises to 1860.
  9. The policy adopted with reference to their debts by Ohio, Michigan, and Mississippi.

Source: Harvard University Archives. . Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1904-05.

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ECONOMICS 6
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. (a) The negro and the cultivation of tobacco.
    (b) The negro death rate.
    (c) The negro in the North.
  2. Protection and the iron industry before and after the Civil War.
  3. The taxation policy of Congress in successive wars.
  4. Government deficits and the currency, 1893-96. Would the situation have been essentially different if the act of 1900 had been in operation during those years?
  5. The act of 1894 as a free trade measure.
  6. Treasury arrangements for the resumption of specie payments.
  7. The policy and the results of refunding under the acts of 1870 and 1900.
  8. Wages and prices, 1890-1903.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 26.

Image Source:   Harvard University. Quinquennial Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates, 1636-1920. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1920. Front cover.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Transportation

Harvard. Course enrollment, description, and final exam. Economics of Transportation. Ripley and Daggett, 1904-1905

 

Professor William Zebina Ripley together with his student Stuart Daggett (Ph.D. 1906) offered “Economics of Transportation” during the first semester of 1904-05 at Harvard. Reading the exam questions it is pretty clear that the emphasis was on railroads, a subject that posed interesting and important policy questions in industrial organization, government regulation, and finance. Ripley published much on transportation problems in general and railway problems in particular. 

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Monographs/Books on Transportation by W. Z. Ripley

Transportation. Chapter from the Final report of the U.S. Industrial Commission (Vol. XIX) and privately issued by the author for the use of his students and others. Washington, D.C., 1902.

Railway Problems, edited with an introduction by William Z. Ripley (Boston: Ginn & Company, 1907).

Railroads: Rates and Regulation (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1912).

Railroads: Finance & Organization (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1915).

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

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

Total 139: 5 Graduates, 54 Seniors, 47 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 74.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 5. 1hf. Economics of Transportation. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 10. Professor Ripley.

A brief outline of the historical development of rail and water transportation in the United States will be followed by a description of the condition of transportation systems at the present time; with a view to familiarizing the student with the principal sources of information. The four main subdivisions of Rates and Rate-Making, Finance, Traffic Operation, and Legislation will be considered in turn. The first subdivision deals with the relation of the railroad to the shipper. It will comprehend an analysis of the theory and practice of rate-making, including, for example, freight classification, the nature of railroad competition, the long and short haul principle, pooling, etc. Under the second heading, having reference to the interests of owners and investors, an outline will be given of the nature of railroad securities, such as stocks, bonds, etc., the principles of capitalization, the interpretation of railroad accounts and annual reports, receiverships and reorganizations, etc. Railroad Operation, the third subdivision, will deal with the practical problems of the traffic department, such as the collection and interpretation of statistics of operation, pro-rating, the apportionment of cost, depreciation and maintenance, etc. In the fourth subdivision, Legislation, the course of state regulation and control in the United States and Europe will be traced. Discussion will follow concerning the work of the Interstate Commerce Commission, judicial interpretation of the law, and the relation of the Commission to the Courts.

One special report from original sources on an assigned topic will be required of every student in the course. Two lectures will be given regularly per week, while the third hour will be devoted to recitation and written work. Course 5 is open to all students who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 40.

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ECONOMICS 51
Final Examination, 1904-05

  1. What is a “voting trust,” and for what purposes may one be created?
  2. What seems to be the plan of organization of the anthracite coal roads to secure concerted action in marketing their product? Outline clearly what their policy is.
  3. What does the Operating Ratio show and what is its main defect as an index of efficiency?
  4. Outline the Massachusetts policy of railway regulation: (a) in respect of general service; and (b) in financial matters.
  5. What are the present powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission in respect of rate making? Carefully distinguish the different phases of this matter.
  6. How far have the Elkins’ Amendments remedied the abuses against which it was directed?
  7. Illustrate at least two possible uses of the power of injunction to remedy evils in railway service. Give concrete illustrations.
  8. Define exactly what is meant by the following:—

(a) Charging expenses to capital account.
(b) Cancelling a commodity rate.
(c) A pro-rating division of the rate.

Source: Harvard University Archives. . Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1904-05. Copy also available in Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 25.

Image Source: Buster Keaton in “The General” (1926). If you want a mugshot of Professor William Z. Ripley go here.