Category: Harvard

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

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-07-27

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.

__________________________

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.”

__________________________

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.

__________________________

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.

The place in the ethics of industry of :—
The Civic Federation.
Mundella.
Conseils de Prud’hommes.
Employers’ Associations. (Adams and Sumner, page 279.)
The Social-Democratic Party in Germany; its history and principles.
Economic and ethical criticisms on the programme of Revolutionary Socialism.
“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?
Industrial education, in its relation to child-labor and to economic efficiency. (Lecture of R. A. Woods.)
The methods and policies of labor-organization in the United States. (Adams and Sumner, pages 245 ff.)
“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.
Compare, in their importance for the ethics of industry, the system of profit-sharing and the system of industrial partnership.
“Trade-agreements,” considered in their relations to the rights of the people.
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.

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Bibliography Harvard Principles

Harvard. Linked References to 1st ed of Principles of Economics. Taussig, 1911

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-07-27

The first edition of Frank W. Taussig’s Principles of Economics was published in 1911. The two volumes were divided into eight books with well over one hundred items listed in the references. All but two of those items have been found in internet archives and links have been provided to them in the transcription below. I have also included first names for all but one of the authors.

Outstanding Challenge: Find on-line copies of

Ludwig Pohle. Deutschland am Scheidewege (1902);
Karl Theodor von Eheberg. Finanzwissenschaft (1909 edition).

____________________________

Volume I

BOOK I
THE ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCTION
References

On productive and unproductive labor, see the often-cited passages in Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book II, Chapter III; and those in John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book I, Chapter III. Wilhelm Roscher, Political Economy, Book I, Chapter III, gives an excellent historical and critical account. Among modern discussions, none is more deserving of attention than the paper by Professor Thorstein Veblen, on “industrial” and “pecuniary” employments, in Proceedings of the American Economic Association, 1901, No. 1. A recent discussion, with not a little of clouded thought, is in the Verhandlungen des Vereins für Sozialpolitik, 1909; especially a paper by Professor Eugen von Philippovich and the discussion thereon.

On the division of labor, Charles Babbage, On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (1837), is still to be consulted. On modern developments, the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor (U. S.) on Hand and Machine Labor (1899) [Volume I; Volume II] contains a multitude of illustrations. A keen analysis of the division of labor in its historical forms is in Karl Bücher, Die Entstehung der Volkswirthschaft (7th ed., 1910) [3^rd ed. 1901; 10^th ed. 1917]; translated into English from the 3d German edition under the title Industrial Evolution (1901). On the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century, see the well-ordered narrative in Paul Mantoux, La révolution industrielle au xviii^e siècle (1906), and the less systematic but more philosophical account in Arnold Toynbee, Lectures on the Industrial Revolution (10th ed., 1894).

On capital, see the references given below, at the close of Book V. Much as has been written of late on corporate doings and corporate organization, I know of no helpful references on the topics considered in Chapter 6.

BOOK II
VALUE AND EXCHANGE
References

Easily the first and most valuable book to be consulted on the theory of value is Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics (6th ed., 1910) [4^th ed., 1898; 7^th ed., 1916], especially Books III, IV, V. An admirable introductory sketch is in Thomas Nixon Carver, Distribution of Wealth, Chapter I. On the play of utility, see Philip Henry Wicksteed, The Common Sense of Political Economy (1910); Chapter II of Book I and Chapter III of Book II are valuable supplements to Marshall’s discussion of consumer’s surplus. Compare, also, Maffeo Pantaleoni, Pure Economics (English translation, 1898), Part II.

On speculation, consult Henry Crosby Emery, Speculation in the Stock and Produce Exchanges of the United States (1896).

The so-called Austrian theory of value, in which stress is laid on utility as dominating value, is set forth most fully in Friedrich von Wieser, Natural Value (English translation, 1893). A more compact statement is in Eugen von Böhm Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital (English translation, 1891), Books III and IV.

BOOK III
MONEY AND THE MECHANISM OF EXCHANGE
References

On money, Karl Helfferich, Das Geld (2d ed., 1910) 3^rd ed., unchanged with a statistical addition to the 2^nd ed, 1916, is an excellent descriptive and analytical book. On the theory of money and prices, Irving Fisher, The Purchasing Power of Money (1911), also an excellent book, was published just as the present volume was going to press; I am glad to find its conclusions in essential accord with my own. An entirely different mode of reasoning, and different conclusions, which I find myself unable to accept, are in James Laurence Laughlin, The Principles of Money (1903). Joseph French Johnson, Money and Currency, has convenient accounts of the monetary history of various countries, but is of no value on questions of theory.

On banking, Charles Franklin Dunbar, Chapters on the Theory and History of Banking (ed. by Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague, 1901), is a little classic, and contains also abundant references.Hartley Withers, The Meaning of Money, gives a lucid and interesting account of banking conditions in Great Britain. Charles Arthur Conant, A History of Modern Banks of Issue, is useful for its descriptive matter. A vast mass of information on the banking problems and experiences of recent years is in the Publications of the National Monetary Commission (1909-1911); ably reviewed by Wesley Clair Mitchell] in Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1911.

On the questions of principle underlying bimetallism, see Leonard Darwin, Bimetallism (1898). The same questions are considered in Karl Helfferich, Das Geld (1910) [3^rd ed., unchanged with a statistical addition to the 2^nd ed, 1916], already referred to. Consult, also, James Laurence Laughlin, History of Bimetallism in the United States; Henry Parker Willis, A History of the Latin Monetary Union (1901); Piatt Andrew, “The End of the Mexican Dollar,” in Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XVIII, p. 321 (May, 1904).

On index numbers and methods of measuring prices, William Stanley Jevons, Investigations in Currency and Finance (1884), though of older date, is still to be read, as among the most interesting and stimulating on this topic. See also Professor Francis Ysidro Edgeworth’s] brilliant memorandum, in Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1887, pp. 247-301; and Correa Moylan Walsh, The Measurement of General Exchange Value (1901).

On rising and falling prices in relation to the rate of interest, see Irving Fisher, Appreciation and Interest, Public. Am. Econ. Assoc., First Series, Vol. XI (1896), and the same writers The Rate of Interest (1907), Chapters V and XIV. See also two papers by John Bates Clark, in the Political Science Quarterly, Vol. X, p. 389 [“The Gold Standard of Currency in the Light of Recent Theory”], and Vol. XI, p. 259 [“Free Coinage and Prosperity”](1895, 1896), and criticism of these by Correa Moylan Walsh, “The Steadily Appreciating Standard,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XI, p. 280 (1897).

Notwithstanding the abundant literature on crises, there is no good book on the underlying questions of principle. Good historical books are: Clément Juglar, Des crises commerciales et de leur retour périodique en France, en Angleterre, et aux États-Unis (2d ed., 1889), and Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague, A History of Crises under the National Banking System (1910; published by the National Monetary Commission).

BOOK IV
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
References

On the foreign exchanges, see Viscount George Joachim Goschen, The Theory of the Foreign Exchanges (last ed., 1901), and George Clare, The A B C of the Foreign Exchanges [Frank Taussig’s copy!] (1895). On international trade, the chapters in John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy (last ed., 1871), Book III, Chapters 17 seq., though in some parts unduly elaborated, are still unsurpassed. A good modern statement, almost too compact, is in Charles Francis Bastable, The Theory of International Trade (4th ed., 1903). A mathematical treatment is in three papers by Francis Ysidro Edgeworth, “The Theory of International Values,” in the Economic Journal, Vol. IV [March, September, December] (1894). I venture to refer also to my own paper on “Wages and Prices, in Relation to International Trade,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XX, August, 1906.

Notwithstanding the mass of literature on free trade and protection, no book covers the controversy satisfactorily. Henry Fawcett, Free Trade and Protection (1885), states the simpler reasoning in favor of free trade and refutes the cruder protectionist fallacies. Arthur Cecil Pigou, Protective and Preferential Import Duties (1906), is able and discriminating, but written with reference chiefly to the contemporary controversy (1895-1905) in Great Britain. On this, see also William James Ashley, The Tariff Problem (2^nd ed. 1904). On the German debates, see, among others, Ludwig Pohle, Deutschland am Scheidewege (1902), and Adolph Wagner, Agrar- und Industriestaat (1902), both in favor of protection for agriculture; and on the other side, Lujo Brentano, Die Schrecken des [überwiegenden] Industriestaats (1901), and Heinrich Dietzel, Weltwirthschaft und Volkswirthschaft (1900). On the tariff history of the United States, Edward Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies in the Nineteenth Century (1903) [Volume I(1903); Volume II (1904), a narrative account of legislation and discussion by a protectionist; and Frank William Taussig, The Tariff History of the United States (ed. of 1909) [5^th ed. 1910].

Volume 2

BOOK V
THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
References

On the theory of distribution in general, as on that of value, the first book to be mentioned is Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, Books IV, V, VI (6th ed., 1910) [5^th ed., 1908]. A compact and able theoretic analysis is in Thomas Nixon Carver, The Distribution of Wealth (1904). Entirely different in method, with a wealth of historical and statistical analysis, and large-minded treatment of the underlying social problems, is Gustav von Schmoller, Grundriss der Volkswirtschaftslehre, Books III, IV (1900–1904; French translation, 1905–1908).

Among the many modern books on capital and interest, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital (English translation, 1891, has most profoundly influenced recent economic thought. A revised edition of the German is in process of publication, the first part having appeared in 1909) [Note —German 4^th edition (1921): Kapital und Kapitalzins: Part I, Geschichte und Kritik der Kapitalzins-Theorien; Part II, Positive Theorie des Kapitales, Vol. I; Part II, Positive Theorie des Kapitales, Vol. II (Exkurse)]. Not inferior to this in intellectual incisiveness, but marked, like it, by some excess of refinement and subtlety, are Irving Fisher’s two volumes, The Nature of Capital and Income (1906), and The Rate of Interest (1907). John Bates Clark, The Distribution of Wealth (1899), sets forth a theory of wages and interest as the specific products of labor and capital; I find myself unable to accept the reasoning, but to some economists it seems conclusive. The view that there is no essential difference between interest and rent (see Chapter 46) is maintained not only by I. Fisher and J. B. Clark, but by Frank Albert Fetter, Principles of Economics (1904). An able book by a French thinker is Adolphe Landry, L’intérêt du capital (1904).

On urban site rent, interesting descriptive matter is in Richard Melancthon, Principles of City Land Values (1903).

James Bonar, Malthus (1885), gives an excellent account of Malthus’s writings and of the earlier controversy about his doctrines. Arsène Dumont, Dépopulation et civilisation (1890), not a book of the first rank, states the modern French view, laying stress on “social capillarity”, as explaining the decline in the birth rate, and enlarging on the desirability of an increasing population. Émile Levasseur, La Population française (1892), Vol. III, Part I, gives a good summary statement on the base of population compared with the growth of wealth. Georg von Mayr, Statistik und Gesellschaftslehre [Vol. I, Theoretische Statistik(1895)]: Vol. II, Bevölkerungsstatistik (1897), Vol. III, Part I, Moralstatistik (1910), gives a model summary of statistical data and a judicial statement on questions of principle.

Notwithstanding the enormous mass of literature on social stratification, there is no one book that treats this topic in a manner thoroughly satisfactory. Cyrille van Overbergh, La classe sociale (1905), may be consulted.

BOOK VI
PROBLEMS OF LABOR
References

A compact discussion of the topics in this Book is in Thomas Sewall Adams and Helen L. Sumner, Labor Problems (1905). On trade-unions, the elaborate book by Sidney and Beatrice Potter Webb, Industrial Democracy (1902), is of high quality; written with special regard to English experience, and stating too strongly the case in favor of the trade-union. On the American situation there is no good systematic book; but excellent studies on some phases are in Jacob Harry Hollander and George Ernest Barnett, Studies in American Trade-Unionism (1905). On Australasian experience, see Victor Selden Clark, The Labour Movement in Australasia (1906); and on the history of labor legislation in England, B. L. Hutchins and Amy Harrison, A History of Factory Legislation (1903). John Rae, Eight Hours for Work(1894), is a good inquiry on experience to the date of its publication. On workingmen’s insurance and allied topics, see Henry Rogers Seager, Social Insurance: A Program of Social Reform (1910), brief and excellent. More detailed and more informational is Lee Kaufer Frankel and Miles Menander Dawson, Workingmen’s Insurance in Europe (1910); still more elaborate is the Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor (U. S.), Workingmen’s Insurance and Compensation Systems in Europe (2 vols., 1910). William Henry Beveridge, Unemployment (1910), is an able book, at once sympathetic and discriminating. A good general account of the co-öperative movement is Charles Ryle Fay, Co-öperation at Home and Abroad (1908).

For more detailed bibliographical memoranda, see the Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, published by Harvard University (1910).

BOOK VII
PROBLEMS OF ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION
References

On railways, Arthur Twinning Hadley, Railroad Transportation (1885), though of older date, has not been completely superseded. More recent are William Mitchell Acworth, The Elements of Railway Economics (1905), and Emory Richard Johnson, American Railway Transportation (new ed., 1910); the latter written primarily as a textbook for American colleges. An able monograph is Matthew Brown Hammond, Railway Rate Theories of the Interstate Commerce Commission (1911); compare John Maurice Clark, Standards of Reasonableness in Local Freight Discriminations (1910). Among foreign books, Clément Colson, Transports et tarifs (1890), though technical and detailed, is of high value. On combinations and trusts, Robert Liefmann, Kartelle und Trusts (1909) [French translation, 1914], gives an excellent compact account of the German situation; and Henry William Macrosty, The Trust Movement in British Industry (1907), a detailed survey of that in Great Britain. Three usable books on American conditions are Richard Theodore Ely, Monopolies and Trusts (1900), Jeremiah Whipple Jenks, The Trust Problem(1900), Edward Sherwood Meade, Trust Finance (1903).

On public ownership, Leonard Darwin, Municipal Trade (1903), is an acute critical book, by an opponent; a briefer statement of the same reasoning is in this author’s Municipal Ownership (1907). A mass of information and discussion on both sides is in the Report on the Municipal and Private Operation of Public Utilities, published by the National Civic Federation (3 vols., 1907) [Vol. I; Vol. II; Vol. III]. A detailed treatment of the relation of municipalities to “public utilities” is in Delos Franklin Wilcox, Municipal Franchises (2 vols., 1910-1911) [Vol. I; Vol. II].

The books on socialism deal largely with controversies which do not proceed to the heart of the matter. This seems to me to hold of Karl Marx, Das Kapital (English translation, 1891), the most famous and influential of socialist books. Among the innumerable discussions and refutations of the Marxian doctrines may be mentioned Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Zum Abschluss des Marxchen Systems, Marx and the Close of his System (English translation, 1891), and James Edward Le Rossignol, Orthodox Socialism: a Criticism (1907). A concise and vigorous statement, based mainly on Marx, is in Karl Kautsky, The Class Struggle and The Social Revolution (English translations, 1910 [and 1902, respectively]). John Spargo, Socialism (1906), is a popular statement of socialist tenets and proposals. Among recent socialist books, James MacKaye, The Economy of Happiness (1906), advocates socialism in a train of rigorous utilitarian reasoning.

Among expository and critical books, Albert Schäffle, The Impossibility of Social Democracy, and The Quintessence of Socialism (English translations, 1892 and 1902), are excellent, especially the last-named. The most stimulating and discriminating advocacy and discussion of socialism is often by writers who do not pretend to be “scientific.” Such are Herb Goldsworthy Lowes Dikinson, Justice and Liberty(1908).

On this Book, as on Book VI, see the bibliographical memoranda in the Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, published by Harvard University (1910).

BOOK VIII
TAXATION
References

Charles Francis Bastable, Public Finance (2d ed., 1895), covers the whole field, and is able and well-judged, though not attractively written. Among foreign books, Karl Theodor von Eheberg, Finanzwissenschaft (new ed., 1909), is a good book of the German type; and Paul Leroy Beaulieu, Science des Finances (new ed., 1906. Vol. I; Vol. II), is an able French book, full of good sense and information, but not strong on some questions of principle. On progression, the view presented in Chapter 66 is similar to that of Adolph Wagner, Finanzwissenschaft, Vol. II, § 396 seq. (ed. of 1880), and is different from that in Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman’s Progressive Taxation in Theory and Practice (new ed., 1908). The last-named writer’s Income Tax (1911) is an excellent survey of legislation and experience; and in his Essays on Taxation (new ed., 1911 [1913 edition linked here]), there is a valuable discussion of the American property tax system.

Image Source: Maggs Bros. Ltd. advertisement for a copy of the first edition of Frank W. Taussig’s Principles of Economics (1911). List price (as of July 27, 2024): US$ 765.35.

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Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, Melvin Gardner de Chazeau. 1930

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-07-22

Melvin Gardner de Chazeau’s graduate school record at Harvard (Economics Ph.D. 1930) is documented fully in this post that also includes a fairly complete c.v. for him (visitors can hunt down his many book reviews at jstor.org).

Research Tip: There are 2.3 cubic feet of personal papers of Melvin Gardner de Chazeau at the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Application for Candidacy for the Degree of Ph.D.

[Note: Boldface used to indicate printed text of the application; italics used to indicate the handwritten entries]

I. Full Name, with date and place of birth.

Melvin Gardner de Chazeau. Olympia, Wash.; March 20, 1900.

II. Academic Career: (Mention, with dates inclusive, colleges or other higher institutions of learning attended; and teaching positions held.)

University of Washington 1921-25.
Teaching Fellow (Econ.) 1924-25.
Harvard University 1925-6. Instructor & Tutor (Econ. A) 1926-27.

III. Degrees already attained. (Mention institutions and dates.)

A.B. U. of Washington. Dec. 1924.
M.A. U. of Washington. Aug. 1925.
A.M. Harvard. 1927.

IV. General Preparation. (Indicate briefly the range and character of your undergraduate studies in History, Economics, Government, and in such other fields as Ancient and Modern Languages, Philosophy, etc.)

Econ.: Courses in Standards of Living, History and Theory of Labor in U.S. and Europe, Marketing and Advertising, History of Econ. Thought, Econ. Theory. (Taught General Econ.)
Gov.: General course, American Gov’t., Readings in Political thought.
Phil.: Hist. of Phil., Social Ethics & Ethical Theory, Logic, Phil. of Religion, Modern Schools.
Languages: Spanish, French & Latin (High School).

V. Department of Study. (Do you propose to offer yourself for the Ph.D., “History,” in “Economics,” or in “Political Science”?)

Economics.

VI. Choice of Subjects for the General Examination. (State briefly the nature of your preparation in each subject, as by Harvard courses, courses taken elsewhere, private reading, teaching the subject, etc., etc.)

Econ. Theory and its History. (Special emphasis since 1776).
Econ. 11; Econ. 15 (audit); Econ. 33
Grad. Seminars (U. of W.) in Price Determination, Theory, International Finance.
Econ. History since 1750.
Econ. 2.
Statistics.
Econ. 41; Econ. 1a.
Money and Banking.
Econ. 38. Also matter connected with Econ. 33.
Ethics.
Two undergraduate courses: Social Ethics and Ethical Theory (U. of W.) Extensive undergraduate and one year’s graduate work in Phil. Private reading.
Regulation of Public Utilities.
Grad. Seminar (U. of W.) in Rate Regulation.
Econ. 36 (audit).

VII. Special Subject for the special examination.

Regulation of Public Utilities.

VIII. Thesis Subject. (State the subject and mention the instructor who knows most about your work upon it.)

~~Details of subject not yet determined upon~~. F. W. Taussig.
[Insert written in pencil:] Some Chapters in the Regulation of the Electric Industry in Massachusetts

IX. Examinations. (Indicate any preferences as to the time of the general and special examinations.)

Closing weeks of first, or first few wseeks of second, semester
[Insert written in pencil:] 1926-27. February 21, 1927.

X. Remarks

[Left blank]

Signature of a member of the Division certifying approval of the above outline of subjects.

[signed] F. W. Taussig

* * * [Last page of application] * * *

[Not to be filled out by the applicant]

Name: Melvin Gardner de Chazeau

Approved: November 12, 1926

Ability to use French certified by Professor A. E. Monroe, October 21, 1926.

Ability to use German certified by Professor A. E. Monroe, October 21, 1926

Date of general examination February 21, 1927

Thesis received April 1, 1930

Read by [left blank]

Approved [left blank]

Date of special examination [left blank]

Recommended for the Doctorate [left blank]

Degree conferred [left blank]

Remarks. [left blank]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Certification of reading knowledge
of French and German for Ph.D.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Cambridge, Massachusetts
Oct. 21, 1926

Mr. M. G. De Chazeau has this day passed a satisfactory examination in the reading of French and German, as required of candidates for the doctor’s degree.

[signed]
A.E. Monroe

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Passed General Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Cambridge, Massachusetts
February 24, 1927

To the Division of History,
Government, and Economics,

As chairman of the committee appointed to conduct the general examination in economics of Melvin Gardner de Chazeau, I have to report that the examination was accepted by the committee [Taussig, Crum, Young, Cole, Demos (Ethics)] as satisfactory. It was not as high in quality as the previous record of the candidate had led the committee to expect, and a more than respectable showing at the time of the candidate’s special examination is desirable. The committee had no doubt, however, about accepting the present examination as satisfactory.

Very truly yours,
[signed]
F. W. Taussig

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Passed Special Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Cambridge, Massachusetts
May 20, 1930

Dear Professor Carver,

As chairman of the committee appointed to conduct the special examination in Economics of Mr. M. G. de Chazeau, I beg to report that Mr. De Chazeau passed the examination to the entire satisfaction of the committee.

Very sincerely yours,
[signed]
F. W. Taussig

Professor T. N. Carver
772 Widener Library
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics, Ph.D. Degrees Conferred 1929-30. (UA V 453.270), Box 10.

__________________________

THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Record of
Melvin Gardner de Chazeau

Years: 1925-26, 1926-27, 1927-28, 1929-30.

[Previous] Degrees received.

A.B. Univ. of Washington, 1924,
A.M. Univ. of Washington, 1925.

First Registration: 24 September 1925

1925-26	Grades
First Year	Course	Half-Course
Economics 1a¹		A-
Economics 2	A
Economics 11	A
Economics 38	A
Economics 41²		A+

Division: History, Government, & Economics
Scholarship, Fellowship: Ralph Sanger Scholar
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship:
Proctorship:
Degrees received: A.B. Univ. of Washington 1924, A.M. ibid. 1925

1926-27	Grades
Second Year	Course	Half-Course
Economics 20 (F.W.T.) (2d. hf.)		A
Economics 33¹		A
Economics 39²		A
Summer School 1927
Public Utilities S36 (GBA)	A

Division:
Scholarship, Fellowship:
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship: $700 in Economics. Tutor in Division of History, Government, and Economics, $900
Proctorship:
Degree attained at close of year: A.M.
Accepted for Ph.D., except for French (H.S. only) and German . Oct-16, 1925.

1927-28	Grades
Third Year	Course	Half-Course
Economics 20	A

Division:
Scholarship, Fellowship:
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship: in Economics. Tutor in the Div. of H. G. + E. $2500
Proctorship:
Degree attained at close of year:

1929-30
Fourth Year
Economics 20 (F.W.T.) 1 co.	A

Division:
Scholarship, Fellowship:
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship: in Economics. Tutor Hist, G. + Econ $2700
Proctorship:
Degree attained at close of year: Ph.D.

Home Address: Nov. 1930. 27 University Circle, University, Virginia.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Record Cards of Students, 1895-1930, Cooke—Dyson (UAV 161.2722.5). Box 4, Record Card of Melvin Gardner de Chazeau [formerly, De Shazo].

__________________________

Course Names and Instructors

1925-26

Economics 1a. Principles of Economics. Prof. Taussig and other members of the department for lectures.

Economics 2. Economic History from the Industrial Revolution. Professor Gay.

Economics 11. Economic Theory. Professor Taussig.

Economics 38. Principles of Money and Banking. Professor Young.

Economics 41². Statistical Theory and Analysis. Asst. Professor Crum.

1926-27

Economics 20. Research in Economics (with Professor Frank William Taussig) (2d. hf.)

Economics 33¹. International Trade. Professor Taussig.

Economics 39². International Finance. Associate Professor Williams.

1927 (Summer)

S36 (GBA). Public Utilities. Professor Philip Cabot.

1927-28

Economics 20. Research in Economics.

1929-30

Economics 20. Research in Economics (with Frank William Taussig) 1 co.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1925-26, 1926-27, 1927-28, 1929-30.

__________________________

Melvin Gardner
de Chazeau
Timeline of his life and career

1900. Born March 20 in Olympia, Washington.

1924. B.A. University of Washington. Summa cum laude. Phi Beta Kappa. [Chicago Tribune, 25 Aug 1946]

1925. M.A. University of Washington.

1927. M.A. in economics, Harvard University.

1930. Ph.D. in economics, Harvard.

1929. Married Eunice Storey (daughter Marian, born 1937).

1930-46. University of Virginia. Assistant professor 1930, associate professor 1931, professor, 1946.

1932-33. Study in England, Scotland, and South Wales of the rationalization of electricity supply in Great Britain as research fellow, Social Science Research Council.

1940-41. National Defense Advisory Commission and Office of Production Management. Steel expert.

1941-42. Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply. Consultant to Director.

1942. Production Board, Bureau of Planning and Statistics, Materials Division. Director.

1943-45. War Production Board, Program Bureau, Non-military Division. Director.

1945-47. Committee for Economic Development. Research staff.

1946-48. University of Chicago. School of Business. Professor of business economics and marketing.

1949-50. Brookings Institution. economic research.

1948-1967. Cornell University. School of Business and Public Administration. Founding member and Professor of economics and business policy. Retired 1967.

1954-55. Fulbright lecturer at the Copenhagen Graduate School of Business, Denmark.

Represented Cornell at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) for more than a decade (1950s)

1967-70. Taught at Dartmouth College and Cornell.

1985. Died November 28 in Arlington, Virginia.

Consultant (various dates): Treasury Department, Department of Justice, War Production Board, Housing Administration, Council of Economic Advisers (1953), Department of Commerce, Economic Cooperation Administration.

Selected Publications:

1934. “The Rationalization of Electricity Supply in Great Britain,” J. Land & Pub. Util. Econ. (Part I. August; Part II, November).

1937. (with C. R. Daugherty and S. S. Stratton) Economics of the Iron and Steel Industry.

1937. “The Nature of the Rate Base in the Regulation of Public Utilities,” Quarterly J. Econ.

1938. “Public Policy and Discriminatory Prices of Steel : A Reply to Prof. Fetter,” J. Polit. Econ.

1938. “Revision of Railroad Rate Structures,” Southern Econ. J.

1939. (with S. S. Stratton) Price Research in the Steel and Petroleum Industries.

1941. “Electric Power as a Regional Problem,” Southern Econ. J.

1945. “Employment Policy and Organization of Industry after the War,” Am. Econ. Rev.

1946. (with others) Jobs and Markets.

1954. (editor). Regularization of Business Investment.

1956. “Some Gains from Unit Size in Industry,” Social Science.

1973. (with Alfred E. Kahn). Integration and Competition in the Petroleum Industry.

Source: Fellows of the Social Science Research Council, 1925-1951. pp. 87-88. Also see the Cornell University Faculty Memorial Statement.

Image Source: Cornell University Library. Portrait credited to Otis A. Arnst appeared in The Ithaca Journal (29 January 1952; 8 December 1953).

Tags deChazeau

Exam Questions Harvard Sociology

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

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-07-20

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.

__________________________

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.

__________________________

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

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

__________________________

ECONOMICS 3
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

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.”
Can you, consistently with modern evolutionary philosophy, define social progress in terms of well-being? Explain.
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.”
Comment upon the following passage: “The fundamental fact in history is the law of decreasing returns.”
Compare Gidding’s conception of the “ultimate social fact” with that of Adam Smith.
Describe some of the agencies for the storing of social energy.
What is meant by “animated moderation” and how is it developed.
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.

Tags Carver

Exam Questions Harvard Principles

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

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-07-17

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.

________________________

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.

________________________

ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

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?
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?

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?
How far does the price of a copyrighted book depend on its cost? How far does its cost depend on its price?
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.
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?
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.

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?
What is the significance for labor questions of
1. “Making work”;
2. Luxurious expenditure by the rich;
3. Jurisdiction disputes?
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.

________________________

ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

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?

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

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

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?
Explain the following terms:—

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

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?

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.
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”?
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?
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?

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.

Tags AndrewAP, Bullock, Huse, Taussig, Usher

Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

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

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-07-16

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.

__________________________

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.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PHILOSOPHY 6.
Mid-year Examination, 1878-79

(Do not change the order of the questions.)

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.
Examine the assertion that, if the rich increase their unproductive expenditure, the now unemployed working classes will be benefited.
If all land were of equal fertility, and all required for cultivation, would it pay Rent? Give the reasons for your answer.
By what reasoning, irrespective of value or price, does Mr. Mill arrive at the law of Rent?
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.
(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?
Illustrate Gresham’s Law by the causes which led to the Suffolk Bank System, and the Coinage Act of the United States in 1834.
Point out the fallacy in the theory that an increase of the currency is desirable because it quickens industry.
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?
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?
Explain the system of the Bank of Amsterdam, and the reasons for establishing it.
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

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.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PHILOSOPHY 6.
Year-End Examination, 1878-79

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?
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.”
On what does the minimum rate of profit depend? What counterforces act against the downward tendency of profits?
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.
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?”
What are the conditions under which one country can permanently undersell another in a foreign market?
On whom does a tax on imports, if not prohibitory, fall?
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.”
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?
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.
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?
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.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PHILOSOPHY 7.
Mid-year Examination, 1878-79

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

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]
As a new country fills up, what changes may be expected in the normal prices of meat, timber, grain and wool?
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?
Give a summary of Mr. Cairnes’s restatement of the wages-fund theory.
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.”
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.”
What effects upon foreign trade have general changes in the rates of wages, and what have partial changes? Give the reasons.
What effect has the existence of a large debt payable to foreigners, upon the ability of a country to keep up a metallic circulation?
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.
Give some account of the Economistes and of their doctrines.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PHILOSOPHY 7.
Year-end Examination, 1878-79

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?
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?
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”?
How does Mr. Shadwell’s definition of value differ from that adopted by the school of Ricardo?
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.”
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.”
“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?”
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?
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?
“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.

Tags Dunbar, Laughlin

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for Introductory and Advanced Political Economy. Dunbar, 1877-1878

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-07-15

This post plugs a gap in the time-series of Harvard economics exams back in the day when economics was still called political economy and political economy was just another moral science among the philosophy department’s course offerings. Two courses, that was all in 1877-1878.

Texts from John Stuart Mill, Walter Bagehot, John Elliott Cairnes, Henry Charles Carey were assigned readings.

_______________________

Political Economy [first course].

Course Enrollment

[Philosophy] 6. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — Bagehot’s Lombard Street. — Financial Legislation of the United States. Three times a week. Prof. [Charles Franklin] Dunbar and Mr. [Silas Marcus] Macvane.

Total 108: 25 Seniors, 72 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1877-78, p. 59.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PHILOSOPHY 6.
Mid-year Examination 1877-78

How does the meaning of the following terms, when used in scientific discussion, differ from that which they have in popular discourse? — Wealth, Capital, Rent, Value of Money.
What is the reason that rears of great unproductive expenditure e.g. years of war, are often years of great apparent prosperity? Illustrate by the cases of England and France during the wars of Napoleon.
What is the objection to the “Allowance System” of poor relief, by which insufficient wages are made good by a contribution from public funds?
How is the alleged tendency of profits to equivalence in different employments to be reconciled with the notorious difference in the profits of different individuals?
Explain the reason for the statement that “if it were the fact that there is never any land taken into cultivation for which rent is not paid, it would be true, nevertheless, that there is always some agricultural capital which pays no rent.”
Explain carefully the reason for the proposition that high wages do not make high prices.
What causes determine the value of money?
In the markets of the world gold bullion is worth more than seventeen times as much as silver bullion. What will be the effect on the currency of a country which establishes the double standard, makes each metal a legal tender for any amount, but adjusts the weight of the coins upon the assumption that the values of gold and silver are in the ratio of 16 to 1? What further effect will be produced if, after this has taken place, another country adopts the same measure, but with the assumed ratio of 15½ to 1?
What will determine the value of an inconvertible currency which is a legal tender?
What are the arguments against the possibility of general over-production, or “excess of supply”?
The following are the items [in £ millions] in the Bank of England account for November 11, 1857:—

Bullion,	£6.6	Private deposits,	£12.9
Capital,	14.5	Notes,	21.1
Gov. Debt. & sec.	14.5	Reserve,	1.4
Gov’t. securities,	9.4	Rest,	3.4
Public deposits	5.3	Seven-day Bills	0.8
Other securities,	26.1

Arrange these items in the proper form, separating the Issue and Banking Departments, and then show the changes required by the following operations:—

An increase of loans amounting to…	£4 millions
A sale of Government securities amounting to…	1 million
The withdrawal by depositors of…	3 millions

the act of 1844 being suspended.

Why does the suspension of the act of 1844 give relief to the money market?
How far can the Bank of England control the market rate of interest?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Bound Volume 1878-79 (sic), Papers Set for Mid-Year Examinations in Rhetoric, Logic, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Music, Fine Arts in Harvard College, February 1878, pp. 11-12.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PHILOSOPHY 6.
Year-end Examinations 1877-78

[Let the answers given in your book stand in their proper order. Take either 8 or *8. Take care not to omit the last four questions.]

Why are the wages of skilled labor so much higher than those of unskilled?
Are improvements in production ever injurious to the laboring classes?
Why is it that a potential change of the supply of other commodities is enough to make their value conform to any change in their cost of production, but that in the case of gold and silver the change of supply must be actual?
When it is said that improvements tend to counteract the increasing cost of production from land, what sort of improvements are meant?
What effect is produced upon rents, profits and wages, respectively, in a country where population is stationary and capital advancing, like France?
Explain what effect, if any, will be produced on the price of corn by,
1. a tax upon rent;
2. a tithe;
3. a tax of so much per acre, irrespective of value;
4. a tax of so much per bushel.
In the theory of an ultimate stationary state of society, what is implied as to the well-being of the laboring classes when that state is reached?
State and examine Mr. Wakefield’s theory of a “limited field of employment” for capital as explaining the fall of profits.

*8. “There are two senses in which a country obtains commodities cheaper by foreign trade: in the sense of Value and in the sense of Cost.”

What effect does an annual payment of interest to foreign creditors have upon the imports and exports of a country? If the interest is payable in gold, will it necessarily cause gold to be sent out of the country? Why, or why not?
Criticise the following statement made by a well-known member of Congress:—
“Bank of England notes have been interchangeable with money since 1844, with three brief intervals, when the system of promising gold redemption and of issuing notes based on gold deposits in excess of £14,000,000 brought about crises.”
What was the provision made by the National Bank Act as to reserves for the protection of circulation and deposits, and what reserves are now required by law?
What was the amount of greenbacks outstanding in the period 1868-73, and what were the changes by which the amount settled to its present figure, $346,000,000?
State briefly the history of our gold and silver coins as found in the coinage acts of 1792, 1834, 1853, 1873, and 1878.

_______________________

Advanced Political Economy.

Course Enrollment

Total 28: 1 Graduate, 22 Seniors, 5 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1877-78, p. 59.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PHILOSOPHY 7.
Mid-year Examination, 1877-78

What reasons make a revision of the usual definition of Cost of Production necessary? How do Mill and Ricardo use the term?
What effect has the existence of “non-competing groups” on the exchange of commodities, each of which is the product of several classes of labor, as e.g. a steam engine and cotton cloth?
What is the argument in favor of Mr. Cairnes’s position that the price of corn, in the progress of society, reaches a certain maximum, beyond which it cannot advance?
When a permanent increase of currency occurs, what will be the difference in the effect on the prices of manufactured goods, vegetable products, and animal products, respectively?
Criticise the following statement of the wages-fund doctrine:—
“There is supposed to be, at any given instant, a sum of wealth which is unconditionally devoted to the payment of the wages of labor. This sum is not regarded as unalterable, for it is augmented by saving, and increases with the progress of wealth; but it is reasoned upon as at any given moment a predetermined amount. More than that amount it is assumed the wages-receiving class can not possibly divide among them; that amount, and no less, they can not but obtain. So that the sum to be divided being fixed, the wages of each depend solely on the divisor, the number of participants.”
What is to be inferred from Mr. Cairnes’s reasoning as to a probable fall of prices in the United States, with respect to the recovery of prices after confidence shall have been restored and industry shall have revived?
What is the reason for rejecting the common notion that high general wages hinder the extension of the foreign trade of a country like this?
Discuss the bearing of the reasoning involved in the last question, on the theory of protection.
Discuss the common argument that the national debt ought to be held at home, because if held abroad it compels the payment of a “tribute” to foreigners, and tends so far to check our prosperity.
Explain the fact that only about one-ninth of the French Indemnity was paid in coin.
In the progressive development of political economy as a logical system, what are the relations of Malthus, Ricardo, and Mill, respectively?
Give some account of Colbert, J.-B. Say, Storch.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PHILOSOPHY 7.
Year-end Examination, 1877-78

[Let the answers given in your book stand in their proper order.]

In what way does skill affect the cost of the products of skilled labor?
Give Cairnes’s statement of the Wages Fund doctrine. “It will perhaps strike the reader that our reasoning has conducted us into a vicious circle.” Is the circle real or apparent? Why?
Cairnes says that “an alteration in the reciprocal demand of two leading nations will act upon the price, not of any commodity in particular, but of every commodity which enters into the trade.” Is this statement broad enough to cover all the effects of such an alteration?
How are we to explain the fact that, while cost of production is generally the ultimate condition governing international exchange, it is seldom, if ever, the proximate or immediate cause of exchange?
It has been remarked that “the object of taxation is to make all property bear its equitable share.” Is this a correct statement of the principle to be followed? Why, or why not?
Criticise the following passage from a thesis on Reciprocity with Canada:—
“Unless there is a good deal of uniformity in excise it will be difficult to maintain reciprocity between the two countries… Suppose that an income tax should be laid on in the United States, as has been proposed. Such a measure would place all United States industries at a disadvantage as regards Canadian and perhaps as regards foreign.”
How does a pressure in the money market here, where paper currency is used, tend to bring gold from London to New York?
What reasoning is there for or against the statement that “the balance of trade must be against the countries which export raw produce, that the precious metals must flow from these countries, and that they must, while continuing in that course of policy, abandon the idea of gold and silver as a standard of value.”
Discuss this statement:
“Interest is the compensation paid for the use of the instrument called money, and for this alone. In countries in which that is high, the rate of profit is necessarily so, because the charge for the use of his money enters so largely into the trader’s profits.”
What is Mr. Carey’s theory as to the tendency (1) to decline in the value of commodities, and (2) to rise in the value of land; and how is this reconciled with his principle that the law of value is universal, embracing everything, «”whether land, labor, or their products”?
What logical necessity drove Mr. Carey to the invention or discovery of a new law of population? In what does his conception of an ultimate stationary state necessarily differ from that of Ricardo and Mill?
The existence of much vice and misery is ascribed by Malthus to an economic law. How far is it the result of this to “relieve the governing classes of the world from any possible responsibility for the welfare of those below them”?

Image Source: “Charles Franklin Dunbar: Second President of the American Economic Association, 1893.” The American Economic Review, vol. 31, no. 3, 1941.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1805801.
Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Tags Dunbar, Macvane

Exam Questions Harvard Social Work Socialism

Harvard. Readings and final exam for social ethics. Peabody, 1906-07

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-07-11

The field of social ethics was taught by the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and then Dean of the Harvard Divinity School, Francis Greenwood Peabody. It was a rather popular secondary field chosen for the graduate general examination by economics graduate students in the early 20th century. In the spectrum of individualism through socialism, applied social ethics (poor-relief, family, temperance, and “the labor question”) were imported from philosophical/theological studies.

__________________________

Building blocks for Peabody’s course

Peabody’s short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions published in 1910.

Francis Greenwood Peabody. 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.”

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1906-07

Social Ethics 1. Professor Peabody and Dr. Rogers. — Social Ethics. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 175: 6 Graduates, 41 Seniors, 54 Juniors, 50 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 23 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 72

__________________________

Thick Course Description
1906-07

Social Ethics . — 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. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody and Dr. Rogers.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy, and Muirhead’s Elements of Ethics]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Spencer’s Principles of Sociology (Volume 1; Volume 2; Volume 3)]; the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People (links below)]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from J. A. Hobson’s The Social Problem, Schäffle’s The Quintessence of Socialism, Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

Rooms are expressly assigned for the convenience of students of Social Ethics, on the second floor of Emerson Hall, including a large lecture room, a seminary-room, a conference-room, a library, and two rooms occupied by the Social Museum. The Library of 1500 volumes is a special collection for the use of students of Social Ethics, with conveniences for study and research. The Social Museum is a collection of graphical material, illustrating by photographs, models, diagrams, and charts, many movements of social welfare and industrial progress.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1906-07, p. 22.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People:

(Original) Volume I, East London;
(Original) Volume II, London;
(Original) Appendix to Volume II;
Note: the previous three original volumes were re-printed as four volumes that then were followed by
Volume V, Population Classified by Trades;
Volume VI, Population Classified by Trades (cont.);
Volume VII, Population Classified by Trades;
Volume VIII, Population Classified by Trades (cont.);
Volume IX, Comparisons, Survey and Conclusions.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Note: Besides the changes in course number, a few minor changes in the course description from (Philosophy 5) 1902-03 Also in the course description Philosophy 5 (1904-05).

___________________________

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1906-07

Explain the significance of the titles:— “Past and Present” [by Thomas Carlyle]; “Unto this Last” [by John Ruskin]; and comment on the teachings involved.
Statistics of wage-loss, employer’s loss, and assistance to employees, in the United States (1881-1900); and their lessons.
The tendencies in contemporary life which appear to the scientific socialist to encourage his faith; with comments.
“The normal relation of the antithesis of which I spoke,” [Socialism and Individualism, Economic and Moral] “is that of cross-correspondence”? (Bosanquet, Civilization of Christendom, p. 316). Comment on this suggestion.
The effect of the growth of trade-unionism on the economic theory of wages. ( A. [Robert Archey] Woods.) [Probably Chapter 1 “The Labor Movement” in Woods’ English Social Movements (2nd ed., 1895), pp. 1-37.]
Distinguish Arbitration, Conciliation, and Coöperation, and indicate the place of each in the Ethics of the Labor Question.
Welfare work at Anzin, and the limitations of its usefulness.
Employer’s Liability, Workmen’s Compensation Acts, and the social philosophy involved. (Adams and Sumner, pp. 478-488.)
Distinguish “Profit-sharing,” “Gain-sharing,” and “Industrial Partnership,” and describe the method undertaken by the United States Steel Corporation.
Compare the operation of the South Carolina liquor-law with that of the Scandinavian System. (The Liquor Problem, pp. 151-156.)

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Exam Questions France Germany Harvard History of Economics Methodology

Harvard. Exam for 19th century French and German Economics, Gay, 1906-07

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-07-08

Edwin Francis Gay (1867-1946) had spent over a decade studying history and economics in Europe before coming to Harvard in 1903. I am somewhat surprised that he could find even three students to take his graduate course that appears to have required a better-than-average reading knowledge of both German and French.

In 1902-03 Gay taught “Outlines of the Development of Economic Thought in Germany in the Nineteenth Century”.

In 1904-05 he then taught “German and French economists of the 19th century” but Harvard’s collection of printed economics exams for 1904-05 did not include Gay’s exam for the course.

Fortunately, the year-end examination from the academic year 1906-07 was printed and we have transcribed it below. Added bonus material: an English translation of the paragraph taken from a book written by the German economist Karl Bücher that students were expected to translate.

________________________

Course Enrollment

Economics 22. Professor Gay. — German and French Economists of the Nineteenth Century.

Total 3: 3 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 71.

________________________

ECONOMICS 22
Year-end Examination, 1906-07

Explain von Thünen’s wage theory. What is his contribution to economic method? How does it compare with Le Play’s?
Compare the conceptions of distributive justice entertained by the French socialists with those of the Austrian school.
Trace the development of the concept of pure profits in the German and French economists.
Discuss the attack of the German historical school on the classical economists and its justification.
Translate die following:
“Zwei Dinge müssen auf diesem Gebiete den an den Kategorien der modernen Volkswirtschaft geschulten Kopf besonders befremden; die Häufigkeit, mit der unkörperliche Sachen („Verhältnisse“) zu wirtschaftlichen Gütern werden und dem Verkehre unterliegen, und ihre verkehrsrechtliche Behandlung als Immobilien. An ihnen ist so recht zu sehen, wie die beginnende Tauschwirtschaft den Spielraum, den ihr die damalige Produktionsordnung versagte, dadurch zu erweitern suchte, dass sie in täppischem Zugreifen fast alles zum Verkehrsgut machte und so die Sphäre des Privatrechts ins Ungemessene ausdehnte. Was hat man im Mittelalter nicht verliehen, verschenkt, verkauft und verpfändet! Die herrschaftliche Gewalt über Länder und Städte, Grafschafts- und Vogteirechte, Cent- und Gaugerichte, kirchliche Würden und Patronate, Bannrechte, Fähren und Wegerechte, Münze und Zoll, Jagd- und Fischereigerechtsame, Beholzungsrechte, Zehnten, Fronden, Grundzinsen und Renten, überhaupt Reallasten jeder Art. Wirtschaftlich betrachtet, teilen alle diese Rechte und Verhältnisse mit dem Grund und Boden die Eigentümlichkeit, nicht von dem Orte ihrer Ausübung entfernt und nicht beliebig vermehrt werden zu können.”

[Note: quote comes from Professor Karl Bücher, University of Leipzig. Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft, Vorträge und Versuche, 3rd ed. (Tübingen, 1901), p. 153.]

English translation of Question 5’s quote

There are two things in connection with this that must appear especially strange to a student of modern political economy, namely, the frequency with which immaterial things (relationships) become economic commodities and subjects of exchange, and their treatment under commercial law as real property. These show clearly how primitive exchange sought to enlarge the sphere denied it under the existing conditions of production by awkwardly transforming, into negotiable property, almost everything it could lay hold upon, and thus extending infinitely the domain of private law. What an endless variety of things in mediaeval times were lent, bestowed, sold, and pawned! — the sovereign power over territories and towns; county and bailiff’s rights; jurisdiction over hundreds and cantons; church dignities and patronages; suburban monopoly rights; ferry and road privileges; prerogatives of mintage and toll, of hunting and fishing; wood-cutting rights, tithes, statute labour, ground-rents, and revenues; in fact charges of every kind falling upon the land. Economically considered, all these rights and “relationships”” share with land the peculiarity that they cannot be removed from the place where they are enjoyed, and that they cannot be multiplied at will.

Source: Karl Bücher, Industrial Evolution, third German edition (German title: Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft, Vorträge und Versuche. English translation by S. Morley Wickett, Lecturer on Political Economy and Statistics, University of Toronto. New York: Henry Hold and Company, 1907, p. 131.

Image Source: Johann Heinrich von Thünen (Wikimedia Commons). Frédéric Le Play (Social History Portal)

Tags BücherKarl, Gay, Le Play, Thünen

Biography Economists Harvard Transcript

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, Daniel Houston Buchanan. 1931

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-06-21

Harvard economics Ph.D. (1931), Daniel Houston Buchanan (1883-1959) taught economics in Japan for eleven years after getting his Harvard A.M. before returning to Harvard to complete his doctorate. Over the years he also taught at Ohio State University, Harvard College, George Washington University, Fisk University, University of North Carolina and Lambuth College. The University of North Carolina (1935-54) constituted his longest academic tour of duty by far

Incidentally, Professor Daniel Buchanan was not mentioned at all in “One Hundred Years of Economics at Carolina” (1901-2001).

This post has two parts, beginning with Buchanan’s Harvard transcript and followed by the timeline of his life.

__________________________

Fun fact (for me): my old professor of American economic history, Bill Parker (then still a young economic historian), was hired as the successor to Daniel Houston at the University of North Carolina.

Dr. William Nelson Parker appointed as associate professor of economics in the University of North Carolina to replace Dr. Daniel H. Buchanan, professor of economics emeritus. Parker taught at Williams College for the last five years.
The Daily Tar Heel (October 25, 1956), p. 3.

__________________________

THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Record of
Daniel Houston Buchanan

Years: 1911-12, 1928-29, 1929-30 (2 hf)

[Previous] Degrees received.

Litt.B. Cooper Coll. 1909
A.B. Colorado Coll. 1911
S.D. Keiogijuku Univ., Japan, 1928.

First Registration: 28 Sept. 1911

1911-12	Grades
First Year	Course	Half-Course
Economics 2	B
Economics 6a¹		B
Economics 6b²		B+
Economics 9a¹		B
Economics 9b²		B-
Social Ethics 6b²		B+
Economics 29¹		B
Summer of 1925
Economics S7a		A
Economics S9b		A
Sept. 1911
Elementary French	C-

Division: History, Government, & Economics
Scholarship, Fellowship: University
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship:
Proctorship:
Degree attained at close of year: A.M.

1928-29	Grades
Second Year	Course	Half-Course
Economics 20 (res)	A
Economics 38	A-

Division:
Scholarship, Fellowship:
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship: + Tut. in H.G.&E. $1650
Proctorship:
Degree attained at close of year:

1929-30 (2hf)	Grades
Third Year	Course	Half-Course
History 18²		exc.(A)
Economics 20² (E.F.G.)		A

Division:
Scholarship, Fellowship:
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship:
Proctorship:
Degree attained at close of year:

1930-31
Fourth Year
Degree attained at close of year: Ph.D. June 1931

Source: Harvard University Archives. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Record Cards of Students, 1895-1930, Belding—Burton (UAV 161.2722.5). File I, Box 2, Record Card of Daniel Houston Buchanan.

__________________________

Course Names and Instructors

1911-12

Economics 2. Economic Theory. Professor Taussig.

Economics 6a¹. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein.

Economics 6b². Economic and Financial History of the United States. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein.

Economics 9a¹. Problems of Labor. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Hess.

Economics 9b². Economics of Corporations. Professor Ripley, assisted by Dr. Dewing.

Social Ethics 6b². Social Amelioration in Europe. Dr. Foerster.

Economics 29¹. Socialism and the Social Movement in Europe. Dr. Rappard.

1925 (Summer)

Economics S7a. Theories of Value and Distribution. Asst. Prof. John H. Williams.

Economics S9b. International Trade and Tariff Policies. [A. H. Cole or Asst. Prof. John H. Williams].

1928-29

Economics 20. (Research Seminar)

Economics 38. The Principles of Money and Banking. Mr. R. G. Hawtrey

1929-30 (2 hf)

History 18². History of the Far East since 1793. Professor Hung (Yenching University)

Economics 20². (E.F.G.) [(?) sic]

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1911-12, 1924-25, 1928-29, and 1929-30.

__________________________

Daniel Houston Buchanan
Timeline of his life and career

1883. Born in Beloit, Kansas, November 29.

Father Thomas Ramsey Buchanan (1849-1933)
Mother: Alda Jane Leslie Buchanan (1855-1928)

1900. U.S. Census. Working on the family farm in Jackson Township, Madison County, Iowa.

1909. Litt.B. (Cooper Coll.)

Cooper College Commencement Announcement for June 6, 1909. Graduating class of sixteen.
Sterling Kansas Bulletin (June 4, 1909), p. 1.

1910. U.S. Census. Teaching in a public school in Valley Brook township, Lyndon City, Kansas.

1911. A.B. Colorado College.

1912. A.M. Harvard University.

1913. Marriage announcement for Daniel Houston Buchanan and Miss Eula Anderson Spencer, at the home of Dr. F. M. Spencer, on Thursday, August 21. Dr. Spencer will perform the marriage ceremony. Dr. Spencer was the president of Cooper College.
The Sterling Kansas Bulletin (August 14, 1913), p. 5.

1914. Taussig’s recommendation turns out to be Buchanan’s ticket to Tokyo.

WILL TEACH IN JAPAN

D. H. Buchanan has accepted the offer as an instructor in a university at Tokyo, Japan.

A vacancy in the chair of economics resulted in an appeal to Harvard for someone to be sent from their school to fill the vacancy. On the recommendation of Prof. Taussig, Mr. Buchanan has secured the place and will commence work the first of April. For the past two years Mr. Buchanan has been teaching geometry in the Wichita high school and will close his work there soon. He is a graduate of Cooper college, going later to Harvard, where he secured his Master’s degree.

His wife was formerly Miss Eula Spencer of this city.

The cablegram announcing he had been chosen to fill the vacancy was received at Wichita Friday morning. The position is at the same university in which Robert Ray of Sterling, is a teacher.

Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan expect to start abroad the first week in March.

The Bulletin joins in congratulations, and wishes the young people much success and happiness in the new surroundings.

The Sterling Kansas Bulletin (Feb. 19, 1914), p. 1.

1914-1925. Buchanan first went to Japan in 1914 to join the economics staff of Keio University. He lived there eleven years.

1915. “A Modification of the Ricardian Theory of Rent. A Criticism” published in Mita Gakkai, Tokyo (May, 1915). In his March 1921 paper Buchanan begins with the footnote “The paper offered here is sufficient proof that [the author] now considers the position taken at that time as inadequate.”

Keio Journal of Economics, Vol. 9, No. 5 (May 1915),
pp. 506(30)-513(37). Link to download.

1918. Sept. 12. WWI Draft Registration of Daniel Houston Buchanan gives address as: 5 Enokigaka, Akasaka, Tokyo, Japan. Occupation: Professor of economics, Keiogijuku University in Mita, Shiba, Tokyo.

1919. Daniel Houston Buchanan arrived on the S.S. Persia Maru from Yokohama, Japan (June 27, 1919) to San Francisco (July 16, 1919). Returned from the U.S. to Japan from San Francisco on the Siberia Maru, Sept. 5, 1919.

1921. “Economic Rent and the Marginal Expenses of Production” published in Mita Gakkai, Tokyo (March, 1921).

Keio Journal of Economics, Vol. 15, No. 3 (March 1921),
pp. 402(92)-432(122). Link to download.

1921. “Professor Alfred Marshall on the Relation between Economic Rent and the Marginal Expenses of Production”published in Mita Gakkai, Tokyo (May, 1921).

Keio Journal of Economics, Vol. 15, No. 5 (May 1921), pp. 661(69)-690(98). Link to download.

1922. “The Influence of So-called Marginal Rent upon the Marginal Expenses of Production”, Mita Gakkai, Tokyo (March, 1922).

Keio Journal of Economics, Vol. 16, No. 3 (March 1922), pp. 291(1)-308(18). Link to download.

1923. Buchanan, Daniel H. “The Rural Economy of Japan.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 37, no. 4 (August 1923), pp. 545–78.
JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1884052

1925. Arrives in Seattle, Washington (March 24, 1925) on S.S. Arizona Maru from Yokohama, Japan (March 10, 1925)

1925-26. Assistant professor of economics at the Ohio State University.

1926. “Became connected with the Harvard Bureau of International Research” according to a note in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin.

1927. Research trip to study industrialization in India.

A.M. ’12—Daniel H. Buchanan, A.B. (Colorado Coll.) ’11, who is now in Japan in the interests of the Harvard Bureau of International Research, has received the degree of Keizai Gaku Hakushi, or Doctor of Science in Economics, from Keio University, Tokyo. He is the first foreigner to receive this distinction, and there are less than a dozen Japanese who have received a similar degree. The degree is awarded for outstanding written contributions in the field of economics, and has been awarded to Buchanan for his critical history of the doctrine of rent and the marginal expenses of production, covering the period from Adam Smith, 1776, to the present time, together with a study of Japanese rural economy, published a few years ago in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Buchanan first went to Japan in 1914 to join the economics staff of Keio University. He remained there eleven years, returning to the United States in 1925 to become a member of the Faculty of Ohio State University. He became connected with the Harvard Bureau of International Research in 1926, spent the past year in India in economic research with special emphasis on industrialization, and returned to Japan last January.

Source: Harvard Alumni Bulletin (June 14, 1928), p. 1080.

1928. D.Sc. (Economics) Keiogijuku (Japan).

1928-30. Research associate of Prof. Edwin F. Gay at Harvard

1929. Buchanan, Daniel H. “Historical Approach to Rent and Price Theory,” Economica, no. 26 (June 1929), pp. 123–55.
JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2548199

1930. U.S. Census gives occupation as College Professor. Address in Cambridge, Massachusetts (192 Larch Road).

1930-31. Instructor for Principles of Economics at Harvard.

1931. Ph.D. (Harvard University).

Daniel Houston Buchanan, Litt.B. (Cooper Coll.) 1909, A.B. (Colorado Coll.) 1911, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1912, S.D. (Keiogijuku Univ., Japan) 1928. Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economic History since 1750. Thesis, “Chapters on the Development of Modern Industry in India.” Associate Professor of Economics, George Washington University.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1930-31, p. 114.

1931-34. Associate Professor (1931 President of Harvard report) George Washington University.

1932. Evening Star (February 10, 1932), p. 23. Meeting of Delta Phi Epsilon, foreign service fraternity at George Washington. Included guest: Dr. Daniel H. Buchanan, professor of economic thought at George Washington.

1934. Buchanan, Daniel H. The Development of Capitalist Enterprise in India. New York: Macmillan.

1934-35. Chairman of the department of economics, Fisk University.

1935. Joins the faculty at North Carolina.

“Dr. D. H. Buchanan, who is to be professor of economic history, was graduated at Colorado College in 1911 and took his M.A., at Harvard in 1912 and his Ph.D. there in 1931. He taught at Keiogijukee University in Tokyo from 1914 to 1925, was assistant professor at Ohio State in 1925-26, was research associate of Prof. Edwin F. Gay at Harvard in 1928-30 and instructor there in 1931. He taught at George Washington University from 1931-34 and was professor of economics and chairman of the departments (sic) at Fisk University last year.
The News and Observer (August 4, 1935), p. 3.

1937. AP report of his son, Daniel H. Buchanan, Jr., suffering a severe head injury from a thrown hammer in practice at a Colorado College v. Greeley State track meet. Buchanan, Jr. ran the half-mile. Daniel H. Buchanan Jr. survived to live to the age of 82.

1944. The Charlotte Observer (September 22, 1944), p. 7. UNC professor of economics Dr. Daniel H. Buchanan given extension of his leave of absence (presumably war-related)

1946. The News and Observer, Raleigh, North Carolina (January 27, 1946), p. 22. Announcement: February 25, Dr. Daniel H. Buchanan, professor of Economics at UNC, will discuss “Far Eastern Problems.” Dr. Buchanan has just returned from the Far East where he served as an advisor of the U.S. State Department.

1951. Buchanan, Daniel H. “Japan Versus ‘Asia.’” The American Economic Review, vol. 41, no. 2, 1951, pp. 359–66.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1910811

1954. One of five faculty retirements announced, Daniel H. Buchanan, Professor, School of Business Administration.
The News and Observer (June 2, 1954), p. 6.

1954. Last academic stop. Lambuth College.

Dr. Daniel H. Buchanan, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, until recently a member of the faculty of the University of N.C., is joining the faculty of Lambuth College in September, Dr. Luther L. Gobbel, president, announced today. Dr. Buchanan will teach courses in economics and serve as head of the department.
A native of Kansas, Dr. Buchanan received the A.B. degree from Colorado College and the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. He also holds the degree of Doctor of Science in economics from Keiogijuku University in Japan. At Harvard he was holder of the rare Sheldon Scholarship.
Dr. Buchanan is the author of three books: “Rural Economy of Japan”, “Historical Approach to Rent and Price Theory”, and “Development of Capitalist Enterprise in India.” [sic, the first two are more likely references to his published articles]
The Jackson Sun (August 5, 1954) Jackson, Tennessee, p. 1.

1956. Dr. Robert L. Conrod succeeds Dr. D.H. Buchanan, who is retiring from teaching at his own request. Effective beginning of the second semester January 30. He and his wife retire to their home in Chapel Hill.
The Jackson Sun (January 22, 1956), p. 5.

1959. Died February 16, 1959 in Denver, Colorado.

Daniel Houston Buchanan, 76, retired professor of economics of the University of North Carolina died at a sanatorium in Denver, Colo., yesterday after an illness of three years. He was a member of the faculty at Chapel Hill from 1935 until his retirement in 1954.
AP story from Winston-Salem Journal (Feb. 17, 1959),
p. 6.

Image Source: Daniel Houston Buchanan. Harvard 1932 Classbook. Page 24

Tags Buchanan

A Peek into Likely Course Content

Course Enrollment 1905-06

SOCIAL ETHICS 12 Year-end Exam, 1905-06

BOOK I THE ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCTION References

BOOK II VALUE AND EXCHANGE References

BOOK III MONEY AND THE MECHANISM OF EXCHANGE References

BOOK IV INTERNATIONAL TRADE References

BOOK V THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH References

BOOK VI PROBLEMS OF LABOR References

BOOK VII PROBLEMS OF ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION References

BOOK VIII TAXATION References

HARVARD UNIVERSITY DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Application for Candidacy for the Degree of Ph.D.

Certification of reading knowledge of French and German for Ph.D.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY Department of Economics

Passed General Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY Department of Economics

Passed Special Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY Department of Economics

THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Record of Melvin Gardner de Chazeau

1925-26

Grades

1926-27

Grades

1927-28

Grades

1929-30

Course Names and Instructors

1925-26

1926-27

1927 (Summer)

1927-28

1929-30

Melvin Gardner de Chazeau Timeline of his life and career

Selected Publications:

Sociology exams from earlier years.

Course Enrollment 1907-08

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

ECONOMICS 3 Year-end Examination, 1907-08

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

Course Enrollment 1907-08

ECONOMICS 1 Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

ECONOMICS 1 Year-end Examination, 1907-08

Political Economy [first course].

Course Enrollment

PHILOSOPHY 6. Mid-year Examination, 1878-79

PHILOSOPHY 6. Year-End Examination, 1878-79

Advanced Political Economy.

Course Enrollment

PHILOSOPHY 7. Mid-year Examination, 1878-79

PHILOSOPHY 7. Year-end Examination, 1878-79

Political Economy [first course].

Course Enrollment

PHILOSOPHY 6. Mid-year Examination 1877-78

PHILOSOPHY 6. Year-end Examinations 1877-78

Advanced Political Economy.

Course Enrollment

PHILOSOPHY 7. Mid-year Examination, 1877-78

PHILOSOPHY 7. Year-end Examination, 1877-78

Building blocks for Peabody’s course

Course Enrollment 1906-07

Thick Course Description 1906-07

Course Enrollment

ECONOMICS 22 Year-end Examination, 1906-07

English translation of Question 5’s quote

THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Record of Daniel Houston Buchanan

1911-12

Grades

1928-29

Grades

1929-30 (2hf)

Grades

1930-31

Course Names and Instructors

1911-12

1925 (Summer)

1928-29

1929-30 (2 hf)

Daniel Houston Buchanan Timeline of his life and career

Course Enrollment
1905-06

SOCIAL ETHICS 1²
Year-end Exam, 1905-06

BOOK I
THE ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCTION
References

BOOK II
VALUE AND EXCHANGE
References

BOOK III
MONEY AND THE MECHANISM OF EXCHANGE
References

BOOK IV
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
References

BOOK V
THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
References

BOOK VI
PROBLEMS OF LABOR
References

BOOK VII
PROBLEMS OF ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION
References

BOOK VIII
TAXATION
References

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Certification of reading knowledge
of French and German for Ph.D.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Record of
Melvin Gardner de Chazeau

Melvin Gardner
de Chazeau
Timeline of his life and career

Course Enrollment
1907-08

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

ECONOMICS 3
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

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

Course Enrollment
1907-08

ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

PHILOSOPHY 6.
Mid-year Examination, 1878-79

PHILOSOPHY 6.
Year-End Examination, 1878-79

PHILOSOPHY 7.
Mid-year Examination, 1878-79

PHILOSOPHY 7.
Year-end Examination, 1878-79

PHILOSOPHY 6.
Mid-year Examination 1877-78

PHILOSOPHY 6.
Year-end Examinations 1877-78

PHILOSOPHY 7.
Mid-year Examination, 1877-78

PHILOSOPHY 7.
Year-end Examination, 1877-78

Course Enrollment
1906-07

Thick Course Description
1906-07

ECONOMICS 22
Year-end Examination, 1906-07

THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Record of
Daniel Houston Buchanan

Daniel Houston Buchanan
Timeline of his life and career