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Courses Harvard Syllabus

Harvard. Economic and Political Ideas. O. H. Taylor, 1948

 

As wonderful as is the Harvard University Archive’s collection of old syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), coverage is by no means complete and there are many gaps and omissions. Unfortunately I could not find the syllabus from the second term of the two term course taught by Overton Hume Taylor (1897-1987) that can be seen as an expanded, grown up version of a freshman/sophomore level, one semester course “The Intellectual Background of Economic Thought” that he taught in 1940-41. Sometime soon I’ll try to cobble together likely content for his second semester course from 1949. But for now, the first term can certainly serve as a stand-alone course. As can be seen from the course description below, Economics 115 was the union of two related, but distinct, courses, Economics 15a and Economics 15b.

In the meantime I have found the final examination questions for this course in the Harvard archives.

Here is a link to Taylor’s A History of Economic Thought (1960). My guess is that the second term of the course covered  Chapters 14-17 in Taylor’s text (rise of Communism and Fascism, Welfare State Economics, Imperfect Competition, Keynesian Macroeconomics).

Overton Hume Taylor (1897-1987) was born in Colorado, received his B.A. at the University of Colorado in 1921 and Ph.D. from Harvard in 1928. He held the rank of instructor 1929-1960, was promoted to professor, 1960-64. He retired from Harvard in 1964, going on to teach at Vanderbilt University.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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[Course Description from Announcement of Courses, 1948-49]

Economics 115 (formerly Economics 15a and 15b). Economics and Political Ideas in Modern Times.

Full course. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Dr. O. H. Taylor.

A course which may be of interest equally to Economics, Government, and History concentrators; dealing with both economic and political thought in their joint historical development. Hobbes and the mercantilists; Locke, the physiocrats, Adam Smith and Smith’s successors (economic liberalism), Marxism; and other, including present-day, ideologies and economic theories. Prerequisite: Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year, 1948-49, p. 74.

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[Course Enrollment: Economics 115, 1948-49.]

115 (formerly Economics 15a and 15b). Economics and Political Ideas in Modern Times. (Full Co.) Dr. O. H. Taylor.

(F) 10 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 3 Radcliffe, 1 Other. Total: 44.
(S) 7 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 14 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 1 Radcliffe, 1 Other: Total: 38.

Source: Reports of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1948-49, p. 76.

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Economics 115
Fall Term, 1948-49

Economics and Political Ideas in Modern Times – First Semester

I. September 30-October 9.
Introduction; Plato and the Middle Ages; Hobbes and Mercantilism.

Reading due October 9:
(1) Plato, Republic Book II; and
(2) Hobbes, Leviathan 1-6, 13, 14, 17, 18, 21, 24.

Thursday, September 30. Introductory lecture. Aim and Nature of the Course. Economics, politics, philosophy, and political economy. Economics in modern western civilization and in pre-capitalist civilizations. Visionary and prosaic philosophies and cultures. Economic science and political faiths.
Saturday, October 2. The modern west’s partial break with and debts to, its ancient-medieval heritage. Latter’s debt to philosophy of Plato. Platonic views in philosophy, politics, and economics; and the ruling medieval views.
Tuesday, October 5. The rise of modernity; 17th century Europe and England; Hobbes vs. Plato.
Thursday, October 7. 17th century English mercantilism and economic theory.
Saturday, October 9. Class discussion of the reading in Plato and Hobbes. (no lecture).
II. October 12-23.
Liberalism; Locke; the Physiocrats and Adam Smith.

Reading due October 23:
(1) Locke, Civil Government, II, Chs. 2, 5, 7-12, inclusive;
(2) Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Chs. 1-7.

Tuesday, October 12. [Holiday]
Thursday, October 14. Varieties of liberalism and associated economic thought from early-modern times to present.
Saturday, October 16. Natural law and early-modern liberalism. Locke vs. Hobbes. Locke, Newton, and the 18th century.
Tuesday, October 19. The philosophy and economics of the Physiocrats (French 18th century liberal economists).
Thursday, October 21. The philosophy and economics of Adam Smith.
Saturday, October 23. Class discussion of the reading in Locke and Adam Smith
III. October 26-November 6.
Bentham, Malthus, and Ricardo; Opposition Currents; and J. S. Mill

Reading due November 6:
J. S. Mill essays, “Utilitarianism” and “Liberty.”

Tuesday, October 26. Bentham and his followers. Utility vs. natural law. Utilitarian liberalism and classical economics.
Thursday, October 28. Malthus vs. the anarchist-socialists.
Saturday, October 30. Ricardo and classical economics.
Tuesday, November 2. The “Manchester School,” free trade in England, and the popular version of the Bentham-Ricardo doctrines. Opposition movements, Romantic Toryism, Comtism, and early socialism.
Thursday, November 4. The education, career, and mature opinions of J. S. Mill.
Saturday, November 6. Class discussion of the Mill essays.
Tuesday, November 9. Hour exam.
IV. November 9-20.
The Romantic Reaction, and Comte

Reading due November 20:
(1) Either Carlyle, Past and Present or Ruskin Unto This Last; and
(2) Comte, Positive Philosophy, Introduction, Ch. 1, and Book VI, Chs. 1, 2.

Thursday, November 11.                             [Holiday]
Saturday, November 13. The romantic movement vs. rationalism and liberalism. Political and economic ideas of the English romanticists.
Tuesday, November 16. Romantic-reactionary thought in Germany, from the period between Kant and Hegel to Hitler; and its expressions in the sphere of economics.
Thursday, November 18. Romanticism, positivism, and the main 18th century outlook—interrelations. The positivism of August Comte vs. liberalism and economic science.
Saturday, November 20. Class discussion of the Carlyle-Ruskin and Comte reading.
V. November 23-December 4;
Marxism

Reading due December 4:
(1) Burns, Handbook of Marxism, Chs. 1, 13, 22, 29, 30;
(2) Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Part I.

Tuesday, November 23. “Utopian” socialism, Hegel, Ricardo, and Marx; and the Marxian theory of history.
Thursday, November 25.                             [Holiday]
Saturday, November 27. The Marxian economic theory of capitalism, I: value, wages, and profits.
Tuesday, November 30. The Marxian economic theory of capitalism, II: the system’s destined evolution and self-destruction.
Thursday, December 2. The Marxian vision of the future beyond capitalism—the revolution and the new society; and concluding appraisal of Marxism.
Saturday, December 4. Discussion of Marx reading.
 
VI. December 7-18.
Victorian Conservative Liberalism and Neo-Classical Economics.

Reading due December 18:
(1) C. Brinton, English Political Thought in the 19th Century,
Ch. III, Sections 1, 2, and IV, 1, 2, 4;
(2) A. Marshall, Principles of Economics, Book I, Chs. 1, 2, Appendix A and B; Book IV, Chs. 1-3, inclusive; and V, 1-5 inclusive.

Tuesday, December 7. How in the late 19th century the classical liberalism, originally a radical, became a conservative ideology. New developments of economic theory in the conservative liberal context, after 1870.
Thursday, December 9. Utility economics and utilitarianism; the free price system and economic welfare.
Saturday, December 11. Marginal productivity and distributive justice—Clark and Carver
Tuesday, November 14. Neo-classical theories about capital, money, business cycles, monopoly, and economic progress.
Thursday, December 16. The special views and system of Alfred Marshall.
Saturday, December 18. Class discussion.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 4, Folder “Economics 1948-49 (1 of 2)”.

Image Source: Harvard Album, 1952.

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American Colleges and German Universities, Richard T. Ely, 1880

The economist Richard T. Ely was 25 years of age with a freshly earned Heidelberg doctorate when he wrote the following article on American colleges and German universities in late 1879 or early 1880 while still in Germany. According to his autobiography, he was down to his last three pfennige when the check came in the mail from Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. I have highlighted a few passages in the article for those in hurry.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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“This article served to get me out of a very tight spot. One day I had left in my pocket, if I recall correctly, the total sum of three pfennigs, about three-quarters of a cent. What was I to do? At the University of Halle, another fellow-student and American was Marcus Hitch, who afterwards became a lawyer in Chicago. I put on my hat and made my way to my friend’s home about a mile away. When I got there, I said, “Marcus, I am dead broke, I have come to you for a loan.” He replied, “I was just putting on my hat to come to you.” He, too, had reached the end of his resources. I then returned to my room, trying to think of what to do next. What friend did I have in Berlin who could help me out in the present emergency? When I arrived at my room, I found a letter from Harper and Brothers, London, with twelve pounds sterling in it, in payment for my article “American Colleges and German Universities.” I was delighted with this amount. Twelve pounds sterling was equal to two hundred and fifty marks, which was about fifty dollars in New York at that time. My spirits rose and I made my way to my friend Hitch to tell him the good news. When I did, he replied that he had just received a remittance from home and was about to visit me to tell me of it and also to help out.”

Source: Richard T. Ely, Ground Under Our Feet, An Autobiography. New York: Macmillan, 1938, pp. 52-3

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AMERICAN COLLEGES AND GERMAN UNIVERSITIES.

by Richard T. Ely

Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Vol. LXI, No. 362 (July, 1880), pp. 253-260. Copy at Hathitrust.org.

MANY excellent articles and addresses on college and university education in the United States and Germany have been written during the last ten years, but the authors have usually taken it for granted not only that all have clear ideas as to the character and purposes of these institutions, but also that perfect harmony exists between these ideas. The discussion has, therefore, turned upon the means of realizing a character and accomplishing ends not plainly defined. Had, however, each educational reformer first obtained a clear conception of the actual “final cause” of American and foreign universities and colleges, and then compared that conception with the desired “final cause,” it is safe to assert that the present notions in respect to both would be far less confused.

The comparison universally made is between our colleges and the German universities. It is shown that the condition of higher education in the United States is in a sad state—and about this there can be no doubt; that in Germany, on the contrary, it is in a flourishing one; ergo, let us turn our colleges into German universities. The next question is, How? In answer to this it is explained that in the German universities the studies are all elective and optional; in the colleges of the United States, compulsory. The conclusion is not difficult to be drawn. Make all studies in the colleges elective, and the work is done! The country is provided with a set of first-class universities! The German universities have thus been taken as models, and a sort of blind attempt made to imitate them in the way described. German universities are an acknowledged success, it is true; but what does it mean to pronounce an institution a success? It signifies that a harmony exists between the intentions of its founders and managers and the accomplished results. The questions then naturally arise, What is the purpose of the German university? What is its real distinguishing feature? Then, after having answered these, the further questions, Do American colleges have the same aims? If they do not, is it desirable that they should?

The answer to the first questions is not difficult. A German university is, from beginning to end, through and through, a professional school. It is a place where young men prepare to earn their “bread and butter,” as the Germans say, in practical life. It is not a school which pretends or strives to develop in a general way the intellectual powers, and give its students universal culture. This is the first point which should be clearly understood by all trying to Germanize our institutions. As soon as the student enters the university he makes a selection of some one study or set of studies—law, medicine, theology, or some of the studies included in the “philosophical faculty”— chemistry, physics, Latin, Greek, philosophy, literature, modern languages, etc. If a student pursues chemistry, it is because his chemistry is to support him in afterlife; if Latin and Greek, because he is preparing himself for a position as teacher; so it is with the other branches. The first question a university student asks before selecting a study is, “Of what practical benefit will this be to me ?” An opportunity is given to extraordinary talent and genius of developing, however, by allowing a certain freedom in “learning and teaching.” There is no regulation to prevent a student of law from hearing a lecture, e. g., on the Agamemnon of AEschylus; but this rarely happens. Each one has the examination in mind which is to admit him into active life, and, as a rule, pursues only the studies required for passing it, and what is more, pursues them no farther than is likely to be demanded. If a smattering of the history of philosophy is required, as in the theological examination in Prussia, the candidate will read the little work by Schwegler, but stop there. There are exceptions: some study for the love of study, for the love of science, of truth; but they are few. The professors who teach sciences not required for some examination complain that comparatively few students attend their lectures. Professor Wundt, the distinguished psychologist and philosopher of Leipzig, explains in this way the little attention paid to philosophy by German students. In the philosophical magazine Mind, for November, 1877, he compares the German and English universities. “The German student does not,” says he, “like his English compeer, reside at the university simply with the object of general scientific culture, but, first and foremost, he pursues a ‘Brodstudium.’ He has chosen a profession which is to procure him a future living as doctor, practicing lawyer, clergyman, master in one of the higher schools, or the like, and for which he must establish his fitness in an examination at the close of his university career. But how enormously have the subjects of instruction increased in the majority of these professions! …….It requires either compulsion or a specially lively interest to bring our doctors, lawyers, philologists, to the philosophical lectures. But of late compulsion has for the most part ceased.” Professor Wagner, the political economist, of Berlin, has not long since expressed himself quite similarly. He says only a small number of the law students hear his lectures on political economy, or any other lectures which are not absolutely required for examination. In the University of Berlin there are over three thousand matriculated students, and nearly two thousand non-matriculated attendants at lectures; but so celebrated a man as Zeller has only a small number of hearers at his lectures on psychology, because it is a subject required for but few examinations. At Halle in the winter semester 1877-78 only one course of lectures on psychology was announced, that, however, by a clever young man, an author of some philosophical works. Although there are nine hundred students at Halle, the lectures were not delivered, because two could not be found who desired to hear them. The only one who presented himself was the writer, a foreigner, and when he was trying to find number two, and proposed to others to hear the lecture, the answer was, “It is not required for the examination.”

This shows how seriously those college professors and trustees have erred who have imagined that they were turning our American colleges into German universities by making the studies elective and optional. The German institution which corresponds to an American college as a school of general intellectual training is the gymnasium, where there is but a minimum of election in the studies; e.g., Hebrew is optional, and the student has perhaps a choice between English and some other study. The Germans suppose that experienced teachers and men of tried ability, who have devoted years to investigating the matter, are better able to judge of the studies advisable for the general development of the intellectual powers of boys than the boys themselves. It would seem that they might be in the right. On the contrary, the essence of the freedom which each university student has of electing his studies is simply the freedom given to men of selecting their own professions. The door through which every German must pass into office or profession is the examination; but the Minister of Instruction and other public authorities prescribe very minutely the studies required for each examination. Each German student is required to have pursued certain sciences, differing according to his intended profession, before he can enter active life. He has only the liberty of pursuing them when, where, and in the order which he will. He selects his own books, professors, and has his own method. He may be five years in preparing for the examination, or ten, if he chooses to waste time. This is truly a considerable liberty, but far less than it is generally supposed the German students enjoy. Professor Helmholtz, in his inaugural address, delivered October 15, 1877, as rector of the University of Berlin, acknowledges that many German fathers and statesmen have demanded a diminution of even the existing liberty of university life, and adds, farther, that a stricter discipline and control of the students by the professors would undoubtedly save many a young man who goes to ruin under the present system.

There are three departments of our colleges or universities which correspond to three of those of the German universities, and offer no insurmountable difficulty in the perfection of our school system. These departments are those of law, theology, and medicine. The reforms necessary must be evident to men of the respective professions: greater freedom of the schools from the principle of private money-making institutions; a longer and more thorough course of study, as in Germany, where the time required to be passed in previous study for admittance to the professions of law and medicine is about double what it is in the United States; higher requirements for admittance to these professional schools. That here is a place where the government, if not the central, at least that of the separate States, has a duty to perform, no political economist or statesman of note is so given to the laissez-faire principle as to deny. All of our States recognize this, and exercise some control as regards physicians and lawyers. If a tailor makes me a poor suit of clothes, no great harm is done: I try another next time. Besides, I can demand samples of his work beforehand, and even if no tailor myself, am not utterly unable to judge of his work. Here the principle of private competition is the only proper one. But the principle of private competition in respect of law and medicine is not sufficient. If a medical quack kills my child, it does not help the matter to reply to my complaints, “Well, try another doctor next time.” It is heartless. My child is dead, and nothing can help the matter now. “But you should have known that the man was a humbug, ” says some one. I should have known nothing of the kind. It is precisely because I do not know, because I am no physician, that I require one. Again, in many small towns there is only one physician, and the people have no choice. It is the same case with lawyers. An ignorant or incapable man may cause me the loss of my property, or even my neck. This “next time” theory helps the matter not at all. It is too late. There is for me no next time. The man appeared to me clever; he talked well, and I tried him. I judged as well as I could, but my not being a lawyer made it impossible for me to be a competent judge of his abilities. The State, then, does its citizens a real service, and one they can not do for themselves, in forcing candidates for the legal and medical professions to submit themselves to an examination by competent authorities, who pronounce upon their fitness for exercising the functions of lawyers or doctors. This principle is recognized by every civilized government in the world, though perhaps nowhere so laxly and negligently as in the United States. What is necessary, then, as regards these professional schools is for the State by proper legislation to raise the standard of requirements, and so assist the colleges and universities in giving us an able and properly educated set of professional men, as in Germany, where actual legal and medical malpractice are exceedingly rare. England has lately been forced to take a step in the right direction by making the requirements for becoming a physician severer. The profession was too open to the principle of free competition, and the abuses became intolerable. One other means of improving these professional schools would be to bring them in closer connection with the college departments, so that a medical or law student should have the liberty of hearing lectures on history, political economy, etc., if he wished. All the different schools should, of course, have one common library. This is the plan pursued on the continent of Europe. It frequently happens, too, that students of different departments have the same studies, and it is a waste of time, money, and force to separate them here. The law student is not the only one who needs to understand “international law,” nor the medical student the only one who ought to have some knowledge of physiology and hygiene.1

1 The writer does not consider the theological schools, because that is a matter which each Church must take care of for itself, so long as state and church are entirely separate. Where there are so many sects as in the United States it may be well that the schools of divinity should be by themselves.

The so-called college department, or “college proper,” is the one which offers most difficulty to the reformer, and the one where the most confusion prevails. When the course of study is simply one for general culture, it is no part of a university, in the continental European sense of that term. There is, therefore, in America a want of a school offering opportunities to large and constantly increasing classes of men for pursuing professional studies—a want which is deeply felt, and which sends every year many students and millions of dollars out of the country. Where in the United States can a young man prepare himself thoroughly to become a teacher of the ancient classics? A simple college course is not enough. The Germans require that their teachers of Latin and Greek should pursue the classics as a specialty for three years at a university after having completed the gymnasium, which as a classical school would be universally admitted to rank with our colleges. Every college professor of Latin and Greek must admit the need of better preparatory teachers. The poor entrance examinations, when the candidates for admissions do not come from some one of our few old and excellent but expensive academies, like Exeter, Andover, and the Boston Latin School, bear only too strong witness of their previous training. If an American wishes to pursue a special course in history, politics, political economy, mathematics, physics, philosophy, or in any one of many other studies lying outside of the three professions, law, medicine, and theology, he must go to Europe. Even to pursue the study of United States history, the American will do better to go abroad. From Maine to California, from Minnesota to Texas, there is no institution which teaches United States history thoroughly. Many colleges require no knowledge of it, either for entering or graduating. Others imagine that they have done their full duty in demanding a few historical names and dates as condition of admittance. As many—in the country the majority—of our lower schools do not teach history, the result is sad enough. English papers have with reason spoken slightingly of historical instruction in our country. Again, whoever desires, even in theology, medicine, or law, to select some one branch as a specialty, must go to Europe to do so. But these professional schools are already organized, and their needs recognized.

What is to be done about the college department? How get system out of the confusion of our system, or rather no system? for we have in the United States, with the exception of a few States, no school system, although some good schools.2 Until we have adopted a satisfactory system, we may rest assured that thousands of parents will continue to educate their children in Europe.

2 He who would be convinced of the unreason of our educational organization, can do no better than read the able and interesting address delivered by Andrew D. White, LLD., now United States Minister at Berlin, before the National Educational Association at Detroit, August 5,1874. It is entitled, “The Relations of the National and State Governments to Advanced Education,” and published in pamphlet form by “Old and New,” Boston.

We have the materials in the United States for a good school system, beginning in the common school and ending in the university; the need is organization. Dr. Barnard would have three grades—the school, academy, and college.3 But should not a. fourth be added—the university? It is not necessary that the university should be separate from the college, though in some places it might be, as in the Johns Hopkins University, which started with the intent of becoming a university. Harvard will serve as an illustration. If Harvard required a college education for entering any one of its departments, placing them all on a level, made all studies elective except in examination, and enlarged its curriculum so as to enable one to pursue special courses in Latin, Greek, political science, etc., it would become in every respect a professional school, i. e., a. university.4 Those who entered would already have finished their general studies, and would go there to prepare for some particular profession, as that of teacher of Latin and Greek, or some one or two of the natural sciences, or to become physician, editor, etc. Now it is different. Harvard demands very limited requirements for entering its professional schools, but desires that the students of these schools should first complete the college course of four years. So long as this is expected, it seems impossible that the requirements for admission to the college department should be raised. If a young man is eighteen years of age upon entering, he is not able to begin his professional studies before twenty-two, which makes him at least twenty-five upon entering practical life—quite old enough. Harvard’s requirements for admission give the American student a rather longer course before beginning his professional career than is required from his German compeer, who commences them at twenty or thereabouts. If Harvard continues to increase its conditions for admission to the college department, it can not expect the lawyers, doctors, and clergymen to pursue just the college course. The result would be that more young men than at present would begin their professional studies without having previously pursued even an ordinary college course. The solution of the difficulty lies in rather diminishing than otherwise the requirements for admission to the college proper, or academic department, of Harvard, in putting the extra studies in the graduate courses, which latter form part of the university proper, and in requiring a college education at Harvard or some other good college as a condition of entering any department of the university. The writer would thus separate distinctly college education and university education. Their methods and aims are different. The college should adhere to its old plan, give thorough instruction in Latin, Greek, French, German, mathematics, general history, etc. The courses should be, for the most part, prescribed, and contain such studies as would fit young men for taking a position in society as educated gentlemen; then should follow business or professional studies. It would seem that this course ought to be finished at twenty, as Dr. McCosh recommends. In other countries the corresponding courses of study do not require more time, though in most the professional courses are longer and severer, as they will surely become in the United States, as they must become, in a time when all professions are making such strides, and the number of studies increased proportionately. If colleges, then, consecrated themselves to this more modest but more useful plan of becoming higher academies, and nothing more, we should find that our four hundred and twenty-five colleges were not such a great superfluity as we now think. Great laboratories, costly observatories, and apparatus indispensable to a university, would be entirely unnecessary. Thoroughness, of which there is now great lack, should be one of the main points. In some places in the West there would be still too many colleges, but by uniting in some places, and by a better local distribution in others, this could be remedied. Let us compare the statistics of two other countries, in which the excellence of higher instruction is admitted alike by friend and foe— France and Germany. In 1874 Germany had 333 gymnasia, besides 170 progymnasia and Latin schools. The progymnasia are a low grade of academy, but some of the Latin schools rank with the gymnasia. Since 1874 over twenty new gymnasia and progymnasia have been established. We can calculate, therefore, that Germany has at least 350 gymnasia or classical colleges. But besides these there were, in the beginning of the year 1874, 106 “Realschulen erster Ordnung, ” which have a curriculum similar to the Latin and scientific course of some of our colleges, as Cornell. Germany has, therefore, over 450 “colleges proper,” scientific and classical, and is increasing the number. Germany’s population is a trifle greater than that of the United States. Prussia, with less than 26,000,000 inhabitants, had, in 1874, seventy-nine “ Realschulen erster Ordnung, ” with 23,748 scholars ; 228 gymnasia, with 57, 605 students; together, 81,353. It is not to be forgotten that the scholars enter the gymnasia and Realschulen when very young, so that the time required to complete the course is eight years. The programmes of these schools and the statistics seem to justify us in ascribing to a little less than one-third of the scholars the rank of American college students, say, 25,000 in Prussia.

3 Dr. Bernard‘s position is not here accurately stated. In his Albany address he was considering general, and not professional, education; and his complaint was that the ground is taken away from under any possible university proper, in this country, by clothing every petty college with university powers.—Editor Harper’s Magazine.

4 The term university is here used in the sense in which it is, or has come to be, used in Germany. It is not the primary signification. The German universities have developed into professional schools, while the British, originally identical in form with those of the continent, have not undergone that development. Is not the power of conferring degrees, as Dr. Barnard suggests, the distinctive function of a. university, i. e., of a university in the European sense of the term? Are not all the elements that go to make a school a university simply those which fit it for the exercise of this function?— Editor Harper’s Magazine.

France, with a smaller population than the United States, has eighty lycées, with 36,756 scholars, and 244 colleges, with 32,744 scholars; together, 69,500. These schools resemble German gymnasia, and we shall not probably be far out of the way in giving 20,000 of them the rank of American college students.

According to Dr. Bernard’s statistics, as given in Harper’s Weekly, the number of under-graduates in all American colleges is 18,000. We see that a greater proportion of the youth of France and Germany devote themselves to liberal studies than of America. Besides, there are over 19,000 university students in Germany, not to speak of those in the mining and technical schools, undoubtedly many more than in the graduate and professional schools in the United States. In France, in 1868, the attendance at university lectures amounted to 11,903. But in France the faculties have the right of holding examinations and granting diplomas. Twenty-seven thousand six hundred and thirty-four examinations were held in the same year; 9344 received diplomas.

As America becomes older and wealth increases, we might expect, a priori, the proportionate number of Americans availing themselves of the advantages of higher education to increase. This is unfortunately not the case, as the careful statistics of Dr. Barnard too clearly demonstrate. Many reasons can be given for this decrease. One may be the higher standard required for admission by some of the best colleges. One would hardly like to say that, abstractly considered, even Harvard‘s requirements were too severe, but they stand out of all relation to the condition of the lower schools in the greater part of the country. It is not daring to assert that there are entire States in the Union where scarcely a suitable preparatory school for institutions like Harvard, Yale, and Columbia exists. Now parents may be willing to send their sons away from home at sixteen, but most fathers and mothers do not like to do so when they are only ten years old. The remedy lies in a better provision and more careful supervision of grammar and high schools. It were very desirable that none but college graduates, or those who should pass an examination implying the same amount of knowledge as a college graduate is expected to have, should be permitted to occupy the higher positions in these schools. The government has manifestly the same right to demand this that it has to require the present minimum of knowledge. It seems childish to argue the question, but so many good people among us are blindly attached to the laissez-faire principle of the last century that it may be well to put one or two questions to them. What right has the state to force those who wish to teach to pass any examination at all? How can one limit this right, once conceded, so as to make it meaningless? If the government has the duty of seeing that the rising generation is educated, why should it not have the right of using such means as will enable it to accomplish its duty effectually? Nay, what right has the government to use the people’s money, or allow it to be used, in employing public servants who are incapable of performing their duties efficiently? At present the requirements are so low that the supply of teachers greatly exceeds the demand, and that American has had an experience as happy as rare who has not repeatedly seen brazen effrontery take the place away from modest merit. The Germans, whom we often accuse of a lack of practical understanding, exhibit more common-sense in these matters than we. In Germany the requirements are proportioned to the grade of the teacher, and are kept so high that the demand for teachers is slightly in excess of the supply. There is thus a tendency toward a continual advance in quality. Every encouragement is offered to excellence, as it is rewarded proportionately. Another probable cause of the small number of college students is the discredit brought on higher education by Western institutions like the “universities” of Ohio, of which not one, according to so distinguished and well-informed an educational authority as Minister White, can rank above third or fourth class, “judged even by the American standard.” The chief struggle and chief rivalry of each seems to be to obtain a larger number of students than its neighbors. One institution in Ohio has been promised a large sum of money when the number of its students attains a certain figure. The effect on entrance and other examinations is self-evident. Besides, one can not avoid reflecting that that is a rather low state of culture in which men are valued like sheep, at so much a head! To learn what a wise system of State action can do, we have but to look to Michigan, whose educational system, ending in the university at Ann Arbor, is an honor to the country.5

5 For a farther consideration of this point, see the admirable address on advanced education by Dr. White.

A third reason why there are so few college students is palpable in a literal sense—as palpable as gold and silver. The expenses of living at the first-class colleges have increased faster than the wealth of those classes which supply them with their under-graduates. A student can not live comfortably at Harvard for less than $700 per annum, but in the wealthy State of New York there are towns of several thousand inhabitants where a man can easily count on his fingers all the fathers who can educate their sons at such an expense. The scholarships at Harvard are not equal to the demand, and many who would otherwise go to Harvard are too independent to accept them. The tuition fee of $150 is comparatively enormous. The same number of hours’ instruction at an expensive German university, e. g., Heidelberg, do not cost one-third so much, at the University of Geneva not one-sixth. In fact, it is cheaper to go to Europe to study than to go to Harvard. If men of wealth would employ their money in reducing the expensiveness of the first-class colleges, and so opening them up to new classes of society, they would confer a benefit on their country.

When it becomes generally understood that a college education is not a university one, but, according to the old idea, an intellectual training which is desirable for every man who is able to enjoy its privileges, whatever is to be his business or profession, and when colleges return to their former aims, often too hastily forsaken, we may expect to see classes of the people flock to their learned halls who up to this time have neglected them.

Universities are needed, and a few of the best colleges, the development of which already lies in that direction, ought to supply this want. These colleges are well enough known—Harvard, Cornell, the University of Michigan, and, since it has been under President Barnard’s management, Columbia. Many think that Columbia has a special duty in this direction on account of its wealth. It has also the good fortune of being situated in a great city—the only place for a true university, however it may be with a college. Columbia is, too, less expensive than Harvard and some other New England colleges. In fact, in a city like New York one can live upon what he will. Columbia’s generosity in regard to tuition fees, and the way they are remitted, is truly praiseworthy. It is said that one-third pay none whatever; but the. writer was a member of a class in Columbia three years without learning the name of one classmate who did not pay his tuition.

Let no one blame the presidents and professors of our best institutions for not doing more. They are men who do not suffer morally or intellectually by comparison with the faculties of the most renowned European universities. If they had the same advantages as the German professors, they would not do less in advancing science; but at present they are overloaded with work. They are also less independent than the German professors. Science is a tender plant, and requires favorable circumstances for a high development. A professor ought to be lifted above all fear of party and sect.

Germany has twenty-one universities, including the academy at Münster, which has the same rank. We might in the course of time support as many. Once more here is a place for government interference, for we may as well make up our minds once for all that private initiative is not sufficient. England’s educational history proves it as well as America‘s. It is doubtful if in the whole history of the world one single case can be pointed to where private competition and private generosity have proved themselves sufficient. None but universities should be allowed to call themselves such. The government has precisely the same right to forbid this that it has to prevent me from travelling about as Mr. Evarts, and thus securing the various advantages which might accrue to me from representing myself as the Honorable Secretary of State.

The colleges could continue to give the degree of artium baccalaureus, as the French collége and lycées do ; but it should be clearly understood that it is a college and not a university degree. The universities could give the artium magister, or still better, as being more distinct from the baccalaureus, the doctor philosophies, doctor juris, doctor medicinae, doctor scientiarum naturalium, etc., as the German universities do. It should be clearly stated on the diploma in what subject the student had passed his chief examination, as is also the case in the German universities. If a student desired to teach Latin or Greek in an academy or college, he should be obliged to take a course of Latin or Greek at a university. But his doctorate of ancient classics ought not to assist him in securing a position as professor of astronomy.

 

Categories
Courses Curriculum Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Three Economics Courses. Texts and Exams, 1874-77.

In the mid-1870’s there were three courses in political economy offered at Harvard every year. The first was a one-term prescribed course in political economy required of all undergraduates in their sophomore year.  The other two courses in political economy were electives of which one was recommended for students of history while the other presumably put greater emphasis on economic theory. In the Harvard University Catalogues for the academic years 1874-5 through 1876-7, there is exactly one examination for each of these three courses. Using the annual Reports of the President of Harvard College, I was able to use enrollment data to determine the dates of the examinations.

The textbooks for the courses are identified and we see the first graduate students recorded in the class-enrollments for 1876-77.  I have grouped the courses below by academic year.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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1874-75

PRESCRIBED: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Sophomore year

Prof. Dunbar. Fawcett’s Political Economy for Beginners. — Constitution of the United States (Alden’s Science of Government, omitting the first four and the last three chapters).
Two hours a week. Half-year. 208 students, 4 sections, 2 exercises per week for students, 8 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1874-75, p. 45.

 

[Note: Courses 7 and 8 are parallel Courses, Course 7 being preferable for students of History.]

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 7.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — Fawcett’s Manual of Political Economy. — Blanqui’s Histoire de l’Èconomie Politique en Europe.— Bagehot’s Lombard Street.
Three hours a week. 19 Seniors, 14 Juniors.
1 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 3 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 49. Also, Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 56.

 

[EXAMINATION FOR 1874-75(?) FROM 1875-76 CATALOGUE]
PHILOSOPHY 7.

[In answering the questions do not change their order.]

  1. State the general principles which determine the exchange of commodities between two countries, and show the analogy between this case and that of exchange between individuals under the familiar law of demand and supply.
  1. If the United States were to levy an export duty on cotton, on whom would it fall? What objection is there to the proposition?
  1. It is known that the people of the United States are debtors to Europe to a large amount; should our annual returns show a balance of imports or of exports? Why? If, in fact, the balance appears to be the wrong way, what conclusion is to be drawn?
  1. With commerce in its normal condition, would exchange on Europe be in our favor, against us, or at par? Why? Would this state of things be for our disadvantage or not?
  1. What causes the tendency of profits to fall as a nation advances?
  1. If a tax were laid, at a uniform rate, on all property of every description, would it meet the requirements of Adam Smith’s first rule? Give the reason.
  1. Why should not large incomes be taxed at a higher rate than moderate ones; as, e.g., incomes of $10,000 and upwards higher than those between $5,000 and $10,000?
  1. How much control has the Bank of England over the rate of interest in the money market?
  1. Under the national bank act, how does the action of our banks, when the reserves are suddenly reduced, differ from that of the Bank of England in like case?
  1. What difference would there be likely to be in the operation of these two methods, at a time when the condition of monetary affairs is critical?
  1. State the following leading facts relating to the issue of legal tender notes: —

(1) When they were first authorized;
(2) The maximum prescribed by the act of June, 1864;
(3) The point to which they were reduced by Mr. McCulloch;
(4) The amount of expansion under Mr. Richardson
(5) The provision contained in the act of June, 1874;
(6) The provisions for withdrawal in the act of January, 1875.

  1. How do the deposit of bonds required of the national banks and the reserve required for their circulation differ in purpose?
  1. Give the date and circumstances of the first issue of fractional currency.
  1. Why did the government issue 5-20 bonds rather than 20-year bonds bearing the same rate of interest? Which is more valuable? Why?
  2. If all business were done for cash, what difference would it make as to the ease of resuming specie payments? Why?

Source: The Harvard University Catalogue, 1875-76. Cambridge, p. 238.

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 8.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Bagehot’s Lombard Street. Legislation of the United States on Currency and Finance.

Three hours a week. — 65 Seniors, 33 Juniors.
2 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 6 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1874-75, p. 48. Also, Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 56.

 

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1875-76

PRESCRIBED: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Sophomore year

Mr. Macvane. Fawcett’s Political Economy for Beginners. — Constitution of the United States (Alden’s Science of Government, omitting the first four and the last three chapters).
Two hours a week. Second half-year. 182 students, 4 sections, 2 exercises per week for students, 8 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 44.

 

[Examination of 1875-76(?), from 1876-77 Catalogue]
PRESCRIBED POLITICAL ECONOMY.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

[Those who take the examination in the Constitution may omit the questions marked with a star (*).]

  1. Explain the service which Capital renders to production. Should you call a coal mine capital? a steam engine? a mill stream? Why?
  2. Define Value. Show whether a general rise of values is possible. Distinguish between natural value and market value. Do they ever coincide?
  3. What do you understand to be “the value of money “? On what does it depend? How does a rise in the value of money show itself?
  4. Mention the three classes into which commodities are divided in relation to their value. In which class should you place gold and silver?
  5. (*) Show how far the action of demand and supply controls the value of commodities in each class.
  6. Explain the relations between rent of land, price of food, and growth of population.
  7. What is meant by cost of labor? Show that a man’s wages may be low and yet the cost of his labor be high. Point out the connection between cost of labor and profit of capital.
  8. (*) Wherein do productive and unproductive consumption differ? “A knowledge of one of the first principles of political economy is sufficient to show that society is no gainer by the reckless expenditure of the spendthrift:” State the principle referred to, and illustrate the truth of the assertion.
  9. (*) Show that foreign trade is advantageous to both countries only when the relative cost of the commodities exchanged is different in the two countries. When exports and imports fail to balance each other in any country, how is the equilibrium restored?
  10. Give the four “canons of taxation,” and show the application of any two of them. How may the burden of taxation be distributed according to the first canon, in a country where the revenue is raised by duties on tea, sugar, wines, etc.
  11. (*) Distinguish direct from indirect taxes. To which class does the income tax belong? Ought permanent and temporary incomes to be taxed equally?
  12. (*) Show whether high wages make high prices. Suppose that laborers, by combinations and strikes, should succeed in raising wages so much as to bring profits down to a very low figure, would they be benefited thereby? Why?

 

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

[Those who take the examination in Political Economy will answer questions 1-7 only.]

  1. Explain the terms exclusive and concurrent as applied to legislative power. Mention two subjects in reference to which Congress has exclusive, and two in which it has concurrent, power of legislation.
  2. Through what stages must bills go in their passage through each house? Mention the ways in which a bill may become a law. In what case does a bill fail to become a law though passed by both houses and not vetoed by the President?
  3. State the qualifications required for Vice-President; for senators. Describe the mode of electing senators. How, and under what authority, has this mode been established?
  4. Show how the amendments relating to slavery (XIII.-XV.) affected the apportionment of representatives. How far has the right of each State to make its own franchise law been abridged by these amendments?
  5. When a president is to be elected, how many electors are appointed by each State? How are the electors chosen? What control has Congress over the election?
  6. What officers are subject to impeachment? For what offences? What is the effect of resigning? How may persons convicted on impeachment be punished?
  7. Give the provisions of the Constitution in reference to trial by jury. Describe the function of grand juries. Explain fully “the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.”
  8. Define treason. What courts have jurisdiction in cases of treason? What evidence is necessary in order to convict? What is provided in the Constitution as the punishment of treason 1
  9. How are direct taxes apportioned? What taxes are direct in the meaning of the Constitution? Compare this sense of the word with its use in Political Economy.
  10. Give the provisions in the original Constitution relating directly or indirectly to the subject of slavery. What difficulties, arising from the existence of slavery, were encountered in framing the Constitution?
  11. Taxes on exports. Taxes on immigrants.
  12. The treaty-making power in the United States and in England.
  13. Copyright and patent rights.
  14. Naturalization of aliens. Expatriation.
  15. Bills of credit. Legal-tender notes.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1876-77, p. 229.

 

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 5.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — Bagehot’s Lombard Street. –Lectures on the Financial Legislation of the United States.
Three hours a week. Second half-year. 36 Seniors, 80 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.
2 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 6 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 49.

 

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 6.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Advanced Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science. Lectures.
Three hours a week. 24 Seniors.
1 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 3 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 49.

 

[EXAMINATION OF 1875-76(?) FROM 1876-77 CATALOGUE]
PHILOSOPHY 6.

  1. Give Mr. Cairnes’s statement of the wages-fund doctrine. (p. 167.)
  2. Criticise the following extracts from Walker’s “Wages Question,”
  3. 128-130: —

“A popular theory of wages is based upon the assumption that wages are paid out of capital, the saved results of the industry of the past. Hence, it is argued, capital must furnish the measure of wages. On the contrary, I hold that wages are, in a philosophical view of the subject, paid out of the product of present industry, and hence that production furnishes the true measure of wages. … So long as additional profits are to be made by the employment of additional labor, so long a sufficient reason for production exists; when profit is no longer expected, the reason for production ceases. At this point the mere fact that the employer has capital at his command no more constitutes a reason why he should use it in production when he can get no profits, than the fact that the laborer has legs and arms constitutes a reason why he should work when he can get no wages.

“The employer purchases labor with a view to the product of the labor; and the kind and amount of this product determine what wages he can afford to pay. … If the product is to be greater, he can afford to pay more; if it is to be smaller, he must, for his own interest, pay less. It is, then, for the sake of future production that the laborers are employed, not at all because the employer has possession of a fund which he must disburse; and it is the value of the product, such as it is likely to prove, which determines the amount of the wages that can be paid, not at all the amount of wealth which the employer has in possession or can command. Thus it is production, not capital, which furnishes the motive for employment, and the measure of wages.”

  1. What is the reasoning which leads Mr. Cairnes to predict an ultimate fall of prices in the United States as compared with prices elsewhere? How will a protective tariff affect the movement? (p. 304.)
  2. A recent writer says: —

“We will be able to resume specie payments when we cease to rank among the debtor nations, when our national debt is owed to our own people, and when our industry is adequate to the supply of the nation’s need of manufactured goods.” (Thompson’s “Social Science,” p. 206.)

How essential are these three conditions, severally, for the resumption of specie payments?

  1. Criticise the argument contained in the following proposition :—

“With every increase in the facility of reproduction, there is a decline in the value of all existing things of a similar kind, attended by a diminution in the price paid for their use. The charge for the use of the existing money tends, therefore, to decline as man acquires control over the great forces provided by the Creator for his service; as is shown by the gradual diminution of the rate of interest in every advancing country.”

  1. Compare the generally received principle that paper currency tends to expel coin, with the following: —

“All commodities tend to move towards those places at which they are most utilized. . . . The note and the check increase the utility of the precious metals; and therefore is it, that money tends to flow towards those places at which notes and checks are most in use, — passing, in America, from the Southern and Western States towards the Northern and Eastern ones, and from America towards England.”

  1. What is Mr. Carey’s doctrine as to the value of land in an advancing society? Compare it with his general doctrine as to the determination of value hy cost of reproduction.
  2. What is Mr. Carey’s general law of distribution between labor and capital? Give the general course of reasoning leading to this law.
  3. Discuss Mr. Carey’s objection to the Malthusian theory, that increase of numbers is in the inverse ratio of development, man multiplying slowly while the lower forms of animal and vegetable life multiply rapidly.
  4. What logical necessity has compelled Mr. Carey to assume the existence of a law of diminishing fecundity in the human race? Compare this with the process of reasoning which leads to the Malthusian conclusion as to the necessary operation of ” checks,” positive and preventive.

Source:  Harvard University Catalogue, 1876-77, p. 233-4.

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1876-77 

NO LONGER PRESCRIBED: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Sophomore year

Political Economy is no longer listed among the sophomore prescribed courses according the Annual reports of the President of Harvard University for 1876-77, pp. 44-45.   The only prescribed course from the department of philosophy was a junior year course of Logic and Psychology, each for one semester.  Cf. Catalogue of Harvard University, 1876-77, p. 55.

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 5.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — Financial Legislation of the United States. Three hours a week. 1 Graduate, 30 Seniors, 64 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 2 Unmatriculated.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1876-77, p. 49.

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 6.
Advanced Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Advanced Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science.
Three hours a week.  2 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 3 Juniors.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1876-77, p. 49.

 

Categories
Courses Economic History Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economic History of the U.S., Gay and Klein, 1911.

During the academic year 1910-11 at Harvard, a pair of economic history courses were offered by Professor Edwin Francis Gay, assisted by a history department instructor, Julius Klein, who would go on to complete his Ph.D. in 1915. The first term course, Economics 6a, was dedicated to European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. The second term course, Economics 6b covered U.S. Economic and Financial History from colonial times up to 1900. Below we have the enrollment figures for Economics 6b and its reading list. One can see by the reliance on a textbook and relatively few standard sources that U.S. economic history was not Gay’s primary research interest. Biographical information on both Edwin F. Gay and Julius Klein can be found in the previous posting.

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Welcome to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can even subscribe to this blog below.  There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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[Enrollment: Economics 6b. Economic and Financial History of the United States.]

6b 2hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein.—Economic and Financial History of the United States.

13 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 52 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 7 Freshmen, 6 Other:
Total 119.

 

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 49.

 

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ECONOMICS 6b (1911)
[Economic and Financial History of the United States]

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

 

1. Colonial Period

Callender*, Economic History of the United States, pp. 6-63, 85-121.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

1776-1860

2. Commerce, Manufactures, and Tariff

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

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

Callender, Economic History, pp. 432-563.

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

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

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

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

Commons, Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. IV, pp. 15-89; Vol. VI, pp. 311-353.

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

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

 

3. Internal Improvements

Callender*, Economic History, pp. 271-275, 345-404.

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

Gephart, Transportation and Industrial Development in the Middle West, pp. 43-129.

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

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

Phillips, History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt, pp. 46-131.

Bishop, State Works of Pennsylvania, pp. 150-261.

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

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

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

 

4. Agriculture and Land Policy.—Westward Movement

Callender*, Economic History, pp. 597-692.

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

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

Fite, Social and Industrial Conditions in the North during the Civil War, pp. 1-23.

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

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

Hibbard, History of Agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin, pp. 86-90, 105-133.

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

 

5. The South and Slavery

Callender*, Economic History, pp. 738-819.

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

Hart, The Southern South, pp. 218-277.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 34-119.

Commons, Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. I, pp. 309-375.

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

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

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

Ballagh, Land System of the South. Publications of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1897, pp. 101-129.

 

6. Finance, Banking, and Currency

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

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

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

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

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

Kinley, The Independent Treasury of the United States (U. S. Monet. Comm. Rept.), pp. 7-208.

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

Ross, Sinking Funds, pp. 21-85.

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

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

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

 

1860-1900

7. Finance, Banking, and Currency

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

Noyes*, Forty Years of American Finance, pp. 1-48, 234-256 (73-233).

Sprague*, History of Crises under the National Banking System, pp. 43-108.

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

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

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

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

 

8. Transportation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vrooman, American Railway Problems, pp. 10-45, 218-264.

 

9. Commerce and Shipping

Meeker*, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 150-171.

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

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

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

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

Day, History of Commerce, pp. 553-575.

 

10. Agriculture and Opening of the West

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

Noyes*, Forty Years of American Finance, pp. 257-283.

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

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 120-226.

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

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

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

Wright, Wool Growing and the Tariff, pp. 308-273.

 

11. Industrial Expansion

Noyes*, Forty Years of American Finance, pp. 114-152, 182-233.

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

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

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

Sparks, National Development, pp. 37-52.

 

12. The Tariff

Taussig*, Tariff History, pp. 155-229, 321-360.

Taussig*, Tariff Act of 1909, Q.J.E., Vol. XXIV, pp. 1-38, also in Tariff History (ed. 1910), pp. 360-408.

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

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

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

Tausssig, Sugar, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. CI, pp. 334-344 (Mar. 1908).

Taussig, Tariff and Tariff Commission, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. CVI, pp. 721-729 (Dec. 1910).

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

Wright, Wool Growing and the Tariff, pp. 274-328.

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

Laughlin and Willis, Reciprocity, pp. 311-437.

 

13. Industrial Concentration

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

Noyes*, Forty Years of American Finance, pp. 284-354.

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

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

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

 

14. The Labor Problem

Industrial Commission*, Vol. XIX, pp. 724-746, 793-833.

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

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

Levasseur, American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Commons, Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. IX, pp. 55-117.

Mitchell, Organized Labor, pp. 391-411.

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

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

 

15. Population, Immigration, and the Race Question

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twelfth Census Bulletin, No. 8.

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

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

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

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1910-1911.”

________________________

Final Examination Economics 6b
(1910-11)

Image Source: Edwin Francis Gay and Julius Klein, respectively, from The World’s Work, Vol. XXVII, No. 5 (March 1914) and Harvard Album 1920.

 

 

 

Categories
Courses Economic History Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. 19th Century European Economic History. Gay and Klein, 1910

Edwin Francis Gay (1867-1946) came to Harvard in 1902 as an instructor of economic history taking over William Ashley’s courses after having spent a dozen years of training and advanced historical study in Europe (Berlin, Ph.D. in 1902 under Gustav Schmoller, also he was in Leipzig, Zurich and Florence). He was given a five-year contract as assistant professor of economics in 1903, but in just four years he actually advanced to the rank of professor. He served as a principal advisor to Harvard President Charles Eliot in establishing the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1908. After the favored candidate to be the founding dean of the business school, William Lyon Mackenzie King (Ph.D., Harvard 1909) turned down the offer, instead continuing as deputy minister of labor in Canada then later becoming prime minister of Canada, President Eliot turned to Gay. In nine years Gay put his stamp on the Harvard Business School, apparently playing an instrumental role in the use of the case method (pedagogic transfer from the law school) with a strong emphasis on obtaining hands-on experience through practical assignments with actual businesses. He is credited with establishing the academic degree of the M.B.A. (Master of Business Administration), the credential of managers. 

During WW I Gay worked as adviser to the U.S. Shipping Board and then went on to become editor of the New York Evening Post that would soon go under, giving Gay “an opportunity” to return to Harvard where he could teach economic history up through his retirement in 1936. Gay was among the co-founders of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Council of Foreign Relations. He and his wife moved to California where he worked at the Huntington library where his bulk of his papers are to be found today.

A reading list for his course  Recent Economic History (1934-35) has been posted on Economics in the Rear-View Mirror earlier.

Assisting Gay in the 1910 course on European Economic History of the Nineteenth century was the history department instructor, Mr. Julius Klein (1886-1957). 

Litt.B. (Univ. of California) 1907, Litt. M (ibid.) 1908, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1913, Ph.D. (Harvard Univ.) 1915.
Subject of Ph.D. History.
Special Field: Spanish History
Thesis: The Mesta; A Study in Spanish Economic History, 1273-1836.
Instructor in History, later assistant professor.
In 1932 he was Assistant Secretary, United States Department of Commerce.

While tracking down Julius Klein I came up with the following link to an artifact of the Harvard History Department:

“[Julius Klein] made this portrayal of departmental bigwigs, in ink with black and brown washes, in a style evocative of the Bayeux Tapestry, which chronicles the Norman conquest of England.”

JuliusKleinInkDrawing

________________________

Welcome to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to this blog below.  There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

________________________

[Enrollment: Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. 1910]

[Economics] 6a 1hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein.—European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

12 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 3 Other:
Total 61.

 

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 49.

________________________

 

ECONOMICS 6a (1910)

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

 

1. The Industrial Revolution

Cunningham*, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Vol. III, pp. 609-669.

Hobson*, Evolution of Modern Capitalism, pp. 10-82.

Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, pp. 32-93.

Woolen Report of 1806; reprinted in Bullock, Selected Readings in Economics, pp. 114-124.

Walpole, The Great Inventions, in History of England, Vol. I, pp. 50-76; reprinted in Bullock, pp. 125-145, and Rand, Selections illustrating Economic History, chapter ii.

Chapman, The Lancashire Cotton Industry, pp. 1-112.

Webb, History of Trade Unionism, pp. 1-101.

Hutchins and Harrison, History of Factory Legislation, pp. 14-42.

Wallas, Life of Francis Place, pp. 197-240.

Mantoux, La Révolution Industrielle, pp. 179-502.

Cooke Taylor, The Modern Factory System, pp. 44-225.

 

2. Agrarian Movement.—Continent

Von Sybel*, French Revolution, in Rand, Selections, pp. 55-85.

Seeley*, Life and Times of Stein, Vol. I, pp. 287-297, in Rand, pp. 86-98.

Morier*, Agrarian Legislation of Prussia, “Systems of Land Tenure,” pp. 267-275, in Rand, pp. 98-108.

Brentano*, Agrarian Reform in Prussia, Econ. Jour., Vol. VII, pp. 1-20.

Four de St. Genis, La Propriété Rurale, pp. 80-164.

De Foville, Le Morcellement, pp. 52-89.

Von Goltz, Agrarwesen und Agrarpolitik, pp. 40-50.

Colman, European Agriculture (2d ed.), Vol. II, pp. 371-394.

Schulze-Gaevernitz, Volkswirtschaftliche Studien aus Russland, pp. 308-383.

Dawson, W. H., Evolution of Modern Germany, pp. 255-294.

 

3. Agrarian Movement.—England

Johnson*, A. H., Disappearance of the Small Landholder in England, pp. 7-17, 107-164.

Curtler*, W. H. R., Short History of English Agriculture, pp. 190-271.

Hasbach, History of the English Agricultural Labourer, pp. 71-116.

Taylor, Decline of Land-Owning Farmers in England, pp. 1-61.

Prothero, Pioneers and Progress of English Farming, pp. 64-103.

Broderick, English Land and English Landlords, pp. 65-240.

Caird, English Agriculture in 1850, pp. 473-528.

Colman, European Agriculture (2d ed.), Vol. I, pp. 10-109, 133-174.

Levy, Entstehung und Rückgang des landwirtschaftlichen Grossbetriebs in England.

 

4. The Free Trade Movement.—England

Armitage-Smith*, G., Free Trade and its Results, pp. 39-94, 130-144.

Morley*, Life of Cobden, chapters vi, vii, xvi.

Levi, History of British Commerce, pp. 218-227, 261-272, 292-303; in Rand, pp. 207-241.

Ashworth, Recollections of Cobden and the League, pp. 32-64, 296-392.

Prentice, History of the Anti-Corn Law League, Vol. I, pp. 49-77.

Parker, Sir Robert Peel from his Private Letters, Vol. II, pp. 522-559; Vol. III, pp. 220-252.

Cunningham, Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement, pp. 27-99.

Tooke, History of Prices, Vol. V, pp. 391-457.

Curtler, Short History of English Agriculture, pp. 271-293.

Schulze-Gaevernitz, Britischer Imperialismus, pp. 243-375.

 

5. Tariff History—Continent

Ashley*, P. Modern Tariff History, pp. 3-62, 301-312.

Worms, L’Allemagne Économique, pp. 57-393.

Amé, Les Tarifs de Douanes, Vol. I, pp. 21-34, 219-316.

Perigot, Histoire du Commerce Français, pp. 77-185.

Lang, Hundert Jahre Zollpolitik, pp. 168-230.

 

6. Banking and Finance

Cunningham*, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Vol. III, pp. 689-703, 822-829, 833-840.

Andréadès*, History of the Bank of England, pp. 284-294, 331-369, 381-388.

Tugan-Baranowsky, Studien zur Theorie und Geschichte der Handelskrisen in England, pp. 38-54, 62-121.

Giffen, Growth of Capital, pp. 115-134.

Macleod, Theory and Practice of Banking (4th ed.), Vol. I, pp. 433-540; Vol. II, pp. 1-197.

Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. V, chapters 3 and 4 (3d ed), pp. 629-657.

 

7. The New Gold

Cairnes*, Essays, pp. 53-108; in Rand, pp. 242-284.

*Jevons, Investigations in Currency and Finance, pp. 34-92.

Leroy-Beaulieu, Traité d’Économie Politique, Vol. III, pp. 192-238.

Giffen, Economic Inquiries and Studies, Vol. I, pp. 75-97, 121-228.

Hooper, Recent Gold Production of the World, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1901, pp. 415-433.

 

8. Transportation—Private Ownership

Hadley*, Railroad Transportation, pp. 146-202.

Acworth*, Elements of Railway Economics, pp. 61-75, 99-159.

McLean, English Railway and Canal Commission of 1888, in Q. J. E., 1905, Vol. XX, pp. 1-55, or in Ripley, Railway Problems, pp. 603-649.

Acworth, Railways of England, pp. 1-56.

McDermott, Railways, pp. 1-149.

Porter, Progress of the Nation, pp. 287-339.

Edwards, Railways and the Trade of Great Britain, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1908, pp. 102-131.

Pratt, Railways and their Rates, pp. 1-184.

Colson, Legislation des Chemins de Fer, pp. 3-20, 133-182.

Kaufmann, Die Eisenbahnpolitik Frankreichs, Vol. II, pp. 178-284.

Guillamot, L’Organisation des Chemins de Fer, pp. 82-120.

Forbes and Ashford, Our Waterways, pp. 107-177, 215-252.

Léon, Fleuves, Canaux, Chemins de Fer, pp. 1-156.

Evans, A. D., British Railways and Goods Traffic, Econ. Jour., 1905, pp. 37-46.

Thompson, H. G., Canal System of England, pp. 1-73.

 

9. Transportation.—State Ownership

Hadley*, Railroad Transportation, pp. 236-258, [203-235].

Meyer*, Governmental Regulation of Railway Rates, pp. 92-188.

Acworth, Relation of Railways to the State, Econ. Jour., 1908, pp. 501-519.

Mayer, Geschichte und Geographie der Deutschen Eisenbahnen, pp. 3-14.

Lotz, Verkehrsentwicklung in Deutschland, pp. 2-47, 96-142.

Lenshau, Deutsche Wasserstrassen, pp. 9-56, 95-161.

Peschaud, Belgian State Railways, translated in Pratt, State Railways, pp. 57-107.

Tajani, The Railway Situation in Italy, Q. J. E., Vol. XXIII, pp. 618-653.

Pratt, Railways and their Rates, pp. 185-326.

Pratt, Railways and Nationalization, pp. 1-120, 253-293.

 

10. Commerce and Shipping

Bowley*, England’s Foreign Trade in the Nineteenth Century (ed. 1905), pp. 55-107.

Meeker*, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 1-95.

Cornewall-Jones, British Merchant Service, pp. 252-260, 306-317.

Glover, Tonnage Statistics of the Decade 1891-1900, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1902, pp. 1-41.

Ginsburg, British Shipping, in Ashley, British Industries, pp. 173-195.

LeRoux de Bretagne, Les Prime à la Marine Marchande, pp. 93-224.

Charles-Roux, L’Isthme et le Canal de Suez, Vol. II, pp. 287-339.

Von Halle, Volks- und Seewirtschaft, pp. 136-219.

 

11. Agricultural Depression

Report on Agricultural Depression*, Royal Commission of 1897, pp. 6-10, 21-40, 43-53, 85-87.

Haggard*, Rural England, Vol. II, pp. 536-576.

The Tariff Commission, Vol. III, Report of the Agricultural Committee, 1906.

Thompson, Rent of Agricultural Land in England and Wales during the Nineteenth Century, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1907, pp. 587-611.

Hasbach, History of the English Agricultural Labourer, pp. 274-364.

Arch, Autobiography, pp. 65-144, 300-345.

Little, The Agricultural Labourer, Report to the Royal Commission on Labour, 1894, Vol. I, pp. 195-253.

Adams, Position of the Small Holding in the United Kingdom, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1907, pp. 412-437.

Plunkett, Ireland in the New Century (ed. 1905), pp. 175-209.

Bastable, Some Features of the Economic Movement in Ireland, Econ. Jour., Vol. XI, pp. 31-42.

  1. Méline, The Return to the Land, pp. 83-144, 185-240.

Imbart de la Tour, Le Crise Agricole, pp. 24-34, 127-223.

Simkhovitch, The Agrarian Movement in Russia, Yale Review, Vol. XVI, pp. 9-38.

King and Okey, Italy Today, pp. 156-192.

 

12. Recent Tariff History

Smart*, Return to Protection, pp. 14-27, 136-185, 234-259.

Balfour*, Economic Notes on Insular Free Trade, pp. 1-32. (Also in Fiscal Reform, pp. 71-95)

Chamberlain*, Imperial Union and Tariff Reform, pp. 19-44.

Ashley, W. J., Tariff Problem, pp. 53-210.

Marshall, Fiscal Policy of International Trade, pp. 30-82.

Pigou, Protective and Preferential Import Duties, pp. 1-117. (See also his Riddle of the Tariff, pp. 1-107.)

Cunningham, Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement, pp. 100-168.

Ashley, P., Modern Tariff History, pp. 78-112, 313-358.

Zimmermann, Deutsche Handelspolitik, pp. 218-314.

Meredith, Protection in France, pp. 54-129.

Balfour, Fiscal Reform, pp. 97-113, 2266-280.

 

13. Industrial Development

Ashley*, W. J., British Industries, pp. 2-38, 68-92.

Howard*, Recent Industrial Progress in Germany, pp. 51-109.

Cox, British Industries under Free Trade, pp. 2-84, 142-175, 235-376.

Levasseur, Questions ouvrières et industrielles en France sous le troisième République, pp. 27-166.

La Belgique, 1830-1905, pp. 397-617.

Fischer, Italien und die Italiener (ed. 1901), pp. 240-267.

Machat, Le Developpement Économique de la Russie, pp. 157-229.

Jeans, J. S., Iron Trade of Great Britain, pp. 1-73, 100-111.

Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, pp. 37-65.

Helm, E., Survey of the Cotton Industry, Q. J. E., Vol. XVII, pp. 417-437.

 

14. Industrial Combination

Report of the Industrial Commission*, Vol. XVIII, pp. 7-13, 75-88, 101-122, 143-165.

Macrosty*, The Trust Movement in Great Britain, in Ashley, British Industries, pp. 196-232.

Macrosty, Trust Movement in British Industry, pp. 24-56, 81-84, 117-154, 284-307, 329-345.

Walker, Monopolistic Combinations in Europe, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 13-41.

Walker, Combinations in the German Coal Industry, pp. 38-111, 175-289, 322-327.

Walker, German Steel Syndicate, Q. J.E., Vol. XX, pp. 353-398.

Liefmann, Kartelle und Trusts, pp. 22-32.

Baumgarten und Meszlény, Kartelle und Trusts, pp. 83-152.

Chastin, J., Les Trusts et les Syndicats, pp. 23-127.

 

15. Labor.—Coöperative Movement

Bowley*, Wages in the United Kingdom, pp. 22-57, 81-127.

Shadwell,* Industrial Efficiency, Vol. II, pp. 307-350.

Wood, Real Wages and the Standard of Comfort since 1860, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1909, pp. 91-101.

Cost of Living of the Working Classes in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Report to the Board of Trade, 1909.

Webb, Trade Unionism, pp. 344-478.

Howell, Labor Legislation, pp. 447-499.

Willoughby, Workingmen’s Insurance, pp. 29-87.

Beveridge, Unemployment.

Ashley, W. J., Progress of the German Working Classes, pp. 1-65, 74-141.

Dawson, The German Workman, pp. 1-245.

Holyoake, History of Coöperation in England (ed. 1906), Vol. I, pp. 32-42, 70-162, 283-298; Vol. II, pp. 361-396.

Gide, Productive Coöperation in France, Q. J. E., Vol. XIV, pp. 30-66.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 394-397, 407-413.

Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, pp. 294-308.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1910-1911.”

________________________

Final Examination Economics 6a
(1910-11)

Image Source: Edwin Francis Gay and Julius Klein, respectively, from The World’s Work, Vol. XXVII, No. 5 (March 1914) and Harvard Album 1920.

 

Categories
Courses Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Methods of Social Reform. Frank A. Fetter, 1906.

Thomas Nixon Carver was granted a sabbatical leave from Harvard for the academic year 1906-07. Frank Albert Fetter from Cornell was hired to teach Carver’s course that covered economic utopias and proposed social reforms. 

Inspecting university course catalogues from where Fetter had previously taught, I was able to find that he did indeed once teach a one term course at Cornell before teaching Carver’s course in 1906:  “Political Science 55a: Socialism and Communism” that was given in the Fall term of a three term academic year 1894-95.

After Fetter returned to Cornell, it appears he then taught a course very similar to what he taught at Harvard: Political Science 66b Social Reforms. “History and growth of the more radical modern plans for changing industrial conditions; program and spirit of the socialistic parties in Europe and America.” (1907-08)

Here are the main dates in Fetter’s career:

1891  A. B. Indiana University
1892  Ph.M. Cornell University
1894  Ph.D. University of Halle
1894-1895   Instructor in Political Economy, Cornell University
1895-1898   Professor of Economics and Social Science, Indiana University
1898-1901   Professor, Stanford University
1901-1911   Professor, Cornell University
1911-1933   Professor, Princeton University

1912  President of the American Economic Association

Comparing this syllabus with those used by Carver before and after this year, one sees that Fetter essentially added items to Carver’s syllabus and made some minor rearrangements of the topics, e.g. anarchism moved to the end of the term.

______________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below.  There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting…

_______________________________

[Course Enrollment First Half-year 1906-07]

[Economics] 14b 1hf. Professor Fetter (Cornell University).—Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.

4 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 7 Other. Total 32.

 

Source:  Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1906-07, p.71.

_______________________________

 

ECONOMICS 14b
METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM

First Half-Year, 1906 – 07, F. A. Fetter.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I.  Evil’s and Discontent Portrayed.

Engels, F., Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844.
Rowntree, B. S., Poverty (a study of York, Eng.).
London, J., The People of the Abyss (in London).
Brooks, J. G., The Social Unrest (1903).
Hunter, R., Poverty (a pessimistic view of the U. S.).
Spargo, J., The Bitter Cry of the Children (1906).

II. Utopian Romances (chronological order of publication).

Plato, The Republic (4th century B.C.).
Morley, H. (ed.), Ideal Commonwealths (containing Plutarch’s Lycurgus, More’s Utopia (1516), Bacon’s New Atlantis (1629), Campanella’s City of the Sun (1520), Hall’s Mundus Alter et Idem (1607)).
Cabet, E., Voyage en Icarie (1839)
Bellamy, E., Looking Backward (1887).
Morris, W., News from Nowhere.
Hertzka, Freiland.
Bellamy, E., Equality (1897).
Wells, H. G., Anticipations (1902).
________, Mankind in the Making (1904).
Parry, The Scarlet Empire (1906, anti-utopian).

III. Communistic Experiments (American books in chronological order).

Kautsky, Karl, Communism in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation.
Cabet, E., Icaria (history of the society in America, 1852).
Noyes, J. H., History of American Socialisms (1870).
Nordhoff, Charles, The Communistic Societies of the United States (1875).
Hinds, W. A., American Communities (1878, and later revised edition).
Shaw, Albert, Icaria, a Chapter in the History of Socialism (1884).
Codman, J. T., Brook Farm; Historic and Personal Memoirs (1894).
Randall, E. O., The Zoar Society (1899).
Landis, G. B., The Separatists of Zoar.
Lockwood, George B., The New Harmony Communities.
Broom, Isaac, The Last Days of the Ruskin Coöperative Association (1902).
Hillquist, M., History of Socialism in the United States (1903).

IV. Religious and Altruistic Socialism

Lamennais, Les Parole d’un Croyant.
Kaufman, Lamennais and Kingsley. Contemporary Review, April, 1882.
Kingsley, Charles, Alton Locke.
Stubbs, Charles Kingsley.
Woodworth, A. V., Christian Socialism in England (1903).
Gladden, Washington, Tools and the Man, A View of Christian Socialism.
Strong, Josiah, Our Country (1885), The New Era (1893).
Ballon-Adin, Practical Christian Socialism.
Nitti, F., Catholic Socialism (trans. 1895).
Carlyle, Thomas: “The Socialism and Unsocialism of Thomas Carlyle,” a selection of chapters by W. D. P. Bliss.
Ruskin, John: “The Communism of John Ruskin,” a selection by W. D. P. Bliss from Unto This Last, The Crown of Wild Olive, and Fors Clavigera.
“William Morris, Poet, Artist, Socialist,” a collection of his socialistic writings, by F. W. Lee.

V. History and Exposition of Collectivism (alphabetic by authors).

Dawson, W. H., German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle (1888).
Ely, R. T., French and German Socialism (1883); Socialism, an examination of its nature, strength, and weakness (1895).
Flower, B. O., How England Averted a Revolution of Force (1903).
Gonner, E. C. K., The Socialist Philosophy of Rodbertus (1899).
Graham, William, Socialism, New and Old.
Kirkup, Thomas, A History of Socialism.
Peixotto, Jessica B., The French Revolution and Modern French Socialism (1901).
Rae, John, Contemporary Socialism (2d ed. 1891).
Russell, Bertrand, German Social Democracy.
Schaeffle, Albert, The Quintessence of Socialism (1874).
Sombart, Werner, Socialism and the Social Movement in the 19th Century (1st ed. translated; 5th ed. revised, in German, 1905).
____________, Der moderne Capitalismus, 2 vols.

VI.  Collectivist arguments.

German.

Karl Marx and F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1847).
Karl Marx, Das Kapital (1867).
Engels, F., Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.
Bebel, A., Woman in the Past, Present and Future (trans. 1894).
Kautsky, K., The Social Revolution (trans. 1903).
Bernstein, E., Ferdinand Lassalle (trans. 1893).
_________, Die Voraussetzungen des Sozialismus (1899).
_________, Zur Geschichte und Theorie des Sozialismus (2d ed. 1901).

English and American.

Hyndman, H. M., The Economics of Socialism (English of the Marxist school).
Webb, Sydney and Beatrice, Problems of Modern Industry.
Fabian Essay in Socialism, B. Shaw and others.
Fabian Tracts, 1-86 (1884-1899).
Blatchford, R., Merrie England (1895).
Gronlund, L., The Coöperative Commonwealth (1895).
_________, The New Economy (1898).
Bliss, W. P. D., A Handbook of Socialism (1895).
Vail, Modern Socialism (1899).
Ghent, W. J., Our Benevolent Feudalism.
_________, Mass and Class.
London, J., War of the Classes.
Spargo, John, Socialism (1906).

Various.

Selections from Fourier.
Jaures, J., Studies in Socialism (trans. 1906).
Ensor, R. C. K., Modern Socialism as set forth by Socialists (collection of 29 articles, 1904).
Labriola, A., Essays on the Materialistic Conception of History (trans. 1904).
Vandervelde, E., Collectivism.

VII. Anti-Collectivist Arguments.

Brunhuber, Dr. Robert, Die heutige Sozialdemokratie (1906).
Cathrein, Rev. Victor, Socialism Exposed and Refuted (trans. 1902).
______________, Socialism, its Theoretical Basis and Practical Application.
Gilman, N. P., Socialism and the American Spirit.
Gonner, E. C. K., The Socialist State.
Guyot, Y., The Tyranny of Socialism.
Le Bon, G., Psychology of Socialism (trans. 1899).
Mackay, T., A Plea for Liberty.
Malloch, W. H., Labor and the Popular Welfare (new ed., 1894).
___________, Classes and Masses.
___________, Aristocracy and Evolution (1898).
Menger, A., The Right to the Whole Produce of Labor (trans. 1899).
Sanders, G. A., Reality, or Law and Order vs. Anarchy and Socialism, a reply to E. Bellamy (1898).
Schaeffle, A., The Impossibility of Social Democracy (1884).
Simonson, G., A Plain Examination of Socialism (1900).
Spencer, H., The Coming Slavery.

VIII. Land Nationalization.

Favorable.

George, H., Progress and Poverty.
______________, Our Land and Land Policy.
Wallace, A. R., Studies, Scientific and Social (in Vol. II, articles on land nationalization).
Loria, A., Problèmes Sociaux Contemporains.
George, H., Jr., The Menace of Privilege.
Shearman, T. G., Natural Taxation.

Unfavorable.

Cathrein, Rev. Victor, The Champions of Agrarian Socialism, A Refutation of Lavelèye and George (trans. 1889).
Huxley, T. H., Evolution and Ethics (chs. on single tax, 1894).
_________, Social Diseases and Worse Remedies (1891).
Rae, John, Ch. 12 of Contemporary Socialism.
Smart, W., Taxation of Land Values (1900).
Walker, F. A., Land and Its Rent (1883).

General.

Epps, Land Systems of Australia.
Lefèvre-Shaw, English Commons and Forests.

IX. The Extension of State Action

Adams, H. C., The Relation of the State to Industrial Action.
Ely, R. T., Problems of To-day (chs. 17-23).
Hobson, J. A., The Social Problem, Life and Work (1901).
Jevons, W. S., Methods of Social Reform (last 5 chs.).
Ritchie, D. C., Principles of State Interference.
_________, Darwinism and Politics.
Taylor, F. M., The Right of the State to Be (1891).
Willoughby, W. W., Social Justice.

X. Anarchism and Nihilism.

Godwin, William, Political Justice; on Property.
Tolstoi, L., The Slavery of Our times (1900).
Kropotkin, The Scientific Basis of Anarchy. Nineteenth Century, 21: 238.
______________, The Coming Anarchy. Nineteenth Century, 22: 149.
Reclus, Elisée, Anarchy. Contemporary Review, 14: 627.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1906-1907).

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Economics Departmental (General) Exam for A.B., 1939

Majors in economics at Harvard had to pass a battery of examinations in their Junior and Senior years (7.5 hours for non-honors candidates and 10.5 hours for honors candidates) before they could graduate. A printed copy of questions for thirteen component A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 (over thirty pages!) are to be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[SourceHarvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

This posting gives the questions from the Departmental Examination and the topics for the Essay Paper that all economics majors were required to take.  

  • One Departmental Examination from the Department of Economics consisting of two parts:

Essay Paper (May 5, 1939; 1.5 hours)
Departmental Examination (May 8, 1939; 3 hours)

  • One of the Five Division Special Examinations. (May 10, 1939; 3 hours)

Economic Theory,
Economic History since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • One of the Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates. (May 12, 1939; 3 hours)

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

 

______________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below.  There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

 

 

_____________________________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

DEPARTMENTAL EXAMINATION
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
[1939]

(Three hours)

Answer SIX questions; at least ONE question must be answered in each part. A senior may not take more than ONE question in that section of Part II which covers his special field.

PART I

  1. How may industrial fluctuations affect the distribution of income?
  2. Explain and discuss the probable immediate economic consequences in this country of the outbreak of a general European war in the near future. If we should stay out of it, what might be some of the long-run effects of the war on our economy?
  3. What various causes may lead to an increase in the general level of real wages in the country?
  4. Discuss some of the economic implications of declining population growth.
  5. Do you think that abolition of the institution of inheritance would have important social and economic consequences?
  6. If there were one hundred automobile manufacturing firms, would the process of determination of the prices of automobiles be different from what it is now? Do you think that the prices would be different? Explain.
  7. Explain briefly the principal short-run and long-run consequences in an economy of a succession of cost-reducing innovations by individual firms.
  8. Name and explain briefly as many of the possible economic consequences of the New England hurricane as you can think of.

PART II

A
STATISTICS AND ACCOUNTING

  1. What problems would be met in an endeavor to obtain a curve of marginal cost by an analysis of the actual monthly expense data of the firm?
  2. How would you treat a time series of employment data to reveal (a) the rate of change in secular growth and (b) changes in the intensity of cyclical fluctuations?
  3. What differences do you find between concepts used by accountants and those used by economists in analyzing profits? Do you think that these differences should be eliminated? Explain.
  4. Discuss the relevance to different situations of various methods of measuring appreciation.

B
PUBLIC POLICY AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE
(As Aspects of Modern Economic History)

  1. Discuss the causes, course, and outcome, and the interests and the views represented on both sides, of the struggle over the money question in this country in the last three decades of the nineteenth century.
  2. “The achievements in economic policy of America’s liberal or progressive statesmen have always been limited, because they have approached their tasks in this field too largely as moral crusaders against ‘predatory’ business interests, and too little as unbiased students of the technical economic problems involved.” Discuss, with special reference to the career of either Theodore Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson.
  3. What British statesman, during the 19th century, made the most important contributions in developing or establishing the public policies which chiefly aided, or removed impediments to, or reformed abuses connected with, Great Britain’s industrial development? Name several statesmen and the principal measures or policies each one stood for, and discuss the career and achievements of one man in some detail.
  4. Sketch the social security legislation in Germany prior to 1910. Do you think that this legislation had any influence on the strength and achievements of the Social Democratic Party in the post-war period?

C
MONEY AND FINANCE

  1. How do you account for changes in the velocity of circulation of money in bank credit? What are some of the consequences of changes in velocity? Can velocity be controlled by the central bank authorities?
  2. “The whirling dervishes of deflation and the experts of castor-oil economics assure us that ultimately we arrive at some mysterious automatic equilibrium point from which recovery can proceed.”
  3. Discuss the natures and effects on world economic conditions of some of the principal new types of restrictions on international trade imposed by various countries in the last two decades.
  4. “The disappearance of the gold standard is the disappearance of one of the safeguards of private property. For in giving the State a free hand to manage the money and credit supply, we are giving political pressure-groups a potent weapon for effecting arbitrary changes in all property-values and in the distribution of wealth.”
  5. Discuss the possible effects of each one of three different kinds of taxes on the annual amount of new investment in capital goods in the community.
  6. Would you advocate return of all the leading nations to a gold standard of the pre-war type? If not, what sort of international monetary arrangements do you favor?
  7. “The advocates of public spending as the way to open ‘save capitalism’ are either disingenuous about their objective, or ignorant of the nature of capitalism. For the continuance of capitalism requires economy in public, as well as in private spending.”

 

D
MARKET ORGANIZATION AND CONTROL

  1. “Corporate reorganization is merely a family squabble among investors over a pie which turned out to be a donut. The results have no significance to consumers or to labor.”
  2. Explain why you favor or oppose government ownership and operation (in the United States) of the railroads or of the bituminous coal industry.
  3. “Once recovery has been attained most agricultural problems can be left to the market.”
  4. Should differences in electric rates to different consumers reflect only differences in costs?
  5. “The law should be revised so as to prevent any business from becoming bigger than it can grow when subjected to the test of the free market.”
  6. Discuss the problem of improving efficiency in the distribution of some one farm product, or group of products, with respect to obstacles, possible achievements, and possible results to farmers, processors, middlemen, and consumers.
  7. “The price-cutter is worse than a criminal – he is a fool. He not only pulls down the standing of his goods; he pulls down himself and his trade. He scuttles the ship in which he himself is afloat. Price-cutting is not business any more than smallpox is health.”

 

E
LABOR ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL REFORM

  1. Discuss the relative merits, from the standpoints of labor and the public, under present-day American industrial conditions, of the principles of labor organization represented by the A. F. of L. And those represented by the C. I. O.
  2. “The rise of Fascism is due to the failure of events to bear out one of the predictions of Marx. In Germany and in Italy the lower-middle-class, instead of disappearing, has become not only desperate enough but strong enough to impose its patriotic will on both the plutocracy and the proletariat.”
  3. Do you think that a spread of collective bargaining in a community is likely to have any appreciable consequences for the total national income and the total amount of employment?
  4. “A vigorous labor movement always has as its basis in the motives and mentality of the workers, much less their economic interests as individuals, than their capacity for emotional loyalty to an ideology and a fighting ‘cause’ which plays the role, in their lives, of a class religion.”
  5. What basic tenets of Marxism in economic theory underlie both its explanation of capitalist crises or depressions, and its explanation of imperialist wars? Explain the underlying theory and how it leads to these two theories, and discuss the basic issues as issues in economic theory.
  6. What is your opinion of the view that redistributing wealth by taxation would be an ineffectual method of reform because it would leave untouched the unequal distribution of power.
  7. “If we wish to preserve our democratic, liberal, and capitalistic or ‘free enterprise’ society, by making it possible for the masses to be and remain contented with it, no means to this end is more important than development of an adequate program of social security.”

 

PART III

  1. “The idea that the sins and the errors of judgment of businessmen bring on depressions is a groundless myth. The business cycle is the product of impersonal forces, and would follow the same course even if all men were invariably honest and made no mistakes.”
  2. “To such extent as possible people are able to engage in competition upon the basis of quality and service, rather than price, trade will be raised to a higher level, and will be more to the advantage of the general public.”
  3. “If all employers agreed to pay the same wages then higher wages will hurt no employer, but will, instead, benefit all employers by increasing demand for their products.”
  4. “So long as consumers do not have purchasing power there is no need for further investment to increase facilities for production. If no one can buy, the facilities are not needed.”
  5. “Stabilization of individual prices is inherent in our financial structure because industry is based largely on a credit structure and any radical drop in prices makes fixed charges unbearable.”
  6. “Unemployment is a problem which Society must solve and we believe it is a better solved by businessmen than by passing it over to the government for solutions.”
  7. “The prices created in the process of buying and selling regulate our lives far more minutely than could an efficient despot – and often as arbitrarily as a capricious tyrant.”
  8. “Practical questions no more form part of the science of Political Economy and navigation forms part of the science of astronomy. The conclusions of the economic of the economist do not authorize him in adding a single syllable of advice.”

May 8, 1939.

 

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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

 

ESSAY PAPER
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

(One hour and a half)

Candidates for honors may write on ONE topic only. Others may, if they prefer, write on TWO topics. Please note on the front cover of the bluebook the number of each topic upon which you write.

  1. The meaning and significance of economic progress.
  2. Economics of war – planning and financing.
  3. Would political and economic isolation be the best course for the United States?
  4. The concept of ideal output in a community.
  5. “The disappearance of the free competitive market must mean the eventual disappearance of liberty and democracy, political and economic.”
  6. The significance of specialization in economic activity.
  7. Effects of the business cycle on farmers, labor, investors, professional men, retailers.
  8. “The New Deal efforts at recovery were supported by theory, especially by doctrines explaining prosperity, that had gained popularity during the New Era of the twenties.”
  9. A book review giving your assessment of An Economic Program for American Democracy.
  10. The concept of ideal distribution of income.
  11. “The competitive price system is a scheme of social organization without resort to mass forces.”
  12. The significance of monopoly elements, of various sorts, in an economy.
  13. The functions of the study and teaching of economics.
  14. “The twentieth century clearly does not offer any comfortable prospect of a smoothly functioning economic Utopia.”
  15. A comparison (for the United States or for the world at large) of the principal features of the period of boom and depression in the 1920’s and to 1930’s with those of any period of boom and depression in the nineteenth century.
  16. The economic consequences of the next European war.
  17. “The growing acceptance of the idea that there must be a large, permanent body of unemployed is a passive recognition of the defeat of private capitalism.”
  18. The importance, and the outlines of the skillful integration of government policies with respect to money, public finance, industry, agriculture, public utilities, and labor into a consistent whole, for the purpose of achieving full use of the country’s economic resources.
  19. “The economic order of the western world is undergoing in this generation set of structural changes no less basic and profound in character and that transformation of economic life and institutions which we are wont to designate by the phrase ‘Industrial Revolution_.”
  20. Can economic theory be of practical value to business executives?
  21. Can economic theory aid in the development of public policy?
  22. Can economic theory explain “what goes on” in the economy of a totalitarian state?

May 5, 1939.

Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

Categories
Courses Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Schumpeter’s Socialism Course. Syllabus and Exam, 1946

Welcome to my blog, Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have already assembled for you to sample or click on the search icon in the upper right to explore by name, university, or category. You can subscribe to my blog below.  There is also an opportunity to comment below….

______________________

…Regular vistors to this blog have seen that an economics course on socialist thought and movements was a regular part of the curriculum at Harvard during the first half of the twentieth century. Up to this posting I have included material from the following courses: Thomas Nixon Carver’s SINGLE TAX, SOCIALISM, ANARCHISM (1919-20), Edward Mason and Paul Sweezy’s ECONOMICS OF SOCIALISM (1938), and Paul Sweezy’s ECONOMICS OF SOCIALISM (1940).

This course became part of Joseph Schumpeter’s teaching portfolio in the 1940s. His course outline and exam for the winter semester of 1943-44 has been posted as well.

______________________

[Course Announcement]

Economics 11b. Economics of Socialism

Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at  10. Professor Schumpeter.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1945-46. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 42, No. 8 (March 31, 1945), p. 36.

______________________

[Enrollment]

[Economics] 11b (spring term) Professor Schumpeter. –Economics of Socialism.

5 Graduates, 18 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 15 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 8 Radcliffe, 9 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1945-46, p. 58.

______________________

ECONOMICS 11b
1945-46
OUTLINE AND ASSIGNMENTS

[Joseph A. Schumpeter]

I.   FIRST TWO WEEKS: The Socialist Issue.

Socialist ideas and socialist parties. Socialism and the labor movement. Laborite and intellectualist socialism. The definition of socialism.

*H. W. Laidler, Social-Economic Movements, 1944, esp. Parts V and VI.
Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, article on Socialist and Labor Parties.

II. THIRD TO FIFTH WEEK: The Theory of Centralist Socialism., 1938

*O. Lange and F. M. Taylor, The Economic Theory of Socialism, 1938.
[A. P. Lerner, The Economics of Control, 1944.]

III. SIXTH TO NINTH WEEK: The Economic Interpretation of History. The Class Struggle, and the Marxist Theory of Capitalism.

*Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I, chs. I, IV, V, VI.
Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto.
*Paul M. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, 1942, chs. I-VI
(pp. 1-108).

IV. TENTH TO TWELFTH WEEK: The Socialist Theory of the State and of the Proletarian Revolution, Imperialism, National Socialism.

V.I. Lenin, State and Revolution, 1926.
[M. Dobb, Political Economy and Capitalism, ch. VII.]
Paul M. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Chs. XIII-XIX.

READING PERIOD ASSIGNMENT

Read E. Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism, 1909, especially pp. 18-95, and survey again the items in the reading list marked *.

NOTE: The items in square brackets are recommended but not assigned. So is: Bienstock, Gregory, and Schwartz, Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture, 1944.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. HUC 8522.2.1. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1945-1946 (1 of 2)”.

______________________

1945 – 46
Harvard University
Economics 11b

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

  1. What is Syndicalism?
  2. Characterize the type, aims, and importance of the group that called itself Fabians.
  3. “Rational allocation of factors of production presupposes the existence of prices. Prices presuppose free markets. Hence the problem of rational allocation of factors of production would be insoluble in a socialist society.” Criticize.
  4. Discuss the various methods by which investment could be financed (that is, the resources for the extension of the productive apparatus could be provided) in a socialist society.
  5. Explain and criticize what is known as the Marxist Theory of Exploitation.
  6. What meaning do you attach to, and what do you think of, the proposition that Socialism is “inevitable?”

Final, May 1946

Source: Harvard University Archives. Joseph Schumpeter Papers. Lecture Notes Box 2, Folder “Course notes (Jan 1950—Found in Drawer—Cambridge Study) Misc 1945-1947”.

Image Source: Harvard Album 1947.

Categories
Courses Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Syllabus

Harvard. Economics of Socialism. Mason and Sweezy, 1938

Between one slice of two weeks of pre-Marxian socialism and a slice of two weeks of the economics of planning, Mason and Sweezy offered their students a full portion of Marxian economics with an added dash of Leninism. This posting provides the enrollment, syllabus and final examination questions for 1938. Future Nobel prize laureate James Tobin was a student in the course and he took excellent notes! Here  a link to the Economics of Socialism that Paul Sweezy taught by himself in 1940.

__________________________

Welcome to my blog, Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled for you to sample or click on the search icon in the upper right to explore by name, university, or category. You can subscribe to my blog below.  There is also an opportunity to comment following each posting….

__________________________

[Course Enrollment: Economics of Socialism]

[Economics] 11b 2hf. (formerly 7d). Professor Mason and Dr. P. M. Sweezy.—Economics of Socialism.

1 Graduate; 27 Seniors; 23 Juniors; 1 Sophomore: Total 52.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard and Reports of Departments for 1937-38, p. 85.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 11 b
Outline and Reading
1937 – 38

Week of

Feb. 7-12
Mason
a.  Outline of Course
b.  Utopian and Scientific Socialism
c.  Nature of Socialism as Utopia
Feb. 14-19
Mason
a.  Saint-Simon
b.  Fourier
c.  Robert Owen
Reading:

Engels, Anti-Dühring, Part III
Strachey, Theory and Practice of Socialism, Part III
Gide and Rist, History of Economic Doctrines, Book II,
Chs. 2 & 3

Feb. 21-26
Mason
a.  Life and Works of Marx and Engels
b.  Dialectical materialism and
c.  Historical materialism
Reading:

Riazanov, Marx and Engels

Feb. 28-Mar. 5
Mason
a.  Theory of Classes
b.  Theory of the State
c.  The State and Revolution
Reading:    Handbook of Marxism [Burns],

Ch. I (Communist Manifesto)
Ch. IV (Class Struggles in France),
Ch. V (18th Brumaire),
Ch. VII (Civil War in France),
Ch. XX (Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy)

Mar. 7-12
Mason
a.  Theory of Value
b.  Theory of Value
c.  General Tendencies of Capitalist Development
Mar. 14-19
Mason
a.  Concentration and Centralization of Capital
b.  Monopoly Problem in Capitalism
c.  According to Marx and Lenin
Mar. 21-26
Mason
a.  Marxian and Modern Views on
b.  Wages and Technological Unemployment
c.  Marxian Theory of Crises
Mar. 28-Apr. 2
Sweezy
a.  Marxian Theory of Crises
b.  Imperialism
c.  Imperialism
Reading:

Handbook of Marxism, Ch. XXI (Capital)
Capital, Vol. I, Part VII, Ch. XXV, Sections 1, 2, 3, 4
Lenin, Imperialism

VACATION

Apr. 11-16
Mason
a.
b.  The Socialist Movement After Marx
c.
Apr. 18-23
Mason
a.
b.  Marxian Schools of Thought

Reading:

Sidney Hook, Towards the Understanding of Karl Marx, Part I
Further assignment to be announced.

Apr. 25-May 7
Sweezy
Two weeks to be devoted to the following topics:
1.  Marxian and Orthodox Economics
[Handwritten note:] Rev of Ec Studies June ‘35
2.  The Allocation of Resources in Socialist Society
Reading:

Lange, Marxian Economics and Modern Economic Theory                         [Handwritten note:] Rev of Ec Studies June ‘35
Hayek, Collectivist Economic Planning, Chs. I, III, V
Pigou, Socialism versus Capitalism

Reading Period:

Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Soviet Communism, Vol. II
Chs. VIII, IX

[Handwritten additions:]
Ch 6 Lippman

Oct. 36 Rev of Ec Studies—Lange—On the Economic Theory of Socialism—
Taussig memorial—Sweezy—Economist in Socialist State.

_____________________________

 

1937-38
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11b/2 

I

(About one hour)
Reading Period Question

  1. What features of the Russian economic system do you think could be adopted by a capitalist country? What features seem to you to be peculiarly the product of socialism and hence inapplicable under a capitalist system? 

II

Answer four questions

  1. “The most egregious error committed by the Marxist theorists is in misunderstanding and underrating the strength of the middle classes.” Discuss.

 

  1. What arguments does Mises use to support his claim that socialism is impossible? Do you agree with these arguments? State your reasons.

 

  1. Summarize the fundamentals of Lenin’s theory of imperialism. What do you regard as the particular merits or weaknesses of this theory?

 

  1. “To what extent is it true to say that the doctrine of the ‘withering away of the state’ implies anarchism as the ultimate goal of Marxian socialism?

 

  1. State and criticize the Marxian theory of value.

 

  1. Do you think that Marxists are justified in regarding crises and depressions as inevitable under capitalism? What grounds are there for believing that they might be eliminated under socialism?

 

Final. 1938

Source: Yale University Library, Manuscripts and Archives. James Tobin Papers, Box 6.

Image Source: Mason and Sweezy portraits from the Harvard Album 1939.

Categories
Courses Harvard Syllabus

Harvard. International Trade, Finance & Policy. Haberler, 1949-51

 

Welcome to my blog, Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have already assembled for you to sample or click on the search icon in the upper right to explore by name, university, or category. You can subscribe to my blog below.  There is also an opportunity to comment below….

______________________

Gottfried Haberler’s two term Harvard graduate course sequence in International Economics at mid-century was divided along Theory vs. Policy lines as opposed to the (real) Trade & Commercial Policy vs. (monetary) International Finance & Exchange used in current textbooks.

I have taken the liberty of combining the Fall term in 1949 with the Spring term of 1951 for which I have the reading lists. I could not find the latter at Harvard, but spotted a copy in Milton Friedman’s papers in a folder for other people’s syllabi.

_______________________________

 

 

[Economics 243a International Trade. Enrollment, Fall Term 1949]

Total 36:   23 graduates, 1 senior, 12 other (of which 1 MIT, 4 Radcliffe).

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments, 1949-1950, p. 75.

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Economics 243a
Professor Haberler – Fall Term, 1949

During the first half year, the theory of international trade, including the theory of tariffs and other international trade policies, will be discussed in a systematic fashion. The subject of the spring term will be selected topics in the field of international economic relations.

Outline for First Half-Year

  1. International trade and national income. The importance of trade for various countries. Measures of importance.
  2. International accounts. International transactions of the national economic budgets.
  3. Foreign exchanges. Demand and supply for exports and imports. The market for foreign currency. Purchasing power parity theories.
  4. The balance of payments mechanism. Price effects, income effects, the foreign trade multiplier. The transfer problem.
  5. The international division of labor. The theory of comparative cost. Modern developments of the theory of comparative cost. Ohlin’s general equilibrium theory of interregional and international trade.
  6. The welfare implications of international trade theory. The theory of tariffs and protection in general. Monopoly and monopolistic competition in international trade.
  7. International trade theory and location theory.

 

Reading Assignments and Suggestions
General

The literature in the subject is so rich that students can acquire the knowledge necessary for the course in many different ways. Students are invited to make their own choice from the suggestions below. Two extensive bibliographies have been prepared in former terms for other courses. One may be obtained from Ms. Buller, Littauer 322; the other from Professor Williams’ secretary, Littauer 231. Each student is expected to have read one or the other of the following general monographs or texts:

Ellsworth: International Economics
Enke and Salera: International Economics
Haberler: Theory of International Trade
Harris (Editor): Foreign Economic Policy for the U.S. (especially Part V)
Harrod: International Economics (3rd edition, 1939)
Marshall: Money, Credit, and Commerce, (Part III and Appendix g)
Meade and Hitch: Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy (Part III)
An excellent discussion of recent developments will be found in: Metzler: “The Theory of International Trade,” Chapter. 6, Survey of Contemporary Economics (1948)
Readings in the Theory of International Trade contains an excellent collection of articles on all phases of the course
Taussig: International Trade (1927)
Tinbergen: International Economic Cooperation (1945)
Whale: International Trade

Assignments and Suggestions to Subjects Listed Above

(in addition to relevant chapters in general texts)

  1. The Post-War Foreign Economic Policy of the United States. 6th Report of the House Special Committee on Post-War Economic Policy and Planning. House Report No. 541. Washington, 1945. (This report was written by Lloyd Metzler.)
    The United States in the World Economy, U. S. Department of Commerce, 1943.
    Buchanan and Lutz: Rebuilding the World Economy (1947)
    J. Brown: Industrialization and Trade (1943)
    A. J. Brown: Applied Economics (1948), Ch. VI
    Readings, Chs. 21 and 22, by D. H. Robertson and J. Finder
  2. Balance of Payments Yearbook, 1938-1941-1947 (International Monetary Fund)
    Hicks: The Social Framework of the American Economy, Ch. XII, “Foreign and National Income”
    The Survey of Current Business (monthly publication of Dep. of Commerce) has frequent articles on trade and balance of payments statistics.
    The United States in the World Economy (U.S. Department. of Commerce, 1943)
  3. Nurkse: International Currency Experience (League of Nations, 1944)
    J. Robinson: “Foreign Exchanges,” Essays on the Theory of Employment (1st ed., 1938; 2nd ed., 1947), Part III; reprinted in Readings, Chapter 4.
    J. Robinson: “Beggar-My-Neighbor Remedies for Unemployment,” Readings, Ch. 17.
    Machlup: “The Theory of Foreign Exchanges,” Economica, 1939 (two articles); Readings, Ch. 5.
    Pigou: “The Foreign Exchanges,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November, 1922, Reprinted in Essays in Applied Economics (1927)
    Metzler: op. cit.
    Harris (Editor): Foreign Economic Policy for the U. S., Part V, Chs. 20, 21, 22.
  4. Keynes and Ohlin on German Reparations in Economic Journal, 1929; and Readings, Chs. 6 and 7.
    Iversen: International Capital Movements, 1935.
    Machlup: International Trade and the National Income Multiplier (1943)
    Harris (Editor): The New Economics, Part V, especially essays by Bloomfield and Nurkse.
    Williams: Post-War Monetary Plans and Other Essays (3rd edition, 1947).
  5. In addition to general texts, see:
    Edgeworth: Papers Relating to Political Economy, Vol. II, p. 3-60.
    Ellsworth: “A Comparison of International Trade Theories,” American Economic Review, June, 1940.
    Leontief: “The Use of Indifference Curves in the Analysis of Foreign Trade,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1933; Readings, Ch. 10.
    Mill: Principles
    Ohlin: op. cit. Parts I, II, and possibly III.
    Readings, Chs. 12, 13, 15, by J. H. Williams, E. Heckscher, and W. Stolper and P. Samuelson
    Ricardo: Principles
    Taussig: International Trade
    Viner: Studies in the Theory of International Trade (last two chapters)
  6. Samuelson: “The Gains from Trade,” Readings, Ch. 11.
    Scitovszky: “A Reconsideration of the Theory of Tariffs,” Readings, Ch. 16.
    Henderson: “The Restriction of Foreign Trade,” in The Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, Volume 14, January, 1949.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 5, Folder “Economics 1949-1950, 3 of 3”.

_______________________________

1950-51
Economics 243b
Spring Term—Professor Haberler

International Economic Policy

with special emphasis on the theoretical foundations

  1. Introduction
    Theory and Policy
    Aims of Economic Policy
    International Trade, Economic Welfare and National Income
    International Trade and Employment
    The Quantitative Importance of International Trade
  2. Brief Sketch of the Historical Evolution of Theory of International Trade and International Economic Policy
    Pre-Mercantilist Views
    Mercantilism
    Classical Liberalism
    Reaction to Liberalism: Historical School
    From the Repeal of the Corn Law to 1914
    The Interwar Period
    –The 1920’s
    –The 1930’s
    Recent developments
    The Rise of Socialism and Planning and their Impact on Trade Policy
  3. Free Trade and Protection: A Theoretical Analysis
    The Case for Free Trade: The Theory of Comparative Cost
    Arguments for Protection: “Economic” vs. “Non-economic” Arguments
    Infant Industry Argument: Problems of Economic Development
    Terms of Trade: Monopoly and Monopolistic Competition in International Trade
    Trade Policy and Unemployment
  4. Balance of Payments, the Exchange Rate and International Monetary Policy
    The International Accounts
    –Balance of Payments and National Economic Budget
    Stable Exchanges
    –Gold Standard
    –Gold Exchange Standard
    Currency Depreciation
    –Demand and Supply for Exports and Imports
    –Market for Foreign Exchange
    –Stability Conditions
    The Transfer Problem
    Dollar Shortage
  5. Quantitative Restrictions
    Quotas
    Exchange Control
  6. Most-Favored-Nation Principle, Discrimination and the Economics of Regional Blocs
    Preferential Tariffs
    Customs Unions
    Economic Unions
    Monetary, Clearing and Payments Unions

 

Literature

General Treatises and Historical

  1. Descriptive and Historical
    Brown: Industrialization and Trade (1943)
    Buchanan and Lutz: Rebuilding the World Economy (1947)
    Condliffe: The Commerce of Nations (1950)
    League of Nations: The Network of World Trade (1942)
  2. Theoretical
    Ellsworth: International Economics (1938)
    Ellsworth: The International Economy (1950)
    Haberler: Theory of International Trade
    Harrod: International Economics (1938)
    Metzler “Theory of International Trade” in Survey of Contemporary Economics
    Ohlin: Interregional and International Trade
    Taussig: International Trade
    Marshall: Money, Credit, and Commerce
    Meade and Hitch: Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy (Part V)
    J. S. Mill: Principles, Book III, Ch. 17, 18, 20, 21; Book V, Ch. 4 (reprinted in Selected Readings)
    Enke and Salera: International Economics
    Ellis and Metzler: Readings in the Theory of International Trade (quoted as “Readings”)
    Taussig (Editor): Selected Readings in International Trade and Tariff Problems (quoted as “Selected Readings”)
    Viner: Studies in the Theory of International Trade
    Williams: Postwar Monetary Problems and Other Essays

Reading for Individual Sections of Outline

  1. No specific reading.
  2. No specific reading.
  3. Practically all theoretical texts mentioned above. See especially:
    Ellsworth
    Haberler
    Readings: Chs. 10, 11, 15, 16
    Selected Readings, Chs. 1, 2, 9
    In addition: Haberler: “Some Problems in the Pure Theory of International Trade,” Economic Journal, June, 1950.
    A. Henderson: “The Restriction of Foreign Trade,” in The Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, Vol. 14, January 1949.
    J.E. Meade: “A Geometrical Representation of Balance of Payments Policy,” Economica, November 1949.
    John Robinson: “The Pure Theory of International trade,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. XIV, 1946-47.
    J.S. Mill, Principles.
  4. Balogh: Dollar Crisis (1949)
    Ellis: The Economics of Freedom
    Ellis: The Progress and Future of Aid to Euorpe (1950)
    Kindleberger: Dollar Shortage (1950)
    Harris: Foreign Economic Policy of the U.S., Part V. Essays by Haberler, Samuelson
    Harris: (Editor) The New Economics, Part V, especially the essays by Bloomfield and Nurkse
    Hicks: The Social Framework, Ch. 12.
    Metzler’s article in Survey.
    Nurkse: International Currency Experience, League of Nations, 1944.
    Readings, Chs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 17.
    Williams, op.cit.

 

Source: The Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 80, Folder 80.8 “Syllabi by others”.