Category: History of Economics

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Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Exams for history of economics to 1848. Bullock, 1907-1908

Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, 1727-1781

The semester exam questions for the fifth time Charles Jesse Bullock taught this history and literature of economics through 1848 at Harvard. He also covered the field of public finance. Guess which field is not really taught much any more…

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Earlier versions of the course
by year and instructor

1899-1900. The History and Literature of Economics to the close of the Eighteenth Century. [William James Ashley]

1901-02. History and Literature of Economics, to the opening of the Nineteenth Century. [Charles Whitney Mixter]

1903-04. History and Literature of Economics to the opening of the Nineteenth Century [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1904-05. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1905-06. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1906-07. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848 [Charles Jesse Bullock]

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History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848

Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 15. Asst. Professor Bullock. — History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848.

Total 7: 7 Graduates.

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

ECONOMICS 15
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY
Mid-Year Examination, 1907-08

  1. Describe the development of theories of commerce from the time of Aristotle to that of the Schoolmen.
  2. Compare the Republic of Plato with More’s Utopia.
  3. Give an account of the economic opinions of Xenophon.
  4. Describe the development of the doctrine of usury from the time of Aristotle to the year 1500.
  5. What do you think of Ingram’s treatment of the economic thought of the Middle Ages?
  6. How did Aristotle classify the various branches of the art of acquisition?
  7. How far would Aristotle’s classification of the various branches of the art of acquisition harmonize with the views of the Schoolmen concerning the various branches of industry and trade?
  8. What is your opinion of the Scholastic doctrine concerning usury?

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

ECONOMICS 15
HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF ECONOMICS.
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. What connection can be traced between the economic thought of the sixteenth century and that of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries?
  2. What traces of Aristotle’s influence can be seen in the political and economic theories of Adam Smith?
  3. What doctrines concerning money can be found in the writings of Aristotle, the Schoolmen, Davanzati, and Hume?
  4. Write a brief account of economic thought in England, France, and Italy from 1540 to 1590.
  5. Write a brief survey of the condition of economic thought in England, France, Germany, and Italy about the middle of the eighteenth century.
  6. Compare the opinions of Thomas Mun with those of two earlier and two later English Mercantilists.
  7. What was Turgot’s theory of distribution?
  8. At what points did Smith’s theory of distribution differ from that of Turgot?
  9. Describe the progress of Smith’s doctrines in France and Germany up to the year 1850.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 38-39.

Image Source: Jean-Antoine Houdon’s bust of Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (1727-1781). Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. History of Economics through 1848. Bullock, 1905-1906

For some reason this course was inadvertently skipped over when I was posting the 1905-06 Harvard exams earlier. Charles Jesse Bullock was responsible for the fields of public finance and the history of economic thought in the department during the first decades of the twentieth century. There’s more to come.

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Earlier history of economics exams
by year and instructor

1899-1900. The History and Literature of Economics to the close of the Eighteenth Century. [William James Ashley]

1901-02. History and Literature of Economics, to the opening of the Nineteenth Century. [Charles Whitney Mixter]

1903-04. History and Literature of Economics to the opening of the Nineteenth Century [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1904-05. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. [Charles Jesse Bullock]

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1905-06

 Economics 15. Asst. Professor Bullock. — History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848.

Total 7: 7 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 73.

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ECONOMICS 15
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY
Mid-Year Examination, 1905-06

  1. What did Aristotle say concerning the following topics: commerce, money, usury, value?
  2. What economic topics were discussed by the Roman writers?
  3. Trace briefly the development of the political and economic theories of the Schoolmen.
  4. Upon what grounds do modern writers defend the prohibition of usury during the Middle Ages?
  5. What is your opinion of the theories by which the prohibition was upheld?
  6. Give some account of the economic opinions of Carafa.
  7. In the economic writings of the sixteenth century, so far as you are acquainted with them, what evidence do you find of continuity in the development of economic doctrine?
  8. Give an account of the economic opinions of John Hales?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1905-06.

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ECONOMICS 15
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

  1. What traces of Aristotle’s influence have you found in the economic literature of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries?
  2. What traces of Scholastic influence can be found in the economic literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
  3. Give a brief account of the writings and economic opinions of any three of the following men: Misselden, North, Locke, Vanderlint, Decker, and Hume.
  4. Write a brief account of the progress of economic thought in Italy from 1500 to 1770.
  5. Write a brief account of the rise and progress of Cameral Science in Germany.
  6. To what extent were the Physiocrats indebted to previous economic thought?
  7. What were the chief influences that contributed to the development of Adam Smith’s system of economic doctrine?
  8. Compare the “Wealth of Nations” with the “Lectures upon Justice, Police, Revenue, and Arms.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), pp. 40-41.

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AEA Economists History of Economics Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Essay on Political Economy in America. Ely, 1887

 

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.
FEBRUARY, 1887.

POLITICAL ECONOMY IN AMERICA.
by RICHARD T. ELY

At a meeting of political economists held at Saratoga in the month of September, 1885, in order to form an economic society — finally called the American Economic Association — Professor Alexander Johnston, of Princeton College, defined the purposes of the contemplated organization, as understood by him, in these words:

“This is an effort to stop the formation of any ‘crust’ on the development of economics, to assert the economic right of attempts to develop in every direction, unhampered by any accusation of heterodoxy, with the assurance that unlimited freedom of individual attempt to develop will bring about the truest, most natural, and healthiest development.”

Other ideas were brought out in the interesting discussion about the aims which should animate a body of American economists at the present time, and valuable suggestions were derived from men like Hon. Andrew D. White; Rev. Dr. Washington Gladden; Professor Henry C. Adams, of Michigan University; Professor E. J. James, of the University of Pennsylvania; Dr. Herbert B. Adams, of the Johns Hopkins University; Dr. Edwin R. A. Seligman, of Columbia College; Professor Andrews, of Brown University; and President Charles Kendall Adams, of Cornell University.

There can be no doubt, however, that all present agreed with Professor Johnston, and it is equally certain that he struck the key-note of future progress in economics.

But what did the undertaking signify? What did it mean to remove the “crust” already formed on the development of economics and to prevent its formation in the future? It is necessary for us to get a clear idea of this, if we would understand the past history and present condition of economic science in America.

The word “heterodoxy” uttered by Professor Johnston is one which throws a whole flood of light on the situation. The utterly unscientific conceptions, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, had crept into political economy; and men had with their aid attempted to check every advance in the science with a strong hand. What was orthodox? What was heterodox? Certain Englishmen, Ricardo, Malthus, Mill, Senior, successors of Adam Smith, had developed an à priori political economy which was well-pleasing to influential social elements. This was still further purified by later successors until the strong and mighty could find in it nothing to terrify “or make afraid,” nothing to disturb their calm repose. This at last became the political economy of the most conservative portion of the press, and as such gave us, to use the words of Professor Gustav Cohn, not a description of actual life, but at best a picture of the life of men in society such as one might expect to find in the “Dream of the Millionaire.” It was a Utopia as dangerous as it was pleasing. Imported to this country, it acquired a strength in certain educated circles — particularly in the North and East — to which it could scarcely aspire, even in England. It was always ready with its little tests of orthodoxy to mete out praise or condemnation, to accord honor or shame. Acceptance of its creed was often a condition of academic preferment. A small clique of men, not without newspaper influence, constituted themselves its special guardians and, still maintaining that position, even now attempt to exercise a sort of terrorism over the intellect of the country. Any deviation from the straight and narrow path laid down by them was deeply damned. Was there not, indeed, that never-failing refuge of incompetence and malignity, the epithet “socialism,” ready to hurl at all offenders?

Manifestly, the first need of the hour was to break this “crust,” and this was a worthy object for the American Economic Association. “Orthodox” and “heterodox” must be as completely driven out of economic discussion as out of biology and mineralogy. Those who use these phrases must necessarily look back to the past to discover the belief of others, whereas science should ever keep its glance directed to the future and press on to the discovery of new truth.

This determination “to assert the right of attempts to develop in every direction, unhampered by any accusation of heterodoxy,” is of particular importance in political economy, because, in the nature of things, economists worthy of the name always have been, and always will be, in opposition to current opinion. What is an economist? An economist is a man who studies the economic life of men as members of society. Now, if the science of economics is not a humbug, he must know more about industrial society than others, and that is simply saying, in other words, that he holds opinions not generally received. The true economist is a guide who always keeps in advance, who marks out new paths of social progress. This explains why the “heterodox” economist of one age becomes the “orthodox” economist of a succeeding one. Social development has gone on in the direction in which he foresaw it must move. An American writer [Daniel Raymond, Thoughts on Political Economy] in 1820, for example, speaks of the “gross heresies” of Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations,” and even this great “Father” of English political economy did not escape the reproach of socialism. Could that progressive, far-seeing man know that his name was now used to retard the advance of his favorite study, he surely could not rest easy in his grave!

All articles on political economy in America written before 1880 are chiefly concerned with the question: Why have Americans done comparatively nothing to advance the science of industrial society? This is the nature of Professor Dunbar’s article on “Political Economy in the United States from 1776 to 1876,” which appeared in the NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW in the latter year; it is also the nature of T. E. Cliffe Leslie’s article on “Political Economy in the United States,” which appeared in the Fortnightly Review, in 1880. The main thought brought out is the preponderating importance attached to the pursuit of wealth rather than to an inquiry as to its philosophy in this new country. The absence of obviously pressing economic questions is also dwelt upon by both writers. All this is true. The two chief causes of research in economics are large financial questions, and wide-spread dissatisfaction among the masses with existing social arrangements, coupled with a determination to change these radically. Our late civil war brought us one of these two chief causes of economic study; events of the past ten years have brought us the other. Thus has a mighty impulse been given to the development of political economy. But there is another aspect of the situation — not unrelated to what has already been said about economic orthodoxy — which deserves mention. The chairs of political economy in the United States have in the past been filled, to large extent, by men who were not appointed, like professors of chemistry, as searchers after truth, but as advocates — chiefly of free trade or protection as the case might be. This has been sufficiently understood, and it has acted injuriously in several ways. It has kept the best men out of the academic career, and it has repressed aspirations looking in the direction of new scientific explorations. Finally, it has reduced the influence of political economists to a minimum. Business men have despised them, while their power to guide and direct the thought of the laboring classes has been less than nothing. It has been so generally felt that professors of political economy in America were mere advocates of existing institutions, that the masses have turned away from them in angry impatience, and have been prejudiced even against the important and unassailable doctrines which they did teach. Thus has the task been rendered more difficult for those truly scientific men who with the impartiality of all science, tell the plain truth to all classes and would thus benefit all alike  — for a lie is of no permanent benefit to any one! And what about the politicians? Well, every one knows they have given themselves little concern about political economy, and the political economists often censure them severely on this account. While the politicians doubtless deserve it, there is another side to the case, brought out by my good friend Professor Jesse Macy in those felicitous words: “A political science which does not at least honestly seek to give direction to actual politics is an unmitigated nuisance. Colleges and universities have in the past been treated with contempt by practical politicians simply because their work has been contemptible. Politicians are the last men in the world to treat with contempt a respectable and efficient political power and influence.”

The present time is one in which the evolution of society is proceeding with more than its usual rapidity, and it is evident that we need a positive constructive political economy, and this requirement the old political economy cannot meet. Let the reader consider for a moment the age in which its great masters, Quesnay, Turgot, and Adam Smith, lived. It was the latter half of the eighteenth century, when the progress of industry was retarded by a multitude of old institutions, good in their day, doubtless, but then antiquated. The cry of men who understood their time was, “Remove the barriers! clear the way for new social forms!” The work which the great economists advocated during that period was very properly negative and destructive. It ought not then to surprise us that when we go to our old text books of political economy to seek advice in reference to practical measures, the one chief lesson which we learn is “DON’T.” Manifestly, the call of our age is DO.

A new movement in economics was then inevitable, and it has already come. Its precise beginning cannot, perhaps, be ascertained, but the writings of the distinguished head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, General Francis A. Walker, first made it a clearly recognized accomplished fact in America. Probably, his works have inspired more of the American economists under thirty-five-possibly under forty-than those of any other man. He sowed seed which is now springing up and bearing fruit in all parts of our land. The movement was furthered by the establishment of new chairs of political economy in American colleges and universities, which was due to the wonderful impulse given to the study by the undeniable existence of those two classes of economic phenomena to which reference has already been made; namely, large financial problems and pressing social questions. Before 1876 one might have counted on one’s fingers the institutions where any serious instruction in political economy was given, whereas provision is now made for its study in every one of the more prominent colleges of the country; and although it is still inadequate in most cases, this is a remarkable advance. There are now a few colleges with two or three instructors, even, and it is not foolish to hope that in a not remote future we shall have as completely developed departments of political economy as we now have of physics and chemistry in our best universities.

Another good sign is the growing faith, both within and without our institutions of learning, in truth. People value the searcher for truth more than formerly, the mere advocate less. It is a significant fact that the youngest of the great American universities, the Johns Hopkins, founded in 1876, took for its motto, “Veritas vos liberabit.” [“Truth will set you free”] Another equally significant fact is this: The Johns Hopkins University assumed a non-partisan attitude in natural science. Its biological laboratory was instituted solely for the search of truth, regardless of consequences. Darwinian and anti-Darwinian doctrines, as such, could not be considered. Some good people were prejudiced against the University at the start on this account, and looked with much trepidation upon its teachings; but in ten years this has for a large part disappeared, and no college has warmer, more devoted friends among the clergy. This means faith in truth and a conscious recognition of the fact that one truth can not clash with another. One other illustration of this all-important point must follow, if the reader will pardon a personal allusion. When the writer’s name was brought forward for the position of teacher of political economy in the Johns Hopkins University five years ago, the authorities of the institution, true to their motto, asked no questions about his opinions in regard to free trade and protection or anything else, although these were then as unknown as he himself. There was simply an endeavor to ascertain his qualifications for the position. This is an experience which is probably almost unique.

People are learning, both in political economy and natural science, that truth alone can make them free; that truth alone has in it the power of life; that truth — not error — is able to conserve the good, and that to fear it is unworthy of an enlightened people.

There has been the same remarkable progress in the development of an economic literature in America, which has been noted elsewhere. To confine ourselves to the past few months, such works may be mentioned as James on “The Relation of the Modern Municipality to the Gas Supply;” Shaw on “Co-operation in a Western City” — two remarkable publications of the American Economic Association — Hudson on “Railways and the Republic;” Hadley on “Railroad Transportation,” and Laughlin on “Bi-metallism in the United States.” These are all based on investigations in the rich field of American economic life. We have also bold endeavors to reconstruct fundamental principles in economics, like Patten’s “Premises of Political Economy,” and J. B. Clark’s “Philosophy of Wealth.” All these are works of international importance.

One year ago there was no economic periodical in the United States. To-day there are three, and all evidently rest on a permanent basis. They are the bi-monthly monographs of the American Economic Association, published in Baltimore; the Political Science Quarterly of Columbia College, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics, published under the auspices of Harvard University.

A change in the conception of political economy must not fail to be noticed in this place. Its scope has become enlarged, and it is not quite the same thing which it was once. It has become a distinctively ethical science, and necessarily includes purpose within its province. It is clearly recognized that the will of man is a chief factor in economic life, and that, within certain limits, we can have just such a social system as we choose — always, be it observed, however, within certain limits. Accordingly, ideals for the individual, for the State, for society, for the church, are placed before men, and they are urged to strive for them in every practicable way. It is on this account, also, that the new political economy lays so much stress on ethical education, for it is seen that errors as often proceed from the heart as from the head.

It must not be supposed that the new political economy has gained exclusive sway even in the colleges and universities of the United States — much less outside of them. Still it is making its way rapidly; it is accepted by the teachers in most of our colleges, and it is beginning to permeate the thought of our time, as may be seen in the utterances of press and pulpit.

The economists of the older school cannot, either, be denied their use. They are not mere drags on the car of progress, but with their criticism, sharp and ungracious though it sometimes be, they render the advance surer.

In conclusion, however, it is undeniable that the prime need of the hour is increased light in economics, a further development of the new political economy, and the qualities indispensable in the men who would carry on the work already so auspiciously begun are these: a good heart, a strong intellect, and dauntless courage.

Source:  North American Review, Vol. 144, No. 363 (February, 1887), pp. 113-119.

Image Source: Universities and their sons; history, influence and characteristics of American universities, with biographical sketches and  of alumni and recipients of honorary degrees, Vol. IV (1900), p. 505. Image was smoothed and colorised at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Columbia Economic History History of Economics Philosophy Syllabus

Columbia. Excerpt from Contemporary Civilization Syllabus. Economic History, 1921

Columbia College’s freshman course on Contemporary Civilization, a.k.a. “CC”, has been a core element in the undergraduate experience for over a century. This is the first of two posts that provide portions of the third edition of the course syllabus from 1921 that should be of particular interest for economists. The parts of the syllabus that deal with Western economic history and the history of economics from 1400-1870 together with links to all the items referenced cab be found below.

I dare anyone to try just this subset of this 1921 syllabus for a two-semester course required for first year undergraduates. Maybe only try this from the relative safety of a tenured position. 

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Introductory Note

The Faculty of Columbia College determined at its meeting in January, 1919, to discontinue the required courses in History and Philosophy and, beginning in September, 1919, to substitute a course on Contemporary Civilization which should meet five times a week and be required of all Freshmen…

…The Syllabus has been prepared by certain of the instructors of the course who include members of the Departments of Economics, Government, History and Philosophy: Wallace E. Caldwell [History], Harry J. Carman [History], John J. Coss [Philosophy], Irwin Edman [Philosophy], Austin P. Evans [History], Horace Leland Friess [Philosophy], Elmer D. Graper [Politics], Adam Leroy Jones [Philosophy], Benjamin B. Kendrick [History], Sterling Power Lamprecht [Philosophy], Robert Devore Leigh [Politics], Frederick Cecil Mills [Economics], Parker T. Moon [History], Herbert W. Schneider [Philosophy], and William Ernest Weld [Economics].

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SECOND DIVISION
SURVEY OF THE CHARACTERISTICS
OF THE PRESENT AGE

BOOK III. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF CONTEMPORARY CIVILIZATION, 1400-1870

Introduction: The fundamental conceptions of the present age.

                  Man’s nature in its original character remains unchanged from the dawn of history, and nature in its basic resources has not altered greatly. But man’s store of knowledge has increased, and in the western world new conceptions have arisen so important as to be considered new tools which human beings use when they attempt to control their situation. These conceptions will be shown in their development in Book III. They are presented here for the sake of preliminary emphasis.

  1. The belief in the value of the scientific study of man and nature — the intellectual revolution.
    1. The early emphasis on knowledge as power — Francis Bacon and the Renaissance scientists.
    2. The exact study of specific activities shows the fashion in which men and things behave, and makes possible the limited control of natural forces and human nature.
      1. Newton and the 18th century conception of nature and natural law.
      2. Belief in human progress through a scientific study of man — psychologists, political philosophers, and economists of the 18th century.
    3. The expansion of the method of inquiry to the place of man in nature — development of biology in the 19th century and the theory of evolution.
    4. The application of scientific knowledge to industrial pursuits, and the present “age of applied science.”
  1. The new developments in agriculture, the factory system of production, and the era of world trade — the economic revolution.
    1. The discovery of the new world and of new routes to the East led to an expansion of commerce, transformed the methods of business, and created a demand for increased manufacture — the commercial revolution.
    2. These changes hastened the decline of the manorial system, the rise of private property in land, and the introduction of new agricultural methods — the agricultural revolution.
    3. The demand for increased manufacture was satisfied by the invention of machinery and the application of science to industry which gave rise to modern “mass production,” the method dominant in industry today, and responsible for many social changes apparent during the past century — the industrial revolution.
    4. These revolutions in commerce, agriculture, and industry tended to link the world together. Products are now manufactured for a world market, and western influence has been extended into every quarter.
  1. The participation of adult citizens in their own government — the political revolution.
    1. The belief in man’s ability (intellectual revolution) and the changes in his economic life (commercial, industrial, and agricultural revolutions) led to a widening of the group participating in government. The American, French, and 19th century revolutions.
    2. In industrialized lands political problems are now generally approached in term of popular determination through some form of democratic control. Development of political democracy during the 19th century.
    3. With the widening of the group participating in political decisions the sentiments of patriotism and of loyalty to the political group have been strengthened — Nationalism.
1. The intellectual outlook of the Renaissance— the birth of modern science, and the rise of national cultural traditions in Western Europe.
  1. Comparatively little progress in natural science had been made during mediaeval times.
    1. Examples of erroneous ideas: the Ptolemaic cosmology, the “four elements,” etc.
    2. Reasons for the backwardness of science.
      1. Lack of instruments.
      2. Reliance upon authority and upon deductive reasoning — scholasticism.
      3. Interest deflected from nature to the supernatural and other worldly.
  1. From the thirteenth century on increasing attention was paid to scientific observation and experimentation.
    1. Decline of scholasticism.
    2. Humanism and the revival of ancient learning.
    3. Fresh interest in nature appears.
    4. Travel and explorations on land and sea.
    5. Remarkable discoveries begin the development of the natural sciences.
      1. Astronomy: Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton.
      2. Physics: Galileo, Newton.
    6. Formulation of scientific method.
      1. Experiment and induction advocated by Francis Bacon.
      2. Mathematical analysis advocated by Rene Descartes.
  1. The Protestant revolt.
    *Hayes, Vol. I, 167-169; A. C. McGiffert, Protestant Thought before Kant, 9-20; Taylor [Vol. I; Vol. II].
    1. Protestantism, though not in sympathy with the new science nor inspired by a faith in man’s ability, weakened the authority of the mediaeval tradition over the mind.
    2. Protestantism and the religious controversies which it engendered gave rise to educational movements of an extensive character.
    3. Protestantism championed by many secular princes gave added prestige and power to these governments — “religion nationalized.”
  1. The rise of national culture traditions in western Europe.
    *Hayes, Vol. I, 185-196; Robinson, History of Western Europe, 329-347; F. S. Marvin, The Living Past, 140-193, Taylor [Vol. I; Vol. II].
    1. Decline of mediaeval Latin and the development of the vernaculars.
    2. Rise of national literatures — Dante, Cervantes, Molière, Luther, Shakespeare.
    3. Painting, sculpture, and architecture — DaVinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rubens, Velasquez, Rembrandt, Dürer, Wren.
    4. The cultural unity of Europe gives way to a group of competing nations, each with its own language, and in many cases with its own government.

2. The Commercial Revolution.

  1. Definition.
    1. It may be defined as that expansive movement by which commerce radiated from Europe as a center to all parts of the world.
    2. This process, which covers the period of geographical discovery and colonization, began in the middle of the 15th century and continued for about 300 years. It may be regarded as the first phase of the Europeanization of the world.
      *Map study — Appendix, II, 1 (page 120).
  1. Influence of Geography on Civilization — Appendix I.
    1. River valleys as highways of migration and commerce.
    2. Mountains, deserts and oceans as barriers.
    3. Social consequences.
  1. Development of mediaeval trade.
    *Hayes, Vol. I, 36-39, 43-49; *Cheyney, Industrial and Social History of England, 75-94.

    1. Rise of fairs, cross-road markets, towns at trade-junctions.
    2. Organizations of commerce largely on a municipal basis.
      1. The merchant guild.
      2. The staple town.
      3. Social consequences.
    3. Trade and trade-routes.
      1. Trade with the East.
        1. Influence of the Crusades in stimulating Eastern trade.
        2. Rôle of the Italian cities.
        3. Influence of geography in determining routes.
      2. Trade in Europe.
        1. Commodities.
        2. Advantageous situation of Italian, German, Dutch and Flemish cities.
  1. European exploration and commercial expansion.
    *Hayes, Vol. I, 49-69; Wallas, The Great Society, 3-19.

    1. Factors which combined to produce this exploration and expansion.
      1. Intellectual curiosity,
      2. Desire of nations on Atlantic seaboard to share in profitable trade with the East.
      3. Religious zeal.
      4. Improvements in the art of navigation.
    2. Consequences.
      1. Decline of Italian and German city-states; rise of national states of Western Europe; impetus to nationalism and dynastic aggrandizement.
      2. New commercial methods: chartered companies; mercantilism; banking and credit.
      3. Stimulation of economic life in general; hence, increased wealth,
      4. Growth of the trading class, the bourgeoisie.
      5. Enrichment and expansion of European culture; progress of science.
      6. Colonization.
      7. Slavery and the slave-trade.
      8. New commodities of commerce; growing interdependence of all parts of world.
      9. Changes in mental outlook, due to increased facilities for communication and broadening of interests.
  2. Remarkable growth of commerce during the 18th century.
    *Hayes, Vol. I, 399-403; Ogg, Economic Development of Modern Europe, 73-87.

    1. Continuation of effects of exploration and commercial expansion.
    2. The rising commercial and maritime power of England.
    3. Restrictions and handicaps.
      1. Mercantilism.
      2. Internal tariff and customs barriers.
      3. Wars.
      4. Lack of rapid and cheap transportation.
    4. [The movement to emancipate commerce.]
      1. The Physiocrats (see 5.C.b.i below).
      2. Adam Smith (see 5.C.b.ii below).

3. The Agricultural Revolution.

  1. Relation to the Industrial Revolution.
    1. The Agricultural Revolution occurred almost simultaneously with the Industrial Revolution; the former did for agriculture what the latter did for industry.
    2. The Agricultural Revolution had begun before the Industrial Revolution, and helped to render the latter possible by releasing labor from the land and by providing an increased supply of food and raw materials.
    3. The Industrial Revolution, in turn, promoted the Agricultural Revolution by providing capital and machinery for scientific farming.
  2. Definition.
    1. In general, by the Agricultural Revolution is meant the destruction of the manorial system of agriculture and the introduction of
      1. Modern ideas of absolute ownership of land: Freehold.
      2. Scientific methods of tillage and breeding.
      3. Specialized production for market rather than for local consumption.
    2. Aside from these general features, the Agricultural Revolution meant different things in different parts of Europe (see below).
    3. The Agricultural Revolution might be regarded as a long process, continuing from the 13th to the 19th centuries, and culminating in a series of rapid, revolutionary changes in the period 1760-1845.
  3. General aspects of mediaeval agriculture.
    *Hayes, Vol. I, 28-36, 395-399; *Ogg, Economic Development of Modern Europe, 18-44; Cheyney, 31-52, 136-147.

    1. Majority of the population rural.
    2. Organization of agriculture, chiefly manorial.
      1. Significant features of the manorial system (contrast with modern conditions).
        1. Social inequality: serfdom and aristocracy.
        2. Attachment of peasant to soil.
        3. Burdensome obligations of serf.
        4. Inefficiency and self-sufficiency.
    3. Methods.
      1. Persistence of wasteful primitive methods:
        1. The three-field system.
        2. Crudity of implements.
        3. Unscientific cattle-raising.
        4. Connection between primitive methods and manorial organization.
    4. Social consequences of agricultural conditions.
      1. Economic necessity of large rural population.
      2. Relatively low standards of comfort.
      3. Intellectual isolation and conservatism of economically self-sufficient rural Communities.
      4. Lack of effective impetus to invention, enterprise, and improvement.
      5. Discontent of peasantry.
  4. The agricultural transformation.
    *Ogg, Economic Development of Modern Europe, 37-44, 117-132, 187-188.

    1. The abolition of serfdom.
      1. In England it had gradually disappeared by 1700.
      2. In France during French Revolution (see p. 33 ff. of syllabus).
      3. In other countries subsequently: Prussia, 1807; Austria, 1848; Russia, 1861, etc.
      4. Manorial system and serfdom never widely or firmly established in the United States.
        Becker, The United States, an Experiment in Democracy, 145-185.

        1. Prevalence of freehold tenures.
        2. Abundance of unoccupied land.
        3. Influence of these economic conditions in promoting spirit of democracy.
    2. Breakdown and partial disappearance of the manorial system.
      1. In England.
        1. Decline of serfdom: contractual labor.
        2. Rapid progress of enclosure.
          1. Increased profitableness of arable farming, due to
            1. Rise of industrialism.
            2. Growth of population.
            3. Enlarged demands for foodstuffs.
            4. Improved transportation.
          2. Ease of obtaining special legislation necessary for enclosures. Parliament dominated by landlords.
          3. Advocacy of enclosures by economists, notably Adam Smith.
          4. Methods by which enclosures were effected.
          5. Approximate area enclosed.
          6. Social consequences.
            1. Decline of the class of small holders, and concentration of landownership in hands of a relatively small class.
            2. Widespread public discontent.
            3. Shift in population from country to town and city. (cf. §4. Industrial Revolution below, p. 28 of syllabus.)
            4. Possibility of introducing new agricultural methods on large scale.
      2. On continent breaking up great estates and increase of small holdings.
        1. Peasant-proprietorship.
        2. Metayage as in France.
        3. Exceptions in East Prussia, Sweden and some other countries.
    3. Improvement of agricultural technique.
      1. Stimulated by
        1. Steady increase in prices of agricultural produce, due to economic and to artificial causes (Corn Laws).
        2. Industrial Revolution.
        3. Napoleonic Wars.
        4. Work of scientific men, inventors, agricultural societies, and “gentlemen farmers.”
      2. Scientific rotation of crops.
      3. Great advance in art of stock-breeding.
      4. Introduction and improvement of agricultural machinery.
      5. Improved methods of fertilization.
      6. Drainage.
    4. Application of capital to agricultural enterprise for
      1. Improvement of soil: fertilization and tillage.
      2. Experimentation with new crops and with fancy stock.
      3. Purchase of machinery.
      4. Development of cooperation and agricultural credit institutions.

4. The Industrial Revolution.

Probably no other event has so profoundly affected the ordinary every-day life of the average man, and, at the same time, exercised so vital an influence in politics and even in the domain of education and culture, as the Industrial Revolution. It is one of the main foundations of Contemporary Civilization. When it occurred, how and why it came about, and how it has affected and is affecting civilization, are questions of first-rate importance for him who would understand present-day civilization.

  1. Definition.
    1. As an historical event: the rapid introduction and development of machine-processes, capitalistic organization, and the factory system into certain English industries, notably the textile and metal industries and transportation, in the period, approximately, between 1770 and 1815 or 1830.
    2. As a continuing process:
      1. Continuing substitution of manufacture by complicated machine processes for manufacture by hand and with simple tools.
      2. Ever-expanding utilization of artificial power: water, steam, gas, oil, electricity.
      3. Ever-expanding application of mass-production, standardization, and subdivision of labor.
      4. Continuous growth of factory system and of capitalistic organization.
      5. Introduction and development of these features of modern industry in other countries besides England: United States since about 1800, in Western Europe since about 1815, in Eastern Europe since about 1850, in Japan since about 1870. The Industrial Revolution still in its infancy in China, India, etc.
  1. Industry prior to 1770.
    *Hayes, Vol. I, 40-42; *Ogg, Economic Development of Modern Europe, 45-64
    1. General aspects of medieval industry.
      1. Its relatively small place in economic life.
      2. Lack of machinery and of applied science.
      3. The handicraft system and the craft guilds.
      4. Inter-relation of agriculture and manufacturing.
    2. Gradual decline of the craft guilds; reasons for decline.
    3. Rise of the “domestic system.”
      1. Definition of domestic system.
      2. Conditions favorable to its growth: increase of capital, expansion of markets and of commerce, development of industrial technique, growth of population.
    4. General growth of industry in eighteenth century.
    5. Social consequences.
      1. Rise of industrial classes.
      2. Tendency toward substitution of modern wage-system for medieval guild-system.
      3. Rise of competition and economic individualism (see below, p. 31).
  1. Conditions favorable to the Industrial Revolution in England. Map Study — Appendix II, 2. (p. 123).
    *Hayes, Vol. I, 67-69; Ogg, Economic Development of Modern Europe, 133-135.
    1. Prosperous and progressive condition of English industry and commerce in the 18th century.
      1. England the “nation of shopkeepers.”
      2. Thriving commerce; colonial markets; necessity of expanding markets as
        encouragement to expanding industry.
      3. England less embarrassed by wars than Continental nations.
      4. English industries relatively free from regulation.
      5. Abundance of capital; capitalistic system and factories beginning to develop even before the epoch of great inventions.
    2. Possession of basic raw materials: iron, coal, wool; possession of water-power; ease of importing cotton.
    3. Climatic conditions favorable to textile manufacture.
    4. Agricultural progress, releasing cheap labor for industry, and making it more nearly possible to feed a large industrial population. See above §3.D. (p. 27 of syllabus).
  1. The great mechanical inventions.
    *Hayes, Vol. II, 69-75; Ogg, Economic Development of Modern Europe, 135-145; Cheyney, 199-212.
    1. Conditions necessary for successful mechanical inventions.
      1. Economic demand.
      2. Sufficiently advanced state of skill in handicrafts to make construction of machines possible.
      3. Application of scientific knowledge.
    2. Inventions in the textile industry.
      1. Hargreaves and the Jenny.
      2. Arkwright’s water-frame.
      3. Crompton’s mule.
      4. Cartwright’s loom.
      5. Whitney’s cotton gin.
    3. The steam-engine and its applications.
      1. Fore-runners of James Watt.
      2. Watt’s achievements.
      3. Application to spinning-mule and to loom.
      4. Use in mining and metallurgy.
      5. The steamboat.
      6. The locomotive.
      7. The steam printing-press.
    4. Other industries rapidly revolutionized by inventions and by application of steam-power.
  1. Capitalism and the factory system.
    *Hayes, Vol. II, 77-80; *Ogg, Economic Development of Modern Europe, 145-147.
    1. Effect of the inventions in promoting the factory system and capitalistic control of industry.
      1. Expense of machines.
      2. Necessity of large factories.
      3. Necessity of large-scale buying and selling.
      4. Subdivision of labor.
      5. Utilization of cheap and unskilled labor.
    2. Sir Richard Arkwright as an early type of the factory-owner
    3. Rapid growth of the factory system.
  1. Significant consequences of the Industrial Revolution.
    *Hayes, Vol. II, 75-77. 80-97; Ogg, Economic Development of Modern Europe, 147-152.
    1. Expansion of commerce and industry, hence, increase of wealth and gradual
      rise of standard of living.
    2. Rapid growth and urban concentration of population.
    3. Rise of acute social problems.
      1. Child labor.
      2. Employment of women.
      3. Prevalence of poverty, vice, and disease among factory and mine workers.
      4. Industrial over-production, crises, and unemployment.
      5. Labor agitation; destruction of machines by workingmen; trade-unionism; discontent of “proletariat.”
      6. Growth of slums in cities.
    4. Temporary triumph of “economic individualism” or laissez-faire.
      1. The philosophy of economic individualism.
      2. Gradual emancipation of industry and commerce from governmental restrictions and oppressive tariffs.
      3. Unwillingness of factory-owners in first half of 19th century to permit trade-unionism or to sanction labor-legislation.
      4. Early protests against economic individualism: Robert Owen, Saint-Simon, Fourier, Louis Blanc.
    5. Enrichment and strengthening of bourgeoisie.
      1. Increased numerical and economic power of bourgeoisie.
      2. Demand of bourgeoisie for a voice in the government; hence, tendency of Industrial Revolution universally to stimulate demand for representative government.
      3. Tendency of bourgeoisie to use political power for their own economic interests; illustrations from English and French history, 1830-1848.
    6. Progress of science and education.
      1. Larger leisure class.
      2. Cheap printing: newspapers and books no longer the rich man’s luxury.
      3. Prestige of science, enhanced by economic utility of applied science.
      4. Improved means of communication.
      5. Influence of urbanization.
    7. Greater mobility of civilization; society no longer as static and unchanging as before the Industrial Revolution; spirit of innovation and invention.

5. The development of thought in the 18th century—humanitarianism, rationalism, and romanticism.
*Hayes, Vol. I, 414-426; Robinson and Beard, The Development of Modern Europe, Vol. I, 157-182; Thilly, History of Philosophy, 307-391; A. C. McGiffert, Protestant Thought before Kant, Chap. X; J. B. Bury, History of Freedom of Thought, Home University Library, Chap. VI.

  1. Continuing development of the natural sciences. Sedgwick and Tyler, 304-323.
    1. Experimentation in electricity, chemistry, biology, medicine, and geography.
    2. Popularity of science in the 18th century; patronage by governments, formation of scientific societies, the Encyclopedia.
  1. The conception of nature and of natural law.
    J. Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy, 53-76.
    1. Tendency to conceive the world of nature as a mechanism — Newton.
    2. This conception applied to theology by the deists — critique of the miraculous as a violation of the laws of nature.
    3. The emergence of atheism — serious concern with the problem of evil. Voltaire, Candide.
  1. Man conceived as natural, as acting in accordance with natural laws, and as having natural rights.
    1. Application of the mechanistic hypothesis to the psychology of the human mind — Helvetius and Bentham.
    2. Attempt to discover natural laws in economics — rise of the science of political economy.
      H. J. Laski, Political Thought from Locke to Bentham, 290-302; Gide & Rist, History of Economic Doctrines, 1-118; W. A. Dunning, A History of Political Theories from Rousseau to Spencer, 57-65.

      1. Ideas of the physiocrats — Quesnay and Turgot.
        1. The natural order providentially ordained for our happiness by God has three foundations: private property, security, and liberty.
        2. Free trade and free circulation of grain.
        3. Legislation to be reduced to a minimum — laissez faire.
        4. State to be a passive policeman; defend private property, promote education and public works.
      2. Adam Smith developed similar ideas and applied them more broadly to industry and commerce — criticism of the mercantile system. “The Wealth of Nations,” 1776.
    3. Attempt to discover natural laws in politics.
      Laski, 38-55; W. A. Dunning, Political Theories from Luther to Montesquieu, 335—435; [W. A. Dunning,] Political Theories from Rousseau to Spencer, 1-129; Merriam, American Political Theories, 38-176; Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws [Volume I; Volume II]; Rousseau, Social Contract.

      1. Locke’s political philosophy: the state of nature, the laws of nature, the social contract, the right of revolution.
        S. P. Lamprecht, The Moral and Political Philosophy of John Locke.
      2. Development of Lockian political philosophy in France: Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau.
      3. Development of Lockian political philosophy in America: Paine, Franklin, Jefferson.
      4. New analyses of government based on historical studies and travels.
        1. Montesquieu, and the separation of governmental powers.
        2. John Adams and James Madison — the faith in a “natural aristocracy.”
    4. The conception of natural rights criticized — Jeremy Bentham.
      W. L. Davidson, Political Thought in England from Bentham to J. S. Mill, 46-113.

      1. Social utility, not nature, the test of human institutions.
      2. This utilitarian theory made the basis of a sweeping criticism of the old ‘ regime,
      3. Far-reaching constructive ideas of Bentham on legislation, administration, jurisprudence, penology, education.
      4. Many of these ideas fruitful in the 19th century.
  1. Violent criticism of established institutions as disutile, unnatural, and unreasonable.
    1. Criticism of ecclesiastic institutions, “divine right” monarchy, the economic and social systems.
    2. Toleration, and respect for the natural man demanded — humanitarianism.
    3. Confidence in the powers of human reason — rationalism.
    4. Trust in the emotions as naturally good — romanticism.
    5. Belief in progress and the perfectibility of man through education — Helvetius, Rousseau, Condorcet.

Source: Columbia University. Introduction to Contemporary Civilization — A Syllabus, (Third edition, 1921), pp. 23-32.

 

Categories
History of Economics Policy Popular Economics

New York City. Centennial Celebration for Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. 1876

 

For the 1776th artifact to be posted in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror, I decided to search for something related to Adam Smith. I figured the Centennial, Sesquicentennial and Bicentennial of the publication of Wealth of Nations would be good places to start, so I turned to the newspapers.com archive to begin my search. The very first item I came upon was the Centennial Celebration that took place in New York City on December 12, 1876. After reading the New York Times account of the affair, I thought that more might be found in Glory M. Liu’s book Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism (2022) and sure enough she uses that event as her anecdotal springboard into Chapter 3, “The Apostle of Free Trade”. 

Cringe Moment: John Bigelow found himself as an understudied understudy for no-show Williams College professor Arthur Latham Perry. The role demanded that he comment on the toast to the French liberal economists, predecessors to Adam Smith. Bigelow proceeded to riff on Jean-Baptiste Colbert, poster-child of French mercantilism. I am guessing that few if any of the guests noticed the faux pas.

______________________________

The Evening Post
(New York City, December 13, 1876), p. 1.

ADAM SMITH.

Centennial Celebration of the Publication
of “The Wealth of Nations”—
Speeches by William Cullen Bryant, Parke Godwin, David A. Wells, Professor Sumner, Mr. Atkinson and Others

The dinner given at Delmonico’s last evening, to commemorate the Centennial Anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” was attended by about a hundred gentlemen, including many widely known as advocates of free trade. Among the persons present were Parke Godwin, Abraham L. Earle, Arthur G. Sedgwick, Professor W. G. Sumner, Horace White, Cyrus W. Field, William Cullen Bryant, David A. Wells, Edward Atkinson, of Boston, Professor Frank A. Walker [(sic) Gen. Francis Amasa Walker], President Anderson, of Rochester University; Isaac Sherman, Anson Phelps Stokes, William E. Dodge, Jr.; George Walker, Ex Surgeon-General [N.S.] Hammond, J. Crosby Brown, Secretary of State [John E.] Bigelow, Professor Atwater, of Princeton; Mr. Sidney Biddle, Mr. Balch and Mr. Brinton Coxe, of Pennsylvania; M. Henri Cernuschi, of Paris; Professor [Vincent] Botta, Robert B. Minturn, E. L. Godkin, Charles H. Marshall, F. B. Sanborn of Boston, O. C. Marsh, Howard Potter, Fred. Mason of Chicago, and Joseph S. Moore. [Also listed as having attended according to the New York Times (December 13, 1876, p 5): Charles Moran, Dr. M. K. Leverson of Colorado and Henry Arnott Brown]

                  After prayer by the Rev. Dr. Atwater the chair was taken by Parke Godwin, before whom lay an original edition of the “Wealth of Nations.” During the dinner, which was long and elaborate, music was furnished by an orchestra placed in the gallery.

SPEECH OF PARKE GODWIN.

The cloth having been removed, Mr. Godwin spoke as follows:

                  “Gentlemen, it is my duty to speak the prologue to your future performances, and I know no better way than to follow the epilogue in ‘Henry IV.,’ which says: ‘First my fears, then my courtesy and last my speech.’ I am here less because of my ambition, but because of the headlong obstinacy of my friends of the committee.” He then spoke of the large assemblage present in these times of great political excitement and said: “It is not often that men meet to do honor to a book. But we come together to commemorate not a work drawn out of the mysterious wells of the imagination, but a work treating of our every day affairs which has taken its place among the masterpieces of genius. It is just a hundred years since the work on ‘The Wealth of Nations,’ the work of an humble Scotch professor, first appeared. I take it that the only conception of the wealth of nations was that of the resources of a prince who could keep armies and fleets, subsidized allies, and pension a few very poor poets. But that labor was the real wealth, the real source of national power, they hardly conceived. Yet this work, which taught these truths, penetrated the minds of men, and now at this remote day and in this far land we are met to celebrate it as one of the greatest features of our Centennial. What was the secret of the success of this book? It can hardly be said that the author of this work was the originator of any great and important truth. Many of his conclusions had been anticipated in Italy and in England. But the earlier writers had only discovered the germs of the truth. They had not seen it to its efflorescence. The merit of Smith was that he saw the truth in its intrinsic force, he grasped it in its bearings and relations, and he developed it with such completeness and simplicity that he made it plain to the common apprehension, that he made it the property of men in the common walks of life, and not alone of the student in his closet or the speculator in his school. What a grand truth it was that such men as Smith have bequeathed to us! Kant was accustomed to say that true things filled him with awe; first, the view of the starry heavens, and second, the sense of duty in the soul of man. He might have added a third, that of the mysterious means by which the struggles of the soul in the social man is brought to an harmonious end. But what is society at large? Is there not for its stupendous ramifications of interest, for the vast enterprises which span the globe, a power which holds them in its large love and boundless thought? Aye, there is such a power; it is the power of Providence, the power of freedom, freedom of labor, freedom of interchange, which, demanding nothing of governments save the maintenance of justice and peace, is like the principle of attraction which reduces the far-flaming orbs of space into musical chimes, and will reduce our various conflicting arms into perfect order. The signal service of Adam Smith and his coadjutors was to demonstrate that the gospel was right and that human traditions were wrong. By an exposition of the productive efficacy of the co-operation of industrial groups — by a demonstration that all exchanges of products are not a one-sided spoliation, but a two sided benefit, they showed that human interests were reciprocally helpful and not mutually destructive. Attraction, not repulsion, was shown to be the true law of economic relations. When it was once seen that human interests are convergent and not divergent, the practices of individuals and of nations were made to conform to that view. Giant monopolies began to open their shut doors, and an era of emancipated industry and emancipated commerce broke over the world. Political economy, like other sciences, is still immature and imperfect: it has many deficiencies to fill out, many obscurities to clear, many problems to solve. But we who are here tonight know this — that the great beams of the edifice have been raised; that many downtrodden have found solace within the portals of this, the goodliest temple, I think, ever made — a temple in which the worship is the worship of free human uses, full of the profoundest human affections.”

                  The names of invited guest who were prevented from attending, and had sent letters of regret were then read. Among these were Governor Tilden, Lieutenant-Governor Dorsheimer, President Woolsey, President McCosh, Senator Bayard, William R. Morrison, L. Q. C. Lamar, Professor A. L. [Arthur Latham] Perry; the English Minister, Sir Edward Thornton; the Belgian Minister, M. Maurice Delfosse; Charles Francis Adams, Professor H. W. Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, W. Lloyd Garrison, R. H. Dana, Jr., H. W. Olcott and others [Also listed as having sent letters of regret according to the New York Times (December 13, 1876, p 5): President Elliott, President Champin, Charles Elliott Norton, Professor Dunbar, Estis Howe, James Brown].

SPEECH OF JOHN BIGELOW.

The first regular toast was read as follows:

“The Early French Economists” – Lights that preceded and announced the dawn. They were the first to discover and to proclaim that natural laws are a better basis for legislation than arbitrary authority.

In the absence of Professor [Arthur Latham] Perry [Williams College], who was expected to respond, Mr. John Bigelow spoke as follows:

                  “I am very sorry that Professor Perry was not able to attend. He was prevented from coming by his modesty, and he has asked me to come here to-night and represent him. I shall do so as well as I may. It is a source of regret to me that I am here in a representative capacity, and shall be unable to do full justice to the early French economists as either Professor Perry or the imaginary Mr. Bigelow you have described would have done. I will only say that they were a very noble set of people. That is all I shall say. I am sure your imaginary Mr. Bigelow could not have described them in fewer words. All the politico-economical teachers have been indebted, more than to any one else, to the man who first classified the industries of France, and by whose work the science of political economy became possible — I refer to Colbert. The work of Colbert in estimating and tabulating the work of every man in France had never been done before. Yet this was essential to the success of politico-economical science. I do not know but Bacon may have anticipated me in this remark, but if he has, so much the worse for Lord Bacon. It is a matter of regret that the Bureau of Statistics in this country has been less useful because of the inexcusable obstinacy of a gentleman present here to-night (Mr. David A. Wells) in resigning its charge. I wish to call attention to one fact in noticing upon this table the original edition of the work of Adam Smith. I don’t know why this work, the natural twin of republican institutions, has never been published complete in this country. My friend on my right says it has been. I can only ask, then, why I have never happened to meet a single copy of an American edition in this country. (A voice — that of Mr. Coxe, of Philadelphia — “An edition was edition was printed in Philadelphia in 1789.”) Then I will modify my remark and ask why we have not had an edition in the current century.” (A voice, “Give it up”) Mr. Bigelow went on to speak of the importance of a proper study of Adam Smith’s method, and said that the great drawback in this country is the waste of power in all the paths of work and business and investigation. He advocated as a great centennial work the publication of a new and complete edition of Adam Smith’s works.

SPEECH OF DAVID A. WELLS.

The second toast was:

“The Wealth of Nations”, — An imperishable monument of human genius, which laid the foundation of a science destined to revolutionize the legislation and practice of nations. At the end of a hundred years it is as instructive in its teachings and as beautiful in style as when it first attracted the attention of the world. Its author, Adam Smith, will be held in honor by his fellow men forever.

David A. Wells made the following response:

                  “Considering the condition of Europe from the time when it first attained a high degree of civilization, there is no question of more interest than that of the relations of nations and men. The prejudices and antagonisms, due to the belief that advantage to one community was necessarily a loss to another, naturally interfered with progress and advancement, and led to the belief, as expressed by Hobbes, that war is the natural condition of man. The restrictions that, until recently, hedged round all trades in Europe, and reduced men to practical slavery, were the outgrowths of this false idea. The right to practice a trade or profession was looked upon as an heirloom, transferred from one to another member of a family.” The results of this system in France and in the country were sketched, and Mr. Wells continued: “In this country, it even happened in 1865, under our absurd revenue law, that it became a question whether a man who mended a carriage had not really manufactured it and made himself liable to a payment of the duties on new carriages. War was often undertaken by European nations as a means of successfully monopolizing trades. It was for this cause that nearly all the battles of the eighteenth century were fought. Our own Revolution is directly traceable to the imposition of duties upon the colonies due to the economic ideas of the times. If Great Britain forbade the colonists to export wool, it made its own subjects liable to capital punishment for exporting wool. John Hancock was the prince of smugglers and was set down for trial at the time of our Revolution. Alexander Hamilton was cognizant of contraband trade by the firm which he formed during his minority. Men like these resisted the government, because they felt that every blow that they struck was a blow for liberty. Mr. Wells then sketched the work of Turgot in France in connection with economic matters. Voltaire and other of Turgot’s contemporaries, he said, supported Turgot in his schemes of economic reforms and foresaw the revolution and the reign of terror which followed after Turgot’s downfall. But afterward there came a compensation in the appearance of Smith’s great work. He then quoted the high praise awarded it by Buckle, Mackintosh and others and said: “The work then done was the greatest ever attempted since the days of Christ and his apostles. Under the light of the teachings of Adam Smith, the golden rule of ‘Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you’ was embodied in the practical affairs of life. People are benefited and never injured by the prosperity of their neighbors; this was the great truth expounded by Adam Smith. There is no class of men that submit quicker to the spirit of the times than the mercantile class, and the spirit of the times always is the aggregation of knowledge. From this point of view and in the light of the work done by Adam Smith, though the world has not recognized the source from which it came, it will be seen that the great Scotchman has fully merited the eulogiums passed upon him. He has done more than all the sleeping[?] statesmen[?] combined have ever attempted[?] to do.” [Three words unclearly printed marked with [?]]

SPEECH OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

The third toast was:

“The Illustrious Teachers of Political Economy” — Say, Ricardo, Malthus, Senior, the Mills, Bastiat, Cairnes, Rossi, Chevalier and Walker, who form a galaxy of bright and shining stars whose places in the heavens will grow brighter with the lapse of time.

In reply William Cullen Bryant spoke as follows:

                  “Mr. President and Gentlemen: Allow me to congratulate you on the occasion which has brought you together. I am glad to see such men assembled for such a purpose — that of commemorating the publication of the great work which first clearly demonstrated to mankind the benefits of a free exchange of commodities between the nations of the world, and the mischiefs of that tyranny which seeks to check this free exchange by the strong arm of the law. The doctrine of free trade, placed on the impregnable basis of fact and reasoning, was twin born with this republic of ours, and I can only wish the republic a like perpetuity with the doctrines.

                  “It is now four years since a concurrence of circumstances, to which I will do no more than allude, had the effect of causing a movement in favor of free trade, which was then in considerable activity and apparently not without effect on the public mind to stagnate and almost to sleep. And what years, my friends, were these: Years of languishing enterprise, years of despairing industry, years of strikes, years of contention between the employers and the employed, years which showed the spectacle of laborers by hundreds looking in vain for occupation, and hunger-pinched families shivering in their unwarmed garrets. All this while the protective system, as it is called, has been in full force. Everything is protected — that is to say, everything imported into the country is taxed as it never was taxed before. If the protective system be the ground of commercial prosperity the country should now be prosperous beyond all its previous experience; our mills, now silent, should be in their fullest activity; our laborers should be in constant employment; not a willing arm should be idle, not a spindle should cease to hum.

                  “Is It not time for a reaction? Are we to go on in this manner indefinitely? We have tried the protective system as fully as is possible; we have tasted its fruits, and they are bitter. Let us now have a season of free exchange I have no doubt, for my own part, that a liberal system of revenue laws, especially combined with a return to specie payments, would make an instantaneous and most fortunate change in the condition of the country. Hundreds of commodities, the raw material of as many forms of industry, would be released from the taxation which now puts them beyond the reach of as many classes of artisans, and new life would be at once communicated to the arts both useful and ornamental. The old handicraft of shipbuilding, which made our barks the wonder of the world for speed and economy of management, would be revived. The very day that such a change in our present unhappy policy received the sanction of the Executive would see the gloom of the times dispelled as suddenly as a bright morning follows a storm, and there is no power able under these circumstances to hold back our people from plunging into enterprises which they now shrink from in despair.

                  “Yes, my friends, the time for a reaction has arrived, and we are determined that it shall have a fair field. Free trade has slept while its enemies have been performing their unhappy experiments upon the public welfare, and now we look to see it rise invigorated by its long slumber. Let me say here that I am in favor of protection, but protection of a kind very different from that which for many years past has dealt so cruelly with the interests of the country. I am for protecting the consumers — the class whose numbers are counted by millions — I am for protecting this class in its natural and proper right to exchange what it produces in whatever market it can exchange them to most advantage. I am for rescuing it from the hands into which it has fallen, and which plunder it with as little remorse as the rovers of the Barbary States in the early part of this century pillaged the merchant ships that entered into their seas.

                  “Depend upon it, my friends, this is a righteous contest on our part, and a blessing will rest upon it. I have been long a soldier in this war, and have never grown weary of it. I may I not see the day of triumph, but many of you will. The torch which I have borne for more than fifty years I shall pass to abler, doubtless, though not more faithful hands, assured that it will yet shed it rays on a glorious victory.”

SPEECH OF EDWARD ATKINSON.

The following was the fourth toast:

“Commercial freedom, or the unfettered intercourse of nations” — A glorious principle that has taken its place by the side of the freedom of the press, the freedom of speech and the freedom of assemblage, and which, like them, has demonstrated its claims to our regard by the blessings which have everywhere accompanied and followed its practical applications.

Edward Atkinson replied to this and said the charter of the Pennsylvania Railroad forbade it to build locomotives, although it allowed it to repair them, for fear of interfering with the interests of the factories. This prohibition is, however, got over by the company considering the brass label on the locomotives to be the locomotives themselves. He then said:

                  “The nation was now struggling against evils within which once it struggled against from without. The two great questions of the hour were evils of bad money and bad taxation. This nation might soon hope for freedom from the first, and ere long from the second. The advocates of protection now admitted that free trade was something to be desired, but claimed It was impracticable and artificial. Freetraders believed it natural. Differences now between the two parties were only regarding time and method. The question now arose, could the freetraders unite with protectionists in some compromise that would not demand a sacrifice of principle. He thought they could. The protectionists no longer based their legislation and claims upon the principles of protection, but upon principles of general utility. No one now demanded on principle more than a moderate taxation for the expenses of government, and he thought that very soon the statesmen might take the place of economists. The nation was stronger than its leaders, and order would soon come out of chaos. The admirable advantages of England should be considered; and if the advocates of free trade would only act with moderation and caution, they could soon obtain their end, practically at least.”

                  Remarks were also made by Brinton Coxe, of Philadelphia, who spoke of the progress which the principles of Adam Smith were making in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, that Middle Age castle of Protection.

SPEECH OF PROFESSOR SUMNER.

The next toast was:

“International freedom” — The liberty of trade and intercourse which, within the domain of the United States, prevails over so many thousand square leagues of territory, which has been so fruitful a source of prosperity, union peace and rapid development needs but to be applied to our foreign relations to establish our rightful position among the nations in wealth, in power, in influence and in the happiness of the people.

                  Professor W. G. Summer responded, saying that old dogmas were disappearing, utopian hopes are vanishing and positive methods are replacing them. Political economy is capable of positive and beneficial resalts. Among us economic problems are practical questions, and we are forced to turn our attention from science to the practical benefits of its old and familiar consequences to our country. This ought to be the work of politicians and statesmen, that the largest amount of human happiness may be directly produced therefrom.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

The last toast given was:

“The Science of Political Economy” — It demonstrates morals. It proves that diligence, economy, prudence, truth and justice are not only among the canons of the moral law, but are also the means of a sound and stable public prosperity.

This was ably responded to by Professor Anderson. [see following item]

______________________________

Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY: December 15, 1876), p. 4.

Dr. [Martin Brewer] Anderson
on Free Trade

Our report of the free-trade dinner at Demonico’s last evening requires to be supplemented by an outline of the interesting and effective remarks of President Anderson, of Rochester (N.Y.) university. He considered free trade in its moral aspects, and said that he regarded free exchange as one of the fundamental principles underlying human society, the same as the freedom of opinion and of labor. Free trade is as worthy and important an object of human endeavor as the doctrines of the declaration of independence. No bargain is either good or safe which does not confer a benefit upon both the seller and buyer, and the moral element in trade must be taken into account to secure permanent prosperity. He eulogized the abstract thinkers of the world and eloquently set forth the benefits conferred upon mankind by Adam Smith in the field of trade, Jeremy Bentham in the field of criminal law, and also cited other examples. He spoke of his own labors as a teacher of political economy, and said that during the last fifteen years he had permitted no young man to leave the institution of which he had charge who did not possess a clear notion of the fundamental doctrines of free trade. He then made the practical suggestion that an efficient free-trade club ought to be organized in this city for the purpose of free discussion. He said that economic truth propagates itself under proper conditions, and he would have the free-trade work of the colleges supplemented by systematic organization, so that young men may be preserved in economic faith and so that the influence of free-traders of all classes may be made effective.

Image Source: Adam Smith, 1723-1790. Political economist by James Tassie (1787). National Galleries of Scotland, Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Categories
Exam Questions France Germany Harvard History of Economics Methodology

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

von Thünen and Le Play

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

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

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

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

________________________

Course Enrollment

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

Total 3: 3 Graduates.

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

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ECONOMICS 22
Year-end Examination, 1906-07

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

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

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1907), pp. 43-44.

English translation of Question 5’s quote

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

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

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

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Semester exams for history of economics. Bullock, 1906-07

The two-semester course on the history of economics up through Adam Smith taught by assistant professor Charles J. Bullock at Harvard in  1906-07 was taken by seven graduate students and one undergraduate.

A reprint of the 1690 pamphlet by Nicholas Barbon “A Discourse of Trade” was published by Johns Hopkins Press in 1905 and Bullock incorporated it into his course at the first opportunity (the course was announced but not taught in 1905-06). The third question of the year-end exam below concerns a quote from the first page of Barbon’s Discourse.

__________________________

Before joining Harvard in 1903

Source: Williams College, The Gulielmensian 1902, p. 16.

__________________________

Earlier History of Economics Courses
Taught by Charles J. Bullock

1903-04

1904-05

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1906-07

Economics 15. Asst. Professor Bullock. — History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848.

Total 8: 7 Graduates, 1 Junior.

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

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ECONOMICS 15
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY
Mid-Year Examination, 1906-07

  1. By the close of the Middle Ages what progress had been made in developing a theory of value?
  2. Compare the communism of Plato with that of More.
  3. What was the attitude of the following writers toward commerce: Aristotle, Xenophon, Thomas Aquinas?
  4. What economic topics were discussed by Roman writers?
  5. Discuss the connection between political and economic theory from the time of Plato to the middle of the eighteenth century.
  6. What is your opinion of the scholastic doctrine of usury?
  7. Write an account of economic discussions in Italy in the fifteenth century?
  8. To what books would you turn for information concerning the political and economic theories of the Schoolmen?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1906-07.

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ECONOMICS 15
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY
Year-end Examination, 1906-07

Omit one question.
  1. What analysis does Quesnay make of the organization of economic society? Does his analysis resemble at any points the analysis made by Aristotle?
  2. What traces of Aristotelianism and Scholasticism do you find in the economic thought of Europe from 1500 to 1800?
  3. At about what time was the following passage written?
    “The Stock and Wares of all Trade are the Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals of the whole Universe, whatsoever the Land or Sea produceth. These Wares may be divided into Natural and Artificial. Natural Wares are those which are sold as Nature produceth them. … Artificial Wares are those which by Art are changed into another Form than Nature gave them.” [A Discourse of Trade (1609) by Nicholas Barbon]
    Does this passage suggest any distinction drawn by earlier writers? What use was made of it by the economists of the period when it was written?
  4. Compare the general development of mercantilist doctrines in England from 1500 to 1760 with the development of French mercantilist doctrines of the same period.
  5. What tendencies are noticeable in the economic thought of England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain between 1740 and 1760? Name some of the chief writers in each country at this time.
  6. What is the fundamental difference between the theories of commerce entertained by enlightened mercantilists of the eighteenth century and the view of Hume, d’Argenson, and Adam Smith?
  7. What various elements were fused in the economical philosophy of Adam Smith?
  8. What are the prevailing theories of value, profits, and rent found in the writings of English mercantilists?
  9. Outline Turgot’s theory of distribution.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1907-08; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1907), pp. 37-38.

Image Source: Williams College, The Gulielmensian 1902, p. 16. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Exam Questions Fields Harvard History of Economics Industrial Organization Money and Banking Public Finance Sociology Theory Undergraduate

Harvard. Division Exams for A.B., General and Economics, 1921

The Harvard Economics department was once one of three in its Division in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The Departments of History and Government shared a general division exam with the Department of Economics and also contributed their own specific exams for their respective departmental fields. This post provides the questions for the common, i.e. general, divisional exam, the general economics exam, and all the specific exams at the end of the academic year 1920-21 for those fields falling within the perview of the economics department.

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Previously posted
Division A.B. Exams

Division Exams 1916
Division Exams, January 1917
Division Exams, April 1918
Division Exams, May 1919
Division Exams, April/May 1920

Division Exams 1931

Special Exam for Money and Government Finance, 1939
Special Exam Economic History Since 1750, 1939
Special Exam for Economic Theory, 1939
Special Exam for Labor and Social Reform, 1939

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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMICS

EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF A.B.
1920-21

DIVISION GENERAL EXAMINATION

PART I

The treatment of one of the following questions will be regarded as equivalent to one-half of this examination and should therefore occupy one hour. Write on one question only. Insert before your answer to this question a sketch of your plan of treatment.

  1. Discuss the relations of civilization to climate.
  2. Does history show that the periods of a nation’s political and literary greatness tend to coincide?
  3. Was America’s entrance into the World War a consequence or a violation of her policies and traditions?
  4. Discuss the following: “One of the great difficulties, as well as one of the great fascinations of history is the constantly changing point of view; but we should beware of interpreting the past in the light of the present.”
  5. What have been and what should be the limitations upon the application of the principle of self-determination in national relations?
  6. Contrast Roman provincial, and nineteenth-century colonial relations.
  7. What should be the limits of nationalization of essential industries?
  8. What have been the marked characteristics of three great states at the time of their greatest power?
  9. “Society has departed very widely from the strict rule of non-interference with industry by the State; indeed, the policy of non-interference was never carried out logically by any State.” Comment.
  10. Discuss: “The patriotism of nations ought to be selfish.”
  11. What are the standards of social justice?

PART II

The treatment of four of the following questions in Part II is required and will be regarded as equivalent to one-half of this examination, and should therefore occupy one hour. The four questions are to be taken from the Departments in which the student is NOT CONCENTRATING; two questions from each of the two Departments.

A. HISTORY

  1. Briefly characterize, with approximate dates, five of the following: Alexander, Aristotle, Augustus, Francis Bacon, Frederick Barbarossa, Bolivar, Calvin, Chatham, Franklin, Richelieu.
  2. Give a short account of the rise of the Christian Church down to the period of the Crusades.
  3. Estimate the importance of the Netherlands in the development of Europe.
  4. Discuss the relations of England and the United States during the past one hundred years.
  5. Write a brief historical account of slavery in the Western Hemisphere.

B. GOVERNMENT

  1. Discuss: “Not independence but interdependence is the hope of nations.”
  2. Explain the evolution and significance of trial by jury.
  3. What is the significance of the following headlines in March, 1921?
    1. “Austria in dangerous unrest.”
    2. “Briand voted confidence on reparations.”
    3. “Crown prince is plotting.”
    4. “Lenin knows his Italian friends.”
  4. What are the limits of uniform state legislation?
  5. What political unities can best control:
    1. police,
    2. water supply,
    3. roads?

C. ECONOMICS

  1. “The fundamental fact in history is the law of decreasing returns. It is the cause of the origin and development of civilization. . . . It is equally, and for the same reason, the source of poverty and war.”
    State, explain, and indicate the significance of the law of decreasing (diminishing) returns.
  2. What are the fundamental features of the organization of modern industrial society?
  3. Discuss one of the following statements:
    1. “Employees have the right to contract for their services in a collective capacity, but any contract that contains a stipulation that employment should be denied to men not parties to the contract is an invasion of the constitutional rights of the American workmen, is against public policy, and is in violation of the conspiracy laws.”
    2. “In the old days, America outsailed the world. . . . I want to acclaim the day when America is the most eminent of shipping nations. . . . A big navy and a big mercantile marine are necessary to the future of the country.”
  4. Why should there be a labor party in England and not in the United States?
  5. What are the economic essentials of socialism?

_______________________________

GENERAL EXAMINATION
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

I

The treatment of two of the following questions will be regarded as equivalent to one-half of the examination and should therefore occupy one hour. Write on two questions only.

  1. Give the author, approximate date, and general character of five of the following works:
    1. National System of Political Economy.
    2. Essays in Political Arithmetick.
    3. England’s Treasure by Forraign Trade.
    4. Essay on the Principle of Population
    5. Principles of Political Economy.
    6. The Wealth of Nations.
    7. Das Kapital.
    8. Lombard Street.
    9. Capital and Interest.
  2. Explain four of the following terms:
    Abstinence; Manchester School; stationary state; iron law of wages; produit net; non-competing groups; Scholasticism; Utilitarianism.
  3. Locate on an outline map:
    1. The world’s principal sources of five of the following raw materials: cotton; copper; sugar; silk; wheat; tin; rice; nitrate; petroleum; gold.
    2. The more important routes of overseas transportation.
    3. The world’s chief regions of manufacture.

II

The treatment of three of the following questions will be regarded as equivalent to one-half of the examination and should therefore occupy one hour. Write on three questions only. Be concise.

  1. Define “thrift” and discuss its social significance.
  2. Analyze the determination of normal value under competitive conditions of joint cost.
  3. What is meant by “monetary inflation”? How is it to be measured and what is its importance?
  4. What has been the course of the interest rate in modern times? What probably will be the course of the rate during the next few years? Why?
  5. What are the purposes and limits of progressive taxation?
  6. Discuss the future of public utilities in the United States.
  7. To what extent and in what respects, if at all, is labor legislation of the times a corrective of the more serious defects of the existing social order?
  8. Discuss: “Perpetual prosperity would be a national calamity.”

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SPECIAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMIC THEORY

Answer six questions

A

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. What is the concept of “justice” in the theory of the distribution of wealth?
  2. Comment on the validity and significance of the following contention: “Labor is the source of all wealth.”
  3. “Whether capital is productive depends simply on the question: Are tools useful? It matters not how much or how little tools add to the product — if they add something, capital is productive.” Do you agree? Explain.
  4. “The forces which make for Increasing Return are not of the same order as those that make for Diminishing Return. . . . The two ‘laws’ are in no sense coordinate. . . . The two ‘laws’ hold united, not divided, sway over industry.” Comment critically.
  5. What relations exist between the accounting and economic concepts of “cost of production”?
  6. “The differences in the productive powers of men due to their heredity or social position give to certain individuals the same kind of an advantage over others that the owner of a corner lot in the center of a city has over one in the suburbs. If the income from a corner lot is a surplus and can therefore be described as unearned, the income of a man of better heredity, education or opportunity must also be regarded as a surplus income and therefore unearned.”
    Discuss this statement with reference to your general theory of distribution.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than wto

  1. Give a brief historical account of the theory of population.
  2. Trace the development of the theory of international trade.
  3. In what ways have the following influenced the history of economic thought: Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Malthus, Ricardo, J.S. Mill, Marx?
  4. Outline the evolution of the theory of economic rent.

C

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. “The profits of speculation on the Stock Exchange are just as unearned as the increment in the value of urban building sites; unlike the profits of speculation in produce, they represent no service to society.” Do you agree? Why, or why not?
  2. “There is a point beyond which advertising outlay is extravagant.” Explain.
  3. “I do not see how we can retain our home markets, upon which American good fortune must be founded, and at the same time maintain American standards of production and American standards of living unless we make other peoples with lower standards pay for the privilege of trading in the American markets.” Discuss.
  4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the closed shop?

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DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMIC HISTORY

Answer six questions 

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. “The opening of the Erie Canal affected both intensive and extensive agriculture in the United States.” Explain. Have there been analogous changes in later periods?
  2. Discuss the following statement: “The enactment of corporation laws by the various states is the most important step made during the past century in the development of American manufactures.”
  3. Analyze the important economic after-effects of the World War.
  4. Briefly explain the most satisfactory methods for separating the different types of variation in time series.

B

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. Write a brief account of one of the early English trading companies.
  2. Sketch the rise of the modern factory system.
  3. Compare changes in farm ownership and tenancy during the nineteenth century in England and the United States.
  4. Outline the history of banking in the United States from 1830 to 1860.
  5. Write a brief narrative of the early development of the railroad.
  6. Give the history of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.
  7. Trace the evolution of the middle class and forecast its future.

C

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Give a critical account of the policy of the Federal Government in its regulation of industrial combinations.
  2. Discuss the history and consequences of immigration into the United States since 1840.
  3. Review the development of German foreign trade before the War with special reference to the methods of trade promotion.
  4. Analyze the causes, extent, and consequences of changes in the price level in the United States since 1914.

_______________________________

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
PUBLIC FINANCE

Answer six questions

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. A law of 1691 authorizes the municipal corporations of New York “to impose any reasonable tax upon all houses within said city, in proportion to the benefit they shall receive thereby.” How far is this a correct principle of taxation and how far has it continued to be applied?
  2. Present a classification of Federal expenditures for a national budget system.
  3. Give a brief account of the financial statistics issued currently by the Federal Government.
  4. Discuss the proposal for the cancellation of all inter-allied debts.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. How has the Federal Constitution influenced national and state tax systems in the United States?
  2. Trace the history of an important fiscal monopoly.
  3. Give a brief account of the financial history of one of the American states.
  4. What connections have existed between currency systems and government finance? Illustrate fully.

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. Compare the total expenditures in the United States in normal times for (a) national, (b) state, and (c) municipal purposes. What changes, if any, in the proportions are to be expected?
  2. To what extent is it desirable to separate state and local revenues in the United States?
  3. Indicate the nature and significance of the “grant in aid” in British public finance.
  4. What arguments have been used in European countries for and against a capital levy?
  5. Should the poll tax be abolished? Why, or why not?
  6. Discuss critically the present condition of the public debt of the United States.

_______________________________

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
MONEY AND BANKING

Answer six questions

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. What part, if any, do commercial banks play in (a) the process of investment; (b) the increase of capital; (c) the course of industrial development; (d) leadership in the business world? In what respects, if at all, may the influence of commercial banks be economically inexpedient?
  2. Discuss the desirability of uniform bank accounting in the United States.
  3. Describe critically the more important sources of statistics of currency and credit in the United States.
  4. Analyze the successive phases of the business cycle. What are the causes of financial panics; industrial crises?

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Give a brief account of the life and work of John Law.
  2. Trace the history of usury laws.
  3. Outline the political background of American monetary history from 1870 to 1900.
  4. Give a brief history of the Reichsbank.

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. “It is quite clear that the money question no longer survives as a political issue.” Do you agree? Why, or why not?
  2. To what extent has the status of the gold standard been affected by the World War?
  3. “This little neutral country [Switzerland], surrounded by four great continental belligerents, and bordering on the two principal battle-fronts of Europe, possesses at present, curiously enough, an exceptional purchasing power. This is the consequence of the high level of Swiss currency, which is 250 per cent above the usual parity with the currency of the neighbor in the east, Austria-Hungary; 100 per cent higher than that of the neighbor in the north, Germany; 90 per cent higher than that of the neighbor in the south, Italy; and 20 per cent higher than that of the western neighbor, France. Even in overseas countries, Swiss currency has a higher buying power than the English sovereign or the American dollar.” Explain fully.
  4. What changes have been made in the original Federal Reserve System? What have been the purposes and effects of the changes? What further changes, if any, seem desirable?
  5. Compare the provisions for agricultural credit in two important countries.
  6. Comment upon the following statement: “Prosperity continued through the war, and gave the nation such a tremendous start in business activity that we would still be rejoicing in a period of great prosperity had it not been for the death-dealing blow of deflation of credit given by Mr. Wilson’s Federal Reserve Board.”

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DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
CORPORATE ORGANIZATION, INCLUDING RAILROADS

Answer six questions

 A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. State the theory of value under conditions of monopoly. In what ways, if at all, is monopoly price affected by (a) cost of production per unit; (b) potential competition; (c) an elastic demand for the product; (d) the existence of satisfactory substitutes for the product; (e) hostile public opinion?
  2. Formulate a statistical classification of business organizations in the United States.
  3. Discuss the apportionment of railway operating expenses between freight and passenger service.
  4. Analyze the valuation of corporate assets from the standpoint of the principles of accounting.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Compare the history of business corporations in England and the United States.
  2. Trace connections between railroad construction in the United States and related political and economic events.
  3. Give a brief narrative of the trust dissolutions of the Federal Government.
  4. What provisions of the Federal Constitution have been most important in determining policies of government regulation of public utilities?

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. Discuss the following statement: “The enactment of corporation laws by the various states is the most important step made during the past century in the development of American manufactures.”
  2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of non-par stock?
  3. Discuss the probable consequences of the Supreme Court decision that stock dividends are not income under the income tax law.
  4. What is the nature and importance of good-will in corporation finance?
  5. To what extent may there be differences in the fair valuation of public utilities for the purposes of rate-making, condemnation, taxation, and capitalization?
  6. Did the Government act wisely in returning the railroads March 1, 1920 to their corporate owners for operation? Why, or why not?

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DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURE

Answer six questions 

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Analyze the doctrine of economic rent from agricultural land.
  2. What are the functions of organized speculation in staple agricultural products?
  3. Describe the methods to be employed in making an annual farm inventory.
  4. What subjects are covered by the decennial Federal census of agriculture? What is the statistical value of the results of the several inquiries?

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Trace the history of the relations between landlords and tenants in England.
  2. What have been the most important changes in American agriculture since 1890?
  3. Give a critical account of the land policies of the Federal Government.
  4. Outline the development of the beet sugar industry in Europe.

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. What factors determine the most efficient size of farms?
  2. What are the advantages of diversification of crops?
  3. Discuss the future of the meat supply of the United States.
  4. Describe and estimate the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods of marketing farm produce.
  5. State and defend a forest conservation policy for the United States.
  6. Compare the provisions for agricultural credit in two important countries.
  7. What are the principal problems of rural community life in the United States?

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DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
LABOR PROBLEMS

Answer six questions

 A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Discuss the proposal to restrict immigration into the United States by limiting the number of each nationality admitted each year to 3 per cent of the foreign-born of that nationality resident in this country in 1910.
  2. Describe the technique of statistical measurement of the high cost of living.
  3. What are the principal difficulties encountered in the collection of wage statistics?
  4. Analyze the relations between high money wages and high commodity prices.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Describe the early development of the factory system.
  2. Trace the origins of trade-unionism in the United States.
  3. Write a brief narrative of the movement for a shorter working day.
  4. Review the relations between organized labor and the steel industry in the United States.

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. What is “the labor problem”?
  2. Compare American and British labor leadership. How do you account for the differences?
  3. “Employers must be free to employ their work people at wages mutually satisfactory, without interference or dictation on the part of individuals or organizations not directly parties to such contracts.” Comment.
  4. Discuss a proposed law providing that “in the establishment of salaries for school teachers in the city of—, there shall be no discrimination based on sex or otherwise, but teachers and principals rendering the same service shall receive equal pay.”
  5. “The principle that each industry shall support its own unemployed is one that must be established if a real solution of unemployment is to be made.” Do you agree? Why, or why not?
  6. Discuss the relation of shop committees to trade-unionism.

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DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY

Answer six questions

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Discuss the following contention: “The landlord is a parasite since he consumes without producing.”
  2. What is the meaning of “over-population”?
  3. “Hitherto it is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil of any human being.” Comment critically.
  4. What are the interactions of human instincts and modern factory labor?
  5. Discuss the nature and bases of economic prosperity.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Describe the evolution of language.
  2. Trace the history of the middle class and forecast its future.
  3. Give a brief historical account of the status of women.
  4. What have been the chief cultural consequences of the machine process?

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. What is the province of sociology?
  2. Discuss the family as a necessary social unit.
  3. Describe the leading forms of conflict and their effect upon group life. Why are some forms to be preferred to others? What are the factors which determine the forms actually prevailing at any time?
  4. Analyze the sources of prestige and influence in modern society.
  5. “From the standpoint of progress, the value of the individual depends on the excess of his production over his consumption.” Discuss.
  6. What are the criteria and causes of racial superiority?

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Examinations not transcribed for this post

History:

General Examination
Special Examinations: Mediaeval History; English History; Modern European History to 1789; Modern History since 1789; American History

Government:

General Examination
Special Examinations: American Government; Municipal Government; Political Theory; International Law

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Source: Harvard University Archives. Divisional and general examinations, 1915-1975 (HUC 7000.18). Box 6, Bound Volume (stamped “Private Library Arthur H. Cole”) “Divisional Examinations 1916-1927”.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Exams for the history of economics through Adam Smith. Bullock, 1904-1905

 

Meanwhile, back in the early 20th century we find Charles Jesse Bullock teaching the history of economics from the ancient Greeks to Adam Smith, judging from his exam questions. Nominally, the course was to cover economic thought through 1848. He, like Frank Taussig, examined economics Ph.D. candidates ability to read French and German. He taught Latin and Greek at the high-school level before going on to study economics so it is not surprising that he would have been expected to cover the ancient Greek and Latin literatures of economics as well.

The year-examination for this course in 1903-04 has been posted earlier.

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 15. Asst. Professor Bullock. — History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848.

Total 3: 3 Graduates.

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

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Course Description, 1904-05

[Economics] 15. The History and Literature of Economies to the year 1848. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri, at 12. Asst. Professor Bullock.

The purpose of this course is to trace the development of economic thought from classical antiquity to the middle of the nineteenth century. Emphasis is placed upon the relation of economics to philosophical and political theories, as well as to political and industrial conditions.

A considerable amount of reading of prominent writers will be assigned and opportunity given for the preparation of theses. Much of the instruction is necessarily given by means of lectures.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 49-50.

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ECONOMICS 15
Mid-Year Examination, 1904-05

  1. With what literature upon the history of economics are you familiar?
  2. What place does Plato occupy in the development of economic thought?
  3. What criticism did Aristotle make against Plato’s Republic?
  4. What economic topics are discussed by Xenophon?
  5. Describe the economic doctrines of Thomas Aquinas.
  6. What do you think of the scholastic doctrine concerning usury?
  7. What were the doctrines of Molinaeus and Salmasius?
  8. Compare the Utopia with Plato’s Republic.
  9. What do you think of Ingram’s treatment of economic thought in the Middle Ages?
  10. Upon what subject do you consider the economic doctrine of the Schoolmen most satisfactory?

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

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ECONOMICS 15
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. What influence did the schoolmen have upon the economic thought of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
  2. Compare the contributions to economic thought made by English writers in the seventeenth century with those made by contemporaneous writers in France and Italy.
  3. Give some account of the economic doctrines of Bodin.
  4. Trace in outline the development of theories of money in Europe from 1550 to 1760.
  5. Compare the communistic theories of Plato with those of More.
  6. Describe the work done in the eighteenth century toward systematizing economic doctrines.
  7. Describe the economic doctrines of two German and two Italian writers of the eighteenth century.
  8. Give a general account of the life and writings of Adam Smith.
  9. What different influences can be observed in the Wealth of Nations? To which do you attribute most importance?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 35-36.

Source: Williams College, The Gulielmensian 1902, Vol. 45, p. 26. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Business Cycles Distribution Economic History Exam Questions History of Economics Industrial Organization International Economics Johns Hopkins Labor Money and Banking Public Finance Public Utilities Statistics Theory

Johns Hopkins. General Written Exam for Economics PhD. 1956

 

One is struck by the relative weight of the history of economics in this four part (12 hours total) general examination for the PhD degree at Johns Hopkins in 1956. Also interesting to note just how many different areas are touched upon. Plenty of choice, but no place to hide.

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Other General Exams from Johns Hopkins

________________________

GENERAL WRITTEN EXAMINATION FOR THE PH.D DEGREE
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

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PART I
June 4, 1956, 9-12 a.m.

Answer two questions, one from each group.

Group I.
  1. Write an essay on the theory of capital. It should include a discussion of the place of capital theory in economic analysis: for what purposes, if any, we need such a theory, Do not omit theories or issues which were important in the history of doctrines, even if you should regard them as irrelevant for modern analysis.
  2. Discuss and compare the capital theories of Böhm-Bawerk, Wicksell, and Hayek.
  3. Write an essay on the theory of income distribution. Organize it carefully, as if it were designed for an article in the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Include discussions of alternative theories such as imputation theories, residual theories, surplus value theories, etc.
Group II.
  1. The following statements attempt to show that marginal productivity theory is inconsistent with factual observation. Accepting the stated facts as given, discuss whether they call for the rejection or major modification of the theory. If so, how? If not, why not?
    1. “In the most important industries in the United States wage rates are set by collective bargaining and are largely determined by the bargaining strength of the parties. Marginal productivity of labor is neither calculated nor mentioned in the process.”
    2. “In many industries competition among employers for workers is so limited that most firms are able to pay less than the marginal productivity of labor.”
    3. “Workers in some trades — say, carpenters or bricklayers — work essentially the same way as their predecessors did fifty years ago; yet their real wages have increased greatly, probably not less than in occupations where productivity has improved considerably over the years.”
  2. The determination of first-class and second-class passenger fares for transatlantic ocean transportation involves problems of (a) joint or related cost, (b) related demand, and (c) discriminatory pricing. Discuss first in what ways these three phenomena are involved here; then formulate a research project to obtain the factual information required for an evaluation of the cost relationships and demand relationships prevailing in the case of two-class passenger ships; and finally state the criteria for judging whether the actual rate differential implies conscious discrimination in favor of first-class passengers, conscious discrimination against first-class passengers, wrong calculation and faulty reasoning on the part of the shipping lines, or any other reason which you may propose.

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PART II
June 4, 1956, 2-5 p.m.

Answer three questions, at least one from each group.

Group I.
  1. There is a running debate on the question whether trade unions are labor monopolies. This debate obviously turns on the meaning of monopoly and on what effects union have had on their members’ wages, output, and conditions of work. Give both sides of the argument.
  2. Write an essay on the demand for labor.
  3. Write down everything you know about the incidence of unemployment among various classes of workers and about the fluctuations of unemployment over time. Discuss some of the problems of developing a workable concept of unemployment. Indicate whether the statistical behavior of unemployment throws any light on its causation.
Group II.
  1. What is a “public utility”? According to accepted regulatory principles, how are the “proper” net earnings of a utility company determined? And, finally, what factors are considered in setting an “appropriate” rate structure?
  2. What is the major purpose of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890? What are some of the more significant problems in determining what constitutes “restraint of trade”? What tests would you apply? Why?
  3. Analyze the economic effects of a corporate income tax. Be as comprehensive as you can.
  4. What are flexible agricultural price supports? Explain how they are determined and applied. Evaluate their use in the light of reasonable alternatives.

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PART III
June 5, 1956, 9-12 a.m.

Answer three questions, one from each group.

Group I.
  1. Describe briefly Schumpeter’s theory of economic development, and comment upon the possibility of testing it empirically.
  2. Describe briefly Keynes’ general theory of employment, interest and money; state its assumptions, structure, and conclusions; and evaluate it critically in the light of more recent theoretical and empirical findings.
Group II.
  1. What characteristics of economic cycles would you consider important in a statistical study of business cycles?
  2. In the study of long-term trends, what criteria would you use in constructing index numbers of production?
  3. What measures of economic growth of nations would you us? Consider carefully the various characteristics that you would deem indispensable in measurements of this sort.
Group III.
  1. Give a brief definition, explanation and illustration for each of the following:
    1. variance;
    2. confidence interval;
    3. coefficient of regression;
    4. coefficient of correlation;
    5. coefficient of determination;
    6. regression line.

[Note: Indicate where you have confined yourself to simple, linear correlation.]

  1. Write an essay on statistical inference by means of the following three techniques:
    1. chi square;
    2. analysis of variance;
    3. multiple regression.

Indicate the types of problem in which they are used, and how each type of problem is handled.

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PART IV
June 5, 1956, 2-5 p.m.

Answer four questions, one from each group.

Group I.
  1. Political arithmetic is a term that is applied to certain writings that appeared from roughly 1675 to 1800. What gave rise to such writings? What were the contributions of the different members of the “group”? Why should Political Arithmetic be given a terminal date?
  2. Discuss Quesnay’s Tableau Économique, Do you see in it anything of significance for the subsequent development of economic theory?
  3. Present arguments for the contention that J. B. Say was far more than “a mere disciple of Adam Smith”.
Group II.
  1. Discuss the relations between the English economic literature of the first half of the 19th century and the events, conditions, and general ideas of that time.
  2. Select three episodes in American economic history, and use your knowledge of economic theory to explain them.
Group III.
  1. Analyze the economic effects of a large Federal debt. Be as comprehensive as you can.
  2. At one time or another each of the following has been proposed as the proper objective or goal of monetary policy: (1) The stabilization of the quantity of money; (2) The maintenance of a constant level of prices; (3) The maintenance of full employment.
    Explain for each policy objective (a) what it means, that is, exactly what in “operational” terms might be maintained or stabilized; (b) how the objective could be achieved, that is, what techniques could be used to achieve it; and (a) the difficulties with or objections to the proposal.
  3. Irving Fisher and others have proposed that all bank be required to hold 100% reserves against their deposits. This was designed to prevent bank failures and, more important, to eliminate the perverse tendency of money to contract in recessions and expand in booms.
    Explain whether the proposal would have the effects claimed for it, and if so, why, and discuss what other effects it might have.
Group IV.
  1. Discuss the “law of comparative advantage” in international trade.
  2. Discuss “currency convertibility”.
  3. Discuss the “transfer problem”.
  4. Discuss the “optimum tariff”.
  5. Discuss the “foreign-trade multiplier”.
  6. Discuss alternative concepts of the “terms of trade”.
  7. Discuss the “effects of devaluation upon the balance of trade”.

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Source: Johns Hopkins University. Eisenhower Library. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy Series 5/6.  Box No. 6/1. Folder: “Comprehensive Exams for Ph.D. in Political Economy, 1947-1965”.

Image Source: Fritz Machlup in an economics seminar. Evsey Domar visible sitting third from the speaker on his right hand side. Johns Hopkins University Yearbook, Hullabaloo 1956, p. 15.