Category: Public Finance

As a graduate student at M.I.T. nearly fifty years ago, I spent a good part of my time when on campus at one of the many study desks along the windows at Dewey Library. At that time I had no idea who Davis Rich Dewey (after whom the library had been named) was. I presume this was true for most of my classmates too, M.I.T. not being known for  the study of the history of economics, though Paul Samuelson’s continuous interest in casting old theories in mathematical form was by no means chopped liver. 

As is noted in the short biography below, Dewey’s long career neatly overlapped with the first half-century of economics as a distinct academic discipline in North American universities. Thus it is fitting that Economics in the Rear-View Mirror gather and preserve artifacts left by Dewey in the course of his research and teaching.

Dewey’s magnum opus Financial History of the United States, first published in 1903, went through twelve editions (seven revisions) by 1934. He dedicated the book to the Seminary in History, Politics, and Economics at Johns Hopkins University which he attended from 1883 to 1886. That dedication immediately follows the brief biography. This in turn is followed by a fully-linked fourteen item bibliography of general works on the history of U.S. public finance suggested “for students, teachers, and readers.”. Further suggestions by Dewey will be added sometime sooner or later, so stay tuned.

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Davis Rich Dewey, 1858-1942

Davis Rich Dewey was Professor of Economics at M.I.T. and one of several people who helped shape the profession of economics as it is practiced today. Best known for his writings on United states economic history, his professional career spans fifty years (1886-1940), the formative period of the modern economics profession.

In 1883 Davis R. Dewey entered the graduate department of economics at Johns Hopkins University, secured a fellowship, and spent summers working as a correspondent for Bradstreet’s Financial Review. He graduated from Johns Hopkins with the doctorate in 1886 having studied history, economics and political economy. His Ph.D. thesis, entitled “A History of American Economic Literature…” was a survey of the practice of the early U.S. economics profession.

Upon his graduation, Dewey received an appointment as instructor in history and political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From the first he was integrally involved in research, publishing his first articles, “Municipal Revenue from Street Railways” [AEA Publications, Vol. II, No. 6 (1888), pp. 551-562] and “A Syllabus on Political History since 1815…” in 1889.

At M.I.T. Dewey served as an Instructor (1886-1888), then Assistant Professor of Economics and Statistics (1888-1889), Associate Professor (1889-1892) and finally Professor and Department Chairman (1893-1933). He taught a course in engineering administration from 1913- 1931, when a separate department of engineering administration was created, largely due to his efforts. He served as the Chairman of the M.I.T. Faculty from 1911-1913.

Dewey was influential in the internal affairs of two major professional organizations, the American Economic Association and the American Statistical Association. While still a graduate student, he had participated in the founding meeting of the American Economic Association and in 1909 he became its president. When that Association’s journal The American Economic Review was started in 1911, he served as its first editor, a post he held until 1940. The medal on the Dewey Library homepage was awarded to Davis R. Dewey upon the occasion of his retirement as editor of American Economic Review in 1940. Also in his first year of service at M.I.T., he became a member and was elected secretary of the American Statistical Association, an office he held until 1906. As secretary, and as a member of the Publications Committee, Dewey helped to edit the publications of that organization as well.

Davis R. Dewey was interested in the quality of education, as demonstrated by the following quotation,

“The Student will too often leave with…no systematic knowledge of the economic world, nor any well-defined theory of its workings. There must therefore be a far greater insistence upon…methods which will improve the missing experience.”

Davis R. Dewey was an associate of M.I.T. President Francis Amasa Walker whose Discussions in Economics and Statistics [Volume I: Finance and Taxation, Money and Bimetallism, Economic Theory. Volume II Statistics, National Growth, Social Economics] he edited for publication in 1899, shortly after Walker’s death. He was also associated with the editor Albert Bushnell Hart. Davis R. Dewey wrote his acclaimed Financial History of the United States for Hart’s American Citizen Series in 1903, and a volume entitled National Problems for Hart’s American Nation Series in 1907. In 1904 Financial History of the United States won the John Marshall Prize offered by Johns Hopkins. Dewey was a contributor to Palgrave’s Dictionary of Political Economy, the New International Encyclopedia Americana, Encyclopedia Britannica, American Year Book and the Commonwealth History of Massachusetts.

A representative of the modern field of economics, Davis R. Dewey was indifferent to theorizing which had little to do with empirical fact. He was above all a practitioner, insisting that applied knowledge we the true realm of the academic economist. Davis R. Dewey also maintained a lively interest in the politics of academe and followed several academic freedom cases of his day.

He died on December 13, 1942. The Dewey Library was named in his memory.

Written by Keith Morgan, Dewey Library Economics Bibliographer, 1994

Source: Webpage “Davis Rich Dewey, 1858-1942,” MIT Libraries, Dewey Library for Social Sciences and Management. Links added by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

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Financial History of the United States (12th edition).
New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1936.
by
Davis Rich Dewey, Ph.D., LL.D.,
Emeritus Professor of Economics and Statistics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

To the Seminary
of the
Department of History, Politics, and Economics
of Johns Hopkins University,

Of which the author was a member from 1883 to 1886. Under the guidance of Adams, Ely, and Jameson, we read and learned. The first has gone, leaving affectionate memories and organized activities of permanent usefulness; the others are still doing their work in a spirit of broad-minded sympathy and fine scholarship.

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Suggestions for Students, Teachers, and Readers

[Following three pages dedicated to general works on U.S. political history and biography, Dewey offers almost seventeen full pages dedicated to the subject of public finance. In this post we begin with the transcription of the most general works in public finance Dewey recommends. The curator of Economics in the Rear-View Mirror has been able to find links to the fourteen annotated items in Dewey’s list.]

II. Financial Histories

There are but few histories devoted exclusively to public finance; only one, indeed, that by Bolles, covers the general field over an extended period. The reader must therefore rely upon works on taxation, the tariff, coinage, and banking, and for special topics and episodes will often find the most satisfactory treatment in the political histories and biographies already referred to. The following volumes represent those which are most general in their treatment; of these the works of Bolles and Noyes are especially to be recommended; the narrative by Bolles stops with 1885, while the smaller work by Noyes is confined to the period 1865-1907. There is a great need of detailed works on the expenditures of the government and the various phases of treasury administration.

Adams, Ephraim D. The Control of the Purse in the United States Government. (Reprinted from the Kansas University Quarterly, April, 1894.) — An academic study of the debates in Congress on the interpretation of constitutional provisions relating to treasury management, loans, taxation, and money bills. Careful references are given.

Bolles, Albert Sidney. American Finance, with Chapters on Money and Banking. (N. Y., 1901.) — Especially valuable on expenditures; treats also of State finance. A discussion of present conditions rather than historical.

Bolles, Albert Sidney. The Financial History of the United States. (2d ed. N. Y., 1884-1886. 3 vols.) — Vol. I includes the period 1774-1789; II, 1789-1860; III, 1861-1885. The only single work which covers an extensive period; it represents research, and is closely restricted to questions of finance; no attempt is made to sketch in the political and social background, and the reader may be confused without preliminary reading. The author leans to protection, and takes the banker’s point of view in questions of currency. The work is especially valuable for chapters on accounting and expenditures. Referred to as Bolles.

1^st edition (1879), Vol. I (Frank Taussig’s copy!)
1^st edition (1883), Vol. II
1^st edition (1886), Vol. III
2^nd edition (1884), Vol. I
2^nd edition (1885), Vol. II
2^nd edition (1885), Vol. III
3^rd edition (1892), Vol. I

Bourne, Edward Gaylord. The History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837. (N. Y., etc., 1885.) — A brief, scholarly monograph with abundant references and bibliography. In addition to the historical account, it summarizes the earlier proposals of distribution of surplus funds in the treasury.

Bronson, Henry. Historical Account of Connecticut Currency, Continental Money, and the Finances of the Revolution. (In New Haven Colony Hist. Soc. Papers, Vol. I. New Haven, 1865.) — This is more than a local study; the author is drawn into a general review of the financial measures of the Revolutionary War. The essay is scholarly and the style vigorous.

Bullock, Charles Jesse. Finances of the United States, 1775-1789, with Especial Reference to the Budget. (Madison, 1895. Univ. of Wisconsin. Bulletin, Economics, etc., Vol. I, No. 2.)  — The best monograph on the finances of the Revolutionary period, with bibliographies at the beginning of each chapter. Indispensable to the advanced student.

Kearny, John Watts. Sketch of American Finances, 1789-1835. (N. Y., 1887.) — A brief study of 150 pages, clear and helpful in questions concerning the treatment of the debt. Little attention is given to taxation.

Noyes, Alexander Dana. Thirty Years of American Finance, 1865-1896. (N. Y., etc., 1898.) — Treats the earlier period very briefly, but is of special value for 1878-1895. Relation of public finance to the money market is given prominence. This has been replaced by Forty Years of American Finance (1909), bringing the history down to 1907. The references to the earlier edition have been allowed to stand.

Schuckers, Jacob William. Brief Account of the Finances and Paper Money of the Revolutionary War. (Philadelphia, 1874.) — The style is somewhat rhetorical, and, while the writer has on the whole chosen sound authorities, the essay does not indicate a very wide research. Is an interesting account within a moderate space.

Scott, William A. The Repudiation of State Debts. (N. Y. etc., 1893.) — Chapters 2-6 are historical, describing various acts of repudiation in twelve States. Of value as explaining some of the remote influences affecting federal credit, 1825-1850.

Spaulding, Elbridge Gerry. History of the Legal Tender Paper Money issued during the Great Rebellion. (Buffalo, 1869.) — The title is hardly accurate; the volume is largely a collection of documents, speeches, etc., relating to the legal tender acts.

Sumner, William Graham. The Financier and Finances of the American Revolution. (N. Y., 1891. 2 vols.) — Contains a mine of valuable material, but is not clearly arranged.

Vol. 1 (1892)
Vol. 2 (1892)

Sumner, William Graham. A History of American Currency. (N. Y., 1874.) — A series of topical notes designed for reference rather than consecutive reading.

Wells, David Ames. Practical Economics. (N. Y., etc., 1885.) — Treats of the silver question, tariff revision, and, most valuable of all, experience of the United States in taxing distilled spirits, subsequent to the Civil War.

Source: Davis Rich Dewey, Financial History of the United States (Twelfth edition). New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1936, pp. xi-xiii.

Image Source: Davis Rich Dewey portrait at the MIT Museum website. Retouched and colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.