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Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus William Edmund Clark, 1974

Ed Clark once a 'Trudeaucrat' and then a Financial Master of the Universe

 

During the 1973-74 academic year Dale Jorgenson served as the placement officer for 34 Harvard economics Ph.D.s (in hand or anticipated) planning to go on the market. A fifth year student offering  the field of economic development with a thesis on government investment planning in Tanzania hoped to spend his first post-doc year at Harvard. Jorgensen apparently offered him a discouraging word, leading William Edmund Clark to approach John Kenneth Galbraith for help. Galbraith’s note to the department chair, James Duesenberry, is transcribed below. Galbraith could not pass up the opportunity to lend a helping hand simultaneously with a discrete back-of-the-hand at Jorgenson. 

Archival artifacts from the feud involving Jorgenson and Galbraith, inter alios, in the Harvard economics department at this time were the subject of an earlier post.

Curatorial due diligence demanded that I track down whatever happened to the Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus William Edmund Clark. It turns out that he went back to his native Canada where he entered government service. He became much more than another faceless government economist. He rose rapidly through the bureaucratic ranks and within a decade “enjoyed” sufficient notoriety to become a Trudeaucratic target of Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney’s new government in the mid-1980s to be purged from the ranks of the civil service. From there Clark went on to an enormously successful career as a financial mover-and-shaker over the following three decades. “Red Ed” Clark also went on to make his mark in philanthropy.

The details of Clark’s truly remarkable life after his Harvard Ph.D. can be found in his Wikipedia article. John Kenneth Galbraith must have seen something that Dale Jorgenson either failed to see or didn’t want to encourage.

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Galbraith Tries an End-Run
around Jorgenson

December 20, 1973

Professor James Duesenberry
Littauer M-8
Harvard University

Dear Jim:

W. E. Clark, vitae attached, was in to see me the other day. He would like to stay on at Harvard; he has been told by Jorgenson that, in effect, there isn’t much interest in him. I find it difficult to plead we lack interest in anybody with this kind of record. I continue to suspect Mr. Jorgenson of an influence on our enterprise that is both inimical and evangelical. Couldn’t there be some corrective action without some fuss.

Yours faithfully,
John Kenneth Galbraith

JKG: efd

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

William Edmund Clark
Curriculum Vitae
  1. Born: October 10, 1947
  2. Marriage Status: Married
  3. Children: One Son
  4. Education:

Honors B.A., University of Toronto 1969. Economics
A.M. Harvard University 1971. Economics
Ph.D. Expected Harvard University. 1974 (Summer) Economics

  1. Awards, Grades:
    1. Stood first in class last three years at University of Toronto
    2. Received Excellent Minus on written Theory for Ph.D.
    3. Received Excellent on Orals for Ph.D.
      Topics: Economic Development; Theories of Social Change
    4. Woodrow Wilson Scholar
  2. Thesis. Pattern of Government Controlled Investment in Tanzania
    Thesis Advisors: A. O. Hirschman; A. MacEwan
  3. Teaching Experience:

Summer Course, Acadia University, Nova Scotia 1970
Teaching Fellow, Harvard University 1971/72.

  1. Other Work Experience:

Researcher, Center of Criminology, University of Toronto, 1966 (summer)
Researcher, Ford Foundation Project on Higher Education, University of Toronto, 1968 (summer)
Head, Research Project on Student Aid, Financed by Ontario Government and Ford Foundation, 1969 (summer)
Member, University of Toronto Tanzania Project, 1971-73
Team head, University of Toronto Tanzania Project, 1972-73

  1. Publications:

“Access to Higher Education in Ontario” joint article with D. Cook and G. Fallis

  1. Address: 11 Peabody Terrace Apt. 702 Cambridge, Mass. 02138
    Telephone: 617-492-0416
  2. References:

A.O. Hirschman, Harvard University
A. MacEwan, Harvard University
D. Nowlan, Dept. of Economics, University of Toronto
D.F. Forster, Provost, University of Toronto
A. Sinclair, Chairman, Dept. of Economics, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia 

Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Personal Papers. Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Box 526. Folder “Harvard Economics Dept. of Economics: General correspondence, 1967-74 (1 of 3)”.

Image Source: “Turbulence follows former ‘Trudeaucrat”,  National Post (Toronto), Aug 9, 1999.

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Exam Questions Toronto

Toronto. Examination papers in political economy, 1876

Knox College Building

 

The previous post provided transcriptions of the 1875 examinations at the University of Toronto in political economy. The 1876 examinations transcribed below include two additional examinations dedicated to Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.

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Other Toronto examinations in political economy

University of Toronto, Annual Examinations for 1858.

University of Toronto, Annual Examinations for 1875.

University of Toronto, Annual Examinations for 1891.

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University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Second Year.

ROGERS’S POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Examiners: Thomas Hodgins, M.A., LL.B. [and] W. P. R. Street, LL.B.

  1. What is the true definition of rent? Does this definition apply equally to land in country and city? State generally the causes which will increase and diminish rent.
  2. What is the measure of the price in England of any kind of foreign produce? Give an illustration of this.
  3. When the imports of a country exceeds its exports, what advantage or disadvantage to the country is thereby indicated? Illustrate your answer by one or two imaginary commercial transactions between merchants in two countries.
  4. Mention some of the causes giving rise to an efflux of specie. Can you suggest a case in which such an efflux would not be checked by a rise in the rate of discount?
  5. Explain the constituent parts of wages, and state the causes which determine their amount.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

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University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Second Year.

ROGERS’S POLITICAL ECONOMY
Honors

Examiner: Thomas Hodgins, M.A., LL.B. [and] W. P. R. Street, LL.B.

  1. What are the economical grounds upon which a government is justified in insisting upon the education of the young, and in levying a tax for educational purposes?
  2. Illustrate, by reference to the past history of England, the alteration that has taken place during the last five centuries in the theory of the functions of government.
  3. When a tax is imposed on an export, in what cases may it be paid by the consuming country? What is the effect upon the trade in the article taxed in the exporting country where the tax is not paid by the consuming country?
  4. A certain article of commerce, of which there are several grades having different values, becomes suddenly scarce: are all the grades affected equally as to price? Explain your answer fully.
  5. Shew the fallacy of the statement that inferior lands have been occupied and cultivated as population has increased.
  6. Explain the meaning of the assertion that values are relative to each other. What circumstances are necessary to give value to any object of commerce?

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

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University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Third Year.

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Pass

Examiner: W. J. Robertson, B.A.

ROGERS.

  1. (a) Investigate the relation between labor and wages, so as to discover the causes of high and low wages.
    (b) Explain and criticize the Malthusian theory of population.
  2. (a) Give an account of the principal restrictions on occupations as exhibited in the commercial history of England.
    (b) Examine various methods adopted to regulate the rate of wages, and shew their economic effects.
  3. “There is not a shadow of evidence in support of the statement that inferior lands have been occupied and cultivated as population increases.” What theory is here referred to? What is Rogers’ theory of rent?
  4. In the long run the price of commodities depends, as we have several times seen, on the cost of production.” Fully explain this statement. What modification does it admit of?
  5. (a) “The fact is, as demand, to be effectual, must be accompanied by the power of exchange; so supply, to be effectual must be accompanied by the power to produce.” Develop a line of argument in support of this statement.
    (b) Shew the effect of increasing the price of manufactured or imported articles, the price of the productions of the earth given in exchange remaining fixed.
  6. Assign limits to governmental interference with the free course of trade.
  7. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of indirect taxation.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

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University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Third Year.

SMITH’S WEALTH OF NATIONS

Examiners: Thomas Hodgins, M.A., LL.B. [and] W. P. R. Street, LL.B.

  1. Shew how the accumulation of stock leads to the improvement in the productive powers of labour.
  2. Expain the two different ways in which a capital may be employed so as to yield a revenue or profit to its employer.
  3. Does the money of any Society form a portion of its gross, or its neat revenue, or of either, or both? Explain fully.
  4. Explain shortly the advantages gained by the substitution of paper for gold or silver money.
  5. What is meant by the “balance of trade”? Explain the fallacy upon which was founded the supposition, that a favourable balance of trade was necessary to the prosperity of a country.
  6. What are drawbacks? What was their object under the mercantile system, and in what cases, if any, does the author think them reasonable, and in what cases unreasonable?

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

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University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Third Year.

SMITH’S WEALTH OF NATIONS
Honors.

Examiners: Thomas Hodgins, M.A., LL.B. [and] W. P. R. Street, LL.B.

  1. Distinguish the gross, from the neat, revenue of all the inhabitants of a country; and describe what each is composed of.
  2. “What is annually saved, is as regularly consumed as what is annually spent, and nearly in the same time too, but it is consumed by a different set of people”.
    How does the author proceed to shew this?
  3. Explain the different ways in which a nation may purchase the pay and provisions of an army in a distant country.
  4. How does the author expose the fallacy of the theory entertained by Mr. Locke, Mr. Law, and others, that the increase of the quantity of gold and silver, after the discovery of the Spanish West Indies, was the real cause of the lowering of the rate of interest in Europe?
  5. Shew how it is, that the study of his own advantage necessarily leads each individual member of a Society, to prefer that employment of his capital which is most advantageous to the Society.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

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University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Third Year.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Honors

Examiner: W. J. Robertson, B.A.

MILL I.

  1. Explain what is meant by the mercantile system. Assign causes for the errors involved therein.
  2. (a) Mention and illustrate by examples, the different kinds of indirect labor employed in production.
    (b) Distinguish between materials and implements.
  3. (a) “Yet in disregard of a fact so evident, it long continued to be believed that laws and governments without creating capital, could create industry.” Fully explain. What exception does Mill admit to the general rule he lays down?
    (b) Examine whether the unproductive expenditure of the rich is necessary to the employment of the poor.
  4. Distinguish between circulating and fixed capital. Show the effect of increasing the latter at the expense of the former.
  5. Give the substance of Mill’s remarks on the degree of productiveness of productive agents.
  6. Compare the advantages of production on a large and on a small scale, including in your discussion the relative advantages of large and small farming.
  7. Give and illustrate the law of increase of production from land.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

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University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Candidates for B.A.

CIVIL POLITY.

Examiner: Rev. George Paxton Young, M.A.

COX’S BRITISH COMMONWEALTH.
SMITH’S WEALTH OF NATIONS.

  1. Define the duties of Government.
  2. Where does the right of taxation lie? Give historical illustrations.
  3. Discuss the question, whether a representative in Parliament ought to be the chosen advocate of particular classes or interests.
  4. “The law does not allow any man, however great his property, to give more than one vote to one candidate.” —Is this law based on correct principles?
  5. What distinctions are there between the pleadings in equity and at common law?
  6. What are the principles on which International Executive Government is established?
  7. Point out the reciprocal obligations of a Supreme State and its Colonies.
  8. What principle give occasion to the division of labour? To what limitation is the division of labour subject? Illustrate.
  9. Discuss the subject of the wages of labour.
  10. Inquire into the policy of restraints upon the importation from foreign countries of such goods as can be produced at home.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Candidates for B.A.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Honors

Examiner: W. J. Robertson, B.A.

MILL

  1. (a) Discuss the nature of wealth, giving different views. What conclusion does Mill come to? Give his reasoning.
    (b) Discuss after Mill the nature of productive labour.
  2. How does Mill answer the question, “What is Capital?” State the fundamental propositions respecting capital; and examine the effect of government loans for unproductive expenditure.
  3. Inquire into the effect of increasing the cost of the raw material of manufactures; and show whether the increased cost of food affects prices or not.
  4. Give, with illustrations, the equation of International Demand.
  5. Give the substance of the chapter “Of Excess of Supply.”
  6. Trade the influence of credit on prices, and inquire into its effects on the general prosperity of a community.
  7. Give different theories of the cause of rent. Criticise Mill’s statement of it, showing how he differs from American economists.
  8. What are the principles of the Theory of Value?
    (a) Give Mill’s summary.
    (b) Some political economists assign as the cause of value, desire for an object—values being regulated by the strength of the desire. Carefully examine this view.
  9. What different remedies have been offered and tried for low wages? State your own views on the principal cause of low wages; also, state the most effectual remedies.
  10. (a) Examine how far paternal government would be economically beneficial.
    (b) Give illustrations of how governments may undertake commercial enterprises for the benefit of the nation, which otherwise could be carried out by private companies.
  11. Discuss, from an independent stand point, the advantages and disadvantages of incidental protection.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

Image Source: Knox College. University of Toronto Libraries / Heritage U of T / U of T Chronology. (archived copy at the Wayback Machine)

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Toronto

Toronto. Examination papers in political economy, 1875

From the six exams covering economics at the University of Toronto from 1875 we see that Rogers’ Manual of Political Economy was used as an introductory text with J. S. Mill’s Principles being principal text for the more advanced courses. Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations also explicitly examined.

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About the 1875 Examiners

Thomas Hodgins, M.A. Q.C., Toronto

The Canadian Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men: Ontario Volume. Chicago and Toronto: American Biographical Pub. Co., 1880. pp. 386-388.

George Paxton Young

Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. XI (1881-1890).

William John Robertson (Toronto, B.A.1873)

A Brief Historical Sketch of Canadian Banking and Currency  by W. J. Robertson (Examiner in Political Economy, Toronto University). Paper read before the historical and political science association of the University of Toronto, Feb. 4th, 1888.

William P. R. Street (b. 10 May 1868; d. 27 August 1946)

According to Toronto City Directory:  Judge (1890)

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University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1875
Second Year.

ROGERS’S POLITICAL ECONOMY

Examiners: Thomas Hodgins, M.A., LL.B. [and] W. P. R. Street, LL.B.

  1. What was Mr. Price’s scheme for extinguishing the National Debt?
  2. What are the objects of Trades Unions, and what are the means taken to carry them out?
  3. Explain the peculiar disadvantages of taxes on raw materials.
  4. What is the measure of value? Explain the statement that there can be no universal rise in values.
  5. How does the author discuss the question as to the propriety of government interference to check the too rapid exhaustion of coal in Great Britain?
  6. State briefly the causes which increase and diminish rent, and explain their operation in doings so.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1875.

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University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1875
Second Year.

ROGERS’S POLITICAL ECONOMY
Honors

Examiners: Thomas Hodgins, M.A., LL.B. [and] W. P. R. Street, LL.B.

  1. Mention some of the causes of an efflux of specie.
  2. “If a government interferes with the liberty of its subjects it is bound to shew cause for the interference.” What are the two causes which the author mentions as justifying such interference?
  3. How is Rent defined? Upon whom does the loss arising from an increase in the wages of agricultural laborers fall? Explain?
  4. Mention some of the difficulties in the way of an equitable tax upon incomes.
  5. Explain the operation of a rise in the rate of discount in checking a drain of specie. Under what circumstances is it likely to be ineffectual for that purpose?
  6. What is the real pledge given by a government as the security for the National debt? How is this shewn by the author?

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1875.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1875

Third Year.
POLITICAL ECONOMY
Pass

Examiner: W. J. Robertson, B.A.

ROGERS.

  1. If the contract be voluntary, and the service be mutual, is one man’s gain another’s loss? Discuss.
  2. (a) What is the cause of value? Distinguish between value in exchange, and value in use.
    (b) What expedients are adopted to lessen labor, and increase production?
    (c) Give examples of the beneficial effect of division of labor.
  3. (a) What, according to Rogers, is the measure of value? Illustrate.
    (b) Can there be a general rise in value? If not, why not?
    (c) Can there be a general rise in price? Illustrate.
  4. (a) What functions does money perform? Account for the error that money alone is wealth.
    (b) Enumerate various substitutes for money.
  5. Investigate the true relation between Capital and Labor, referring to popular theories and remedies, which you deem erroneous.
  6. Give an account of the causes which depress the rate of wages.
  7. Give Rogers’s views regarding the subject of Protection, stating the limits he prescribes, and shewing wherein he disagrees with Mill.
  8. (a) Give the general rules of taxation?
    (b) What are the relative advantages of direct and indirect taxation?

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1875.

 

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University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1875

Third Year.
CIVIL POLITY.
Honors

Examiner: W. J. Robertson, B.A.

MILL I.

  1. (a) What are the requisites of production?
    (b) Does nature contribute more to the efficacy of labor in some occupations than in others? Explain.
  2. State the different ways in which labor is employed. Criticise the division of labor into agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial.
  3. Discuss, after Mill, the questions of productive and unproductive labor, also of productive and unproductive consumption.
  4. Enumerate and illustrate (where necessary) the fundamental propositions respecting capital.
  5. Institute a comparison between the benefits of large and small farming respectively.
  6. Give the substance of Mill’s chapter “Of the Law of the Increase of Labor.”

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1875.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1875

Candidates for B.A.
CIVIL POLITY.

Examiner: Rev. George Paxton Young, M.A.

COX’S BRITISH COMMONWEALTH—SMITH’S WEALTH OF NATIONS.

  1. From what source is the right of government derived? Examine the question fully.
  2. Give an account of the origin and rise of the British Cabinet. On what conditions does the permanence of any particular Cabinet usually depend?
  3. Describe the practice of Parliament with respect to private bills; and state what different courses may be adopted when a public bill is returned from either House to the other with amendments.
  4. What is an impeachment, and how is it conducted?
  5. Examine the doctrine of the balance of power.
  6. Under what restrictions are criteria of truth afforded by public opinion? And to what extent do justice and policy require that governments should be directed by its dictates?
  7. Give an account of the origin and use of money.
  8. Show, that, in the price of commodities, the profits of stock constitute a component part altogether different from the wages of labour, and regulated by different principles.
  9. Explain the order in which manufactures, agriculture, and foreign commerce naturally arise; and state the relation of these branches to the increase of opulence, whether in town or country.
  10. “The attention of governments never was so unnecessarily employed as when directed to watch over the preservation of the increase of the quantity of money in any country.” How does Smith establish this position?

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1875.

 

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University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1875

Candidates for B.A.
CIVIL POLITY.
Honors

Examiner: W. J. Robertson, B.A.

MILL

  1. Show what would be the effect of increasing fixed Capital, at the expense of circulating.
  2. Explain and illustrate the diversity in the effective strength of the desire of accumulation.
  3. Give the substance of the chapter “Of the Law of the Increase of Production from Land.”
  4. Distinguish between Communism, St. Simonism, and Fourierism. Criticise these systems.
  5. Examine Mill’s views on the right of bequest and inheritance.
  6. Give examples of the influence of custom on rents, tenure of land, and prices.
  7. Discuss the question of peasant proprietorship.
  8. Enumerate various popular remedies for low wages. Criticise.
  9. State Mill’s theory of rent, with your own views thereon.
  10. Can there be an over-supply of commodities generally? Explain.
  11. (a) What regulates international values? Illustrate.
    (b) Briefly show the indirect benefits of Commerce.
  12. Give examples of exceptions to the rule of Laisser-faire.
  13. Discuss briefly the influence of credit on prices.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1875.

Image Source:  BlogTO / Toronto of the 1880s (January 11, 2011)

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Economics Graduate Programs Ranked in 1925

 

Filed away in the archived records of the University of Chicago’s Office of the President is a copy of a report from January 1925 from Miami University (Ohio) that was based on a survey of college and university professors to obtain a rank ordering of graduate programs in different fields. The following ordering for economics graduate programs 1924-25 is based on two dozen responses. I have added institutional affiliations from the AEA membership list of the time and a few internet searches. The study was designed to have a rough balance between college and university professors and a broad geographic representation. What the study lacks in sophistication will amuse you in its presumption.

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This rating was prepared in the following way: The members of the Miami University faculty representing twenty fields of instruction were called together and a list of the universities which conceivably might be doing high grade work leading to a doctor’s degree in one or more subjects was prepared on their advice. Each professor was then requested to submit a list of from forty to sixty men who were teaching his subject in colleges and universities in this country, at least half of the names on the list to be those of professors in colleges rather than in universities. It was further agreed that the list should be fairly well distributed geographically over the United States. [p. 3]

 

ECONOMICS

Ratings submitted by: John H. Ashworth [Maine] , Lloyd V. Ballard [Beloit], Gilbert H. Barnes [Chicago], Clarence E. Bonnett [Tulane], John E. Brindley [Iowa State], E. J. Brown [Arizona], J. W. Crook [Amherst], Ira B. Cross [California], Edmund E. Day [Michigan], Herbert Feis [ILO], Frank A. Fetter [Princeton], Eugene Gredier, Lewis H. Haney [N.Y.U.], Wilbur O. Hedrick [Michigan State], Floyd N. House [Chicago], Walter E. Lagerquist [Northwestern], W. E. Leonard, L. C. Marshall [Chicago], W. C. Mitchell [Columbia], C. T. Murchison [North Carolina], Tipton A. Snavely [Virginia], E. T. Towne [North Dakota], J. H. Underwood [Montana], M. S. Wildman [Stanford].

 

Combined Ratings:  (24)

1 2 3 4-5
Harvard 20 4 0 0
Columbia 11 9 2 1
Chicago 9 7 3 2
Wisconsin 8 7 4 2
Yale 3 3 9 3
Johns Hopkins 2 4 8 3
Michigan 0 6 4 5
Pennsylvania 0 3 6 8
Illinois 0 5 4 4
Cornell 0 2 7 5
Princeton 2 1 4 4
California 0 3 4 5
Minnesota 0 2 4 6
Northwestern 0 2 3 6
Stanford 0 1 4 6
Ohio State 0 1 2 8
Toronto 0 2 2 3

Staffs:

HARVARD: F.W. Taussig, E.F. Gay, T.N. Carver, W.Z. Ripley, C.J. Bullock, A.A. Young, W.M. Persons, A.P. Usher, A.S. Dewing, W.J. Cunningham, T.H. Sanders, W.M. Cole, A.E. Monroe, H.H. Burbank, A.H. Cole, J. H. Williams, W.L. Crum, R.S. Meriam.

COLUMBIA: R.E. Chaddock, F.H. Giddings, S.M. Lindsay, W.C. Mitchell, H.L. Moore, W. Fogburn, H.R. Seager, E.R.A. Seligman, V.G. Sinkhovitch, E.E. Agger, Emilie J. Hutchinson, A.A. Tenney, R.G. Tugwell, W.E. Weld.

CHICAGO: L.C. Marshall, C.W. Wright, J.A. Field, H.A. Millis, J.M. Clark, Jacob Viner, L. W. Mints, W.H. Spencer, N.W. Barnes, C.C. Colby, P.H. Douglas, J.O. McKinsey, E.A. Duddy, A.C. Hodge, L.C. Sorrell.

WISCONSIN: Commons, Elwell, Ely Garner, Gilman, Hibbard, Kiekhofer, Macklin, Scott, Kolb, McMurry, McNall, Gleaser, Jamison, Jerome, Miller, S. Perlman.

YALE: Olive Day, F.R. Fairchild, R.B. Westerfield, T.S. Adams, A.L. Bishop, W.M. Daniels, Irving Fisher, E.S. Furniss, A.H. Armbruster, N.S. Buck.

JOHNS HOPKINS: W.W. Willoughby, Goodnow, W.F. Willoughby, Thach, Latane.

MICHIGAN: Rodkey, Van Sickle, Peterson, Goodrich, Sharfman, Griffin, May, Taylor, Dickinson, Paton, Caverly, Wolaver.

PENNSYLVANIA: E.R. Johnson, E.S. Mead, S.S. Heubner, T. Conway, H.W. Hess, E.M. Patterson, G.G. Huebner, H.T. Collings, R. Riegel, C.K. Knight, W.P. Raine, F. Parker, R.T. Bye, W.C. Schluter, J.H. Willits, A.H. Williams, R.S. Morris, C.P. White, F.E. Williams, H.J. Loman, C.A. Kulp, S.H. Patterson, E.L. McKenna, W.W. Hewett, F.G. Tryon, H.S. Person, L.W. Hall.

ILLINOIS: Bogart, Robinson, Thompson, Weston, Litman, Watkins, Hunter, Wright, Norton.

CORNELL: W.F. Willcox, H.J. Davenport, D. English, H.L. Reed, S.H. Slichter, M.A. Copeland, S. Kendrick.

PRINCETON: F.A. Fetter, E.W. Kemmerer, G.B. McClellan, D.A. McCabe, F.H. Dixon, S.E. Howard, F.D. Graham.

CALIFORNIA: I.B. Cross, S. Daggett, H.R. Hatfield, J.B. Peixotte, C.C. Plehm, L.W. Stebbins, S. Blum, A.H. Mowbray, N.J. Silberling, C.C. Staehling, P.F. Cadman, F. Fluegel, B.N. Grimes, P.S. Taylor, Helen Jeter, E.T. Grether.

MINNESOTA: G.W. Dorwie, J.D. Black, R.G. Blakey, F.B. Garver, N.S.B. Gras, J.S. Young, A.H. Hansen, B.D. Mudgett, J.E. Cummings, E.A. Heilman, H.B Price, J.J. Reighard, J.W. Stehman, H. Working, C.L. Rotzell, W.R. Myers.

NORTHWESTERN: Deibler, Heilman, Secrist, Bailey, Pooley, Eliot, Ray Curtis, Bell, Hohman, Fagg.

STANFORD: M.S. Wildman, W.S. Beach, E. Jones, H.L. Lutz, A.C. Whitaker, J.G. Davis, A.E. Taylor, J.B. Canning.

OHIO STATE: M.B. Hammond, H.G. Hayes, A.B. Wolf, H.F. Waldradt, C.O. Ruggles, W.C. Weidler, J.A. Fisher, H.E. Hoagland, H.H. Maynard, C.A. Dice, M.E. Pike, J.A. Fitzgerald, F.E. Held, M.N. Nelson, R.C. Davis, C.W. Reeder, T.N. Beckman.

Compiled with the assistance of J.B. Dennison, associate professor of economics.

 

Source:  Raymond Mollyneaux Hughes, A Study of the Graduate Schools of America. Oxford, OH: Miami University (January 1925), pp. 14-15.  Copy from University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations. Records, Box 47, Folder #5 “Study of the Graduate Schools of America”, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago.

 

Image Source: Four prize winners in annual beauty show, Washington Bathing Beach, Washington, D.C. from the U. S. Library of Congress. Prints & Photographs. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b43364

 

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Exam Questions Toronto

Toronto. Political economy examinations on Smith, Whately, Senior and Mill. 1858

1858. Construction south side of quadrangle. University of Toronto

 

 

Today’s post provides the earliest set of university examination questions thus far at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. The examiners for political economy at the University of Toronto in 1858 were the Reverends James Beaven and George Paxton Young. Two of the exams focus exclusively on political economy as found in texts by Richard Whately and Adam Smith. The other two exams are split equally between political economy  (Nassau Senior and John Stuart Mill) and political philosophy (Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui and Francis Lieber)

Interesting to note are the misspellings of the names of both Richard Whately and John Stuart Mill as well as getting the title incorrect for Nassau Senior’s book.

 

_________________

[Richard Whately, Introductory Lectures on Political Economy, 2nded. London: B. Fellowes, 1832.]

University of Toronto
ANNUAL EXAMINATIONS: 1858.
THIRD YEAR.

WHATELEY’S [sic] POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Examiners:  Rev. James Beaven, D.D. and Rev. G.P. Young, M.A.

  1. (a) What is the subject matter of the science of political economy?
    (b) What three other names does Whateley mention as having been applied to
    the science?
    (c) State and illustrate the objections to two of them, and the recommendations
    of the third.
  2. (a) Shew that, even on the supposition that wealth is an evil, it is right to study
    the subject of wealth.
    (b) Show that what may appear an increase of luxury is not necessarily pernicious.
  3. Discuss the question, whether the savage state is the original condition of mankind.
  4. Illustrate the beneficent wisdom of Providence, in directing towards the public
    good the conduct of those who act from selfish motives.
  5. (a) Show that it is most probable a priorithat advancement in national prosperity should be favourable to moral improvement.
    (b) Show that we have no sufficient ground for thinking poverty by itself favourable to moral improvement.
  6. (a) Show the evils of an ill-conducted diffusing of knowledge.
    (b) Explain how they are to be avoided.
  7. (a) Give examples of the need of definition in political economy.

[SECOND PAGE OF EXAM APPARENTLY MISSING]

Source: University of Toronto. Examination papers, 1858. Arts.

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015086615500?urlappend=%3Bseq=269

_________________

[Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, The Principles of Natural and Politic Law, 1747]
[Nassau W. Senior. An Outline of the Science of Political Economy, 1836.]

University of Toronto
ANNUAL EXAMINATIONS: 1858.
Third Year.

CIVIL POLITY.

BURMALAQUI’S NATURAL LAW, AND SENIOR’S OUTLINES [sic] OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
Honors and Scholarships

Examiners:  Rev. James Beaven, D.D. and Rev. G.P. Young, M.A.

  1. (a) What are the different primitive and original states of man, as set forth by Burmalaqui?
    (b) Why, and under what restrictions, may the adventitious states produced by human consent be considered, for the purposes of argument, as so many natural states?
  2. (a) Explain Burmalaqui’s view of what is implied in the term Obligation.
    (b) How does he discuss the opinion, That the principle of obligation is the will of a superior?
    (c) May obligation be more or less rigorous?
  3. State the principal theories of the origin and foundation of sovereignty. What is Burmalaqui’s view?
  4. (a) What are the conditions, internal and external, requisite to constitute a law?
    (b) Define natural law, and natural jurisprudence.
    (c) Give the leading steps in the argument by which the existence of natural laws is established.
    (d) Enunciate the two propositions laid down by Burmalaqui, as the general foundation of the whole system of natural law.
  5. (a) What is meant by Sociability?
    (b) Mention some of the natural laws which flow from it.
    (c) What place is assigned to this principle in the system of Puffendorf? How far does Burmalaqui agree with, or differ from, Puffendorf? And on what grounds?
  6. (a) Define Imputation
    (b) Distinguish simple from efficacious imputation.
    (c) Notice a difference between the imputation of good and bad actions.
    (d) Can forced actions be imputed? Give Puffendorf’s view.
    (e) What principles does Burmalaqui lay down for determining whether the action of one person be imputable to another?
  7. How can the authority of natural laws be evinced?
  8. What probable arguments does Burmalaqui advance in favour of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul? And in what connexion is the discussion of this doctrine introduced?

*  *  *

  1. (a) What is Value?
    (b) Point out, and illustrate, the intrinsic and extrinsic causes of the value of a commodity.
    (c) Explain what is meant by steadiness of value; shewing how far it depends on intrinsic, and how far on extrinsic, causes.
  2. (a) Define Production.
    (b) What are the instruments of production?
    (c) Classify and describe the parties among whom the results of the different instruments of production are divided.
    (d) How does Senior remark on the doctrine of over-production or universal glut?
  3. (a) What does Senior understand by cost of production?
    (b) Explain his views on the question, whether profit forms a part of the cost of production?
    (c) Show how it happens that the influence of cost of production in regulating price, under free competition, is subject to much occasional interruption.
  4. What are the obstacles which limit the supply of all that is produced? And what is the mode in which these obstacles affect the reciprocal values of all the subjects of exchange?
  5. (a) Trace the progress of a colony, so as to illustrate the view, that, in the absence of counteracting causes, an increase of population would tend to make the obtaining of raw produce a matter of greater difficulty.
    (b) Point out the principal causes which, as the population of a new colony increases, are likely for a period to fully counteract the tendency referred to.
  6. (a) Illustrate the proposition, That additional labour, when employed in manufactures is more, and when employed in agriculture is less, efficient in proportion.
    (b) Point out some of the principal consequences of this proposition.
  7. (a) What does Senior lay down as the proximate cause of the rate of wages?
    (b) Show that his view is inconsistent with the opinion that the general rate of wages can (except in two cases) be diminished by the introduction of machinery?
  8. (a) Mention the causes on which the extent of the fund for the maintenance of labour depends.
    (b) Two parishes contain each twenty-four labouring families. In the one, eighteen families are employed in producing commodities for the whole twenty-four: in the other only twelve are so employed. What, on Senior’s principle, would be the comparative rate of wages in these parishes, first, on the supposition that labour in the two parishes is equally productive; and, next, on the supposition that in the latter parish labour is more productive by one-half than in the former? Point out the reason of the answer.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination papers, 1858. Arts.

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015086615500?urlappend=%3Bseq=308

_________________

Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations (1776), Cannan Edition.

University of Toronto
ANNUAL EXAMINATIONS: 1858.
FOURTH YEAR.

SMITH’S WEALTH OF NATIONS.

Examiners:  Rev. James Beaven, D.D. and Rev. George Paxton Young, M.A.

  1. Give the general plan of the work.
  2. State and illustrate the causes of the superior productiveness of the division of labour.
  3. (a) Shew that labour is the real measure of the exchangeable value of commodities.
    (b) Shew by what steps money comes to represent such value.
    (c) Illustrate the variableness of the valueof money itself.
  4. (a) What general circumstances regulate the rent of land?
    (b) Shew that it bears very little relation to any outlay of the landlord upon it.
    (c) Of the materials of clothing and the materials of lodging, which commonly first pays rent to the owner of the land on which they are produced? and why?
    (d) Illustrate the variations in the quantity of rent which they yield.
  5. (a) What is the relation of the accumulation of stock to the division of labour? Explain.
    (b) What is capital and its relation to stock?
    (c) Into what two parts is the capital of a community divided? And what does each part consist of?
  6. (a) Give an account of the causes which have retarded the improvement of agriculture in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire.
    (b) What state of things in this country resembles the Metayersystem?
  7. (a) What, according to Smith, are the two objects of political economy?
    (b) What relation do the system of commerce and the system of agriculture bear to one of those objects?
    (c) What is the principle of the agricultural system?
    (d) What nations have adopted such a system?
  8. (a) State the principle of bounties?
    (b) To what branch of trade is it proposed to apply them in this country? And on what grounds?
    (c) What is Smith’s opinion of this class of bounties? Explain.
  9. (a) Under what branchof political economy is the subject of the public revenue treated?
    (b) What are the three duties of a sovereign which require that a public revenue should be raised?
  10. (a) Under what four general heads does Smith rank the taxes of a country?
    (b) Under which of these heads does a tax upon consumable commodities come?
    (c) What circumstances render a tax on the interest of money less expedient than a tax upon land?
    (d) In what respect does a tax upon necessaries produce the same effect as a tax upon wages?
  11. (a) Trace the origin and growth of public debts.
    (b) What is Smith’s opinion of the operation?

 

Source: University of Toronto. Examination papers, 1858. Arts.

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015086615500?urlappend=%3Bseq=292

_________________

[Francis Lieber. Manual of Political Ethics Volume I, Volume II]
[John Stuart Mill. Principles of Political Economy (7th ed.), Ashley edition.]

University of Toronto
ANNUAL EXAMINATIONS: 1858.
Candidates for B.A.

CIVIL POLITY.

LIEBER’S POLITICAL ETHICS.—MILLS’ [sic] POLITICAL ECONOMY
Honors and Scholarships

Examiners:  Rev. James Beaven, D.D. and Rev. G.P. Young, M.A.

  1. (a) What place in the chain of sciences do Political Ethics occupy? And what forms the subject matter of this division of Ethics?
    (b) What historical instances of the pressing necessity of justifying public acts, are brought forward by Lieber, for the purpose of proving that: politics may be treated in an ethic point of view?
    (c) Shew that Ethics cannot be applied to politics precisely as to private relations.
  2. (a) Supposing a society to be defined by the nature of the relation existing between its members, what is the peculiar relation on which the State is founded?
    (b) Distinguish the fundamental idea of the State from that of the family; and illustrate, by reference to a difference between the ancient Areopagites and an English jury, the circumstance that the line of demarcation between the State and the family is less strongly drawn in the early history of nations than at a more advanced period.
    (c) What particulars are included in the protection which the State is bound to afford to each individual?
    (d) “The State has been compared to an insurance company in which property forms the share each citizen holds.” “All the State has to do is to look outthat my neighbourdoes not pick my pocket or boxmy ears.”How doesLieber remark on the views of the State and of its office presented in these quotations?
    (e) Develop [sic] the maxims; “The State exists of necessity.” “The State does not absorb individuality.” “La justice constituée, c’est l’état.”
  3. (a) What is government? Point out a serious misconception which has arisen from confounding Government and State.
    (b) Does Lieber hold that Government has sovereign (as distinguished from supreme) power? What is the distinction referred to? Illustrate by an example from Roman history? Mention an important instrument in British history to which Lieber refers in this connexion; and give the substance of his remarks on the words for everin the instrument in question.
    (c) In what different ways may governments be established?Give an historical example of each kind.
  4. “Hamarchy signifies something entirely different from the ancient synarchy, which merely denoted a government in which the people had a share together with the rulers proper.”
    (a) Describe what Lieber terms hamarchy, pointing out the difference between it and the ancient synarchy.
    (b) What proof does he adduce of the hamacratic character of the English polity? And what historical circumstances contributed to give this character to the English polity?
  5. (a) Mention some of those habits in which it is most important, as respects political ends for the young to be educated.
    (b) How does Lieber shew the importance of the classical department in superior education by a reference to the elements or factors out of which our peculiar civilization arises. Specify the ffactors referred to. What remark does he make in this connexion on Chinese education?
  6. (a) What are the characteristics of a sound political party?
    (b) To what dangers are party organizations exposed?
    (c) When a party is in opposition, what are the rules it ought to follow, in order not to be liable to the charge of factiousness?
  7. Explain and illustrate the following propositions:
    (a) Industry is limited by capital.
    (b) Capital is the result of saving
    (c) Capital, though saved, and the result of saving, is nevertheless consumed.
  8. If one of two things commands on the average a greater value that the other, to what causes must this be attributable? And which of the causes is the most important?
  9. Notice and examine any popular remedies for low wages.
  10. State the true theory of rent by whom was it first propounded, and when? By whom was it rediscovered, after having been for some time neglected?
  11. (a) Explain and prove the following proposition:“The quantity [of money]wanted [in a country] will depend partly on the cost of producing gold, and partly on the rapidity of its circulation.”
    (b) What difference can be pointed out betwixt money and other things in respect of the law, that value conforms to the cost of production?
  12. How does Mill discuss the doctrine of Protection to Native Industry?

 

 Source: University of Toronto. Examination papers, 1858. Arts.

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015086615500?urlappend=%3Bseq=312

 

Image Source: Quadrangle of University College under construction – This view of the south side of the quadrangle, taken in the summer of 1858, show the rafters to the museum partially in place. Construction has begun on the section east of the central tower, the upper floor of which would house the University library. Website: University of Toronto, Heritage. Webpage “Building a College”.  [A1977-0049/001(13)] – Digital I.D.: 2012-02-3MS.jpg]

Categories
Curriculum Economists Exam Questions Suggested Reading Toronto

Toronto. Five Annual Examinations in Economics. Ashley and McEvoy, 1891

 

Today’s post was just intended to be a quickie set of five economics exams I found for the University of Toronto from 1891. There turned out to be much more interesting information at the hathitrust.org digital library that I simply had to include: from the University of Toronto Calendar, I was able to obtain course announcements that provide course descriptions as well as list a few key readings. And as though this were not enough, it turns out that it was the practice, at least in Toronto at the end of the 19th century, when applying for a professorship to submit a printed application “cover letter” followed by short “testimonials”. As it so happens, the University of Alberta has copies of Professor William J. Ashley’s application for the vacant Drummond professorship in political economy at Oxford (1890) and of Mr. John Millar McEvoy’s application for Ashley’s vacant chair at Toronto, following Ashley’s move to Harvard in 1892. 

Following the “cover letters” with these two abbreviated c.v.’s are the course descriptions for all four economics courses offered at the University of Toronto in 1890-91 and five sets of examination questions.

__________________

To the Electors to the Drummond Professorship.
[From William J. Ashley, November 20, 1890]

My Lord and Gentlemen:

I beg to offer myself as a candidate for the Professorship of Political Economy in the University of Oxford.

I entered Balliol College with a History Scholarship in 1878, took a First-Class in the Honour School of Modern Histor. in 1881, and received the Lothian Prize in 1882. In February, 1885, I was elected to a tutorial Fellowship at Lincoln College, and soon afterwards was also appointed Lecturer in History in Corpus Christi College. Resigning this position in order to be able to devote my time more exclusively to economic studies, I was appointed Professor of Political Economy and Constitutional History in the University of Toronto in 1888; and by the subsequent appointment of an assistant I have recently been enabled to give my whole attention to Economics.

I began the study of Political Economy under the late Arnold Toynbee, whose Lectures on the Industrial Revolution the 18th CenturyI afterwards assisted in preparing for publication. I began to lecture on Political Economy in 1884; and after my appointment at Lincoln I lectured upon it each year; in one course stating and criticizing Modern Economic Theory, and in another following Economic History and Theory in their relation to one another from mediaeval to modern times. I may add that from 1886 to 1888 I acted as Secretary to the Oxford Economic Society; and that in 1887 and 1888 I examined in the Pass School of Political Economy.

Since my arrival at Toronto I have had the task of organizing the new Department of Political Science, a Department which has grown rapidly, and now numbers more than 100 students; and I have lectured on (i) Elementary Political Economy, (2) The History of Economic Theory; (3) The History of Economic Development; (4) Modern Finance. In dealing with the last mentioned subject I have had an opportunity to acquaint myself with the main features of Canadian and American Taxation, Tariffs, Currency, Banking, and similar subjects.

I have also undertaken the editorship of the Toronto University Studies in Political Science, of which the first, on The Ontario Township, has already appeared. For a further account of my work here I beg to refer you to the subjoined letters from the Chancellor and President of the University, the Minister of Education, the Manager of the Bank of Commerce, and from one of my pupils.

My own researches have hitherto been mainly in the field of Economic History. In 1887 the American Economic Association published my Early History of the English Woollen Industry. In 1888 appeared the first volume of my Introduction to Economic Historyand Theory, which I now beg to lay before you, together with the letters concerning it from English and foreign authorities printed below.

There are two directions in which, as it appears to me, it is most desirable to promote economic study in Oxford. Of these one is Public Finance; it might not be impossible

to secure for men who are about to enter into public life, the civil service, or the higher branches of business, a training similar to that provided by some foreign Universities. The other is the history of Economic Phenomena, and of the parallel growth of Economic Theory. While recognizing the value of recent work in the further analysis of theory, there is, I think, reason to believe that the most fruitful field for economic work at the present time in Oxford is the historical. An effort in this direction would be in sympathy with one of the strongest intellectual forces in the University, and it might reasonably be expected to enlist the interest of students in the School of Modern History.

I have the honour to be,

My Lord and Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,

W. J. ASHLEY.

The University of Toronto,
November 20, 1890.

[…]

Source: Testimonials in Favour of W.J. Ashley M.A., Professor of Political Economy in the University of Toronto: Late Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. A Candidate for the Drummond Professorship of Political Economy in the University of Oxford, pp. 1-2.

__________________

TO THE HONORABLE GEORGE WILLIAM ROSS, LL.D.
MINISTER OF EDUCATION FOR ONTARIO.

[Application of ] JOHN MILLAR McEVOY.
Toronto, July 30th, A.D. 1892.

Sir, — I beg leave to make application for the chair of Political Economy and Constitutional History, in the University of Toronto, lately rendered vacant by the resignation of Professor W. J. Ashley, M.A.

I am a graduate of the University of Toronto in the Honor Department of Political Science. Throughout my course in that department I was first in first-class honors in all economic subjects. Since being graduated in Arts I have taken the University Law Examinations, and have been awarded the LL.B. degree. I have attended two years’ lectures in Osgoode Hall Law School, and have taken the examination required at the end of each year.

I may be permitted to mention the following scientific and literary work : —

  1. My “Essay on Canadian Currency and Banking,” which was awarded the Ramsay Scholarship. This essay, upon examination by some of the leading bankers of Canada, was thought to be so valuable that the various banking institutions of the Dominion in order to have it printed, have offered to take such a number of copies of it, at $1.50 per copy, as will provide for its publication and leave me a handsome margin.
  2. My essay on “Karl Marx’s Theory of Value,” which was read before the Political Science Association of the University of Toronto. This essay was publicly declared by Professor W. J. Ashley, M.A., to be “the ablest exposition of the kernel of the abstract theory of value that it had been his good fortune to have heard or read on any occasion.”
  3. At the invitation of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, which is controlled by the most distinguished Economists on the continent, I contributed a series of articles to their publication, the Annals, upon subjects of economic and historical importance to Canada. These may be seen in the November number of that journal for 1891.
  4. My essay on “The Ontario Township,” which was printed by the Minister of Education, as the first in the series of University of Toronto studies in Political Science, It has received favorable notice from American, English and German Economic Reviews and Journals. It has also been very favorably received by men engaged in the practical working of our municipal institutions. Several American publishing houses have asked me to publish a second edition; and there is a growing demand for it in our own Province.

As Fellow I have had two years’ experience in the practical work of the Department of Political Science in the University of Toronto. In consequence of sickness in Professor Ashley’s family, I had for a time during last year, full charge of the department. During this time I did acceptably Professor Ashley’s work as well as my own. Throughout last year the Constitutional History, both English and Canadian, has been entirely under my charge.

I have had two years’ experience as Examiner in Political Science in the University, and I have been for one year Examiner in Political Economy in the Ontario Agricultural College. My work throughout has been completely satisfactory, which fact may be easily verified by inquiry. What my success as a practical teacher of the science has been, I will leave you to infer from my testimonials.

It is my desire, if appointed, to spend the long vacations of each of the first three or four years at some foreign university, in which a regular course of lectures in Political Science is delivered during the summer months; and in that event I shall be glad to have your government indicate the institution most suitable for the further prosecution of my studies.

[…]

Source: Application and Testimonials of J. M. McEvoy, B.A., LL.B., for the Chair of Political Economy and Constitutional History in the University of Toronto. 1892.

__________________

FACULTY OF LAW

§1.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Professor: W. J. ASHLEY, M.A.

FIRST YEAR. (SECOND YEAR IN FACULTY OF ARTS.)

The elements of Political Economy. Value, Price, Wages, Interest, Profits, Rent.

For Reference:

F.A. Walker, Political Economy.
Mill, Political Economy, ed. Laughlin.

 

SECOND YEAR. (THIRD YEAR IN FACULTY OF ARTS.)

The history and criticism of economic theories.

The Economic ideas of Plato and Aristotle; the influence of Roman law; the teaching of the mediaeval church; Aquinas; the genesis of modern conceptions; the mercantile system; the Physiocrats; Adam Smith, Malthus, and Ricardo; the historical school.

Students are requested to especially examine (i.) Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. I, chap. 10, part 2; Bk. IV, chaps. 1, 2, 3, part 2; chap. 7. (ii.) Malthus, Essay on Population, Bk. I, chaps. 1, 2. (iii.) List, National System of Political Economy(trans. Sampson Lloyd), chaps. 10, 11, 12. (iv.) Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy, chaps. 1-6.

For Reference:

Ingram, History of Political Economy.

 

THIRD YEAR. (FOURTH YEAR IN FACULTY OF ARTS.)

(1) The History of Economic Development, including such topics as the following: the Manor; Guilds; Domestic Industry; Trading Companies; Enclosures; Agricultural changes; the Mercantile System and Protection; the measures of Colbert; the beginnings of modern finance; the Factory System.

For Reference:

Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages.
Ashley, Economic History, vol. I.
Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Bks. IV and V.
Toynbee, Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century in England.

 

(2) Modern Economic Questions, including such topics as the following: Socialism; taxation; public debt; currency (including banking); municipal finance; public domain; Government works.

Students are advised to consult such books as the following: Jevons, The State in Relation to Labour and Money; Giffen, Essays in Finance, vol. I, Essays ix, x, xiii, xiv; vol. II, Essay vi; Rae, ContemporarySocialism; Ely, The Labour Movement, and Taxation in American Cities and States; Adams,Public Debts; Seligman, Railway Tariffs, in Political Science Quarterly, vol. II; Adams, Relation of the State to IndustrialAction; and James, Modern Municipality and Gas Supply, in Publications of American Economic Association; Taussig, Tariff History of theU.S.; Felkin, The National Insurance Laws of Germany, in Contemporary Reviewfor August, 1888; Taussig, Workmen’s Insurance, in Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. II.

 

Source:  University of Toronto Calendar, 1890-91, pp. 43-44.

__________________

University of Toronto.
Annual Examinations: 1891.
Candidates for B.A.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

  1. What is Political Economy ?
  2. Illustrate the use of inductionand deductionin Political Economy.
  3. State and criticize the ‘Wage Fund Theory.’
  4. “Landlords were able to pocket the whole advantage of the Corn Laws, and the people suffered that rents might be kept up.” Explain and criticize.
  5. What are the functions of money ?
  6. State arguments for and against the adoption of bimetalism.
  7. Is a government justified in taxing the rich for the benefit of the poor? If so, to what degree?
  8. Distinguish the various meanings attached to the term “socialism.”

*  *  *  *

University of Toronto.
Annual Examinations: 1891.
Candidates for B.A.

POLITICAL SCIENCE.
HONORS.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

N.B.—Candidates are requested not to attempt more than eight questions.

  1. Sketch the history of the Teutonic Hanse in England.
  2. Describe the position of the mediaeval villein.
  3. Explain the causes for the decay of the Craft Guilds.
  4. Trace the development of the Poor Laws during Elizabeth’s reign.
  5. Show the importance in English Economic History of the woollen industry.
  6. Distinguish the various stages in the growth of English foreign trade.
  7. Describe the origin of the Bank of England, and explain its connection with the financial measures of the government of William III.
  8. Trace the progress of the East India Company, down to the beginning of the eighteenth century.
  9. What were the social effect of the “Enclosures” of the eighteenth century?
  10. Compare the Merchant Guild with the modern Joint Stock Company.
  11. Illustrate historically the relative advantages and disadvantages of the Factory system of Industry.
  12. Sketch the history of factory legislation in England.

*  *  *  *

University of Toronto.
Annual Examinations: 1891.
Second Year.

POLITICAL SCIENCE.
HONORS.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

N.B.—Candidates are requested not to attempt more than eight questions.

  1. Examine the assumption made by some Economists, that all persons will act in such a manner as will secure their own best interests.
  2. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of the division of labor?
  3. Co-operation in production has not been so successful as co-operation in distribution. How would you account for this?
  4. Define value. How is the value of commodities determined?
  5. “The fundamental cause of rent is difference in fertility.” — Symes. Criticize.
  6. What do you understand by “average rate of profit?”
  7. State the theoretic arguments, if any, in favour of protection and the practical disadvantages, if any, in its application.
  8. What are the objects of trades unions? How far are they suited to the attainment of these objects?
  9. State the various circumstances which explain and justify the payment of interest.
  10. What would be the result if the government were to issue bills to every farmer to the extent of $500 on the security of his real estate?
    Illustrate the correct and incorrect use of the phrase “a violation of the laws of Political Economy.”

*  *  *  *

University of Toronto.
Annual Examinations: 1891.
Third Year.

POLITICAL SCIENCE.
ECONOMIC THEORY.
HONORS.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

N.B.—Candidates are requested not to attempt more than eight questions.

  1. Show how the mediaeval doctrine of Usury was undermined by the doctrine of Interest.
  2. Describe the “Balance of Bargain” system.
  3. Compare the attitude of Child and Hume towards the Balance of Trade theory.
  4. Comment on the Maxims of Quesnay.
  5. Distinguish the essentials and non-essentials in the teaching of Malthus.
  6. In what case did Adam Smith consider “Protection” desirable.
  7. “What Smith sought to establish was the free competition of equal industrial units; what in fact he was helping to establish was the free competition of unequal industrial units.” Explain and comment upon.
  8. “Back to Adam Smith.” In what sense is this desirable.
  9. State and criticize the “Iron Law of Wages.”
  10. Examine the doctrine laid down by Ricardo that the relative values of commodities are governed by the relative quantities of labor bestowed on their production.
  11. Wherein does List find the teaching of Smith and his school defective.

*  *  *  *

University of Toronto.
Supplemental Examinations: 1891.
Fourth Year.

ARTS.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

  1. Does density of population tend to increase or to diminish the per capitaproductiveness of a nation? Apply your conclusions to determine the importance of the Malthusian doctrine of population.
  2. If it were deemed desirable to encourage the manufacturing of steel in Canada would you do so by levying a duty on imported steel, or by giving a bonus per ton for all steel produced in Canada?
  3. Examine the soundness of the two fundamental assumptions upon which the laissez fairedoctrine of the functions of Government proceeds.
  4. “Value depends on supply and demand.”
    What limitations and explanations does this statement require ?
  5. “Rents tend to rise with industrial propers .” [sic, “when industry prosper”]
    Examine this statement.
  6. On what principles would you proceed to determine what was “fair wages” between master and workman in any given industry?
  7. Describe some of the more important plans recently advanced for the uniting of labour and capital, and examine the expediency of each from an economic standpoint.

Source:  University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1891.

Image Source: William J. Ashley in University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol II (1899), p. 595.

Categories
Bibliography Curriculum Toronto

Toronto. Economics curriculum. 1932-33

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In preparing the previous post that transcribed the honours examination for money, credit and prices at the University of Toronto in 1933, I discovered that the annual calendar of the University provided an excellent overview of the economics curriculum that included short course descriptions along with brief reference bibliographies for each of the courses. This falls short of having detailed course syllabi with precise reading assignments and lecture notes but it does have the virtue of wall-to-wall coverage of the economics curriculum at the time.

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Economics course requirements in the Honour Course for Political Science and Economics 1932-33

 

FIRST YEAR

Hours
Economics 1a. A General Sketch of Economic History.

3
Economics 1h. An Introduction to Economics.

2

 

SECOND YEAR

Hours
Economics 2e. Principles of Economics.

3
Economics 2f. Structure of Modern Industry.

3
Economics 2g. Statistics.

3

 

THIRD YEAR

Hours
Economics 3d. Labour Problems.

3
Economics 3e. Money, Credit and Prices.

3
Economics 3g. Taxation and public finance.

3
Economics 3h. Banking.

1

 

FOURTH YEAR

Hours
Economics 4e. Advanced Economic Theory.

3
Economics 4f. Economic History of Canada and the United States.

3

Choose one* of:
Economics 4h. Corporation Finance.

2
Economics 4i. International Financial and Trade Policies.

3
Economics 4j. The Diagnosis of Business Conditions.

2
Economics 4k. Transportation.

3
Economics 4l. Advanced Economic Geography.

2
Economics 4m. Economics of Mineral Products.

2
Economics 4n. Rural Economics.

2
Economics 4o. Demography

2

*Each student will also do special work in one of the honour subjects. This special work will count for purposes of standing as an additional subject in the course. The choice of the subject in which such special work is to be done must be made not later than the last day of October; and the written work involved must be concluded by the student not later than the last day of the following February.

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POLITICAL SCIENCE AND
COMMERCE AND FINANCE

E. J. Urwick, M.A. Professor of Economics
W. T. Jackman, M.A. Professor of Transportation
G. E. Jackson, B.A. Professor and Supervisor of Studies for the course in Commerce and Finance
W. S. Ferguson, C.A. Professor of Accounting (part-time)
H. A. Innis, M.A., Ph.D. Associate Professor
H. R. Kemp, M.A. Associate Professor
A. Brady, M.A., Ph.D. Associate Professor
V. W. Bladen, M.A. Assistant Professor
W. M. Drummond, M.A. Assistant Professor
L. T. Morgan, M.A., Ph.D. Assistant Professor
F. R. Crocombe, M.A., C.A. Assistant Professor of Accounting
C. A. Ashley, B.Com., A. C.A. Assistant Professor of Accounting
J. G. Perold, M.A., B.D. Lecturer
J. F. Parkinson, B.Com. Lecturer
Miss I. M. Biss, M.A. Lecturer
D. C. MacGregor, B.A. Lecturer
A. F. W. Plumptre, B.A. Lecturer
O. P. N. Van der Sprenkel, B.Sc. Lecturer
A. E. Grauer, B.A., Ph. D. Lecturer
A. J. Glazebrook Special Lecturer in Banking and Finance
D, W. Buchanan, B.A. Assistant
J. A. Trites, B.A. Assistant

 

ECONOMICS
Pass Courses

1a. A General Sketch of Economic History. For reference: Ashley, Economic Organization of England; Cheyney, Industrial and Social History of England; Knowles, Industrial and Commercial Revolutions. Three hours a week.

1b. The same as 2a.

1c. Organization of industry. A description of modern Industrial society, with emphasis on large-scale business enterprise, labour organization, and unemployment. For reference: Robertson, Control of Industry; The Engineers’ Report on Waste in Industry; Cole, An Introduction to Trade Unionism; Annual Report of the Department of Labour (Ottawa) on Labour Organization in Canada. National Bureau of Economic Research, Recent Economic Changes; Liberal Committee of Enquiry, Britain’s Industrial Future. Two hours a week.

1d. Social Science. Historical outline of the extension of man’s power over nature, and the development of social forms. For reference: Marett, Anthropology; Mueller-Lyer, History of Social Development; Goldenweiser, Early Civilization; Davis et al, Introduction to Sociology; MacIver, Community. One and a half hours a week.

1e. The Industrial Revolution. One hour a week.

 

2a. Introduction to the Study of Economics. The elements of economic theory with some account of contemporary economic institutions. For reference: Ely, Outlines of Economics; Atkins et al, Economic Behaviour, An Institutional Approach; Fairchild and Compton, Economic Problems; Clay, Economics for the General Reader; Robertson, Money; Henderson, Supply and Demand; Carver, The Distribution of Wealth; Slichter, Modern Economic Society. Two hours a week.

2b. Economic Theory. For reference: Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations; Malthus, Essay on Population; Ricardo, Political Economy; Mill, Principles of Political Economy; Cannan, Theories of Production and Distribution; Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto; Gide and Rist, History of Economic Doctrines; Davenport, Value and Distribution; Levinsky, The Founders of Political Economy; Carr-Saunders, Population; Spargo, Socialism; Bastable, Public Finance; Stamp, Principles of Taxation; Seligman, Essays in Taxation. Three hours a week.

2c. Commerce of Nations. A course dealing with the characteristics of foreign trade and with the theories of international trade and prices: currency systems, money, and banking in relation to price fluctuations, the balance of international payments, the foreign exchanges, capital movements; statistical aspects of foreign trade; the relations of the state to foreign trade, commercial policies and the tariff, etc.; the organization of foreign trade, the functions of produce exchanges, financial institutions, transportation agencies. Foreign trade trends and problems of the leading countries. For reference: Taussig, International Trade, Some Aspects of the Tariff Question; Marshall, Money, Credit and Commerce; Bastable, Commerce of Nations, Theory of International Trade; Todd, The Mechanism of Exchange; Viner, Canada’s Balance of International Payments; Laureys, Foreign Trade of Canada; Kirkaldy and Evans, The History and Economics of Transport, etc. Two hours a week.

2d. The Industrial Revolution. For students in English and History, and Philosophy (English or History Option), etc. For reference: Ashley, Economic Organization of England; Fay, Great Britain from Adam Smith to the Present Day; Knowles, Industrial and Commercial Revolutions in Great Britain during the Nineteenth Century; other works dealing with the more important trends in modern industry. One hour a week.

 

3a. The same as 2a.

3b. The same as 2b.

3c. The same as 2c.

 

4a. Economic History. The Economic History of Great Britain with some reference to the economic development of the Dominions. For reference: Ashley, The Economic Organization of England; Knowles and Knowles, The Economic Development of the British Overseas Empire; Cheyney, Industrial and Social History of England; Fay, Great Britain from Adam Smith to the Present Day; Knight, Barnes and Flugel, Economic History of Europe; Knowles, Industrial and Commercial Revolutions in Great Britain during the seventeenth century. Three hours a week.

4b, Finance of Government. Commencing with a theoretical analysis of the dispersion of taxation and other burdens among the agents of production, followed by a study of the canons of taxation, the growth of modern progressive taxation, various tax systems, the conflict of federal, provincial and local tax jurisdictions, non-fiscal aspects of taxation, and the history and significance of public borrowing and expenditure in modern capitalism. For reference: same as 3g. Two hours a week.

4c. Finance of Industry and Commerce. Money and credit; foreign trade; corporation finance. For reference: Day, Money and Banking System of U.S.; Beckhart, Canadian Banking System; Withers, War and Lombard Street; Stocks and Shares; Business of Finance; Royal Bank, Financing Foreign Trade; Dominion and Ontario Companies’ Acts. Two hours a week.

4d. Elements of Statistics. An elementary course in statistical methods and their application to economic problems. Laboratory work will be required. For reference: Elderton, Primer of Statistics; Thurstone, Fundamentals of Statistics; Secrist, Introduction to Statistical Methods; Canada Year Book; Labour Gazette and other publications. Three hours a week.

 

Honour Courses

1f. Economic History. Economic History with special reference to British development from 1760 onwards, based on Ashley, Economic Organization of England; Mantoux, Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century; Knight, Barnes and Flugel, Economic History of Europe; Knowles, Industrial and Commercial Revolutions. For references: Fay, Great Britain from Adam Smith to the Present Day, Life and Labour in the Nineteenth Century; Hammond, Lord Shaftesbury, The Town Labourer; Buxton, Finance and Politics; Rees, Fiscal and Financial History of England, 1815-1918; Prothero, English Farming, Past and Present; Jackman, Transportation in Modern England; Dicey, Law and Opinion in England. Three hours a week.

1g. Geography. A general introduction to economic geography; temperature, wind systems, and rainfall; influences on economic enterprise and on migration; relation of the Old World to the New; seaports and trade routes; food supplies and population. For reference: Huntington and Gushing, Principles of Human Geography; Huntington and Carlson, Environmental Basis of Social Geography; Russell Smith, North America; Lyde, The Continent of Europe; Bartholomew and Lyde, The Oxford Economic Atlas and Supplement (1914); Corrado Gini and others, Population; The Canada Year Book; and other publications of Government Departments. Two hours a week.

1h. An Introduction to Economics. For students in Modern History, Political Science and Economics, and Law. A survey of the forces governing the production and consumption of wealth and of the character and development of the existing economic system. For reference: Cannan, Wealth; Thorp, Economic Institutions; Clay, Economics for the General Reader; Robertson, Control of Industry; Mueller-Lyer, The History of Social Development. Two hours a week.

 

2e. Principles of Economics. An explanation of economic theory, based chiefly upon Marshall, Principles of Economics and Cassel, Theory of Social Economy. For reference: Carver, Distribution of Wealth; Smart, Distribution of Income; Taussig, Principles of Economics; Withers, The Meaning of Money; Wright, Population. Three hours a week.

2f. Structure of Modern Industry. A description of some important characteristics of modern industry, as a basis for understanding the pure theory of economics and discovering some of its limitations. For reference: Marshall, Industry and Trade; Laidler, Concentration in American Industry; Clark, Economics of Overhead Costs, and Social Control of Business; Holmes, Economics of Farm Organization and Management; Taylor, Scientific Management; Bogert and Landon, Modern Industry; Reports of special Government investigators under the Combines Investigation Act; Sittings, Canadian Advisory Board on Tariff and Taxation; Wilmore, Industrial Britain; Kieger and May, The Public Control of Business; Watkins, Industrial Combinations and Public Policy; Jones, Trust Problems in the United States; Domeratzky, International Cartels; Robertson, Control of Industry; Patton, Co-operative Marketing of Grain in Western Canada; Canada Year Book, etc. Three hours a week.

2g. Statistics. General introduction to the use of statistics; methods of collection, tabulation, graphic presentation, analysis, and interpretation, and application to the study of business cycles, population, and other economic problems. Survey of some of the principal sources of statistical information. A considerable part of the course will be devoted to laboratory work. For reference: Mills, Statistical Methods; Secrist, An Introduction to Statistical Methods; Crum and Patton, Economic Statistics; Chaddock, Principles and Methods of Statistics; Yule, Introduction to the Theory of Statistics; Bowley, Introductory Manual of Statistics, and Elements of Statistics; Fisher, Making of Index Numbers; Mitchell, Index Numbers of Wholesale Prices in the United States and Foreign Countries (Bulletin 284 of U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics); Labour Gazette (Ottawa); Canada Year Book, Census Reports (Canada, Great Britain, U.S.A.), publications of the Royal Statistical Society and of the American Statistical Association, and other publications to be indicated from time to time. Three hours a week.

 

3d. Labour Problems. A course dealing with the problems and disabilities of labouring people such as unemployment, industrial accident and disease, overstrain, monotony, and low wages and standards of living; with workingmen’s efforts to solve these problems through trade unionism, consumers’ co-operation, political action, and social revolutionary programmes; with employers’ methods of meeting the problems of labour; and with intervention by the state in the interests of labour through protective legislation. For reference: Douglas, Hitchcock and Atkins, The Worker in Modern Economic Society; Blum, Labour Economics; Douglas, The Problem of Unemployment; Hamilton and May, The Control of Wages; Webb, Industrial Democracy; Stewart, Canadian Labour Laws and the Treaty; Canadian Department of Labour, The Labour Gazette (monthly) and Annual Reports on Labour Organization in Canada. Three hours a week.

3e. Money, Credit and Prices. A course dealing with monetary theory and related subjects, including the discussion of the rôle of money in economic theory; bimetallism; the gold standard; the gold exchange standard; the relation between money, credit, production and prices; the business cycle; central banks and the control of credit; stabilization of business; the foreign exchanges; the rôle of money in the theory of international trade; money and foreign exchange; problems in various countries, including reparations. For reference: Cassel, Theory of Social Economy, Vol.II, and Money and Foreign Exchange after 1914; Fisher, The Purchasing Power of Money; Keynes, A Treatise on Money; Marshall, Money Credit and Commerce; Edie, Money, Bank Credit and Prices; Willis and Beckhart, Foreign Banking Systems; Burgess, Interpretations of the Federal Reserve Bank; Mitchell, Business Cycles, the Problem, and its Setting; Snyder, Business Cycles and Business Measurements; Hobson, Rationalization and Unemployment; Gregory, Foreign Exchange; Taussig, International Trade; Angell, International Prices; The Young Plan; Reports of Agent General for Reparations; Reports of League of Nations Gold Delegation; The Macmillan Report, 1931; Current Financial Literature. Three hours a week.

3f. The same as 2g.

3g. Part I. The Distribution of Taxation. Based upon an extension, application and criticism of the theory of the distribution of wealth. For reference: Smith and Ricardo on taxation; Seligman, Incidence of Taxation, Essays in Taxation; Report of the Committee on National Debt and Taxation, G. B. 1927; J. A. Hobson, The Industrial System, Taxation in the New State; Pigou, Public Finance; H. G. Brown, Economics of Taxation; Silverman, Taxation — Its Incidence and Effects.
Part II. Principles of Public Finance. Economic functions of the state, the canons of taxation, revenue systems of modern states, national and local taxation, public debts, expenditure, the public domain. For reference: Bastable, Public Finance; Lutz, Public Finance; Shirras, Science of Public Finance; Bullock, Readings in Public Finance. In addition, monographs, periodicals and statistical records will be found essential. For examination and essay purposes, the two parts of this course will be considered as one. Three hours a week.

3h. Banking. A special course on the theory and practice of banking operations. One hour a week.

3i. Business Administration. The same as 4g.

3j. Economic Basis of Social Life. A sketch of modern economic organization with particular reference to the way in which economic factors condition social life. The course includes description of the production process, the business system, the price system, group conflicts over income and status, and standards of living; appraisal of the functioning of the economic order; and brief inquiry into the problem of control. For reference: Lynd, Middletown; Soule, The Useful Art of Economics; Keezer, Cutler and Garfield, Problem Economics; Clay, Economics for the General Reader; Thorp, Economic Institutions; Robertson, The Control of Industry.

 

4e. Advanced Economic Theory. A course dealing with the evolution of economic thought through the principal schools from Adam Smith to the present, and giving special attention to the criticism of current theories of value, interest, rent and wages. For reference: Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations; Malthus, Essay on Population; Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy; List, National System of Political Economy; Marx, Capital; Böhm-Bawerk, The Positive Theory of Capital; J. B. Clark, Distribution of Wealth; Marshall, Principles of Economics; Pigou, Economics of Welfare; Cassel, Theory of Social Economy; Cannan, Review of Economic Theory, and Theories of Production and Distribution; Dalton, Inequalities of Incomes. Three hours a week.

4f. Economic History of Canada and the United States. The significance of economic factors in the growth of western civilization on the North American continent with special reference to Canada. For reference: Select Documents in Canadian Economic History, Vols. I, II, especially selected; bibliography, Vol. I, pp. 579-581, and The Fur Trade in Canada; An Introduction to Canadian Economic History; A History of the Canadian Pacific Railway (Toronto, 1923); Cambridge History of the British Empire (Vol. on Canada). L. C. A. Knowles and C. M. Knowles, Economic Development of the British Overseas Empire, Vol. II, bibliography. Contributions to Canadian Economics; Proceedings of the Canadian Political Science Association; economic history sections, Canada and its Provinces; C. R. Fay, The Corn Laws and Social England. Three hours a week.

4g. Business Administration. In each term throughout the session a course of special lectures on a selected field of Canadian finance or industry will be given by lecturers practically conversant with its problems. One hour a week.

4h. Corporation Finance. Economic service of corporations; capitalization; detailed study of stocks and bonds; financing of extensions and improvements; management of incomes and reserves; dividend policy; insolvency; receiverships; reorganizations. For reference: Poor’s Financial Service is unexcelled; Lincoln, Applied Business Finance, and Problems in Business Finance; Nelson, Readings in Corporation Finance; Mead, Corporation Finance; Willis and Bogen, Investment Banking; Sloan, Corporation Profits; Gerstenberg, Materials of Corporation Finance; Dewing, Corporation Finance. Two hours a week.

4i. International Financial and Trade Policies. The chief characteristics of world economic relationships in the post-war setting. Economic causes of international friction in the light of recent history. Economic consequences of the Peace Treaties; the Reparations Problem; Inter-Allied debts. Monetary reconstruction; currency and banking experiments; the Gold Standard to-day; the silver situation. Commercial policies of leading countries; the Tariff and economic nationalism; international collaboration and the economic section of the League of Nations. World capital movements; U.S.A. as a creditor nation; financial co-operation; the Young Plan and the Bank for International Settlements. Currency and Trade problems of the British Empire. For reference: Keynes, Economic Consequences of the Peace, Revision of the Treaty; Bergman, History of Reparations; Moulton, The Reparation Plan, Germany’s Capacity to Pay; Culbertson, Commercial Policy in war time and after; Dawes’ Report; The Young Plan; Einzig, The Bank for International Settlements; Rogers, The Process of Inflation in France; Reports and Documents of the Gold Delegation Committee of the League of Nations; Williams, Economic Foreign Policy of the United States, etc. Three hours a week.

4j. The Diagnosis of Business Conditions. A review of the functions of the consulting economist, and of the materials available to him; analysis and interpretation of time series, and consideration of underlying forces affecting the world’s credit. The course is conducted with special reference to the period from 1925 to the present. For reference: National Bureau of Economic Research, Recent Economic Changes; Persons and others, The Problem of Business Forecasting; Carl Snyder, Business Cycles and Business Measurements; Snider, Business Statistics; Persons, Forecasting Business Cycles; The MacMillan Report; League of Nations Report on The Course and Phases of the World Economic Depression; Canada Year Book; and Monthly Review of Business Statistics. Two hours a week.

4k. Transportation. Railway finance and rates; principles of rate making as established by the railways, the regulative tribunals and the courts; railway policy in Canada and the other chief countries; railway rate structures; organization of ocean commerce; ocean freight rates; shipping conferences and their results; relations of ocean and land transportation interests; inland water transportation; highway transportation. For reference: Poor’s Financial Service; Jackman, Economics of Transportation; Daggett, Principles of Inland Transportation; Vanderblue and Burgess, Railroads; Rates-Service- Management; Jones, Principles of Railway Transportation; Kidd, A New Era for British Railways; Johnson and Huebner, Principles of Ocean Transportation. Three hours a week.

4l. Advanced Economic Geography. A seminar course dealing with probable changes in the near future in the direction and character of the world’s trade. Bowman, The New World (New York, 1928); J. Brunhes, Human Geography; Vidal de la Blache, Principles of Human Geography; J. M. Clark, Economics of Overhead Costs; H. Laureys, Foreign Trade of Canada (bibliography); W. J. Donald, Canadian Iron and Steel Industry; J. Viner, Canada’s Balance of International Indebtedness; W. W. Swanson and P. C. Armstrong, Wheat; E. S. Moore, Mineral Resources of Canada; W. T. Jackman, Economics of Transportation; H. A. Innis, Fur Trade of Canada; J. A. Todd, World’s Cotton Crops; C. Jones. Commerce of South America; Commission of Conservation, reports; Report of the Royal Commission on Pulpwood, 1924; Report of the Royal Commission on Maritime Fisheries, 1928; National Problems of Canada, McGill University Studies; R. Tanghe, Geographie Humaine de Montreal (Montreal, 1928), and other books to be referred to throughout the course. Two hours a week.

4m. Economics of Mineral Products. A study of mineral resources and the rôle played by them in commerce and industry, with special reference to the minerals of Canada and their use in Canadian industry. (Course 22, Department of Geology, page 171). For reference: Leith, Economic Aspects of Geology; Spurr, Political and Commercial Geology; Moore, Mineral Resources of Canada; McGraw-Hill, Mineral Industry; Moore, Coal; Tarr, Introductory Economic Geology. Two hours a week.

4n. Rural Economics. A course designed to study, first, the nature and extent of the relationship existing between satisfactory economic conditions in agriculture and satisfactory conditions in all other industrial and commercial pursuits and in the life of the community; second, the possibilities of and limitations to applying economic principles in the internal and external organization and operations of the agricultural industry. For reference: Black, Production Economics and Agricultural Reform in the United States; Holmes, Economics of Farm Organization and Management; Garratt, Organization of Farming; McMillan, Too Many Farmers; Bennet, Farm Costs; Warren and Pierson, Interrelationships of Supply, Demand and Price; Stokdyk and West, The Farm Board; Hedden, How Great Cities are Fed; MacIntosh, Agricultural Co-operation in Western Canada; Canadian and United States University and Government Publications in the field of agricultural economics. Two hours a week.

4o. Demography. The statistical study of population, including vital statistics, census procedure, and a more advanced study of the problems arising out of these materials, with special reference to Canada. Two hours a week.

4p. Industry and Human Welfare. Work and working conditions in industry and agriculture and reactions upon the lives of the workers. The wage system and the importance of the job to the individual. The problems of unemployment, industrial accident and disease, woman and child labour, overstrain and superannuation, monotony, and industrial and social status of the workers. Labour on the farm. Group efforts to improve conditions, as by trade unionism, producers’ and consumers’ co-operation, and political action. Governmental protection of standards of work and life. For reference: Catlin, The Labour Problem; Douglas, The Problem of Unemployment; Davison, The Unemployed; Hamilton and May, The Control of Wages; Cole, A Short History of the British Working Class Movement; Tawney, Acquisitive Society; Laidler, History of Socialism.

4g. Social History. An analysis of the reactions of economic and cultural changes upon social life and structure, with special reference to the history of Europe since 1349. The course includes an account of the genesis of present social conditions and social difficulties, and a detailed study of remedial and preventive measures, both public and private, and of the principles underlying these. Books: Vinogradoff, The Manor; Nicholls and MacKay, History of the English Poor Laws; Ribton Turner, History of Vagrancy; Penty, A Guildsman’s Interpretation of History; Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism; Lecky, England in the 18th Century; Eden, The State of the Poor; Cobbett, Rural Rides; Hayes, Political and Social History of Modern Europe; Reports of the Poor Law Commissioners, 1834 and 1909; Webb, History of Trade Unionism; Kirkman Gray, History of Philanthropy; Cooke Taylor, The Factory System; Cole, History of the Working Class Movement; Traill, Social England, Vols. V and VI; Hammond, The Agricultural Labourer, and the Town Labourer; Cole, Life of Owen; Hammond, Life of Shaftesbury.

 

Source: University of Toronto Calendar, Faculty of Arts 1932-1933. University of Toronto Press, 1932. Pp. 108-116, 206-208.

Image Source: The Library, University of Toronto (September 1939). Archives and Record Management, University of Toronto.

 

 

Categories
Courses Exam Questions Toronto

Toronto. Honors Exam. Money, Credit and Prices. 1933

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The honors examination questions for Money, Credit and Prices from the University of Toronto transcribed below were filed away by A. G. Hart in a folder marked “Chi[cago] Qualifying”, perhaps not an ideal resting place for this particular archival artifact. At least now these exam questions are discoverable through a standard internet search and provide researchers going to the University of Toronto archives a tip should they search for economics course materials there.

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Course descriptions

3e. Money, Credit and Prices. A course dealing with monetary theory and related subjects, including the discussion of the role of money in economic theory; bimetallism; the gold standard; the gold exchange standard; the relation between money, credit, production and prices; the business cycle; central banks and the control of credit; stabilization of business; the foreign exchanges; the role of money in the theory of international trade; money and foreign exchange; problems in various countries, including reparations. For reference: Cassel, Theory of Social Economy, Vol. II, and Money and Foreign Exchange after 1914; Fisher, The Purchasing Power of Money; Keynes, A Treatise on Money; Marshall, Money, Credit and Commerce; Edie, Money, Bank Credit and Prices; Willis and Beckhart, Foreign Banking Systems; Burgess, Interpretations of the Federal Reserve Bank; Mitchell, Business Cycles, the Problem, and its Setting; Snyder, Business Cycles and Business Measurements; Hobson, Rationalization and Unemployment; Gregory, Foreign Exchange; Taussig, International Trade; Angell, International Prices; The Young Plan; Reports of Agent General for Reparations; Reports of League of Nations Gold Delegation; The Macmillan Report, 1931; Current Financial Literature. Three hours a week.

3h. Banking. A special course on the theory and practice of banking operations. One hour a week.

 

Source: University of Toronto Calendar, Faculty of Arts 1932-33. University of Toronto Press, pp. 112-113.

Image Source: Detail from photo of A. F. Wynne Plumptre (1972) from the University of Toronto Archives Image Bank.

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Card paper clipped to examination copy

I thought you might find this of interest.
A. F. Wynne Plumptre [B.A., Lecturer]
Kings College, Cambridge
Toronto, Canada

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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
FACULTY OF ARTS

ANNUAL EXAMINATIONS, 1933

THIRD YEAR—HONOUR

ECONOMICS 3e, 3h
MONEY, CREDIT AND PRICES

Examiners—The Staff in Economics

 

(Question ONE must be answered by all candidates, and THREE or FOUR other questions.)

  1. What do you mean by “inflation”? Under what circumstances, if any, is it desirable?
  2. The following figures appear in the monthly returns of the combined Canadian Chartered Banks:

(in millions of dollars)

Sept. 1929. Sept. 1932.
Current Commercial loans

1,404

1,003
Total Securities held

487

704
Demand Deposits

759

481
Notice Deposits

1,471

1,359
Bank Notes in circulation

197

132
Finance Act borrowings

79

23

Sketch the probable causes of these movements.

  1. It is said, often in criticism of French financial methods, that the power of finance is used in that country to further political ends. In England, on the other hand, efforts have usually been made to keep “politics” dissociated from “finance”; i.e., to keep politicians from dictating the country’s monetary and financial policies. How far, in your opinion, can or should the two be kept separate in Canada or any other country?
  2. “The establishment of the federal reserve bank system…is actually the reason why they have had the recent trouble in the United States banks.” (Sir John Aird, quoted in the Toronto Daily Star, March 22nd, 1933.) How far do you agree with this statement?
  3. In maintaining the gold standard, “world wide international co-operation becomes all but essential just at the moment when the particular local manifestations of the universal trouble occupy the whole attention of the Government in each country and make international action specially difficult.” (Sir Basil Blackett.) Is this a fair summary of the causes of the breakdown of the international gold standard? If so, does it necessarily follow that the restoration and subsequent maintenance of the gold standard is impracticable?
  4. Give an outline of what is meant by any two of the following policies:

Bimetallism,
Remonetization of silver,
Revaluation of gold,
Reduction of central bank reserve ratios.

  1. Outline very briefly the theory of “comparative costs” in international trade. How far do you think it is desirable that members of the newly appointed Canadian tariff board should be familiar with the principles of this theory?
  2. Do you believe that monetary policy is, or might be, a major factor in determining the level of prices and prosperity in either Canada or England or some other country? (Candidates should answer this question with respect to one country only.)
  3. “Booms and slumps are simply the expression of the results of an oscillation of the rate of interest about its equilibrium position.” (J. M. Keynes.) How far do you agree?
  4. Suppose that, at the forthcoming World Economic Conference, it were generally agreed that international exchange rates should be stabilized immediately. What factors would you then take into consideration in estimating at what rate the Canadian dollar should be stabilized? How far would the theory of “purchasing power parity” assist you?
  5. It appears to be customary for monetary theorists to make use of equations in explaining their theories. Why do you think they have used this method? Do you think that such an equation is likely to clarify or becloud the theory to which it refers?

 

Source: Columbia University Archives. Albert Gailord Hart Papers, Box 60, Folder “Exams: Chi[ago] Qualifying”