The materials for this post come from the second time Edwin Francis Gay solo-taught the course on U.S. economic and financial history at Harvard. Other than having its bibliographic furniture rearranged, the course content is virtually identical to that of the 1906-07 version of the course.
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Previously…
Assistant Professor Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the Harvard course “Economic History of the United States”/ “Economic and Financial History of the United States” in 1901-02 (with James Horace Patten), 1902-03, 1903-04, and 1904-05. The course was taken over in 1905-06 by Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay after Sprague left for a full professorship at the Imperial University of Japan. The Taussig/Gay reading list and final exam for 1905-06. Gay taught this course alone in 1906-07.
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Course Enrollment
1907-08
Economics 6b 2hf. Professor Gay. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.
Total 143: 14 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 33 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 12 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.
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[Except for a minor rearrangement in the sequence of topics, the course reading list for 1907-08 is, with only one exception, identical to that for 1906-07.]
Course Reading List
Economic and Financial History
of the United States
ECONOMICS 6b (1908)
Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)
1. Colonial Period.
*Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-29; printed also in Ashley’s Surveys, pp. 309-335.
*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 36-51.
McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 1-102.
Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, pp. 273-307.
Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 5-158.
Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.
Lord, Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America, pp. 56-86, 124-139.
1776-1860.
2. Commerce, Manufactures, and Tariff.
*Taussig, Tariff History of the United States, pp. 68-154.
*Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-79, 103-107, (79-103).
Bolles, Industrial History of the United States, Book II, pp. 403-426.
Bishop, History of American Manufactures, Vol. II, pp. 256-505.
Pitkin, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States (ed. 1835), pp. 368-412.
Gallatin, Free Trade Memorial, in Taussig’s State Papers, pp. 108-213.
Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 146-183.
Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer. Econ. Assoc. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.
3. Internal Improvements.
*Callender, Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 111-162; printed also separately, pp. 3-54.
Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. IV, Thos. C. Purdy’s Reports on History of Steam Navigation in the United States, pp. 1-62, and History of Operating Canals in the United States, pp. 1-32.
Chevalier, Society, Manners and Polities in the United States, pp. 80-87, 209-276.
Ringwalt, Development of Transportation Systems in the United States, pp. 41-54, 64-166.
Gallatin, Plan of Internal Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I, pp. 724-921 (see especially maps, pp. 744, 762, 764, 820, 830).
Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), pp. 531-581.
Chittenden, Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Vol. II, pp. 417-424.
4. Agriculture and Land Policy. – Westward Movement.
*Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257 printed also in Q.J.E., Vol. I, pp. 169-183, 251-254.
*Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 67-119.
*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 52-74.
Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1893, pp. 199-227.
Donaldson, Public Domain, pp. 1-29, 196-239, 332-356.
Hibbard, History of Agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin, pp. 86-90, 105-133.
[Replaces “Sato, History of the Land Question in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, IV. Nos. 7-9, pp. 127-181” from the 1906-07 reading list.]
Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways, Bulletin of Univ. of Wisconsin Econ., Pol. Sci. and Hist. Series, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 269-354.
Hart, History as Told by Contemporaries, Vol. III, pp. 459-478.
5. The South and Slavery.
*Cairnes, The Slave Power (2d ed.), pp. 32-103, 140-178.
Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 34-66.
Russell, North America, its Agriculture and Climate, pp. 133-167.
De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (ed. 1838), pp. 336-361, or eds. 1841 and 1848, Vol. I, pp. 386-412.
Helper, Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, pp. 7-61.
6. Finance, Banking and Currency.
*Dewey, Financial History of the United States, pp. 34-59, 76-117, 224-246, 252-262.
*Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States, pp. 1-24, 68-119, 376 map, 402-403, 464-477.
Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-93.
Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. I, pp. 15-37, 64-76.
Kinley, History of the Independent Treasury, pp. 16-39.
Sumner, Andrew Jackson (ed. 1886), pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.
Ross, Sinking Funds, pp. 21-85.
Scott, Repudiation of State Debts, pp. 33-196.
Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 1-43, 125-135.
Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, pp. 310-347.
1860-1900.
7. Finance, Banking and Currency.
*Mitchell, History of the Greenbacks, pp. 3-43, 403-420.
*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 1-72, 234-254, (73-233).
Taussig, Silver Situation in the United States, pp. 1-157.
Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-26; printed also in Dunbar’s Economic Essays, pp. 227-247.
Howe, Taxation and Taxes in the United States under the Internal Revenue System, pp. 136-262.
Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. VII; Bayley, History of the National Loans, pp. 369-392, 444-486.
8. Transportation.
*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 1-23, 125-145.
*Johnson, American Railway Transportation, pp. 24-68, 307-321, 367-385.
Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.
Adams, Chapters of Erie, pp. 1-99, 333-429.
Davis, The Union Pacific Railway, Annals of the Amer. Acad., Vol. VIII, pp. 259-303.
Villard, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 284-312.
Dixon, Interstate Commerce Act as Amended, Q.J.E., Vol. XXI, pp. 22-51.
9. Agriculture and Opening of the West.
*Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-167.
*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 167-187.
Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. V, pp. xvi-xlii.
Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 120-226.
Quaintance, Influence of Farm Machinery, pp. 1-103.
Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-424.
Bemis, Discontent of the Farmer, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. I, pp. 193-213.
10. Industrial Expansion.
*Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. VII, pp. clxx-clxxviii.
*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 113-126.
Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.
Twelfth Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 725-748.
Wells, Recent Economic Changes, pp. 70-113.
11. The Tariff.
*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 155-229.
Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.
Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.
Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol. VIII, pp. 1-39.
Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, p. 610-647.
Robinson, History of Two Reciprocity Treaties, pp. 9-17, 40-77, 141-156.
Laughlin and Willis, Reciprocity, pp. 311-487.
12. Commerce and Shipping.
*Meeker, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 150-171.
[This reading has been switched to required status in 1907-08.]
Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.
Soley, Maritime Industries of the United States, in Shaler’s United States, Vol. I, pp. 518-618.
McVey, Shipping Subsidies, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. IX, pp. 24-46.
Wells, Our Merchant Marine, pp. 1-94.
13. Industrial Concentration.
*Willoughby, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-115.
*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 188-209.
Twelfth Census, Vol. VII, pp. cxc-ccxiv.
Industrial Commission, Vol. XIII, pp. v-xviii.
Bullock, Trust Literature, Q.J.E., Vol. XV, pp. 167-217.
14. The Labor Problem.
*United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, No. 18 (Sept., 1898), pp. 665-670; No. 30 (Sept., 1900), pp. 913-915; No. 53 (July, 1904), pp. 703-728.
Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 3-16, 502-547.
Levasseur, American Workman, pp. 436-509.
Mitchell, Organized Labor, pp. 391-411.
Twelfth Census, Special Report on Employees and Wages, p. xcix.
National Civic Federation, Industrial Conciliation, pp. 40-48, 141-154, 238-243, 254-266.
15. Population, Immigration and the Race Question.
* United States Census Bulletin, No. 4 (1903), pp. 5-38.
*Industrial Commission, Vol. XV, pp. xix-lxiv.
Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 68-112.
Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 33-78.
Walker, Discussions in Economies and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-451.
Hoffmann, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 250-309.
Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-228.
Twelfth Census Bulletin, No. 8.
United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, Nos. 14, 22, 32, 35, 37, 38, 48.
Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.
Stone, A Plantation Experiment, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 270-287.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1907-1908”.
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ECONOMICS 6b
Year-end Examination, 1907-08
- Briefly:—
- The Bland-Allison and Sherman Acts.
- The National Banking Act.
- The Homestead Law.
- Reciprocity since 1890.
- Compare the condition of manufactures in the United States in 1791 (Hamilton’s report) with that in 1900.
- Why has the cotton industry developed more satisfactorily than the woolen industry?
- Compare in its chief features the state of Southern agriculture before and after the Civil War.
- [Farm indebtedness and tenancy]
- Farm indebtedness in the United States 1885-1900; its relation to agricultural prices and the demand for monetary reform.
- Farm tenancy in the United States.
- Is railroad “pooling” permitted in the United States? Should it be permitted? What do you think of Anti-Trust Legislation?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1908), pp. 31-32.
Image Source: Website of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Webpage: History. Lincoln and the Founding of the National Banking System.
“Lincoln and Chase working on the national banking legislation. N.C. Wyeth painted this mural in the lobby of what was then the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The former bank building is today the Langham Hotel.”