Down the line we can expect to have decades worth of field exam questions for Harvard. But between there and here Economics in the Rear-view Mirror needs to continue the unsung work of transcribing the course exams. But it has the virtue of being steady work.
________________________
Other Corporations/Industrial Organization Related Posts
for William Z. Ripley
Problems of Labor and Industrial Organization, 1902-1903.
Economics of Corporations, 1903-1904.
Economics of Corporations, 1904-05 (with Vanderveer Custis)
Economics of Corporations, 1906-07 (with Stuart Daggett)
Economics of Corporations, 1907-08 (with Stuart Daggett)
Economics of Corporations, 1914-1915.
________________________
Course Enrollment
1908-09
Economics 9b 2hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. [Edmund Thornton] Miller. — Economics of Corporations.
Total 132: 8 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 51 Juniors, 29 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 8 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.
________________________
Course Description
1908-09
[Economics] 9b 2hf. Economics of Corporations. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 10. Professor Ripley.
This course will treat of the fiscal and industrial organization of capital, especially in the corporate form. The principal topic considered will be industrial combination and the so-called trust problem. This will be broadly discussed, with comparative study of conditions in the United States and Europe. The development of corporate enterprise, promotion, and financing, accounting, liability of directors and underwriters, will be described, not from their legal but from their purely economic aspects; and the effects of industrial combination upon efficiency, profits, wages, prices, the development of export trade, and international competition will be considered in turn.
The course is open to those students only who have taken Economics 1. Systematic reading and report work will be assigned from time to time.
Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09,
p. 55.
________________________
ECONOMICS 9b
Year-end Examination, 1908-09
- Name an eminently successful industrial combination, and an unfortunate one, stating in each case the principal feature of its career.
- What has been the principal difficulty in interesting the workmen of the U.S. Steel Corporation in ownership of its stock? What was the leading motive in adoption of the plan?
- Describe at least four causes of the financial reorganization of industrial combinations.
- What provisions in either the English or German laws regulating corporations would have prevented the financial losses in (a) the U. S. Shipbuilding Co.; (b) the Asphalt Companies Collapse; (c) the American Malting Co.?
- What is the lesson of the recent history of the American tin plate industry?
- Outline four proposed remedies for the present unsatisfactory situation under the existing Federal law regulating industrial combinations.
- What are some of the practical obstacles in the enforcement of the Sherman Act?
- What does the balance sheet (see below) show as to the form of organization of the company concerned?
- What was the main economic conclusion reached as a result of your thesis work in this course?
| ASSETS | ||
| Cash | $1,616,114.78 | |
| Due by Customers | 5,930,735.70 | |
| Bills Receivable | 90,629.21 | |
| Doubtful Debtors, valued at | 16,473.94 | |
| Sundry other Debtors and Book Accounts | 117,412.52 | |
| Goods on hand and in process | 10,810,368.50 | |
| Drawbacks Due | 462,201.37 | |
| Raw materials | 1,282,097.23 | |
| Sundry Personal Property | 291,603.39 | |
| Advances to other Companies | 14,521,552.90 | |
| Plants and Lands | 7,197,600.27 | |
| Stocks of other Companies | 35,678,044.98 | |
| Railroad Mortgage | 100,000.00 | |
| Treasury Stock | 100,000.00 | |
| Unexpired Insurance Policies | 9,875.40 | |
| Good Will Account and Organization Expenses | $62,832,300.01 | |
|
$141,057,010.20 |
$78,224,710.19 |
$62,832,300.01 |
| LIABILITIES | ||
| Accrued Interest | $58,530.00 | |
| Current Accounts | 328,411.95 | |
| Bills Payable | 1,557,391.66 | |
| Exchange (not due) | 1,798,370.74 | |
| Bonds. $6,680,000.00 | ||
| Less in Treasury. $1,400,000.00 | 5,280,000.00 | |
| Reserve for Fire Insurance | 383.379.88 | |
| Preferred Stock | 62,282,300.00 | |
| Common Stock | $62,882,300.00 | |
| Surplus—as January 1st, 1903 | $6,486,325.97 | |
|
$141,057,010.20 |
$78,174,710.20 |
$62,882,300.00 |
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, 1909), pp. 42-43.
Image Source: 1903 stock certificate of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Wikimedia.