Harvard. Enrollment and final exam for money and banking. Andrew, 1907-1908

The historical roots of the field “Money and Banking” were firmly established at Harvard by its economics department founder Charles Franklin Dunbar during the last dozen or so years of the 19th century. Dunbar was followed in matters monetary by Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague and then Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr.

Fun Fact: Senator Nelson W. Aldrich (see Q. 6 in the Economics 8b exam below) who became the major political figure behind the establishment of the U.S. Federal Reserve System was the grandfather of Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York. The New York Times, Oct. 24, 2015.

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Previous course materials for
Money and Banking 

1900-01(Meyer and Sprague)
1901-02 (Andrew, Sprague, Meyer)
1902-03 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)
1903-04 (Andrew and Sprague)
1904-05 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)
1905-06 (Andrew’s money and banking exams)
1906-07 (Andrew’s money and banking exams)

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Course Enrollment
Money. General Survey
(1st term)

Economics 8a ¹hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times.

Total 72: 6 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 39 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, 5 Others.

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

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ECONOMICS 8a
Money. General Survey.
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

1. To what extent is money a measure, like measures of time, weight, and capacity.
2. Define and give examples of:
   1. limping standard;
   2. parallel standard;
   3. double standard;
   4. Gresham’s law.
3. Under what circumstances, if any, would the levying of a seignorage cause prices to rise? to fall? to remain unchanged?
4. How will large additions to the money supply tend to effect the rate of interest? the rate of profits? the price of land? of bonds? of stocks?
5. Describe the conditions which brought about the successful redemption of the greenbacks. Upon what grounds was resumption opposed? Were any of these grounds reasonable?
6. Is it fair to say that England “blundered into monometallism unwittingly”? Explain why or why not.
7. Is it fair to say that the world stampeded to gold in the seventies “because the increased output of silver in America had produced an excess of its supply as compared with gold”? Explain why or why not.
8. In your opinion is any confirmation of the “quantity theory” to be found in the experience of :
   1. Holland between 1873 and 1875?
   2. India between 1893 and 1899?
   3. Austria between 1876 and 1890?
      Can these experiences be explained in any other way?
9. Enumerate the different kinds of money now current in the United States, and state briefly the origin and history of each.

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

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Course Enrollment
Banking and Foreign Exchange
(2nd term)

Economics 8b ²hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Banking and Foreign Exchange.

Total 108: 7 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 41 Juniors, 36 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 6 Others.

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

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ECONOMICS 8b
Banking and Foreign Exchange
Year-end Examination, 1907-8

1. Describe and account for the relative proportions of national banks, state banks, and trust companies (a) in some of the New England States, (b) in some of the middle Western States.
2. Describe the functions of the more important sorts of banks in England, France, and Germany, and explain the tendencies of their recent development.
3. Describe the relation of the government to the banks as regards (a) bank management, (b) government finance in England, France, Germany, and the United States.
4. Of what significance in the history of English banking were
   1. the Bullion Report?
   2. Peel’s Act?
   3. Bagehot’s “Lombard Street”?
5. Explain the system of note issue in the Canadian banks and its supposed advantages. State any differences between conditions in Canada and the United States which would render its equal success here uncertain.
6. Explain the main features of the Fowler, Aldrich and Vreeland bills of the last Congress, and give your opinion of their respective merits.
7. Explain the following statements:—
   1. “The principal European exchanges are regulated chiefly by the relative value of money.”
   2. “The effect on the exchanges of a given difference in the discount rates is not always the same.”
   3. “The French cheque-rate frequently rises above the specie point.”

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), p. 33.