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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam for 19th century European Industry and Commerce. Gay, 1907-1908

Edwin F. Gay was promoted to the rank of professor in 1906 and served as the acting chairman of the Harvard economics department during Thomas Nixon Carver’s leave of absence. He then became the chair of the department in 1907. In the following year he was appointed the first dean of the newly established Graduate School of Business Administration which is likely the reason that European economic history was reduced to a single semester course.

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Earlier, related posts

A brief course description for Economics 11 plus the exams from 1902-03.

Exams for 1903-04.

Exams for 1904-05.

Exams for 1905-06.

Exams for 1906-07.

A short bibliography for “serious students” of economic history assembled by Gay and published in 1910 has also been posted.

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 6a 1hf. Professor Gay. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 90: 16 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 34 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 66.

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ECONOMICS 6a
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. What was the “Movement of Liberation” in the economic history of the nineteenth century? Do you consider this movement completed?
  2. Gladstone wrote in 1846: “Mr. Cobden has throughout argued the corn question on the principle of holding up the landlords of England to the people as plunderers and knaves for maintaining the corn law to save their rents, and as fools because it was not necessary for that purpose.”
    1. Do you regard this as a fair characterization of Cobden’s Anti-Corn Law agitation? Give reasons for your opinion.
    2. What converted Peel to Free Trade?
  3. [Tariffs]
    1. What was the Cobden treaty and in what lay its chief importance?
    2. Describe the protectionist reaction in France and state its causes.
  4. [France and Germany]
    1. Compare the railway policy of France with that of Germany, giving briefly history and results.
    2. Make a similar comparison of the policies of France and Germany in regard to shipping subsidies.
    3. May any conclusions of value for other countries be drawn from the experience of France and Germany? State the grounds for your view.
  5. Comment on the following (from a speech by Mr. Chamberlain, 1903): “In thirty years the total imports of manufactures which could just as well be made in this country have increased £86,000,000, and the total exports have decreased £6,000,000. £92,000,000 of trade that we might have done here has gone to the foreigner, and what has been the result for our own people? The Board of Trade tells you that you may take one-half of the export as representing wages. We therefore have lost £46,000,000 a year in wages during the thirty years. That would give employment to nearly 600,000 men at 30s. per week of continuous employment. That would give a fair subsistence for these men and their families, amounting to 3,000,000 persons.”
  6. What has been the attitude of European governments toward the so-called Trust Problem?

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

Image Source: “The Corn Laws Part 2–Real”at the website “British Food: A History”.