Harvard. Exam questions for Principles of Economics. Taussig and Andrew, 1903-1904

After the longest break from posting since I began this blog almost eight years ago, I now return to regular posting for most of the rest of this month (May 2023).

We resume our slow march through the economics exams at Harvard in the first decade of the 20th century with the semester examinations for the undergraduate introductory course in economics for the academic year 1903-04. The division of labor between A. P. Andrew and Frank Taussig appears to have been Taussig being responsible for the first semester with his junior partner Andrew taking over for the second semester. This would be consistent with the fact  that the year-end examination was not included in Taussig’s personal scrapbook of course examinations [Harvard University Archives. Prof. F. W. Taussig, Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935  (Scrapbook)]. 

___________________________

Course Enrollment, 1903-04

Economics 1. Professor Taussig, Asst. Professor Andrew, and five assistants. — Outlines of Economics.

Total 529: 1 Graduate, 15 Seniors, 108 Juniors, 279 Sophomores, 72 Freshmen, 54 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 66.

___________________________

Economics 1
Mid-Year Examination. 1903-04

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer nine questions, and give your reasons for all answers.

1. Is it advantageous to laborers, temporarily or permanently, that there should be (1) large government expenditures for military purposes; (2) large government expenditures for improvements in transportation; (3) luxurious expenditure by the rich; (4) savings by the rich? (You are free to discuss these separately, or as one general question.)
2. Which of the following are productive laborers (1) according to Mill’s distinction, (2) in your own opinion:—

an actor;
a grain merchant;
one who engages in “commercial speculation”,
one who engages in “industrial speculation”;
one who engages in stock speculation.

3. Will the population of a country be able to increase more rapidly when there is immigration than when there is not? Will it probably increase more rapidly?
4. Suppose the variations in the fertility of land to be offset precisely by disadvantage in situation — the more distant land being the more fertile, the nearer land the less fertile — would there be rent? Would your answer be the same or different, according as you assume the whole of the land to be under cultivation, or some parts of it to be not yet in use?
5. The significance of the principle of demand and supply, as regards (1) perishable commodities, (2) durable commodities, (3) monopolized commodities, — wherein different, wherein the same?
6. How far is the proposition that the value of commodities conforms to their cost of production affected by (1) the varying rent of land; (2) the use of fixed capital (plant) on a great scale; (3) the growth of combinations?
7. Is there a tendency to equality in the return to capital? in net profits (“business profits”)? in gross profits?
8. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the regulation of combinations and monopolies by (1) limitations of profits, (2) fixing of prices charged to the public, (3) enforcement of farsighted management?
9. Suppose all education and training to be gratuitous, and all obstacles to the free choice of occupations removed: would there be differences of wages? If so, of what sort? If not, why not?
10. How do you conceive the remuneration for labor to be determined in a socialistic community? Wherein is the underlying principle different from that in existing society? What do you believe to be the essential merit or defect, or both, of the socialist principle?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1903-04.

___________________________

Economics 1
Year-End Examination. 1903-04

Write answers strictly in the order of the questions.
Omit one question from each group.

I

1. Differences of wages are sometimes due to the presence of competition, sometimes to its absence. Give examples of each.
2. What factors tend to prevent the rate of interest from an excessive rise? from an excessive fall?
3. What would be the effect upon the wealth of a community
   1. if landlords gave up all claims to rent?
   2. if all production took place upon the margin of cultivation?
   3. if the price of all agricultural produce were legally fixed at the average cost of production?
4. What influences govern the value on the New York market of
   1. coffee?
   2. structural steel?
   3. hides?

II

5. Under normal conditions in the United States the par of exchange on London is $4.866, and the value of 23.2 grains of gold is $1.00. Suppose that the market price of gold was quoted at 5 cents per grain, and exchange on London was quoted at $5.65. What would this indicate
   1. as to the balance of trade?
   2. as to the character of the currency?
6. President Lincoln is reported to have said: “When we buy a ton of steel rails abroad, we get the rails and the foreigner gets the money; but when we buy a ton of steel rails produced at home, we get both the rails and the money.”
   Give your opinion of this statement as an argument for protection.
7. “The fact that the greenbacks have circulated at par for more than a quarter of a century is a strong guarantee that their retention in limited amount, always promptly redeemable, has not proved a mistake.”
   State briefly the history of the greenbacks, and give your opinion of this statement with reasons.
8. “They also urge — and this is in some respects their strongest argument — that a slowly depreciating currency is better than a slowly appreciating one.” — Hadley.
   Explain and criticise, stating the effect of a depreciating standard upon each of the four great shares in distribution.

III

9. Given

Capital, $100.000;
Loans, $250.000;
Deposits, $240.000.

Complete and balance the account to show the condition of a National bank in New York city with a reasonable circulation giving in detail the items concerning the issue and securing of notes. How would the items probably differ, if the bank was located it Yonkers?

10. Does an increase in bank notes add (1) to the amount, and (2) to the elasticity of the total currency in
    1. the United States?
    2. England?
    3. France?
    4. Germany?
11. In the present industrial combinations how far have the economies of large scale and centralized production resulted in benefit to consumers? Give reasons.
12. What four changes in industrial conditions resultant from the introduction of the factory system have influenced the character of modern trade-unionism?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, June 1904, pp. 25-27.

Image Sources:  Frank W. Taussig (Original black and white image from of Frank William Taussig from a cabinet card photograph, 1895, at the Harvard University Archives HUP); Abram Piatt Andrews (Picture from ca. 1909 used in a magazine article about Andrew’s appointment to the directorship of the U. S. Mint. Hoover Institution Archives. A. Piatt Andrew Papers, Box 51). Images colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.