Having just returned from nearly three weeks of travel to visit family in the U.S., I can continue the work of transcribing and posting of artifacts for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. During my trip I was even able to sneak in a few days of work in the Harvard University archive. My first priority now is to supplement earlier posts with complementary material from this last archival visit.
Very recently I posted “Harvard. Final exams for international payments and specie flows. Dunbar and Meyer, 1894,1901“. That post included the mid-year examination for the course taught by Hugo Richard Meyer (International Payments and the Flow of the Precious Metals) in 1900-1901. This post is able to include the final examination for the second semester course taught by Oliver M. Sprague (Banking and the history of the leading Banking Systems). It does not appear that the courses were conceived as a sequence, but the common course number does reflect the shared substantive content of international payments and finance.
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About the instructors
Hugo Richard Meyer (b. 1866, d. 1923). Biographical information.
Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague (b. 1873, d. 1953). Biographical Information.
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Enrollments
1900-01
[Economics] 12a1 . Mr. Meyer.—International Payments and the Flow of the Precious Metals.
Total 16: 2 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Other.
[Economics 122 hf. Dr. Sprague. — Banking and the History of the Leading Banking Systems.
Total 128: 4 Graduates, 51 Seniors, 43 Juniors, 16 Sophomores, 14 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1900-1901, p. 64.
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ECONOMICS 12a1.
Mid-Year Examination. 1901.
Observe strictly the order in which the questions are arranged.
- Sidgwick’s criticisms on Mill’s doctrine of international trade and their validity.
- What temporary changes in the general level of prices in this country should you expect to see, as the result of a large permanent withdrawal of foreign capital? What ultimate change of prices should you expect?
- Suppose the exportation of specie from the United States to be prohibited (or, as has sometimes been suggested, to be slightly hindered), what would be the effect on rates of exchange, and on prices of goods, either domestic or foreign? Would the country be a loser or not? [See Ricardo (McCulloch’s ed.), page 139.]
- The conditions which led to the flow of gold to the United States in the fiscal years 1880 and 1881?
- What economic conditions or events tended to make the year 1890 a turning point both in domestic and in international finance?
Alternative:
The reasons for the return flow from Europe of American securities in the years 1890-1900?
- What sort of wealth did France actually sacrifice in paying the indemnity? What was the process?
- Is Mr. Clare justified in making the general statement that “the gold-points mark the highest level to which an exchange may rise, and the lowest to which it may fall”?
- Why is it that certain trades bills are drawn chiefly, or even exclusively, in one direction, e.g. by New York on London and not vice versa; and how is this practice made to answer the purpose of settling payments which have to be made in one direction?
Alternative:
Why has England become the natural clearing-house for the world?
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ECONOMICS 122
Final Examination.
Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer all the questions under A and two of those under B
A
- Explain in detail and under different circumstances the effect of an advance of the rate of discount by the Bank of England upon the money market of London and upon the foreign exchanges.
- Taking the separate items of a bank account point out how those of the Bank of Amsterdam differed from those of a modern bank.
- Define and explain:—
- Bill broker.
- Banking Principle.
- The State Bank of Indiana.
- The banking law of Louisiana.
- Clearing House Certificates.
- The extent and banking consequences of government control of the Bank of France and the Reichsbank.
- How do government receipts and expenditures affect the money market (a) of London, (b) of New York?
- Explain with illustrations from the crises of 1857 and 1893 the nature of the demand for cash in time of crisis, and consider how far that demand may be met under a flexible system of note issue.
B
- (a) How far and with what qualifications may banking experience in the United States before 1860 be appealed to in the discussion of changes in our banking system? (b) How far, similarly, may Canadian experience be applied?
- “Why compel banks to send home for redemption a multitude of notes which can as well be used in payments and are sure to be reissued at once? Why impede the free use of its power of circulation by any enterprising bank by requiring the early redemption of notes which the holder does not in fact care or need to have redeemed?”
Explain from past experience what regulations may be expected to bring about these results, and give the reasons for demanding them. - Discuss the question of branch banking with reference to the United States, including in your discussion considerations of safety and economy. Would branch banking be more desirable than at present if notes were issued against general banking assets.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, June, 1901 , pp. 33-35.
Image Source: Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague in Harvard Business School Yearbook, 1930-31, p. 18.