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Harvard. Exams for Political Economy Courses and Ethics of Social Questions, 1890-1891

 

With the academic year 1890-91, a new instructor joined the Harvard political economy team, William Morse Cole who co-taught Political Economy 1 with Frank Taussig and  Political Economy 8, History of Financial Legislation in the United States. Cole went on to have a successful career as professor of accounting at Harvard Business School. 

The previous year’s exams have been transcribed and posted earlier:

Harvard. Final exams in political economy and ethics of social reform, 1889-1890

_________________________

1890-1891. Philosophy 14.

Enrollment

[Philosophy] 11. Professor F. G. Peabody. — The Ethics of Social Questions. — The questions of Charity, Divorce, the Indians, Temperance, and the various phases of the Labor Question (Socialism, Communism, Arbitration, Cooperation, etc.), as questions of practical Ethics. — Lectures, essays, and practical observations. 3 hours.

Total 103: 4 Graduates, 53 Senior, 28 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 57.

 

 

PHILOSOPHY 14.
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.
Mid-year examination (1890-91)

[Omit one question.]

  1. The attitude of political economy toward the questions of social reform.
  2. Consider the possible relations in which your own life may stand to the life of society, and their ethical significance.
  3. Examine a special case of moral heroism and state what, in your opinion, was its motive.
  4. What, according to Professor Sumner, are the duties toward others of “a free man in a free democracy”? Why? And with what result, in your opinion, to society?
  5. Enumerate and illustrate some of the practical rules of good charity which issue from the philosophy of charity.
  6. The relation of the labor question in France and England to the political history of those countries.
  7. Compare the conditions of wealth and the possibilities of revolution in England and in this country.
  8. Consider Carlyle’s doctrine of the “Captain of Industry” as a solution of the modern labor question.
  9. What does Ruskin mean by: Roots of honor; veins of purple; non-competitive just exchange; ad valorem?
  10. What is there in religion which encourages the Socialist and what is there which repels him, and what relation between socialism and religion is, in your judgment, likely to be the result?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

 

 

 

PHILOSOPHY 14.
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

[Omit one question.]

  1. “All wealth is due to labor; therefore to labor all wealth is due.” What, in your opinion, is the economic importance, and the justice, of this proposition?
  2. Compare the views of the Socialist, the Individualist and the “Opportunist” as to the tendency toward State interference. What is your own view of the merits of this kind of legislation?
  3. “Well may Prince Bismarck display leanings toward State Socialism.” Why does Mr. Spencer make this remark, and with what justice?
  4. On what principle would a Professor be paid, under the Socialist programme?
  5. Consider the commercial advantages and hindrances of an establishment like the Hebden Bridge Fustian Mill.
  6. Compare the principle of profit-sharing formerly used in the American Fisheries with that represented by the firm of Billon et Isaac.
  7. Describe the general features and the main intention of the Dawes Indian Bill; and the supplementary legislation now proposed.
  8. What is meant by the “Philosophy of the Family,” and what is its relation to the modern Divorce Question?
  9. If you should enter the retail liquor business in Boston, what legal restrictions would you find hampering the freedom of your trade?
  10. Apply the doctrine of the “Social Organism” to the question of Temperance.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3.  Papers Set for Final examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1891) in bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1890-91.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 1. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig and Mr. [William Morse] Cole. —

First half-year: —

Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. 3 hours

Second half-year: —

Division A (Theoretical): Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. 3 hours.

Division B (Descriptive): Lectures on Finance, Labor and Capital, Coöperation. — Hadley’s Railroad Transportation. —  Laughlin’s Bimetallism. 3 hours.

Total 201:

A: 10 Seniors, 53 Juniors, 50 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 19 Others.
B: 12 Seniors, 31 Juniors, 15 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

 

Student notes available at the Harvard Archives

Kennedy, Frank Lowell, Notes on lectures by Frank W. Taussig and William M. Cole on Political Economy 1, 1890-1891. Harvard University Archives HUC 8890.371.1

 

1890-91.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-year examination.

[Divide your time equally between the two parts of the paper.]

I.
[Omit two.]

  1. “Whether men like it or not, the unproductive expenditure of individuals will pro tanto tend to impoverish the community, and only their productive expenditure will enrich it.”
    “It would be a great error to regret the large proportion of the annual produce which in an opulent country goes to supply unproductive consumption.”
    Can you reconcile these two statements of Mill’s?
  2. “Hardly any two dealers in the same trade, even if their commodities are equally good and equally cheap, carry on their business at the same expense, or turn over their capital in the same time. That equal capitals give equal profits, as a general maxim of trade, would be as false as that equal age or size give equal bodily strength, or that equal reading or experience give equal knowledge.” Can you reconcile this statement of Mill’s with the doctrine of the tendency of profits to an equality?
  3. How far is it true that a general rise or fall in wages would not affect values?
  4. Suppose a country having a metallic currency to issue inconvertible paper to one-half the amount of the coin, and trace the effects on prices and on the circulating medium (1) in an isolated country, having no international trade; (2) in a country having international trade.
  5. On the same supposition, trace the effects, in the country having international trade, on the foreign exchanges, on the course of international trade, and on the terms of international exchange.
  6. “If consumers were to save and covert into capital more than a limited portion of their income, and were not to devote to unproductive consumption an amount of means bearing a certain ratio to the capital of the country, the extra accumulation would be merely so much waste, since there would be no market for the commodities which the capital so created would produce.” Is this true?

II.
[Answer all.]

  1. “Capital is not the result of saving; it is not an accumulation. Its nature is that it should be consumed almost as fast as it is produced. … Saving or accumulation would necessarily defeat the end of its existence. How can materials or tools be saved?” Answer the question.
  2. Explain why rent is not an element in the cost of production of the commodity which yields it.
  3. Connect the law of the increase of labor with the law of production from land.
  4. What is the effect of gratuitous education for a profession on the wages of those engaged in it?
  5. Why does the durability of the precious metals give stability to their value?
  6. What are the laws of value applicable to (1) iron ore, (2) watch-springs, (3) wool and mutton, (4) patented bicycles?
  7. How does the rate of interest bear on the price of land and of securities?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-end examination (June 1891)
Division A.

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. Wherein is the effect of a change in the demand for commodities on the wages-fund different (1) if competition among laborers is effective? (2) if it is not effective?
  2. On what grounds does Cairnes reach the same conclusions, as to the possible effects of Trades Unions on general wages, for England and for the United States?
  3. Examine Cairnes’s reasoning as to the possibility of maintaining the accumulation of capital in a socialist community.
  4. Why are the wages of women, according to Mill, lower than the wages of men? Accepting Mill’s explanation, what would Cairnes say as to the laws of value applicable to the exchange of the products of women’s labor with the products of men’s labor?
  5. What is the error in saying that high wages make high prices?
  6. “Gold may be cheap, and prices at the same time be low.” Explain.
  7. Is it true that the benefit of foreign trade lies in its affording an outlet for the surplus produce of the community?
  8. Suppose the people of the United States to borrow annually large sums from Europe; and suppose them also to have large interest payments to make on loans contracted in previous years; would you expect our foreign trade to show an excess of imports or of exports?
  9. Mill says that an emission of inconvertible paper money, equal in amount to the specie previously circulating, will drive out the whole of the metallic money; “that is, if paper be issued of as low a denomination as the lowest coin; if not, as much will remain as convenience requires for the smaller payments.” What light is thrown on this statement by the experience of the United States in 1862?
  10. Why did the circumstance that an exceptionally large part of the country’s business was done for cash in the period immediately after the civil war make the time favorable for a speedy contraction of the currency?
  11. Is payment for capital sunk in the soil, rent, or profit?

Division B.

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]
[One question may be omitted.]

  1. Why have pools and traffic agreements been more stable in England than in the United States?
  2. Why does a railroad charge more per ton per mile on cotton goods than on coal?
  3. “A government enterprise may be managed on any one of four principles: 1. as a tax; 2. for business profits; 3. to pay expenses; 4. for public service, without much regard to the question of expenses.” Explain, giving an example under each head.
  4. Wherein is there a resemblance between the legislation of France as to railways and as to banking?
  5. Arrange in proper order the following items of a bank account: Capital, 300; Loans, 1150; Bonds and Stocks, 50; Surplus, 85; Undivided Profits, 10; Cash, 110; Cash items, 90; Notes, 90; Real Estate, 25; Other Assets, 20; Deposits, 960.
    Do you see any reason for believing this bank to be or not to be a national bank of the United States? To be a city or a country bank?
  6. Suppose the national banks of the United States ceased to issue notes, their other operations remaining as now; how great would be the effect of the change on the circulating medium of the community? Compare the effect with that which would ensue in Germany if the note issue of the German banks were to cease.
  7. Under the national bank act, how does the action of our banks, when their reserves are suddenly lowered, differ from that of the Bank of England in like case?
  8. Wherein is the mode of dividing profits among members of the coöperative stores in England different from that of the coöperative building associations of the United States?
  9. Wherein does bimetallism as now practiced in France differ from bimetallism as it was in France in 1850? Wherein does it differ from bimetallism as it is in the United States now?
  10. Compare the legislation of Germany on coinage in 1873 with that of the United States in 1853.
  11. Mill divides commodities into three classes, according to the laws of value applicable to them. In which class would you put silver bullion?
  12. Describe carefully the act for the resumption of specie payments, stating when it was passed, when it went into effect, and how far it was successful in accomplishing the desired object.
  13. Will a general rise in wages affect values? prices? profits?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Papers Set for Final examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1891) in bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-92.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 2. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig and Mr. [John Graham] Brooks. — History of Economic Theory. — Examination of selections from Leading Writers. — Socialism. 3 hours.

Total 23: 4 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

 

Previously Posted

https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-history-of-economic-theory-final-exam-questions-taussig-1891-94/

Fun fact: W.E.B. Dubois was enrolled in Economics 2 in 1890/91 as a graduate student and was awarded a grade of A (one of six awarded to the twenty-two who received grades,  as recorded in Taussig’s scrapbook).

1890-91.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-year examination.

[Divide your time equally between the two parts of the paper.]
[Omit one question.]

  1. It has been suggested that the real source from which wages are paid is not the product of the laborer, nor the capital of the employer, but the income of the consumer. What should you say?
  2. To which of the following cases, if to any, is the reasoning of the wages fund theory applicable? (1) The farmer tilling his own land with his own capital; (2) the fisherman working for a share of the catch; (3) the independent artisan working on his own account with borrowed capital; (4) the employer who habitually sells his product before pay-day, and pays his laborers with the proceeds.
  3. Wherein does President Walker’s view of the source from which wages are paid differ from George’s?
  4. “The extra gains which any producer or dealer obtains through superior talent in business, or superior business arrangements, are very much of a similar kind [to rent.] If all his competitors had the same advantages, and used them, the benefit would be transferred to the consumers, through the diminished value of the article; he only retains it for himself because he is able to bring his commodity to market at a lower cost, while its value is determined by a higher…. Wages and profits represent the universal elements in production, while rent may be taken to represent the differential and peculiar; any difference in favor of certain producers, or in favor of production in certain circumstances, being the source of a gain, which, though not called rent, unless paid periodically by one person to another, is governed by laws entirely the same with it.”—Mill, Political Economy, book iii., ch. v., §4.
    What has President Walker added to this in his discussion of business profits?
  5. “It is true that money does not beget money; but capital does manifestly beget capital. If a man borrows a thousand ducats and ties them up in a bag, he will not find any little ducats in the bag at the end of the year; but if he purchases with the ducats a flock of sheep, he will, with proper attention, have lambs enough at the end of the year to make a handsome interest on the loan, and make a handsome profit for himself. If the turns the ducats into corn, he will find it bringing forth, some thirty, some sixty, some an hundred fold…Very seldom does a man borrow money to use it, as money, through the term of his loan. When he does so, as brokers for example sometimes do, he may to Antonio’s question, ‘Is your gold and silver rams and ewes?’ return Shylock’s answer, ‘I cannot tell; I make it breed as fast.’”
    Discuss this explanation of interest. Whom do you suppose to be the writer of the extract?
  6. “The natural history of the notion on which it [the wages-fund doctrine] rests, is not obscure. It grew out of the conditions which existed in England during and immediately subsequent to the Napoleonic wars. Two things were then noted. First, capital had become accumulated in the island to such an extent that employers found no (financial) difficulty in paying their laborers by the month, week, or day, instead of requiring them to await the fruition of their labor in the harvested or marketed product. Second, the wages were, in fact, generally so low that they furnished no more than a bare subsistence, while the employment offered was so restricted that an increase in the number of laborers had the effect to throw some out of employment or to reduce the wages for all. Out of these things the wages-fund theory was put together.”
    Examine this account of the rise of the wages-fund doctrine.
  7. Discuss the method of reasoning followed by Adam Smith, and illustrate by his treatment of two of the following topics: (1) the causes which bring about high wages; (2) the effects on domestic industry of restraints on importation; (3) the origin and effects of the division of labor.
  8. Explain how Ricardo’s conception of wages bears on his conclusions as to the effects of taxes on wages, and as to the net income of society.
  9. What can be said in justification of the views of the writers of the mercantile school?

Source: Harvard University Archives. In Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

 

Second semester taught by John Graham Brooks.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

  1. From Rousseau to the Fabians, what have been the chief historic changes in the Philosophy of Socialism?
  2. In detail, state the differences between the Marx type of Socialism and that of the Fabians.
  3. With reference to the “three rents” what are the most important objections to Socialism?
  4. What reasons can you give to show that Socialism is likely to have much further development in our society?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Papers Set for Final examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1891) in bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-92.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 3. Mr. [John Graham] Brooks. Investigation and Discussion of Practical Economic Questions. — Social Questions. — Short theses. 1st half-year. 3 hours.

Total 10: 1 Graduate, 7 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

 

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-year examination

  1. State the general objects of the German State Insurance, with reasons why it is likely, or not likely, to reach its objects.
  2. State in detail the strong points and the weak points of Trades Unions.
  3. What is the effect of Trades Unions upon their own wages, as distinguished from wages in general?
  4. What advantages has Profit Sharing over the present forms of the wages system?
  5. Are there reasons to believe that Profit Sharing will have much larger influence in the future?
  6. With special reference to the work of the half year, what “social remedies” appear to you most promising?

Source: Harvard University Archives. In Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 4. Professor [Charles Franklin] Dunbar. — Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. —Lectures and written work. 3 hours.

Total 103: 29 Seniors, 28 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 17 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

Other course material available at the Harvard Archives

Topics and references in political economy IV [1891?]. Student’s copy belonging to C. King Morrison, ’91. with manuscript notes. Harvard University Archives HUC 8890.371

Larrabee, Ralph Clinton (A.B. 1893). Notes in Political Economy 4: lectures by Prof. Dunbar, 1890-1891. Harvard University Archives HUC 8890.371.4.48

Principle text for Political Economy 4

From the prefatory note to Benjamin Rand’s (ed.) Selections illustrating economic history since the Seven Years’ War (Cambridge, MA: Waterman and Amee, 1889):

These selections have been made for use as a text-book of required reading to accompany a course of lectures on economic history given at Harvard College.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Mid-year examination

Lay out your time carefully, reserving 15 minutes for review and correction.

A.
Give half of your time (say 80 minutes) to A, omitting one question.

  1. Make a careful statement of the leading provisions of the English navigation and colonial system.
  2. Adam Smith’s reasons for saying that the policy of Great Britain towards her colonies had, upon the whole, been less illiberal and oppressive than that of other countries towards theirs. [Rand, pp. 12-26.]
  3. Contrast the effects of the French revolutionary period upon the holding and distribution of land, in France and Germany respectively.
  4. Describe the current of opinion and the industrial conditions which made free trade inevitably the policy for England.
  5. State the reasons for the logical and political importance of the corn laws in the English free trade movement.
  6. The essential differences between the French and the Anglo-American methods of managing railway construction and ownership, and the effect and advantages of each.

B.
Give 80 minutes to B, omitting two questions.

  1. The trade between the United States and the British West Indies, before our revolution, and after.
  2. The inventions or improvements which made the development of the cotton States possible.
  3. The condition of commerce and manufactures in the United States in the two periods, 1794-1808, and 1808-1815.
  4. The successive enterprises for opening communication with the territory north of the Ohio, and their importance.
  5. The English legislation respecting cotton goods in the last century and the reasons for it.
  6. What was the effect of the Napoleonic wars upon the introduction of manufactures on the continent of Europe?
  7. The comparative state of preparation of England, France, Germany, and the United States for undertaking the modern industries when the peace of 1815 came.
  8. Give what account you can of the career and opinions of Turgot, with dates.
  9. The contributions of Stein and Hardenberg respectively to the reform in the Prussian system of land-holding.
  10. On what plan was the Zollverein organized?
  11. What are the differences in industrial characteristics which make it natural for England and France to adopt different policies as to protection and free trade?

Source: Harvard University Archives. In Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

 

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

Lay out your time carefully, reserving 15 minutes for review and correction

A.
Give half of your time to A. omitting one question.

  1. The establishment of the Zollverein is spoken of [Rand, page 138] as “the first step towards what is called the Germanization of the people” and to have “prepared the way for a political nationality.” Show how it had this effect.
  2. Cairnes, in his discussion of the new gold, [Rand, page 197] shows that “a given addition to the metallic stock of Great Britain and the United States … will cause a greater expansion of the total circulation, and therefore will support a greater advance in general prices, that the same addition to the currency of … France … and that again, the effect in countries like France will be greater than in countries like India or China.” Why is this, and how much effect did this difference in sensitiveness produce in the years after 1850?
  3. Cairnes lays down [Rand, page 209] that “every country is interested in raising as rapidly as possible the prices of its productions,–in other words, in the most rapid possible depreciation in the local value of its gold.” What are the grounds for this proposition?
  4. The writer in Blackwood’s, [Rand, page 228] says that the most important point in the payment of the French indemnity is “How came it that £170,000,000 [4,250,000,000 francs] of bills could be got at all”? What is the explanation of this fact?
  5. What are the reasons for looking upon Italy as a possible serious competitor in ocean navigation, and what are her great drawbacks in such competition?

B.

  1. What are the marked differences between the great change in the production and value of the precious metals in the sixteenth century, and that in the nineteenth?
  2. Why was an additional supply of gold especially important to the world in the years 1850-60?
  3. How does the mere saving of time in transportation, or in the transmission of intelligence, produce an effect upon commerce?
  4. How far was the civil war the cause of the decline of American shipping after 1860?
  5. What reasons made the breaking out of a financial crisis in the United States in 1873 easier than usual?
  6. Why did the payment of the French indemnity disturb the financial quiet of other countries than France and Germany?
  7. What are the great cases of resumption of specie payment in the years 1875-85, and how were they brought about respectively?
  8. Why is the trade between countries so often “triangular,” and why is England so generally one of the parties concerned?
  9. How does the modern theory of the utility of colonies differ from that of a century or two ago?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Papers Set for Final examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1891) in bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-92.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 6. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig. — History of Tariff Legislation in the United States. 2 hours. 2d half-year

Total 43: 1 Graduate, 28 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

 

 

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer all questions.]

  1. Explain wherein France and the United States were in similar positions, as regards customs policy, in 1814-15; and state briefly the legislation to which these situations led in the two countries.
  2. What was the argument, discussed in Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures, which rested on the supposed exceptions productiveness of agriculture? What was Hamilton’s answer? What is the sound view?
  3. How did Gallatin propose in 1831 to fix customs duties without regard to their protective effect? Walker in 1845?
  4. Was there any ground in 1832 for saying that the duties on imports were equivalent to duties on exports? Is there now?
  5. How did the general fall in prices after 1819 affect the growth of manufactures in the United States?
  6. “The climate, soil, and conditions generally in the Northwest, are very favorable to the cultivation of flax fibre as well as of the seed. After a short experience as to the primary manipulation and handling of the flax fibre, our farmers would produce flax which would compare favorably with the best varieties of the fibre. It seems strange that a practical people like ourselves should for years have been satisfied to cultivate seed for flax at a value of about $15 per acre, and at the same time allow 600 pounds of flax fibre per acre to rot on the ground, this fibre having a value, after being manipulated, of $186 per ton.”
    Can you explain the anomaly?
  7. Describe the process by which the duties on woollen cloths, as they stand in the act of 1890, were arrived at.
  8. What ground is there for saying that the protective movement in the United States is part of a general reaction towards protection which has appeared in most civilized countries in recent years?
  9. It has been said that the tariff act of 1789 began the protective policy of the United States; that the act of 1816 was the first giving serious protection; that the act of 1824 was the first strictly protective act. Which statement, if any, do you think true?
  10. Which of the important tariff acts between 1835 and 1859 were passed quite without regard to financial considerations?
  11. What does the continued importation of clothing wool indicate as to the effect of the duty on the domestic price? of pig iron? of silks?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Papers Set for Final examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1891) in bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-92.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 7. Professor [Charles Franklin] Dunbar. — Public Finance and Taxation. — Cohn’s Finanzwissenschaft. 3 hours.

Total 7: 2 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 1 Junior.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

 

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

It is recommended that at least a third of the time be given to B.

A.

  1. Accepting the usual reasoning that a tax under some circumstances, by diminishing the income from property, diminishes its selling value, and so ceases to be felt by subsequent purchasers, should you say,—
    1. That the French impôt foncier is a tax on present landholders?
    2. That the English income-tax under Schedule A. is a tax on present landholders?
      The reason for the difference, if any exists.
  2. What is your final conclusion as to the sale of bonds or annuities at a discount, — is it defensible or not, and on what grounds?
  3. Explain the English method of using terminable annuities for the reduction of the public debt, as in 1867 and 1883, and discuss its advantages and drawbacks.
  4. “The administrator of local finances is permitted to found a sinking-fund at the time of issuing bonds, a permission, it will be remembered, contrary to sound rules of national financiering.”
    Does the distinction here made between local and national finances give solid ground for difference of treatment? Are the propositions as to the propriety of establishing sinking-funds in the two cases respectively tenable?
  5. Say remarks that the French government, in providing for the indemnity, bought any kind of foreign bills of exchange, “prenant tous les changes qu’elle pouvait acquérir sur quelque pay que ce fût.” How did this purchase of a bill, say upon Russia, facilitate the payment of the indemnity any more than the purchase of a bill upon Marseilles would have done, seeing that in either case the government had to collect the proceeds in order to use them?

B.

  1. In 1872 Herr Bamberger, in his pamphlet die Fünf Milliarden, regretted that Germany had not been allowed more time to absorb the indemnity, so as to avoid the risk of over-stimulated enterprise, rise of prices, and speculation.
    Discuss the probably effects, in Germany or elsewhere, (1) of longer time allowed to France; (2) of more cautious introduction of the wealth into Germany, effected

    1. By longer deposit (say) in London,
    2. By payment in securities, to be sold by Germany by degrees.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Papers Set for Final examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1891) in bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-92.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 8. Mr. [William Morse] Cole. — History of Financial Legislation in the United States. 2 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 46: 1 Graduate, 29 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

 

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
Mid-year examination

I.

  1. “That the public credit was much better during the Civil War than during the War of 1812 is proved by the fact that during the former war the bulk of the loans were sold at par, whereas during the latter the larger part were sold below par.”
    Comment on this statement.
  2. Under what authority does the Secretary of the Treasury purchase bonds in the market? Why does he not redeem them at par?
  3. Explain: “Five-twenties”; “Seven-thirties”; and tell why they were made seven-thirties; “Deferred sixes,” “5% redemption fund.”
  4. When were the first legal tenders under the present constitution authorized?
  5. What have been the express legal exemptions of government obligations from taxation since the outbrake of the Civil War?
  6. In what different capacities was each of the following men connected with the finances of the nation: Hugh McCulloch, Levi Woodbury, William Pitt Fessenden, John Tyler?

II.
(Omit two.)

1, 2. [Counts as two questions.] Compare the causes of the suspensions of 1814, 1837, and 1861.

3, 4. [Counts as two.] Mention the different systems which have been in vogue since 1789 for caring for public funds, and tell why each change was made.

    1. It was said that the bill which finally became the act for resumption in 1875 really provided for nothing in particular, and therefore ought not to be put upon the statute book. Did the provisions of the bill warrant the remark? Did subsequent history justify the remark?
    2. In what way were the French Spoliation Claims connected with the Second-Bank Struggle?
    3. Hamilton wished to have a system of internal taxation in working order as a resource in case of emergency. Does history throw any light upon the wisdom or folly of such a policy?
    4. What were the causes of Gallatin’s retirement from the Treasury?
    5. What history would you cite as an argument upon a proposition to replace bonds exempt from all taxation by bonds taxed to a moderate extent, and to distribute the receipts from the tax among the States according to the federal ratio?
    6. In a speech on the refunding bill it was said that the government made no threat, but merely promised certain privileges to those who presented bonds to be refunded at a lower rate. “No one proposes…the alternative adopted by our own Government under Hamilton’s plan of reducing the interest.”
      Is this implication regarding Hamilton’s funding justified by the facts?

11, 12. [Counts as two.] Mention as many as possible of the kinds of obligations which have been contracted by the government; i.e. character of obligation (bond or what), length of time to run, and rate of interest. Give one example under each kind,—giving period of issue, but not necessarily the exact date.

Source: Harvard University Archives. In Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

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1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 9. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig. — Railway Transportation. —Lectures and written work. 3 hours. 2d half-year

Total 20: 14 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

 

1890-91.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

[Answer all the questions, and arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

  1. Can it be fairly said that the early experience of the States of the Union supplies strong arguments against State ownership of railways? Can it be fairly said of the experience of France since 1878?
  2. State the salient events in the history of the federal land grants to railways.
  3. How do you explain the rapidity with which the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads were completed?
  4. Wherein did the so-called Granger legislation on railway rates resemble the “natural” system advocated in Germany after 1871? Wherein did it differ from it?
  5. Sketch the history and machinery of the Southern Railway and Steamship Association.
  6. Explain the difference in the working of the Trunk Line Association before and after the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act.
  7. What ground is there for saying that the prohibition of pooling in the Interstate Commerce Act is inconsistent with its prohibition of discrimination between individuals?
  8. Suppose a railway to be built and used exclusively for coal traffic; would its rates be arranged on a plan essentially different from that in use with ordinary railways, having a varied traffic?
  9. It has been said that the principle of tolls, or rates based on cost of service, makes it necessary that each item of business should pay its share of the fixed charges. Why, or why not?
  10. Sketch the history of government management of railways in Italy.
  11. “Property has reached an ideal perfection. It is felt and treated as the national lifeblood. The rights of property nothing but felony and treason can override. The house is a castle which the King cannot enter. The Bank is a strong box to which the King has no key. Whatever surly sweetness possession can give is tasted in England to the dregs. Vested rights are awful things, and absolute possession gives the smallest freeholder identity of interest with the duke.”—Emerson, English Traits.
    Wherein does the trait here described make the railroad situation in England different from that in the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Papers Set for Final examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1891) in bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-92.