For most students who go on to concentrate in economics, the principles of economics course is the first contact with the discipline. Like they say, you have only one try to make a first impression. We’ll see in a coming post that Taussig’s textbook Principles of Economics still served as the backbone of the Harvard principles course twenty years later.
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Course Description
INTRODUCTORY COURSES
Primarily for Undergraduates
[Economics] A. Principles of Economics. , Th., Sat., at 11. Asst. Professor Day and Dr. Davis, Dr. Burbank and Messrs. P. G. Wright, Monroe, Lincoln, and Van Sickle.
Course A gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes an analysis of the present organization of industry, the mechanism of exchange, the determination of value, and the distribution of wealth.
The course is conducted partly by lectures, more largely by oral discussion in sections. Taussig’s Principles of Economics is used as the basis of discussion.
Course A may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor.
Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics. 1917-18. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XIV, No. 25 (May 18, 1917) p. 58.
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Course Enrollment
[Economics] A. Asst. Professor Day and Asst. Professor J. S. Davis, Dr. Burbank, Mr. Monroe, and Dr. E. E. Lincoln.—Principles of Economics.
Total 258: 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 73 Juniors, 150 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 23 Other.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1917-18, p. 53.
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1917-18
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS A
Mid-year Final Examination
Plan your answers carefully before writing. Write concisely. Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions, beginning each on a new page.
- What is labor? To what extent is it irksome? How, if at all, is the irksomeness of labor to be minimized?
- Explain “producers’ surplus.” Under what conditions of cost does it arise? How is monopoly profit to be distinguished from producers’ surplus? Illustrate throughout by diagram.
- “Before the war started the bullion value of the U.S. silver dollar, measured in gold, was about 42c. At this rate it took 37 ounces of silver to equal one of gold. Today [October, 1917], with silver bullion at about $1.00 an ounce, the value of a silver dollar is 77c., a ratio of about 20 to 1. It would only take another advance such as occurred within the last month for silver to reach the U.S. coinage ratio of ‘16 to 1.’”
In this case what would happen, and why? Would the consequences be objectionable? If so, on what grounds? If not, why not? - Explain briefly: (a) commercial banking; (b) “deposits as currency”; (c) bank reserves; (d) Federal Reserve notes; (e) Gold Settlement Fund.
- Analyze the factors contributing to the present “high cost of living.”
- “The nations of the world should adopt a uniform system of currency with a common standard. This would do away with all this bother about ‘par of exchange,’ ‘gold points,’ ‘rate of exchange,’ etc.”
To what extent is this conclusion warranted? Explain. - To what extent does the following offer a solution of the tariff problem?
“In all tariff legislation the true principle of protection is best maintained by the imposition of such duties as will equal the difference between the cost of production at home and abroad.” - Comment briefly upon the following:
“During the days and weeks and months ahead there must be no cessation or lessening of effort on the part on any one of us—man or woman—to keep business healthy and normal.
“Industries of every kind must be maintained to their fullest capacity. Money must be kept in circulation. There must be no hysterical, misguided retrenchment, masquerading under the cloak of economy.
“The nation calls for every encouragement and support that the commercial and industrial forces can supply—and that means everybody doing his bit to keep business booming.”
Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Course reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992 (UA V 349.295.6). Box 1, Folder “Economics I, Final Exams 1913-1939”.
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1917-18
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS A
Year-end Final Examination
Plan your answers carefully before writing. Write concisely. Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions, beginning each on a new page.
- What factors tend to limit the extension of (a) large-scale production in agriculture? (b) large-scale production in manufacture? (c) large-scale management, or industrial combination?
- Explain briefly: (a) demand; (b) decreasing cost; (c) internal economies; (d) “dumping.”
- State carefully: (a) Gresham’s law; (b) the law of diminishing returns; (c) the law of monopoly price; (d) Malthus’s law of population.
- To what extent and for what reasons should taxes be employed in financing the present war?
- In what respects are business profits like, in what unlike, (a) wages? (b) rent?
- What practical expedients would you suggest for raising the wages of workers in the lowest social group?
- Discuss the following contention: “One objection to having the state pay people when they are ill or old or out of work is that it saps that personal initiative and prudence and foresight which lie at the basis of an orderly civilization.”
- What grounds are there for saying that under a socialistic régime the efficiency of the rank and file of workers would be (a) greater? (b) less?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Course reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992 (UA V 349.295.6). Box 1, Folder “Economics I, Final Exams 1913-1939”.