Benjamin M. Anderson taught at Harvard for five years. A syllabus and enrollment figures for his 1917-18 course “Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises” have already been posted. The final examination questions for his course, a.k.a. Economics 3, (transcribed below) come from the second term of this two-term course. Perhaps we get lucky and I, or someone else, might locate the mid-year exam for this course eventually.
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Course Announcement and Description
[Economics] 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. Tu., Th., at 1.30, with a third hour for sections on Friday morning, Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning.
Asst. Professor Anderson, assisted by Mr.—.
This course undertakes a theoretical, descriptive, and historical study of the main problems of money and banking. Historical and descriptive materials, drawn from the principal systems of the world, will be extensively used, but will be selected primarily with reference to their significance in the development of principles, and with reference to contemporary problems of public policy. Foreign exchange, speculation, and the money-market will be studied in some detail. Crises will be studied in both their industrial and their financial aspects.
Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1917-18 published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XIV, No. 25 (May 18, 1917), p. 60.
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Final Examination
Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises
Assistant Professor Benjamin M. Anderson
1917-18
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 3
- Describe panics and crises. How may panics be controlled? How may the evils of crises be minimized?
- Give an account of the growth of private banks since the Civil War. What types of private banks are there? Where are the different types chiefly to be found?
- What evils in our monetary and banking system did the Federal Reserve Act seek to remedy? What amendments have there been to the Act? Why were these amendments made?
- Contrast “one-name” and “two-name” paper.
- Give an account of the Crisis of 1907.
- What theories have you met regarding bank reserves? What facts have you met by which to test these theories?
- What price changes have taken place during the War in the United States? How explain these price-changes?
- Must the value of money rest on a commodity basis?
- Contrast the London and the New York Stock Exchanges.
- Contrast the German and the English banking systems as they were before the War.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28, 60 of 284). Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Papers Set for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Fine Arts, Music, June, 1918. p. 43.
Image Source: Benjamin M. Anderson in Harvard Album, 1915.