With Edward Cummings and William J. Ashley gone and Frank W. Taussig on a medical leave-of-absence, the Harvard economics department had to scramble to cover its course offerings in 1901-02. The course on the history of economics up through the early nineteenth century was then taught by Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus, Charles W. Mixter. His semester final examinations questions have been transcribed below.
The immediately preceding post provides us with a student’s POV of University of Vermont Professor Charles W. Mixter in the classroom.
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Charles Whitney Mixter
(b. Sept. 23, 1869 in Chelsea, MA;
d. Oct. 21, 1936 in Washington, D.C.)
A.B. Johns Hopkins University (Md.), 1892; A.M. Harvard University, 1893; 1897 Harvard Ph.D.
Thesis title: Overproduction and overaccumulation: a study in the history of economic theory.
Edited Work
John Rae. The Sociological Theory of Capital, being a complete reprint of the New Principles of Political Economy, 1834. Edited with biographical sketch and notes by Charles Whitney Mixter, Ph.D., Professor of Political Economy in the University of Vermont. New York: Macmillan, 1905.
OBITUARY
The Burlington Free Press (Oct. 22, 1936), p. 14
Charles Whitney Mixter, for nine years a member of the University of Vermont faculty, died at a hospital in Washington, D. C., on Tuesday evening. [October 20]
Dr. Mixter was born in Chelsea, Mass., in 1867. He received his early education at Thayer Academy and Williston Seminary, and received his A.B. degree from John Hopkins University in 1892.
This was followed by graduate studies at Berlin, Goettingen and Harvard, from which he received his doctorate in 1897. Then followed a series of teaching positions: Assistant in economics at Harvard, 1897-98; Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., 1899-1900; instructor in economics, Harvard, 1901-1903; professor of economics, University of Vermont, 1903-1912.
Then Dr. Mixter served as efficiency expert for Towne and Yale at New Haven, Conn., and later for several manufacturing concerns in New Hampshire. For a year he was professor of economics at Clark University, and for a brief period he was an investigator in the service of the United States Chamber of Commerce.
For the last 13 years he had been connected with the tariff commission in Washington.
Professor Mixter had an unusually fertile mind, was an accomplished scholar in his special field, and widely read in related subjects. he became an enthusiastic student of scientific management introduced by the late Frederick W. Taylor and an active exponent of the system. He was a member of the leading economic organizations and a frequent contributor to economic journals.
He was a strong advocate of free trade. Interment was made in Plymouth, Mass.
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ECONOMICS 15
Course Description
1901-02
Primarily for Graduates
[Economics] 15. The History and Literature of Economics, to the opening of the Nineteenth Century.
Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12. Professor Ashley.
The course of economic speculation will here be followed, in its relation alike to the general movement of contemporary thought and to contemporary social conditions. The lectures will consider the economic theories of Plato and Aristotle; the economic ideas underlying Roman law; the medieval church and the canonist doctrine; mercantilism in its diverse forms; “political arithmetic”; the origin of the belief in natural rights and its influence on economic thought; the Physiocratic doctrine; the beginnings of academic instruction in economics; the work and influence of Adam Smith; the doctrine of population as presented by Malthus; and the Ricardian doctrine of distribution.
The lectures will be interrupted from time to time for the examination of selected portions of particular authors; and careful study will be given to portions of Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Politics (in translation), to Mun’s England’s Treasure, Locke’s Consideration of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, certain Essays of Hume, Turgot’s Réflexions, and specified chapters of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Malthus’ Essay, and Ricardo’s Principles. Students taking the course are expected to procure the texts of the chief authors considered, and to consult the following critical works: Ingram, History of Political Economy; Cossa, Introduction to the Study of Political Economy; Cannan, History of the Theories of Production and Distribution; Bonar, Philosophy and Political Economy; Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest; Taussig, Wages and Capital.
Course 15 is open to those who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1. It is taken to advantage after Course 2, or contemporaneously with that Course.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science (June 21, 1901), University Publications, New Series, No. 16, p. 45.
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ECONOMICS 15
Enrollment
1901-02
Economics 15. Dr. Mixter. — The History and Literature of Economics to the opening of the Nineteenth Century.
Total 5: 3 Graduates, 2 Seniors.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 78.
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ECONOMICS 15
Mid-year Examination
1901-02
- Give an account of Aristotle on “the art of money-making”(χρηματιστική) as contrasted with “household management” (οἰκονομική); on the institution of private property.
- Why was economics little cultivated in classical times: in Ingram’s opinion; in your opinion?
- Where, in economic literature, do the following expressions occur, and what was meant by them: “City of pigs”; “Private Vices, Public Benefits”; “led by an invisible hand”?
- The chief distinction between man and the inferior animals consists in this: They are moved only by the immediate impressions of sense, and, as its impulses prompt, seek to gratify them from the objects before them, scarce regarding the future, or endeavoring from the experience of the past to provide against what is to come. Man, as he is endowed with reason,…” Who first expressed this thought? What use was made of it by a later writer?
- What passage in the Wealth of Nations has frequently been quoted as giving a concise statement of the author’s theory of the law of profits? What is the usual criticism of this passage? What your own criticism?
- Many writers have held that the increase of capital lessens at the same time the demand for the products of capital, since savings are made by curtailing one’s consumption. Show the fallacy of this contention?
- State the doctrine of wages in the Wealth of Nations, bringing out the contrast with the pre-Smithian doctrine.
- What are Adam Smith’s four “maxims” or canons of taxation, and what his position on “Taxes upon Profit, or upon the Revenue arising from Stock”?
- Comment on the leading arguments of the chapter, “Of Restraints upon the Importation from foreign Countries of such Goods as can be produced at Home.”
- What are the “Effects of the Progress of Improvement upon the real Price of Manufactures”? What is the significance of this doctrine in the history of economic opinion?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-Year Examination Papers, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume, Mid-year Examination Papers, 1901-02. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (January 1902).
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ECONOMICS 15
Year-end Examination
1901-02
- Who were they and what do they stand for: Nicholas Oresme, Acquinas, Thomas Mun, Boisguillebert, Turgot, Gournay?
- What was the general advance in economic thought during the century preceding the publication of the Wealth of Nations?
- Comment upon Jones’ „Primitive Political Economy in England” and Schmoller’s Mercantile System.
- Give a critical account of the history of opinion on the subjet of lending money at interest.
- Sketch in outline the history of the theory of “natural law” and indicate the way in which it came in contact with economics.
- What part of the teaching of the Physiocrats do you consider to have helped forward economic science, and what part to have been of little or no use?
- What was “Political Arithmetic”?
- Give a brief account of :–
- Speculation on the subject of population before Malthus.
- The Malthusian doctrine, its purpose, its content, the argument put forward in its support.
- The bearing of Rae’s principle of “the effective desire of offspring” upon the Malthusian doctrine.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1902-03. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (June 1902).
Image Source: Harvard University Archives. Hollis Images. College Yard, ca. 1900.