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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exams for Modern Economic History of Europe. Gay, 1907-1908

Portrait of Jakob Fugger the Rich by Albrecht Dürer

 

Today’s artifact is a reminder of the importance of economic history in the economics curriculum throughout most of the twentieth century (and of course earlier). While it is by no means obvious that knowledge of the sort of stuff taught by Edwin F. Gay over one hundred years ago will help working economists develop and use the tools of modern economic analysis in their present day research, it should be rather obvious that the record of human experience is loaded with variation begging for understanding and explanation. It seems like an awful lot of evidence to ignore. So let us see what Edwin Gay’s students were expected to have learned about European economic history.

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Earlier, related posts

A brief course description for Economics 11 plus the exams from 1902-03.

Exams for 1903-04.

Exams for 1904-05.

Exams for 1905-06.

Exams for 1906-07.

A short bibliography for “serious students” of economic history assembled by Gay and published in 1910 has also been posted.

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 11. Professor Gay. — Modern Economic History of Europe.

Total 5: 3 Graduates, 1 Seniors, 1 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 11
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. Explain briefly:—
    1. the open field system.
    2. the manorial system.
    3. the town economy.
    4. Erbuntertänigkeit.
    5. lettre de maîtrise.
    6. the Steelyard.
  2. Serfdom.
    1. When and why did it disappear in England?
    2. When on the Continent?
    3. Can you account for the differences between England and the Continent in the manner and time of disappearance?
  3. The craft gild.
    1. What in general was its object and policy?
    2. What changes took place in its internal organization?
    3. What, during the sixteenth century, was the attitude toward it of the national government in England and France?
  4. The woollen industry in England to the end of the sixteenth century.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1907-08.

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ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. Criticise the following statement:—

“The two ways by which a villein or slave could always get free in England were, first, by owning land; and secondly, by joining the guild of a trade, in a town, and working at it for a year and a day. In a sense, therefore, labor is the source of freedom in England; for many millions more Englishmen got free through this door than by any other way.”

  1. (a) Who were the Fuggers? What type of company organization do they represent?
    (b) Compare the form of company organization in the following: Merchant Adventurers, the Commenda, English Levant Company, English and Dutch East India Companies prior to 1660.
  2. Describe the chief changes in taxation in England during the seventeenth century.
  3. (a) Define the domestic and factory systems.
    (b) Give in detail examples of three different forms of the domestic system.
  4. Summarize the history and results of wage regulation by public authority in England.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), p. 35.

Image Source: Portrait of Jakob Fugger (1459-1525) by Albrecht Dürer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.