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

 

The Harvard University Archives provide a fairly complete collection of final examinations for all Harvard courses. Slowly but surely Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is adding transcriptions of economics exam questions, sometimes for individual courses together with syllabi where available and sometimes as annual collections along with course enrollments. In this post we get one year closer to the turn of the twentieth century. Stay tuned or, better yet, subscribe to the blog below!

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1889-90
PHILOSOPHY 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM.

Enrollment.

[Philosophy] 11. Prof. [Francis Greenwood] Peabody. The Ethics of Social Reform. — The modern social questions: Charity, Divorce, the Indians, Temperance, and the various phases of the Labor Question, as questions of practical Ethics. — Lectures, essays, and practical observations. — Students in this course made personal study of movements in charity and reform. They inspected hospitals, asylums, and industrial schools in the neighborhood, and the various labor organizations, cooperative and profit-sharing enterprises and movements of socialism, temperance, etc., within their reach. Four special reports were presented by each student, based so far as possible upon these special researches. Hours per week: 2 or 3.

Total 112: 1 Graduate, 53 Seniors, 34 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, 15 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1889-1890, p. 79.

1889-90
PHILOSOPHY 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM
[Mid-Year Examination. 1890.]

Omit one question.

1. “This Course of study has a twofold purpose, — an immediate and practical purpose, and an indirect and philosophical purpose.” — Lecture I. Illustrate both of these intentions of the Course in the case of either Social Question thus far treated.
2. Compare the “Social Organism” of Hobbes or of Rousseau with the modern conception of society.
3. “Here is a tenant-farmer whose principles prompt him to vote in opposition to his landlord…May he then take a course which will eject him from his farm and so cause inability to feed his children?…No one can decide by which course the least wrong is likely to be done.” — Spencer, Data of Ethics, p. 267.

“Thou love repine and reason chafe,
There came a voice without reply —
‘Tis man’s perdition to be safe
When for the truth he ought to die.’”

Emerson, Poems, p. 253. Sacrifice.

Define and compare the principles of conduct proposed in these two passages.

4. The doctrine of the “Forgotten Man,” — its meaning and its effect on charity and on the stability of the State. Interpret, under this principle of conduct, the parable of the Good Samaritan.
5. The history of the English Poor Law as illustrating the progress and the dangers of modern charity.
6. The Law of Marriage in the United States, — its two chief forms, its effect on divorce, and the changes proposed in the interest of Divorce Reform.
7. The Patriarchal Theory, — its definition, its evidence, and its place in the Philosophy of the Family.
8. Exogamy, — its meaning, its suppose causes, and its effect on the development of society.
9. The relation of the stable family type to —
   1. The Philosophy of Individualism.
   2. The Philosophy of Socialism.
10. Illustrate the dependence of the question of the home on the industrial and economic tendencies of the time.

Source: Harvard University Archives.  Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. Bound volume. Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1889-90.

 

1889-90
PHILOSOPHY 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM
[Year-end Examination. 1890.]

[Omit one question.]

1. State, briefly, any general results which you may have seemed to yourself to gain from this course of study.
2. The facts, so far as investigated, as to the distribution of wealth in England and in this country, and the lessons to be derived from these facts in either case.
3. The economic doctrine of Carlyle’s “Past and Present,” and its value in the modern “Social Question.”
4. Distinguish Anarchism, Communism, and Socialism in their relation to: —
   1. The philosophy of Individualism
   2. The present industrial order.
5. The tendency in modern legislation which encourages the Socialist. How far, in your opinion, is his inference from this tendency justifiable?
6. Distinguish the logical and the practical relationships of Socialism to: (a) Religion. (b) Co-operation.
7. The business principles which give a commercial advantage to an English co-operative store.
8. State the issue between Federalism and Individualism in Co-operation.
9. Describe the four prevailing methods of liquor legislation, their relation to each other, and the arguments which encourage each.
10. Illustrate the “correlation” of the temperance question with other social questions of the time.
11. How far does such a study of the Social Questions as we have pursued go to establish a theory of Ethics? Illustrate this philosophical contribution in the case of any one of the questions of this Course.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1890-92. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1890), pp. 8-9.

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1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 1. Profs. [Frank William] Taussig and [Silas Marcus] Macvane, and Mr. [Edward Campbell] Mason. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on Social Questions (Coöperation, Profit-Sharing, Trades-Unions, Socialism). Banking, and the financial legislation of the United States. Hours per week: 3.

Total 179: 2 Graduates, 29 Seniors, 65 Juniors, 60 Sophomores, 23 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1889-1890, p. 80.

 

1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Mid-Year Examination. 1890.]

1. Define wealth; define capital; and explain which of the following are wealth or capital: pig iron, gold bullion, water, woolen cloth, bank-notes.
2. Is there any inconsistency between the propositions (1) that capital is the result of saving, (2) that it is perpetually consumed, (3) that the amount of capital in civilized communities is steadily increasing?
3. On what grounds does Mill conclude that the increase of fixed capital at the expense of circulating is seldom injurious to the laborers? On what grounds does he conclude that, when government expenditures for wars are defrayed from loans, the laborers usually suffer no detriment?
4. Explain the proposition that even though all the land in cultivation paid rent, there would always be some agricultural capital paying no rent.
5. Trace the connections between the law of population and the law of rent.
6. What is the effect on values, if any, of (1) a rise of profits in a particular occupation, (2) a general rise in profits?
7. “The preceding are cases in which inequality of remuneration is necessary to produce equality of attractiveness, and are examples of the equalizing effect of competition. The following are cases of real inequality, and arise from a different principle.” Give examples of differences of wages illustrating each of these two sets of cases; and explain what is the principle from which the second set arise.
8. “Retail price, the price paid by the actual consumer, seems to feel very slowly and imperfectly the effect of competition; and when competition does exist, it often, instead of lowering prices, merely divides the gains of the high price among a greater number of dealers.” Explain.
9. What are the laws of value applying to (1) land, (2) raw cotton, (3) cotton cloth, (4) gold?
10. How does the legislation of the United States on National Banks provide for the safety of notes and of deposits?

Source: Harvard University Archives.  Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. Bound volume. Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1889-90.

 

1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Year-end Examination. 1890.]

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

1. How does Mill explain the fact that the wages of women are lower than the wages of men? Wherein is his explanation analogous to certain propositions on which Cairnes laid stress?
2. “Wages, then, depend mainly upon the proportion between population and capital. By population is here meant the number only of the laboring class, or rather of those who work for hire; and by capital, only circulating capital, and not even the whole of that, but the part which is expended in the direct purchase of labor.” — Mill.
   What has Cairnes added to this statement of the wages-fund doctrine?
3. On what grounds does Cairnes conclude that trades unions cannot raise general wages?
4. Explain how it may happen that a thing can be sold cheapest by being produced in some other place that that at which it can be produced with the greatest amount of labor and abstinence.
5. What effect does the growth of a country have on the relative values of hides and beef? How far would improvements enabling beef to be transported for great distances affect Cairnes’s conclusions on this subject?
6. Mill lays it down that an emission of paper money beyond the quantity of specie previously in circulation will cause the disappearance of the whole of the metallic money; but observes that if paper be not issued of as low a denomination as the lowest coin, such coin will remain as convenience requires for the smaller payments. What light does experience of the United States during the Civil War throw on the main proposition, and on the qualification?
7. “No nation can continue to pay its foreign debts by the process of incurring new debts to meet a balance yearly accruing against it; yet this, in truth, is the nature of the financial operation by which of late years the United States has contrived to settle accounts with the rest of the world…These considerations lead me to the conclusion that the present condition [1873] of the external trade of the United States is essentially abnormal and temporary. If that country is to continue to discharge her liabilities to foreigners, the relation which at present obtains between exports and imports in her external trade must be inverted.”
   State the reasoning by which Cairnes was led to this prediction; and explain how far it was verified by the events of the years after succeeding 1873. Point out the bearing of those events on the resumption of specie payments by the United States.
8. “Suppose that, under a double standard, gold rises in value relatively to silver, so that the quantity of gold in a sovereign is now worth more than the quantity of silver in twenty shillings. The consequence will be that, unless a sovereign can be sold for more than twenty shillings, all the sovereigns will be melted, since as bullion they will purchase a greater number of shillings than they exchange for as coin.” — Mill.
   Explain (1) the conditions assumed in regard to international trade in this reasoning; (2) the mode in which, under the double standard, the metal whose value rises in fact goes out of circulation; (3) the reasons why the coinage of silver in the United States since 1878 has not driven gold out of the currency.
9. Are general high prices an advantage to a country?
10. What were Mill’s expectations as to the future of coöperative production? Cairnes’s? What does experience lead you to expect?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1890-92. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1890), pp. 10-11.

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1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 2. Prof. [Frank William] Taussig and Mr. [John Graham] Brooks. First half-year: Lectures on the History of Economic Theory. — Discussion of selections from Adam Smith and Ricardo. — Topics in distribution, with special reference to wages and managers’ returns. — Second half-year: Modern Socialism in France, Germany, and England. — An extended thesis from each student. Hours per week: 3. *Consent of instructor required.

Total 24: 7 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 1 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1889-1890, p. 80.

 

1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Mid-Year Examination. 1890.]

1. Sidgwick supposes that, in a country where the ratio of auxiliary to remuneratory capital is 5 to 1, 120 millions are saved and added to the existing capital, and asks, “in what proportion are we to suppose this to be divided?” Answer the question.
2. On the same supposition Cairnes’s answer is expected to be that the whole of the 120 millions would be added to the wages fund. “But then, unless the laborers became personally more efficient in consequence — which Cairnes does not assume — there would be no increase in the annual produce, and therefore the whole increase in the wages fund would be taken out of the profits within the year after the rise. Now, though I do not consider saving to depend so entirely on the prospect of profit as Mill and other economists, still I cannot doubt that a reduction in profits by an amount equivalent to the whole amount saved would very soon bring accumulation to a stop; hence the conclusion from Cairnes’s assumptions would seem to be that under no circumstances can capital increase to any considerable extent unless the number of laborers increases also.”
   What would Cairnes say to this?
3. Explain what is Sidgwick’s conclusion as to the effect of profits on accumulation; and point out wherein his treatment of this topic differs from Cairnes’s and from Ricardo’s.
4. In what sense does George use the term “wages”? Ricardo? Mill? Cairnes?
5. Explain wherein Sidgwick’s general theory of distribution differs from Walker’s.
6. Compare the treatment of rent by the Physiocratic writers and by Adam Smith.
7. What was Adam Smith’s doctrine as to labor as a means of value? What was Ricardo’s criticism on that doctrine?
8. What did Adam Smith say to the argument that taxes on the necessaries of life raise the price of labor, and therefore give good ground for import duties on the commodities produced at home by the high-priced labor? What would Ricardo have said to the same argument?
9. How does Ricardo show that the application of labor and capital to worse soil brings a decline of profits not only in agriculture, but in all industries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers in economics 1882-1935 of Professor F. W. Taussig (HUC 7882). Scrapbook.
Also included in Harvard University Archives.  Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. Bound volume. Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1889-90.

 

Political Economy 2.
[Year-end Examination, June 1890.]

1. Characterize French Socialism, chiefly with reference to St. Simon and Louis Blanc.
2. What general differences do you note between French and German Socialism?
3. Summarize Lasalle’s theory of history development.
4. State and criticize in detail Marx’s theory of surplus value. What follows as to Socialism, if this theory fails?
5. Is Schaeffle a Socialist? If so, why? If not, why not?
6. State the present attitude of English Socialism, with special reference to the Fabian Society. Note the most important changes from the Marx type.
7. In what definite ways would Socialism modify the system of private property?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Vol. Examination Papers, 1890-92. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1890), pp. 11-12. Previously posted in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 3. Prof. [Frank William] Taussig and Mr. [John Graham] Brooks. Investigation and Discussion of Practical Economic Questions. — Subjects for 1889-90: Profit-Sharing; the Silver Situation in the United States; Prices since 1850; the Regulation of Railways by the Interstate Commerce Act. — Lectures and discussion of theses. Hours per week: 2. *Consent of instructor required.

Total 19: 15 Seniors, 4 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1889-1890, p. 80.

 

1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Mid-Year Examination. 1890.]

1. Define Profit-sharing, distinguishing it from Coöperation and from existing forms of the wages system.
2. What in your opinion are the four most successful experiments, with specific reasons for the choice?
3. State as definitely as possible the conditions under which Profit-sharing is most likely to succeed.
4. What are the advantages of immediate as against deferred participation?
5. How serious is the current objection that the laborer cannot or ought not to bear the losses incident to business?
6. What of the objection that secrecy is impossible?
7. What specific evidence is there that an extraordinary person is not permanently necessary to successful Profit-sharing?
8. State briefly the actual advantages and disadvantages of Profit-sharing as they have appeared in history.
9. What would be the probably effects of competition upon a larger application of Profit-sharing to our industrial system?
10. What is the best method of dividing the bonus? Add any criticism upon the actual division as seen in history.
11. Will self-interest alone insure successful Profit-sharing? If not, how can the difficulty be met without violating “business principles”?

Supplementary Questions.

12. What, if any, is the nature of the antagonism in Profit-sharing among capitalist, manager, and workman?
13. What of the objection that Profit-sharing is inconsistent with the nature of a legal contract?
14. Would a wider application of Profit-sharing modify any given theory (as that of Cairnes or Walker) as to the wage fund?

Source: Harvard University Archives.  Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. Bound volume. Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1889-90.

 

1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Year-end Examination. 1890.]

1. In 1887 the Secretary of the Treasury suggested that the purchase by the government of silver for coinage into standard dollars should be subject only to one limitation: that whenever the silver dollars held by the Treasury, over and above those held against outstanding certificates, exceeded $5,000,000, the purchase and coinage should cease.
   Explain (1) how the effects of this plan, in the years from 1887 to 1889, would have differed from those of the actual coinage and issue; (2) whether the silver currency so issued could, under any circumstances, be at a discount as compared with gold.
2. Give the same explanations in regard to a plan by which the government should purchase every month $4,500,000 worth of silver bullion and issue therefor certificates, redeemable, at the government’s option, in gold or silver coin; or, at the holder’s option, in silver bullion at its market value on the day of their presentation for redemption.
3. What are India Council Bills? How does their issue affect the price of silver?
4. Point out what bearing you think improvements in production have on the existence and effects of an appreciation of gold.
5. Explain the following terms, giving examples: (a) group rate; (b) differential; (c) relatively reasonable rates; (d) arbitraries, (e) commodity rate.
6. Is it unjust discrimination, under the Interstate Commerce Act, (1) to offer a discount to any consignee who receives more than a specified quantity of freight a year; (2) to give a lower rate to regular shippers than to occasional shippers; (3) to refuse to pay mileage for the use of cars furnished by a shipper of cattle, when mileage is paid for the use of cars furnished by a shipper of oil; (4) to charge more per mile on long hauls than on short hauls.
7. Comment on the following: “The value of service is generally regarded as the most important factor in fixing rates…The value of service to a shipper in a general sense is the ability to reach a market and make his commodity a subject of commerce. In this sense, the service is more valuable to a man who transports a thousand miles than to a man who transports a hundred miles, so that distance is an element in value of service. In a more definite and accurate sense, it consists in reaching a market at a profit, being in effect what the traffic will bear, to be remunerative to the producer or trader.”
8. Explain how the penalties for violating the Interstate Commerce Act can be enforced, and how they have been enforced.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1890-92. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1890), pp. 12-13.

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1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 4. Mr. [Adolph Caspar] Miller. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. — Lectures and written work. Hours per week: 3.

Total 106: 25 Seniors, 27 Juniors, 35 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 16 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1889-1890, p. 80.

*  *  *  *  *  *

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.

*  *  *  *  *  *

1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
[Mid-Year Examination. 1890.]

[Take all of A, and seven questions from B.]

A.

1. “It has often been imagined that the property of these great masses of land was almost entirely in the hands of the church, the monasteries, the nobility, and the financiers; and that before 1789 only large estates existed, while the class of small proprietors was created by the Revolution. Some consider this supposed change as the highest glory, and others as the greatest calamity of modern times; but all are agreed as to the fact. — Von Sybel, [Economic Causes of the French Revolution] in Selections, p. 52.
   (a) What do you consider to be the fact?
   (b) Granting the fact, how do you regard the change?
2. Speaking of the fall of wages in England during the French wars, Mr. Porter [The Finances of England, 1793-1815, Selections, p. 114] says: “Nor could it well be otherwise, since the demand for labor can only increase with the increase of the capital destined for the payment of wages.” Why was there no increase of the capital destined for the payment of wages when, according to J. S. Mill, “the wealth and resources of the country, instead of diminishing, gave every sign of rapid increase”?
3. Porter [Selections, p. 121] says: “There never could have existed any doubt of the fact that, whenever the necessity for borrowing should cease, the market value of the public funds would advance greatly…. The knowledge of this fact should have led the ministers, by whom successive additions were made to the public debt, to the adoption of a course which would have enabled them to turn this rise of prices to the advantage of the public, instead of its being, as it has proved, productive of loss.”
   What was the course adopted and how was it productive of loss? Was this “loss” at all offset by any advantages?
4. Mention briefly the events associated in your mind with six of the following names: Sheffield; Slater; Coalbrookdale; Young; Dud Dudley; Coxe; Killingworth; Clarkson; “Rocket.”

B.

1. How was England commercially affected by the loss of her American colonies in 1783?
2. (a) Compare the French debt and taxation in 1789 with those of England at about the same date.
   (b) Point out the significance of England’s debt in 1783 as compared with 1889.
3. (a) What method would you pursue in investigating the question as to the depreciation of bank notes during the Restriction?
   (b) Tooke’s explanation of the high price of bullion during the Restriction. Wherein did it differ from the opinion of the Bullion Committee?
   (c) How do you account for the high profits of the Bank of England during the Restriction?
4. (a) Describe the French assignats and point out wherein they differed from the territorial mandates.
   (b) What was the tiers consolidé?
5. (a) In what particular ways were England and the United States peculiarly benefited by the introduction of steam navigation?
   (b) What changes were introduced into the French railway system under Napoleon III.?
6. (a) Napoleon’s Continental System. Its effects upon England and France respectively.
   (b) Point out the chief factors determining the commercial development of the United States from 1789 to 1816.
7. (a) General commercial and industrial nature of the period 1815 to 1830.
   (b) Were the progressive changes of prices a cause or an effect of the disturbances of this period?
   (c) How did the increase of pauperism affect the distribution of wealth in England during and following the Napoleonic wars?
8. (a) Why has the current of liberal commercial opinions been successful in influencing legislation in England, but ineffective in France?
   (b) Describe the Merchants’ Petition, and point out its importance.
9. (a) Formation and constitution of the Zoll Verein.
   (b) In what manner were the duties of the Zoll Verein levied?

Source: Harvard University Archives.  Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. Bound volume. Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1889-90.

 

1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
[Year-end Examination. 1890.]

[Take all of A and eight questions from B.]

A.

1. Cairnes [From Cairnes’ Essays in Political Economy, “The New Gold”, in Selections, p. 211] says that “as a general conclusion we may say, that in proportion as in any country the local depreciation of gold is more or less rapid than the average rate elsewhere, the effect of the monetary disturbance will be for that country beneficial or injurious.”
   1. By what process of reasoning does Mr. Cairnes reach this conclusion?
   2. To what extent was it verified by the history of the new gold movement?
   3. What would determine the rapidity of the local depreciation in any country?
2. The writer in Blackwood’s [“The French Indemnity: The Payment of the Five Milliards” in Selections, p. 250], speaking of the origin of the indemnity bills, quotes M. Say as being of the opinion “that scarcely any part of the indemnity bills was furnished by the current commercial trade of the country.” How were they furnished?
3. The same writer [Selections, p. 246] says that “the quantities of bills, of each kind, that were bought by the French Government as vehicles of transmission, in no way indicate the form in which the money was handed over to the German Treasury.” Why?
4. Wells [Recent Economic Changes, p. 218] says “the changes in recent years in the world’s economic condition have essentially changed the relative importance of the two functions which gold, as the leading monetary metal, discharges; namely, that of an instrumentality for facilitating exchanges and as a measure of value.” Describe some of the agencies and evidences of this change in the functions of gold, and point out what influence has thus been exerted upon the value of gold.

B.

1. Why was an additional supply of gold especially important, 1850-69?
2. What part did India play in the gold movement, 1851-67? How has her ability in this respect been modified?
3. To what extent can the decline of our tonnage be ascribed to the effects of the Civil War?
4. How do you account for the increase of the trading classes during the Civil War?
5. American wheat and its effect upon English agriculture. How were the results modified by the lord and tenant system?
6. German coinage and the crisis of 1873. To what extent did it contribute to the fall of prices after 1873?
7. How did the crisis of 1873 simplify the problem of specie resumption for the United States? Did it do the same for France?
8. Why did France recover so rapidly after the war of 1870-71?
9. The Suez Canal and Oriental trade.
10. Compare the period 1873-89 with the period 1815-30.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1890-92. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1890), pp. 13-14.

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1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 6. Prof. [Frank William] Taussig. History of Tariff Legislation in the United States. — Lectures on the History of Tariff Legislation. — Discussion of brief theses (two from each student). — Lectures on the Tariff History of France and England. Hours per week: 2 or 3. 2d half-year. *Consent of instructor required.

Total 29: 19 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1889-1890, p. 80.

 

1889-90.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6
[End-Year]

1. What grounds are there for believing that the restrictive policy of Great Britain did or did not have a considerable effect on the industrial development of the American colonies?
2. What was the effect of the political situation in 1824 on the tariff act of that year? in 1842 on the act of 1842?
3. “The tariff of 1846 was passed by a party vote. It followed the strict constructionist theory in aiming at a list of duties sufficient only to provide revenue for the government, without regard to protection.”—Johnston’s American Politics.
   Was the act passed by a party vote? Did it disregard protection? Did it succeed in fixing duties sufficient only to provide revenue?
4. What basis is there for the assertion that the gold premium, in the years after the civil war, increased the protection given by the import duties?
5. Under what circumstances was the tariff act of 1864 passed? How long did it remain in force?
6. Is there any analogy between the effects of the duties on cotton goods after 1816 and those on steel rails after 1870?
7. Wherein would there probably be differences in the effects of reciprocity treaties (1) with Canada, admitting coal free; (2) with Great Britain, admitting iron free; (3) with Brazil, admitting sugar free?
8. Apply Gallatin’s test as to the effect of duties on the price of the protected articles, to the present facts in regard to (1) clothing wool, (2) silks.
9. On what grounds is the removal of the duty on pig iron more or less desirable than that of the duty on sugar?
10. Is it a strong objection to ad valorem duties that they depend on foreign prices and that therefore the duties are fixed by foreigners? Is it a strong objection to specific duties that they operate unequally?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1890-92. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1890), pp. 14-15.
Also: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers in economics, 1882-1935. Prof. F. W. Taussig.

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1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Public Finance and Banking.

[Omitted in 1889-90]

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1889-1890, p. 80.

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1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 8. Mr. [Adolph Caspar] Miller. History of Financial Legislation in the United States. — Lectures and brief theses. Hours per week: 2 or 3. 1^st half-year.

Total 25: 13 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1889-1890, p. 81.

 

1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
[Mid-year examination]

[Take two questions from A, and eight from B.]

The questions under A are supposed to require half an hour each for careful treatment, and those under B fifteen minutes each.

A.

1. Commenting on those provisions of the Funding Act of August 4, 1790, by which the six-per-cent stock was made “subject to redemption by payments not exceeding in one year, on account of both principal and interest, the proportion of eight dollars upon each hundred, Professor Adams remarks: —
   “In our previous study of annuities it was discovered that long-time annuities did not meet the requirements of good financiering, because they unnecessarily embarrassed the policy of debt payment. The same objection attaches to this plan of Mr. Hamilton. The record of subsequent treasury operations renders it reasonably certain that a simple six-per-cent bond, guaranteed to run for twenty years, would have proved satisfactory to public creditors, and have induced them to comply with the other conditions which the Government imposed. This would have brought the larger part of the six-per-cent bonds under the control of Congress in the years 1811 and 1813, and permitted either their redemption or their conversion into stock bearing a reduced rate of interest. But since the right of redemption except at a stated rate, had been signed away, it was found necessary to continue the higher rate of interest upon the common stock till 1818, and upon the ‘deferred stock’ until 1824. As the matter turned out, the war of 1812 would have rendered such an operation upon the common stock impossible, had it been permitted by the contract; but this does not excuse the Federalists for having adopted a bad theory of funding.”
   Do you consider this a sound criticism of Hamilton’s plan of funding? By what means do you determine whether or not it met the “requirements of good financiering”?
2. “Our sinking fund, however, differed materially from that which was adopted in the early financial history of Great Britain, as it was not exclusively applied to the liquidation of a particular debt in existence. It was also unlike that of Mr. Pitt, as the amount of the capital appropriated was not fixed before 1802….Properly speaking, the essential character of a sinking fund was not to be found in the operations of that of the United States.” — Jonathan Elliot, Funding System of the United States and of Great Britain, p. 406, note.
   Discuss the above with particular reference to the alleged difference of principle between Pitt’s sinking-fund policy and Hamilton’s. In this connection, also point out carefully what changes were introduced into the sinking-fund policy of the United States in 1802. Do those changes represent any real departure from the principle of Hamilton’s sinking-fund?
3. “The most generally received opinion is, that, by direct taxes in the Constitution, those are meant which are raised on the capital or revenue of the people….As that opinion is in itself rational,… it will not be improper to corroborate it by quoting the author from whom the idea seems to have been borrowed. Dr. Smith Wealth of Nations, book V. chap. 2) says, ‘The private revenue of individuals arises ultimately from three different sources: Rent, Profit, and Wages. Every tax must finally be paid from some one or other of those three different sorts of revenue, or from all of them indifferently.’ After having treated separately of those taxes which, it is intended, should fall upon some one or other of the different sorts of revenue, he continues, ‘The taxes which, it is intended, should fall indifferently upon every different species of revenue, are capitation taxes, and taxes upon consumable commodities.’ And, after having treated of capitation taxes, he finally says, ‘The impossibility of taxing the people, in proportion to their revenue, by any capitation, seems to have given occasion to the invention of taxes upon consumable commodities. The State, not knowing how to tax directly and proportionably the revenue of its subjects, endeavours to tax it indirectly.’ The remarkable coincidence of the clause of the Constitution, with this passage, in using the word ‘capitation’ as a generic expression, including the different species of direct taxes, — an acceptation of the word peculiar, it is believed, to Dr. Smith, — leaves little doubt that the framers of the one had the other in view at the time, and that they, as well as he, by direct taxes, meant those paid directly from, and falling immediately on, the revenue.” — Albert Gallatin, Sketch of the Finances, p. 12.
   Discuss the above with particular reference to the source and meaning of the phrase “direct taxes” in the Constitution of the United States.

B.

1. “The Act provided, that, if the total amount subscribed by any state exceeded the sum specified therein, a similar percentage should be deducted from the claims of all subscribers. Four ninths of the stock issued by the government for this loan bore interest at six per cent, beginning with the year 1792; on third bore three per cent interest, beginning at the same time, and the balance, two ninths, bore six per cent interest after the year 1800. The latter kind of stock was to be redeemed whenever provision was made for that purpose. And, with respect to seven ninths of the stock, the government was at liberty to pay two per cent annually, if it desired; but no imperative obligation was created to pay it.” — A. S. Boles, Financial History of the United States, vol. II. p. 28.
   Is this an accurate statement, so far as it goes, of the provisions of the Act of August 4, 1790, for assuming the State debts?
2. How is President Madison’s approval of the Bank Act of April 10, 1816, to be reconciled with his bank veto of January 30, 1815?
3. “During the winter of 1833-34 there was a stringent money market and commercial distress. The State banks were in no condition to take the public deposits. They were trying to strengthen themselves, and put themselves on the level of the Treasury requirements in the hope of getting a share of the deposits. It was they who operated a bank contraction during that winter…The administration, however, charged everything to Biddle and the bank.” — W. G. Sumner, Andrew Jackson, p. 316.
   Where do you consider that the real responsibility for the pressure of 1833-34 rested?
4. What criticism would you make on the financial management of the war of 1812? Was it a fair test of the policy of relying upon public credit for defraying the extraordinary expenses of war?
5. What kind of currency did the government use and where did it keep its moneys, and under what authority of law, from 1811 to 1864?
6. How is the extension of accommodations by the Bank of the United States from 1830 to the middle of 1832 to be explained?
7. What were the terms of the one hundred and fifty million bank loan of 1861, and how was it financially important?
8. Point out the steps by which the legal-tender notes have become a fixed and permanent part of the currency.
9. What is the essence of the national bank system, so far as concerns note-circulation, and what bearing does this have upon the future of the system?
10. Is Mr. Chase entitled to take rank in American history as a great finance minister? State carefully and concisely the grounds of your opinion.

Source: Harvard University Archives.  Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. Bound volume. Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1889-90.

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1889-90
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9.
Management and Ownership of Railways.

[Omitted in 1889-90]

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1889-1890, p. 81.

 

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard Square, 1885.