Harvard. J.S. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. Laughlin and Taussig, 1882-83

 

 

James Laurence Laughlin and Frank William Taussig were both appointed at the rank of “Instructor in Political Economy” for 1882-83. The final exams for the first and second terms of the course come from Taussig’s personal scrapbook that he kept of his printed final examinations at Harvard. Reading assignments for the course almost certainly came from the following three books in one form or other.

Here is an earlier post that describes the content of Political Economy 1 taught in the 1884-85 academic year.

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Published texts where Course Readings Can Probably Be Found

Principles of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill, abridged and edited by J. Laurence Laughlin. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1884.

Charles F. Dunbar (ed.) Extracts from the Laws of the United States Relating to Currency and Finance. Cambridge: 1875.

Charles F. Dunbar. Chapters on Banking. Cambridge: 1885. [First four chapters as bases of a short course of lectures on banking, written 1882, given annually to classes in the elements of political economy.]

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Course Announcement

Political Economy.

1. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures on Banking and the Financial Legislation of the United States. Mon.,Wed., Fri., at 9. Mr. Taussig and Dr. Laughlin.

Source:  The Harvard University Catalogue 1882-83, p. 89.

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Course Enrollment

Elective Studies
Political Economy

Instructors	Course of Instruction	Hours per week.	Students
Dr. Laughlin and Mr. Taussig	1. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures	3	Total 155: 1 Graduate, 22 Seniors, 113 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 6 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1882-83, p. 66.

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Course Examinations

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-year. Feb. 9, 1883.

I.
(Answer briefly all of the following.)

1. What distinction does Mill draw between productive and unproductive labor? Discuss the value of this distinction. Distinguish between productive and unproductive consumption.
2. What is the distinction between fixed and circulating capital? Is money part of the fixed or of the circulating capital of a country? Why?
3. What are the classes among whom the produce is divided? Are these classes necessarily or usually represented in as many different acts of persons? How could you classify the peasant proprietor?
4. Of what commodities are the values governed by the law of cost of production? Explain the process by which that law operates.
5. “Rent does not enter into the cost of production of agricultural produce.” Explain.
6. What regulates the value of an inconvertible paper currency? What causes it to depreciate? Discuss briefly the results of depreciation.
7. Arrange the following items on the proper sides of the account:—

Circulation	315.0
Due to Banks	259.9
Legal Tender Notes	63.2
Loans	1,243.2
Bond for circulation	357.6
Due from Banks	198.9
Deposits	1,134.9
Specie	102.9

Compute just how much circulation is permitted by our laws; and give in figures both the (1) reserve required at 25%, and the (2) difference between the actual and required reserve, on the basis of the above account.

8. Compare the plans of our National Bank system with those of the Bank of England and the Imperial Bank of Germany in regard to the security of note-issues.

 

II.
(Answer more fully three of the following.)

1. What are the constituent elements of what Mill calls “profits”? Explain what is meant in common language by the word “profits,” and discuss the nature of profits in this sense.
2. “The laws of the production of wealth partake of the nature of physical truths….It is not so with the distribution of wealth. That is a matter of human institution solely.” Explain the distinction, and show its connection with the subjects of communism and socialism.
3. Mention the methods by which it is attempted to keep gold and silver concurrently in circulation. Explain why “a double standard is alternately a single standard.” Does this tend to be the case now in the United States?
4. Distinguish between real and proportional wages, and illustrate the distinction. In what sense is the word wages used when it is said that the profits depend on wages, rising as wages fall, and falling as wages rise?
5. It is not a difference in the absolute cost of production which determines the international cost of exchange, but a difference in the comparative cost.” Explain this proposition, and apply it to the trade between the United States and European countries. Is the trade between tropical and temperate countries based, in the main, on a difference of absolute or of comparative cost?

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Final examination. June 15, 1883.

I.
(Take all of this group.)

1. Explain what is meant by a bill of exchange. What causes bills on a foreign country to be at a premium or discount? Show in what way the premium (or discount) is prevented from going beyond a certain point.
2. Is there any connection between the rate of interest and the abundance or scarcity of money? Explain and illustrate the following: “The rate of interest determine[s] the price of land and of securities.”
3. Describe the three different kinds of cooperation, and say something of the success attained by each. What are the two classes of distributive coöperation, and wherein do they differ?
4. Show under what circumstances the increase of capital brings about the tendency of profits to fall. What influences counteract this tendency?
5. Explain what is meant by the rapidity of circulation of money. What is the effect of great rapidity of circulation on prices and on the value of money? What is the effect of the use of credit? Mention the more important methods in which credit is used as a substitute for money.

II.
(Omit one of this group.)

6. Discuss the effect of the introduction of a new article of export from a given country on the course of the foreign exchanges in that country, on the flow of specie, and on the terms of international trade (i.e. on international values).
7. What are the causes which enable one country to undersell another? Do low wages, or a low cost of labor, form one of those causes?
8. Discuss the immediate and the ultimate effects on rents of the introduction of agricultural improvements. Do those ultimate effects which Mill describes necessarily take place?
9. What is the immediate and what the ultimate incidence of a tax on houses? Show in what manner the incidence of a tax on building-ground differs, according as the tax is specific (so much on the unit of surface), or rate (so much on the value).

III.
(Omit one of this group.)

10. Describe the situation which caused the banks in the United States to suspend specie payments in 1861.
11. What is the difference between bonds and Treasury notes? Name and explain the different kinds of bonds issued during the war.
12. Explain the causes which made possible the great sales of five-twenty bonds in 1863.
13. What arguments were advanced for the continuance of the National Bank System in 1882?

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935. Prof. Frank W.Taussig Scrapbook, pp. 2-3.

Image Sources: J. Laurence Laughlin (left) from Marion Talbot. More Than Lore: Reminiscences of Marion Talbot, Dean of Women, The University of Chicago, 1892-1925. Chicago: University of Chicago (1936). Frank W. Taussig (right) from E. H. Jackson and R. W. Hunter, Portraits of the Harvard Faculty (1892).