An assistant professor gotta do what an assistant professor has gotta do. Edwin Francis Gay was 37 years of age by the 1904-05 academic year with courses covering nearly a millennium of European economic history. His biographer (and former student) Herbert Heaton described this period as being a strenuous time for Gay (pp. 64-65).
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A brief course description for Economics 11 plus the exams from 1902-03.
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
1904-05
Economics 10 1hf. Asst. Professor Gay. — Mediaeval Economic History of Europe.
Total 1: 1 Graduate.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.
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Course Description
1904-05
[Economics] 10 1hf. The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and(at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Asst. Professor Gay.
After a preliminary examination of early economic and social institutions, this course aims to give a general view of the economic development of society during the Middle Ages. Among other topics, the following will be considered: mediaeval agriculture and serfdom; the manorial system and the economic aspects of feudalism; the beginnings of town life and the gild-system of industry; and the Italian and Hanseatic commercial supremacy.
A thesis will be required from each student, and occasional oral reports and discussions may be expected, but the work is conducted mainly by lectures with supplementary reading.
It is desirable that students should possess some acquaintance with mediaeval history and some reading knowledge of Latin.
Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 44.
No printed exam at mid-year for this course was found in the Harvard archives
(but of course only one student)
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Course Enrollment
1904-05
Economics 11. Asst. Professor Gay. — Modern Economic History of Europe.
Total 7: 3 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Sophomore.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.
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Course Description
1904-05
[Economics] 11. The Modern Economic History of Europe. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 10. Asst. Professor Gay.
This course, while Course 10 may usefully precede it, will nevertheless be independent, and may be taken by those who have not followed the history of the earlier period.
At the outset a survey will be made of economic and social conditions in the chief European countries at the close of the Middle Ages. The history of trade, industry, and agriculture in the succeeding periods down to the nineteenth century will then be treated in some detail, together with the corresponding forms of social life and the advance in economic thought. England will receive the emphasis due to its increasing importance during this period.
A considerable amount of supplementary reading will be expected and two thesis subjects will be assigned.
Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 44.
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ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Examination, 1904-05
- Explain briefly:—
(1) lettre de maîtrise
(2) métayage
(3) the Steelyard
(4) goldsmith’s notes
(5) enumerated commodities
(6) Merchant Adventurer’s - What are the chief facts you associate with the names of
(1) Bodin, (2) Colbert, (3) Paterson, (4) Law? - (1) Who were the Fuggers? What type of company organization do they represent?
(2) Describe the development in the company organization of the English East India Company. How and why did this company’s history differ from that of the Dutch East India Company? - Enumerate the forms of indirect taxation in use in England in the seventeenth century.
- How do you distinguish the domestic system of industry from the handicraft and factory systems? Give some examples of different forms of the domestic system.
Take one of the following questions.
- It is stated that the total value of exports and imports for England and France were as follows for the years here given:
| England £ |
France livres |
||
| 1613 | 4,628,586 | ||
| 1750 | 20,471,120 | 1750 | 355,202,357 |
| 1800 | 62,639,398 | 1789 | 758,104,000 |
Are these figures of equal statistical value? What are the sources of error?
- (1) In 1655 a London merchant shipped raisins and oil to Hamburg, but finding this market not so good as the English desired to ship the goods back to England in the same ship that carried them to Hamburg, paying customs and excise on the reimportation. He petitioned the Council for license to do this. State precisely why.
(2) In 1665 a Dutch merchant desired to send to England from Amsterdam a lading of silk and linen cloth, loaf sugar, paper (all of Dutch manufacture), Bordeaux wine, tobacco and pepper. Could he do this, and if so, how?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 30-31.
Image Source: Edwin F. Gay, seated in office, 1908. From Wikipedia. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror