“Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises” was a course open to both undergraduate and graduate students at Harvard taught by Benjamin M. Anderson. The course announcement, enrollment figures, and the final examination questions come from three different sources, all of which are available on-line. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting corresponding material from the twenty economics courses offered during the 1914-15 year for which the final examination questions had been printed and subsequently published.
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Course Announcement
Economics 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Asst. Professor Anderson, assisted by —.
This course undertakes a theoretical, descriptive, and historical study of the main problems of money and banking. Historical and descriptive materials, drawn from the principal systems of the world, will be extensively used, but will be selected primarily with reference to their significance in the development of principles, and with reference to contemporary practical problems. Foreign exchange will be studied in detail. Attention will be given to those problems of money and credit which appear most prominently in connection with economic crises. Though emphasis will be thrown upon the financial aspects of crises, the investigation will cover also the more fundamental factors causing commercial and industrial cycles. [p. 64]
Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1914-15. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XI, No. 1, Part 14 (May 19, 1914).
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Course Enrollment
[Economics] 3. Asst. Professor Anderson, assisted by Mr. E. E. Lincoln.—Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises.
Total 52: 1 Graduate, 14 Seniors, 27 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 9 Others.
Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1914-15, p. 59.
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Final Examination (2nd term)
- Discuss the theory of foreign exchange. How would the acceptance of the quantity theory modify your discussion of this problem?
- Trace the main events of the Panic of 1907, and indicate the conclusions that may properly be drawn therefrom with reference to monetary and banking reform.
- To what extent are credit instruments used in the United States as a means of effecting exchanges? Contrast retail and wholesale transactions with reference to this point. Contrast city and country. How was the information on this point obtained?
- Give an account of the main developments in the London money-market from the outbreak of the War till the end of February, 1915.
- Explain: “puts”; “borrowing and carrying”; stock-exchange clearing house. Discuss the relations of the Stock Exchange and the banks in New York.
- Indicate the comparative growth of State banking institutions and National banks since the beginning of the National banking system. What explanations can you give?
- Contrast one-name and two-name paper. Should the Federal Reserve Board seek to reintroduce two-name paper? Give reasons.
- Contrast England, Germany, France, Canada and the United States with reference (a) to note-issue, and (b) to use of deposits.
- In precisely what ways does our Federal Reserve system seek to remedy the defects in our banking system?
- Discuss the foreign exchange policy of the Bank of Austria-Hungary; of the Reichsbank; of the Bank of England.
Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Ethics, Education, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June 1915, pp. 46-47.
Image Source: Benjamin M. Anderson in Harvard Class Album, 1915.