Harvard. Semester examinations in all political economy courses, 1887-1888

 

In this post we have a complete collection of the semester examinations for the eight courses in political economy taught at Harvard during the 1887-88 academic year. As an extra bonus we have the examinations for the Philosophy course “Ethics of Social Reform” that clearly included a good chunk of the normative political economy of its time.

Fun facts: Mr. Gray, who taught the less theoretical sections of the second half of the principles course, was John Henry Gray (1859-1946) who had received his A.B. from Harvard in 1887 and who went on to receive a Ph.D. in 1892 at the University of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany under Johannes Conrad. In addition to having professorships at Northwestern, Carleton College and the University of Minnesota, Gray was president of the AEA in 1914.

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Political Economy 1. Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 1. First half-year: Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures on Banking. Profs. Laughlin and Taussig.

Total 210: 2 Graduates, 29 Seniors, 83 Juniors, 69 Sophomores, 5 Freshmen, 22 Others. (Four sections).

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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Political Economy 1
1887-1888.
[Mid-year examination]

1. Is productive consumption necessarily consumption of capital? Can there be unproductive consumption of capital?
2. Distinguish which of the following commodities are capital, and, as to those that are capital, distinguish which you would call fixed capital and which circulating.
   A ton of pig iron; a plough; a package of tobacco; a loaf of bread; a dwelling-house.
   Can you reconcile the statement that one or other of these commodities is or is not capital with the proposition that the intention of the owner determines whether an article shall or shall not be capital?
3. Suppose an inconvertible paper money to be issued, of half the amount of specie previously in circulation. Trace the effects (1) in a country carrying on trade with other countries, (2) in a country shut off from trade with other countries.
4. Explain in what manner the proposition that the value of commodities is governed by their cost of production applies to wheat, to iron nails, and to gold bullion.
5. Explain the proposition that rent does not enter into the cost of production. Does it hold good of the rent paid for a factory building? Of the rent paid for agricultural land?
6. It has been said that wages depend (a) on the price of food, (b) on the standard of living of the laborers, (c) on the ratio between capital and population. Are these propositions consistent with each other? Are they sound?
7. Suppose that
   One day’s labor in the United States produces 10 pounds of copper,
   One day’s labor England produces 8 pounds of copper,
   One day’s labor in the United States produces 5 pounds of tin,
   One day’s labor England produces 5 pounds of tin,
   Would trade arise between England and the United States, and if so, how?
   Suppose that, other things remaining as above, one day’s labor in England produced 12 pounds of copper, would trade arise, and if so, how?
8. Explain what is meant when it is said that “there are two senses in which a country obtains commodities more cheaply by foreign trade: in the sense of value, and in the sense of cost.”
9. Arrange in proper order the following items of a bank account: Capital, $300,00; Bonds and Stocks, $35,000; Real estate and fixtures, $20,000; Other assets, $20,000; Surplus, $80,000; Undivided Profits, $10,500; Notes, $90,000; Cash, $110,000; Cash items, $90,000; Deposits, $850,000; Loans, $1,050,000; Expenses, $5,500. ,
   Suppose loans are repaid to this bank to the amount of $100,000. One half by cancelling deposits, one quarter in its own notes, and one quarter in cash; how will the account then stand?
10. What is the effect of the use of credit on the value of money? Wherein does credit in the form of bank deposits exercise an effect on the value of money different from that of credit in the form of bank notes?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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Political Economy 1A.
Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 1. Second half-year: Division A. Mill’s Principles.—Cairnes’s Leading Principles.—Bagehot’s Postulates of Political Economy.—Lectures on Financial Legislation. Mr. [John Henry] Gray.

Total 90: 4 Seniors, 33 Juniors, 44 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 8 Others. (Two sections).

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
DIVISION A.
[Year-end examination, 1888]

1. From the causes now enumerated, unless counteracted by others, the progress of things (society) enables a country to obtain at less and less of real cost, not only its own productions, but those of foreign countries.”—Mill, Bk. IV, c.1.
   Explain what is meant by the “causes now enumerated,” and also what the counteracting influences are. Do the counteracting influences affect all commodities equally and at the same time?
2. Mill says, “…if there are human beings capable of work and food to feed them they may always be employed in producing something.” Wakefield says, “Production is limited not solely by the quantity of capital and labor, but also by the extent of the field of employment.”
   Explain what is meant by the “field of employment,” and reconcile the two statements, if possible.
3. One of the objects of the Land Tenure Association, of which Mill was President, was “To claim for the benefit of the State the interception by Taxation of the Future Unearned increase of the Rent of Land.”
   Discuss the justice of such a plan, compare it with Henry George’s proposal on the same subject, and show the difficulties in administering it.
4. Characterize each of Adam Smith’s Canons of Taxation by a word or phrase. Explain the meaning of each, and discuss them briefly in relation to our present system of national taxation.
5. Discuss the justice and desirability of an Income Tax. Should there be any exemptions from such a tax? If so, why? If not, why not? Are the practical difficulties in the way of an Income Tax greater now than they would have been a century ago?
6. On what circumstances does industrial competition depend? Does the development of Industry increase or does it decrease the extent of the field over which such competition is effective?
   Point out any mistakes of the English School of Political Economy as to the importance and extent of competition.
7. (a) “Let the price of labor in Victoria only fall to the same level as in the countries from which it imports its wheat…and it will at once become profitable to raise wheat in Victoria from soils from which it cannot now be raised with profit.”
   What would be Ricardo’s reply to this proposition? Would it be adequate?
   (b) Suppose that England could by some mechanical intervention, unknown to the rest of the world, reduce by three fourths the present cost of producing woollens, what would be the effect on her foreign trade, and on the remuneration of her labor?
8. Suppose the United States and Great Britain in Commercial Equilibrium. Then a very large number of American citizens go to Great Britain to reside. What effect does this have on the equilibrium? How does it affect International Values as between the United States and Great Britain?
9. How did depreciation of the currency facilitate the sale of five-twenty bonds in 1863-64?
10. State the provisions of the Resumption Act.
    By what reasoning was Cairnes led to predict the occurrence of the conditions which favored resumption?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1887-89.  Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1888.

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Political Economy 1B.
Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 1. Second half-year: Division B. Mill’s Principles (selections).—Jevons’s The State in Relation to Labor.—Taussig’s Present Tariff.—Hadley’s Railroad Transportation.—Lectures on Social Questions and on Financial Legislation. Prof. Taussig.

Total 117: 2 Graduates, 25 Seniors, 49 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 12 Others. (Two sections).

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
DIVISION B.
[Year-end examination, 1888]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

1. Explain what was Mill’s proposal in regard to a tax on rents, and state the reasons urged by him in its support. Point out wherein the tax proposed by him differs from a special tax on all rents from real estate.
2. Wherein is the effect of an import duty on coffee different from that of an import duty on woolen goods? Would your conclusion be different if coffee were a monopolized article abroad? If woollen goods were a monopolized article at home?
   What are the present duties on these articles?
3. It is said that if present duties on manufactured articles were repealed, the labor and capital engaged in producing them would turn to agriculture, and that more agricultural commodities would then be produced than there was a market for. What should you say?
4. Give the main provisions of present English legislation on factories.
5. A certain cooperative society in England pays (1) interest on loans, (2) a dividend to share holders, (3) a dividend to purchasers and (4) a bonus to workmen. What kind of coöperation is typified by its operations?
6. At [sic, “As”?] common law combinations to raise or maintain prices are invalid. Explain wherein the Interstate Commerce Act makes a similar provision as to pooling by railroads, and wherein a different provision. What reasons are there why the law in regard to railroads should be different from the law in regard to other industries?
7. Why are cheap bulky goods charged with lower freight rates on railroads than compact expensive goods? Mention an analogous case in another industry.
8. It is said that the large fixed capital invested in railroads makes it possible for railroad charges to be so low as not to repay cost. Is this possible? Suppose it to be so; would such a state of things be inconsistent with the principle that the value of commodities is fixed by their cost of production?
9. State the causes which affected the gold premium in 1863-64, and explain how the depreciation of the currency facilitated the sale of the five-twenty bonds in those years.
10. State the provisions of the Resumption Act, and the circumstances which made it easy to resume specie payments at the date fixed upon.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1887-89.  Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1888.

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Political Economy 2.
Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 2. History of Economic Theory.—Distribution.—The Scope and Method of Political Economy.—Socialism. Lectures, preparation of theses, and discussion of selections from leading writers. Prof. Taussig.

Total 29: 4 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Mid-year examination. 1888.]

1. Compare the treatment of the theory of money by Boisguillebert, Law, and Hume.
2. What was Adam Smith’s doctrine as to rent, and wherein does it differ from that of the Physiocrats, and from that of Ricardo?
3. Make a brief comparison between the general characteristics of the economic writings of Adam Smith and of J. S. Mill.
4. Explain how Malthus illustrated and applied his general principles in his discussion of the movement of population in (a) Sweden and Norway, (b) Switzerland, (c) France during the Revolutionary wars. [Take one of these three.)
5. “Mr. Malthus thinks that a low money price of corn would not be favourable to the lower classes of society, because the real exchangeable value of labour, that is, its power of commanding the necessaries, conveniencies, and luxuries of life, would not be augmented, but diminished, by a low money price. Some of his observations on this subject are certainly of great weight, but he does not sufficiently allow for the effect of a better distribution of the national capital on the situation of the lower classes. It would be beneficial to them, because the same capital would employ more hands; besides, the greater profits would lead to more accumulation; and thus a stimulus would be given to population by really high wages, which could not fail for a long time to ameliorate the condition of the laboring classes.”— Ricardo, Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn.
   Explain (a) whether this states fairly Malthus’s opinion as to the effect of cheap food; (b) what Ricardo meant by “a better distribution of the national capital”; (c) what light the concluding sentence throws on Ricardo’s view of the effect on wages and profits of cheap food.
6. “The notion that any portion of the wealth of the country should be ‘determined’ to the payment of wages seems to shock Mr. Longe’s sense of economic propriety; which is strange, seeing that his own doctrine — that it is ‘the demand for commodities which determines the quantity of wealth spent in the payment of wages’ — plainly involves this consequence. He puts the case of a capitalist who, taking advantage of the necessities of his workmen, effects a reduction of wages and succeeds in withdrawing so much, say £1000, from the Wages-Fund; and asks how is the sum thus withdrawn to be restored to the fund? On Mr. Longe’s principles the answer is simple,—‘by being spent in commodities’; for it may be assumed that the sum so withdrawn will, in any case, not be hoarded. * * * The answer, therefore, to the case put by Mr. Longe is easy on his own principles; and I am disposed to flatter myself that the reader who has gone with me in the foregoing discussion will not have much difficulty in replying to it on my own.”— Cairnes, Leading Principles.
   What is the answer on Cairnes’s principles?
7. Would the explanation which the Wages-Fund theory gives of the causes regulating the rate of wages apply to a society in which a system of profit-sharing had been universally adopted?
8. Wherein does Ricardo’s treatment of the manner in which profits affect value differ from Cairnes’s treatment of the same subject?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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1887-88
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Year-end examination. 1888.]

1. “Cairnes, who earnestly maintained that capital is divided into wages, raw material, and fixed capital, argued that trades-unions could not increase wages in the several trades, because, if they did so, they would reduce profits below the rate which would make investment worth while. On his own doctrine, increased wages could not trench on profits. He should have argued that wages, if increased by a trades-union, could only be increased at the expense of raw material and fixed capital, which would be far more difficult than to increase them at the expense of profits. Indeed, if the trades-union movement did not coincide with a new distribution of capital into its three parts (a new distribution which would produce a rise in wages), the trades-union could not possibly force an advance at the expense of raw materials or fixed capital.” — W. G. Sumner, Collected Essays.
   Can you reconcile Cairnes’s reasoning on trades-unions with his doctrine as to the wages fund?
2. “The railroads of the United States receive annually two hundred and ten millions of dollars for transporting passengers. Those receipts came in day by day, yet the railroad company habitually pays its employees at the close of the week or at the close of the month. Here we have a very large class of services where the employer receives the price of his product before he pays for the labor concerned in its production. The railroads of the United States also receive annually for freights five hundred and fifty millions. The greater portion of this amount is collected before the track hands and the station hands have received the remuneration for their share of the service. . . . To descend to the other end of the scale of dignity, hotel keepers and, in less degrees, boarding-house keepers collect their bills before they pay their cooks, chambermaids, and scullions. Nearly all receipts of theatre, opera, and concert companies are obtained day by day, although their staffs and troupes are borne on monthly or weekly pay-rolls.” — F. A. Walker, in the Journal of Economics, April, 1888.
   Are these facts inconsistent with the proposition that wages are paid out of capital?
3. What should you say to the doctrine that the real source of wages is in the incomes of the consumers of the articles made by the laborers?
4. It has been said that “Mr. Walker’s theory is, in reality, not a theory of manager’s earnings at all, but a theory of difference in manager’s earnings.” Do you think this is a sound criticism?
5. Explain what was Bastiat’s doctrine as to value; point out wherein it was like or unlike Carey’s doctrine on the same subject; and state briefly Cairnes’s criticism on Bastiat.
6. “There are two kinds of sociological inquiry. In the first kind, the question proposed is, what effect will follow from a given cause, a certain general condition of social circumstances being presupposed. As, for example, what would be the effect of abolishing or repealing corn laws in the present conditions of society or civilization in any European country, or under any other given supposition with regard to the circumstances of society in general; without reference to the changes which might take place, or which may be already in progress, in those circumstances. But there is also a second inquiry, namely, what are the laws which determine those general circumstances themselves. In this last the question is, not what will be the effect of a given cause in a certain state of society, but what are the causes which produce, and the phenomena which characterize, states of society generally.” — Mill’s Logic.
   What reasons are there for saying that different methods should be applied to these two kinds of inquiry? and what are the differences in method?
7. Can the legislation of Germany on workmen’s insurance be said to be socialistic in a sense in which (a) the Christian socialist movement in England, and (b) the regulation or ownership by the state, are not socialistic?
8. Suppose production coöperation were universally adopted; wherein would the organization of society differ from that which socialism proposes?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1887-89.  Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1888.

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Political Economy 3.
Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 3. First half-year. Investigation and Discussion of Practical Economic Questions.—Short theses. Prof. Laughlin.

Total 23: 1 Graduate, 12 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3
[Mid-year examination]

1. In what way, in your opinion, is the discussion of a “standard of value” related to the questions involved in Bimetallism?
2. How far can the figures of coinage be used to show the operation of Gresham’s Law? Illustrate by reference to the history of our coinage. Are all coins intended for circulation?
3. Compare the production of silver in 1780-1820 with that for the period since 1872. Were the results of production the same?
4. Distinguish between “Free coinage” and gratuitous coinage. What is “seigniorage”? Has the theory of seigniorage any connection with the circulation of our subsidiary coinage, or the silver dollar?
5. Discuss the results of the recent legislation permitting the issue of small silver certificates.
6. How far can legislation regulate the value of metallic money?
7. Compare the impelling causes for the passage of the English Navigation Laws in 1651 and the American Navigation Laws of 1789 and 1817.
8. Enumerate briefly any provisions of existing laws which operate to prevent the increase of our ocean tonnage.
9. Distinguish between the conditions affecting our shipping before 1856, and since. If our shipping flourished in the former period, are there the same reasons to suppose it should be as prosperous in the later period?
10. How far have the customs-duties imposed during the Civil War affected ship-building? Have they influenced ship-sailing?
11. In what way may foreigners procure a ship built in the United States cheaper than citizens of this country can procure them? Does this affect our tonnage?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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Political Economy 4.
Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 4. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War.—Selections for required reading. Prof. Dunbar.

Total 102: 3 Graduates, 38 Seniors, 29 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4
[Mid-year examination]

[Answer all of A, and eight questions from B]

A.

1. Why did the period of the wars 1793-1815, when England was making enormous unproductive expenditures and subjecting herself to severe taxation, nevertheless present many of the appearances of high prosperity? [See the extract from Porter, 113-115.]
2. What was Napoleon’s Milan decree, and the occasion for its issue? [See the extract from Levi.]
3. “The general feeling in Germany towards the Zoll-Verein is, that it is the first step towards what is called the Germanization of the people.”—[Extract from Bowring, 138.]
   Why was the Zoll-Verein more effective for this purpose than the Confederation?

B.

1. In what way was the English colonial system less injurious to the colonies than that of any other important power of the time?
2. English legislation on Indian cotton goods: dates, purpose, and effects, good or bad.
3. The school of writers known as the French Economistes.
4. How did the American Revolution tend to prepare the way for that in France?
5. The date and cause of the English Bank Restriction and its duration.
6. What was the pressure which compelled Prussia to adopt the emancipating edict of 1807?
7. American manufactures before 1808 and after.
8. Why were the years 1815-30 a period of general commercial embarrassment and irregularity?
9. What special advantages for the cotton, woolen, and iron manufactures respectively did England exhibit prior to the great inventions?
10. How did free trade become a commercial necessity for England?
11. The system on which railway building was undertaken in the United States, England, Belgium, France, and Prussia respectively.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4
[Year-end examination]

[Answer all of A, and ten questions from B]

A.

1. The writer in Blackwood’s [Selections, p. 248], speaking of the use of bills of exchange in the payment of the French Indemnity, says: “How came it that £170,000,000 of bills could be got at all’ [e. in what transactions were bills created so much in excess of the usual supply]?
2. Cairnes [Selections, p. 218], says that “as the final result of the above movement [of the new gold] we find that while the metallic systems of England and the United States are receiving but small permanent accessions, those of India and China are absorbing enormous supplies.” Why?
3. Of the two pairs of countries above named which pair gained most from the movement, and why?

B.

1. Is it probable that England would have adopted Free Trade, if the refusal of other countries to follow her example had been foreseen?
2. What caused the rapid growth of American navigation down to 1857-60?
3. How are the prices, usually taken as measuring the value of gold, affected by quick transportation and telegraphs?
4. England and the Suez Canal.
5. Banking in France and Germany is said to be in an undeveloped condition. Illustrate this by comparison with the development of banking methods in England and the United States.
6. Is England a gainer or a loser by the extension of our wheat area and the consequent cheapness of supply from this country?
7. How did the payment of the French Indemnity contribute to the financial crisis of 1873 in the United States?
8. How did the crisis of 1873 help to bring about the resumption of specie payment in this country?
9. Compare the three cases of resumption,— the United States, France, and Italy,–as regards the kinds of currency in use and the general method adopted.
10. Fawcett [God and Debt, p. 122] says of the public debts of the world, that “the actual liquidation of this vast sum, amounting to just about eight times the total of all the gold and silver used as money in Europe and America, is, of course, not to be contemplated — it is impossible.”
11. How does the revived colonial enterprise of our day differ from that of the last century as regards the purposes and expectations of the colonizing nations?
12. The great political consolidations in Europe have brought with them enormous military burdens. How should you say that this loss has been offset?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1887-89.  Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1888.

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1887-88
POLITICAL ECONOMY 5
Economic Effects of Land Tenures in England, Ireland, France, and Germany
[ Course Omitted in 1887-88]

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Political Economy 6.
Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 6. Second Half-year. History of Tariff Legislation in the United States.—Lectures, required reading, and investigation of special topics. Prof. Taussig.

Total 58: 5 Graduates, 31 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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Topics and References in Political Economy VI.
Harvard College. Tariff Legislation in the United States. Cambridge, Mass., 1888.

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1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6
[Year-end examination]

1. “I will not argue the question whether, looking to the policy indicated by the laws of 1789, 1817, 1824, 1828, 1832, and 1842, there has been ground for the industrious and enterprising people of the United States, engaged in home pursuits, to expect government protection for internal industry. The question is, do these laws, or do they not, from 1789 to the present time, constantly show and maintain a purpose, a policy, which might naturally induce men to invest property in manufactures, and to commit themselves to those pursuits in life? Without lengthened argument, I shall take this for granted.”—Webster, Speech of 1846.
   Was Webster justified in taking so much for granted?
2. Compare the treatment of the bearing of protective duties on wages in Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures with the treatment of the same topic in Walker’s Report of 1846, and give an opinion on the value of the discussion at the hands of both statesmen.
3. What connection has been alleged to exist, and what connection in fact existed, between tariff legislation and general prosperity in 1837-39, in 1843, and in 1857?
4. Point out wherein the duties on wool and woolens under the act of 1828 resembled, and wherein they differed from, the duties on the same articles under the act of 1867.
5. Compare the effect of the duties on cotton goods between 1816 and 1824, with the effect of the duties on the same goods between 1864 and 1883.
6. Point out wherein Mill’s reasoning as to the effect of an import duty on the terms of an international exchange is different from the export tax theory of 1832.
7. Explain what conclusions you can draw as to the economic effect of the duties on pig iron between 1870 and 1888, from your knowledge of foreign and domestic prices, duties, domestic production, and imports.
8. Explain why the duty on imported sugar has not stimulated the production of beet sugar in the United States. Apply a similar explanation to some other industry, not connected with agriculture, in which high duties have had less effect than might have been expected.
9. Point out wherein the course of the tariff legislation of the United States between 1864 and 1883 was similar to the course of legislation in France between 1815 and 1860, and wherein it was not similar.
10. “First, there is no sufficient market for our surplus agricultural products except a foreign market, and, in default of this, such surplus will either not be raised, or, if raised, will rot on the ground. Second, the domestic demand for the products of existing furnaces and factories is very far short of the capacity of such furnaces and factories to supply; and, until larger and more extended markets are obtainable, domestic competition will inevitably continue, as now, to reduce profits to a minimum and greatly restrict the extension of the so-called manufacturing industries….Industrial depression, business stagnation, and social discontent in the United States, as a rule, are going to continue and increase until the nation adopts a fiscal and commercial policy more liberal and better suited to the new condition of affairs.”— D.A. Wells, in the North American Review.
    Do you think the remedy of lower import duties will remove the difficulties said to arise from excessive production?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1887-89.  Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1888.

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Political Economy 7.
Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 7. Taxation, Public Debts, and Banking.—Lectures. Prof. Dunbar.

Total 15: 1 Graduate, 11 Seniors, 3 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7
[Mid-year examination]

[Discuss three of the following topics.]

1. What are the conditions necessary for the complete development and efficient working of a budget system?
2. Accepting Mill’s reasoning that a tax under some circumstances, by diminishing the income from property, diminishes its selling value, and so ceases to be felt by subsequent purchasers, should you say,—
   1. That the French impôt foncier is a tax on present landholders?
   2. That the English income-tax under Schedule A, is a tax on present landholders?
      The reason for the difference, if any exists.
3. Comparative advantages of the methods of local taxation used in the four leading countries.
4. “It is an error, to assume that [1] all descriptions of property should be subjected to taxation in order to insure equality and uniformity. On the contrary, all experience has shown—none better than that of the United States—that the more ‘concrete’ and the less diffused a system of taxation can be made, the better for the people and the better for the State; for, with the exception of direct taxes on income, and upon those articles, like spirits and tobacco, which are consumed solely for personal gratification, taxation distributes itself with a wonderful degree of uniformity. If placed upon land, it will constitute an element of the cost of that which the land produces; if upon manufacturing industry, then of the cost of the products of such industry; upon shipping, of the cost of that which the ship transports; upon capital, of the cost, price, or interest, which is paid for the use of such capital; and if upon buildings, it will be reflected upon the income of the occupier, or upon the cost of the goods, wares and merchandise stored, exchanged or produced therein….And so [2] a tax imposed upon an article or service of prime necessity to a community, like land or buildings, for example, becomes, in effect, a tax upon all, without the vexations of infinitesimal application.”
   The same author has expressed this idea elsewhere by saying,—
   “Proportional taxes on all things of any given class will be diffused and equalized on all other property.”
   Discuss the two general principles of taxation, [1], [2], contrasted with each other in the above extracts.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7
[Year-end examination]

A.

A careful examination and discussion of these two topics is desired. Not less than one half of your time should be given to this division of the paper.

1. “In so far as bondholders live from the proceeds of their bonds, they form a class not immediately interested in current industries. At some time in the past they may have furnished the government with large sums of capital, thus averting the inconvenience of excessive taxation or of a sudden change in rates; and, in return for this service, they receive from the government the promise of an annuity until an equivalent of the original capital should be returned. Such persons are guaranteed a living without labor.
   “There is but one way in which the government may escape the necessity of supporting in idleness this class, and that is by paying its members their respective claims. The bondholders would in this manner be deprived of their secured annuity, but they would in its stead hold a sum of free capital; and if they wish to continue in the enjoyment of an income from their property they must apply their funds to some productive purpose. In this manner the country gains by bringing to bear upon industrial affairs the interested attention of those who formerly were secured a living from the proceeds of public taxes. For another reason also is the payment of a debt advantageous. No people can long retain that hopefulness so essential to the vigorous prosecution of industries if the past lays heavy claims upon the present. As a rule, they only should partake of current product who are in some way connected with present production. Carelessness and jealousy are not characteristics of efficient labor, but they are sometimes naturally engendered by the payment of taxes for the support of a favored class. It is the permanency of this payment, rather than its amount, which exerts a depressing influence upon labor, and its extinction is a first step toward the establishment of confidence and contentment.”
2. “As the circulation of a bank is a source of profit, and as the managers are usually disposed to oblige their patrons by loans and accommodations, it can never be wise to allow banks or parties who have pecuniary interests at stake to increase or diminish the volume of currency in the country at their pleasure. Nor do I find in the condition of things a law or rule on which we can safely rely. Upon these views I form the conclusion that the circulation of the banks should be fixed and limited, and that the power to change the volume of paper in circulation, within limits established by law, should remain in the Treasury Department.
   “A degree of flexibility in the volume of currency is essential for two reasons:
   “First. The business of the Department cannot be transacted properly if a limit is fixed, and the power to raise the circulation above or reduce it below that limit is denied.
   “A rule of this nature would compel the Secretary to accumulate a large currency balance and to hold it; as, otherwise, the credit of the government, in meeting the ordinary daily claims upon it, would be at the mercy of every serious business and political revulsion in the United States or Europe….
   “Secondly. There is a necessity every autumn for moving the crops without delay from the South and West to the seaboard that they may be in hand for export and consumption as wanted. This work should be done in the main before the lakes, rivers, and canals are closed, and yet it cannot be done without the use of large amounts of currency.
   “In the summer months funds accumulate at the centres, but the renewal of business in August and September gives employment for large sums, and leaves little or nothing for forwarding the crops in October and November….
   “The crops cannot be moved generally by the aid of bank balances, checks, and letters of credit, but only by bank notes and United States notes paid at once to the producers…
   “The problem is to find a way of increasing the currency for moving the crops and diminishing it at once when that work is done. This is a necessary work, and, inasmuch as it cannot be confined to the banks, where, but in the Treasury Department, can the power be reposed?”—[Finance Report, by Secretary Boutwell, 1872.]

B.

1. In the loan act of August 5, 1861, Congress, having previously authorized the issue of seven per cent twenty-year bonds at par, authorized the Secretary, if he thought best, to sell six per cent twenty-year bonds, “at any rate not less that the equivalent of par, for the bonds bearing seven per centum interest, authorized by said [previous] act.” What considerations should determine the choice of the Secretary in using this discretion?
2. What is your own estimate of the merits of the English system of operating on the national debt by means of terminable annuities, as proposed by Mr. Gladstone and extended by Mr. Childers?
3. Shadwell [System of Political Economy, 371] says:—
   “The tendency of all legislation on the subject of notes is to sacrifice the interests of the depositors to those of the note-holders, and there are some people to whom such a course appears justifiable. Banks, it is said, are imprudently managed; therefore, when one fails, its notes should be paid in full before the claims of its depositors are dealt with. It would not be more arbitrary to say that because banks are imprudently managed, therefore the depositors should be paid in full before the claims of the note-holders are dealt with.”
   What is your own conclusion of this question?
4. Which of the three great banks, the Bank of England, the Bank of France, and the Reichsbank, appears to you to present the best model for a great national bank,— and why?
5. It has been remarked that the expedient by which the New York banks associated themselves against a common danger, in 1860, 1873, and 1884, finds its nearest analogy in the occasional suspension of the limit which the act of 1844 places on the Bank of England. How close and real is the analogy?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1887-89.  Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1888.

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Political Economy 8.
Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 8. First half-year. Financial history of the United States.—Lectures. Prof. Dunbar.

Total 39: 3 Graduates, 26 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8
[Mid-year examination]

[Take one question from A and nine from B, or both from A and seven 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. There is disclosed in the administration of Mr. Gallatin the true policy of debt-payment. It consists in the establishment of a permanent appropriation for the service of the debt which shall be in excess of the demands of current interest. But such appropriation need not be “inviolable.” It need form no part of a “private contract,” nor be regarded as constituting “private property.” A government should always be at liberty in time of emergency to divert money held for the payment of debt to the support of new loans…The United States is indebted to Mr. Gallatin more than to any other man for the establishment of this policy. Under the guidance of his clear insight this country departed from the pernicious methods of English financiering.—H.C. Adams, Public Debts, 268.
   Discuss the above with particular reference to the suggested difference of principle between Hamilton’s sinking-fund policy and Gallatin’s.
2. What does the experience of the United States government show as to the policy of relying upon duties on imports as the sole means of supplying the Treasury?

B.

1. How is the fact to be explained that the Bank of the United States was so much less able to resist attack than it appeared to be in 1829?
2. What kind of currency did the government use and where were its money kept, and under what authority of law, after the closing of the first Bank of the United States, 1811-17, and after the removal of the deposits from the second, 1833-36?
3. In what way would the renewal of the charter of the first Bank of the United States probably have affected the finances during the war, 1812-15?
4. What was the reason for the difference between Mr. Dallas’s proposition for a bank in 1814 and that which he made in 1815?
5. How did the second Bank of the United States aid in the resumption of specie payment in 1817?
6. What was the specie circular of 1836, and how was it financially important?
7. How would it have eased the finances of 1861, if the Secretary of the Treasury had made more free use of the Act of August 5, suspending for some purposes the provisions of the Independent Treasury Act?
8. What were the nearest approaches made to a government legal-tender paper before 1862?
9. Why was 1865 a favorable occasion for returning to specie payment, and what then prevented the return?
10. As a general question, apart from any special provision of law, who has authority to tax United States bonds or the income derived from them, and under what limitations, if any?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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Political Economy 9.
Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 9. First half-year. Management and Ownership of Railways. Prof. Laughlin.

Total 19: 1 Graduate, 14 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9
[Mid-year examination]

1. In what way is railway transportation related to the general principles of economic theory?
2. Wherein is there any opposition between the interests of the shareholders and the directors of railways?
3. How far are railway rates regulated by the competition of railways with each other?
4. Discuss the reasons for and against equal mileage rates.
5. What gave rise to pooling in the United States? What have been the practical effects of pooling on railway rates in this country?
6. Explain: Cost of service, differential rates, a “differential,” the evening system, preferred stock, the Joint Executive Committee, the Petroleum Pool.
7. Is classification the necessary consequence of any one theory of rates? How does classification in the United States compare with that of European railways?
8. Compare the Railway Commissions of Georgia and Massachusetts.
9. Do you regard the Granger legislation as having accomplished any permanent results?
10. Discuss the interpretation of the Fourth Section of the Inter-State Commerce Act by the National Commission.
11. What arguments in favor of State ownership of railways by the United States can be drawn from the experience of Germany and Italy?
12. Do you find any part of the railway system of England which would be worthy of adoption by the United States?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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Philosophy 11.
Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Philosophy 11. The Ethics of Social Reform. The questions of Charity, Divorce, the Indians, Labor, Prisons, temperance, etc., as problems of practical ethics.—Lectures, essays, and practical observations. Prof. Peabody.

Total 84: 3 Graduates, 51 Seniors, 23 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 71.

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1887-88
PHILOSOPHY 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
[Mid-year examination]

[Omit one question]

1. Inductive ethics. Explain and illustrate this phrase, as applied to the study of the social questions.
2. The various possible relations between one’s own life and the life of society. Illustrate by the history of ethical theory.
3. “The whole question of the relation of ethics to political economy resolves itself into a bare question of classification. Shall our nomenclature be such as to make the term political economy include the ethical sphere or not?”—(C.F. Dunbar, Quarterly Journal of Economics, October, 1886, p. 25.)
   What is your answer to this question of classification?
4. “No one doubts that a man who improves the current morality of his time must be something of an Idealist. He must have an idea which moves him to seek its realization. That idea cannot represent any experienced reality.”.-(T.H. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, p. 325.)
   Illustrate this in the conduct of a social reform.
5. “I fully believe that to-day the next most pernicious thing to vice is charity in its broad and popular sense.”—(W.G. Sumner, What Social Classes owe to each other, p. 157.)
   What is there in modern charity which tends to justify this view and in what way can such a danger be met?
6. “Among the means toward a higher civilization I unhesitatingly assert that the deliberate cultivation of public amusement is a principal one.”—(W.S. Jevons, Methods of Social Reform, p. 7.) Why?
7. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of a Constitutional Amendment as a remedy for existing evils in the divorce question.
8. “Without the circumstances of infancy…the phenomena of social life would have been omitted from the history of the world and with them the phenomena of ethics.”—(John Fiske, Cosmic Philosophy, II. 363) Why?
9. “The most ancient system”—of family life—“was a system of kinship through females only.”—(McLennan,Studies in Ancient History, p. 85.)
   What was the origin of this matriarchal type and why is it supposed to have preceded the patriarchal family?
10. “The movement of progressive societies has been uniform in one respect. Through all its course it has been distinguished by the gradual dissolution of family dependency and the growth of individual obligation. The individual is steadily substituted for the family as the unit of which civil laws take account.”—(Sir Henry Maine, Ancient Law, p. 163.)
    Consider the history, the tendencies, and the risks of this evolution of the individual.
11. Illustrate the interdependence of the question of Marriage and Divorce with other social questions.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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Philosophy 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
[Year-end examination]

[Omit two questions.]

1. Have you discovered any philosophical principles underlying this course of study, and can you suggest any change of method in the course which will make these underlying principles more clear?
2. Why has the Indian been hitherto so impervious to civilization?
3. Explain the “Dawes Bills.” What supplementary legislation is needed for their successful administration?
4. Contrast the economic doctrines of Carlyle and of Ruskin and consider modern illustrations of each.
5. Enumerate some of the ways in which an employer seems to have a natural advantage in a conflict with his employed.
6. On what principle would wages be paid if the “Democratic Federation” should carry out its programme?
7. “Socialists regard colossal corporations and the wealthy bosses that direct them as the greatest pioneers of their cause.”-Kirkup, An Inquiry into Socialism, p. 169.—Why?
8. “There are certain establishments nominally coöperative, which have little significance as bearing on the Labor Question. The chief of these is the Rochdale form of the cooperative store.”—J.B. Clark, The Philosophy of Wealth, p. 190.—Why is this, and what are some of the obstacles to more complete coöperation?
9. Illustrate by several instances the tendency of the State to infringe upon the liberty of the individual. How far do you think that this tendency can be wisely encouraged?
10. On what principle would you distinguish the various forms of liquor legislation, and what considerations would determine your vote in your own state or town?
11. “Society is not an aggregate of independent units, not a mechanical whole, but, in the true sense of the word, an organism.”—Prof. Edward Caird, The Moral Aspect of the Economical Problem, p. 16.—If this is true, how does it affect your duty as to temperance, and your understanding of the argument from “example”? 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1887-89.  Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1888.

Image Source: John Harvard Statue (1904). Library of Congress. Photos, Prints and Drawings.