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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Semester Examinations in US Economic History. Sprague, 1903-1904

Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague

 

Exam questions for the Economic History of the United States taught by Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague in academic years 1901-02, and 1902-03 have been posted earlier.

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ECONOMICS 6
Enrollment. 1903-04

Economics 6. Dr. Sprague. — The Economic History of the United States.

Total 58: 14 Graduates, 18 Seniors, 18 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 66.

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ECONOMICS 6
Mid-Year Examination. 1903-04

  1. Give reasons for the failure to engage in diversified agriculture in the South before 1860.
  2. Contrast the Southern plantation managed by owners with those under the management of overseers.
  3. Why should 1839 rather than 1837 be regarded as the close of the speculative movement of the thirties?
  4. Why may it be considered fortunate that the national government did not take an important part in the early internal improvement movement?
  5. To what extent was distrust of private corporations a factor in the internal improvement movement?
  6. Contrast the effects of protection upon the cotton and upon the woollen industry.
  7. Are wages and profits higher in protected than in other occupations, (a) raw materials, (b) manufactures?
  8. What, in your opinion, was the strongest argument for protection in 1816? What seems to you the strongest argument which has general validity?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1903-04.

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ECONOMICS 6
Year-End Examination. 1903-04

  1. How is immigration said to have affected the birth rate?
  2. Point out any indications which give promise of future negro progress.
  3. Briefly.
    1. The Homestead Law.
    2. The Copper Act of 1869.
    3. Reciprocity in the Tariff Act of 1890.
    4. The effects of specific duties according to Walker’s Report of 1846.
  4. Point out striking differences in the protective movement before and since 1860, taking illustrations especially from the Woollen Act of 1867 and the Act of 1890.
  5. The cotton manufacture in the South and the young industries argument.
  6. Why has the iron and steel industry developed more satisfactorily than the woollen industry?
  7. Account for changes in the character of the foreign trade of the United States with reference to the excess of imports or of exports.

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, … in Harvard College, p. 29.

Image Source: Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague portrait in the Harvard Class Album 1915, colorised by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.