In the mid-1870’s there were three courses in political economy offered at Harvard every year. The first was a one-term prescribed course in political economy required of all undergraduates in their sophomore year.  The other two courses in political economy were electives of which one was recommended for students of history while the other presumably put greater emphasis on economic theory. In the Harvard University Catalogues for the academic years 1874-5 through 1876-7, there is exactly one examination for each of these three courses. Using the annual Reports of the President of Harvard College, I was able to use enrollment data to determine the dates of the examinations.

The textbooks for the courses are identified and we see the first graduate students recorded in the class-enrollments for 1876-77.  I have grouped the courses below by academic year.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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1874-75

PRESCRIBED: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Sophomore year

Prof. Dunbar. Fawcett’s Political Economy for Beginners. — Constitution of the United States (Alden’s Science of Government, omitting the first four and the last three chapters).
Two hours a week. Half-year. 208 students, 4 sections, 2 exercises per week for students, 8 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1874-75, p. 45.

 

[Note: Courses 7 and 8 are parallel Courses, Course 7 being preferable for students of History.]

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 7.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — Fawcett’s Manual of Political Economy. — Blanqui’s Histoire de l’Èconomie Politique en Europe.— Bagehot’s Lombard Street.
Three hours a week. 19 Seniors, 14 Juniors.
1 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 3 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 49. Also, Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 56.

 

[EXAMINATION FOR 1874-75(?) FROM 1875-76 CATALOGUE]
PHILOSOPHY 7.

[In answering the questions do not change their order.]

1. State the general principles which determine the exchange of commodities between two countries, and show the analogy between this case and that of exchange between individuals under the familiar law of demand and supply.

2. If the United States were to levy an export duty on cotton, on whom would it fall? What objection is there to the proposition?

3. It is known that the people of the United States are debtors to Europe to a large amount; should our annual returns show a balance of imports or of exports? Why? If, in fact, the balance appears to be the wrong way, what conclusion is to be drawn?

4. With commerce in its normal condition, would exchange on Europe be in our favor, against us, or at par? Why? Would this state of things be for our disadvantage or not?

5. What causes the tendency of profits to fall as a nation advances?

6. If a tax were laid, at a uniform rate, on all property of every description, would it meet the requirements of Adam Smith’s first rule? Give the reason.

7. Why should not large incomes be taxed at a higher rate than moderate ones; as, e.g., incomes of $10,000 and upwards higher than those between $5,000 and $10,000?

8. How much control has the Bank of England over the rate of interest in the money market?

9. Under the national bank act, how does the action of our banks, when the reserves are suddenly reduced, differ from that of the Bank of England in like case?

10. What difference would there be likely to be in the operation of these two methods, at a time when the condition of monetary affairs is critical?

11. State the following leading facts relating to the issue of legal tender notes: —

(1) When they were first authorized;
(2) The maximum prescribed by the act of June, 1864;
(3) The point to which they were reduced by Mr. McCulloch;
(4) The amount of expansion under Mr. Richardson
(5) The provision contained in the act of June, 1874;
(6) The provisions for withdrawal in the act of January, 1875.

12. How do the deposit of bonds required of the national banks and the reserve required for their circulation differ in purpose?

13. Give the date and circumstances of the first issue of fractional currency.

14. Why did the government issue 5-20 bonds rather than 20-year bonds bearing the same rate of interest? Which is more valuable? Why?
15. If all business were done for cash, what difference would it make as to the ease of resuming specie payments? Why?

Source: The Harvard University Catalogue, 1875-76. Cambridge, p. 238.

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 8.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Bagehot’s Lombard Street. Legislation of the United States on Currency and Finance.

Three hours a week. — 65 Seniors, 33 Juniors.
2 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 6 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1874-75, p. 48. Also, Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 56.

 

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1875-76

PRESCRIBED: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Sophomore year

Mr. Macvane. Fawcett’s Political Economy for Beginners. — Constitution of the United States (Alden’s Science of Government, omitting the first four and the last three chapters).
Two hours a week. Second half-year. 182 students, 4 sections, 2 exercises per week for students, 8 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 44.

 

[Examination of 1875-76(?), from 1876-77 Catalogue]
PRESCRIBED POLITICAL ECONOMY.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

[Those who take the examination in the Constitution may omit the questions marked with a star (*).]

1. Explain the service which Capital renders to production. Should you call a coal mine capital? a steam engine? a mill stream? Why?
2. Define Value. Show whether a general rise of values is possible. Distinguish between natural value and market value. Do they ever coincide?
3. What do you understand to be “the value of money “? On what does it depend? How does a rise in the value of money show itself?
4. Mention the three classes into which commodities are divided in relation to their value. In which class should you place gold and silver?
5. (*) Show how far the action of demand and supply controls the value of commodities in each class.
6. Explain the relations between rent of land, price of food, and growth of population.
7. What is meant by cost of labor? Show that a man’s wages may be low and yet the cost of his labor be high. Point out the connection between cost of labor and profit of capital.
8. (*) Wherein do productive and unproductive consumption differ? “A knowledge of one of the first principles of political economy is sufficient to show that society is no gainer by the reckless expenditure of the spendthrift:” State the principle referred to, and illustrate the truth of the assertion.
9. (*) Show that foreign trade is advantageous to both countries only when the relative cost of the commodities exchanged is different in the two countries. When exports and imports fail to balance each other in any country, how is the equilibrium restored?
10. Give the four “canons of taxation,” and show the application of any two of them. How may the burden of taxation be distributed according to the first canon, in a country where the revenue is raised by duties on tea, sugar, wines, etc.
11. (*) Distinguish direct from indirect taxes. To which class does the income tax belong? Ought permanent and temporary incomes to be taxed equally?
12. (*) Show whether high wages make high prices. Suppose that laborers, by combinations and strikes, should succeed in raising wages so much as to bring profits down to a very low figure, would they be benefited thereby? Why?

 

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

[Those who take the examination in Political Economy will answer questions 1-7 only.]

1. Explain the terms exclusive and concurrent as applied to legislative power. Mention two subjects in reference to which Congress has exclusive, and two in which it has concurrent, power of legislation.
2. Through what stages must bills go in their passage through each house? Mention the ways in which a bill may become a law. In what case does a bill fail to become a law though passed by both houses and not vetoed by the President?
3. State the qualifications required for Vice-President; for senators. Describe the mode of electing senators. How, and under what authority, has this mode been established?
4. Show how the amendments relating to slavery (XIII.-XV.) affected the apportionment of representatives. How far has the right of each State to make its own franchise law been abridged by these amendments?
5. When a president is to be elected, how many electors are appointed by each State? How are the electors chosen? What control has Congress over the election?
6. What officers are subject to impeachment? For what offences? What is the effect of resigning? How may persons convicted on impeachment be punished?
7. Give the provisions of the Constitution in reference to trial by jury. Describe the function of grand juries. Explain fully “the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.”
8. Define treason. What courts have jurisdiction in cases of treason? What evidence is necessary in order to convict? What is provided in the Constitution as the punishment of treason 1
9. How are direct taxes apportioned? What taxes are direct in the meaning of the Constitution? Compare this sense of the word with its use in Political Economy.
10. Give the provisions in the original Constitution relating directly or indirectly to the subject of slavery. What difficulties, arising from the existence of slavery, were encountered in framing the Constitution?
11. Taxes on exports. Taxes on immigrants.
12. The treaty-making power in the United States and in England.
13. Copyright and patent rights.
14. Naturalization of aliens. Expatriation.
15. Bills of credit. Legal-tender notes.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1876-77, p. 229.

 

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 5.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — Bagehot’s Lombard Street. –Lectures on the Financial Legislation of the United States.
Three hours a week. Second half-year. 36 Seniors, 80 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.
2 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 6 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 49.

 

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 6.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Advanced Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science. Lectures.
Three hours a week. 24 Seniors.
1 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 3 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 49.

 

[EXAMINATION OF 1875-76(?) FROM 1876-77 CATALOGUE]
PHILOSOPHY 6.

1. Give Mr. Cairnes’s statement of the wages-fund doctrine. (p. 167.)
2. Criticise the following extracts from Walker’s “Wages Question,”
3. 128-130: —

“A popular theory of wages is based upon the assumption that wages are paid out of capital, the saved results of the industry of the past. Hence, it is argued, capital must furnish the measure of wages. On the contrary, I hold that wages are, in a philosophical view of the subject, paid out of the product of present industry, and hence that production furnishes the true measure of wages. … So long as additional profits are to be made by the employment of additional labor, so long a sufficient reason for production exists; when profit is no longer expected, the reason for production ceases. At this point the mere fact that the employer has capital at his command no more constitutes a reason why he should use it in production when he can get no profits, than the fact that the laborer has legs and arms constitutes a reason why he should work when he can get no wages.

“The employer purchases labor with a view to the product of the labor; and the kind and amount of this product determine what wages he can afford to pay. … If the product is to be greater, he can afford to pay more; if it is to be smaller, he must, for his own interest, pay less. It is, then, for the sake of future production that the laborers are employed, not at all because the employer has possession of a fund which he must disburse; and it is the value of the product, such as it is likely to prove, which determines the amount of the wages that can be paid, not at all the amount of wealth which the employer has in possession or can command. Thus it is production, not capital, which furnishes the motive for employment, and the measure of wages.”

3. What is the reasoning which leads Mr. Cairnes to predict an ultimate fall of prices in the United States as compared with prices elsewhere? How will a protective tariff affect the movement? (p. 304.)
4. A recent writer says: —

“We will be able to resume specie payments when we cease to rank among the debtor nations, when our national debt is owed to our own people, and when our industry is adequate to the supply of the nation’s need of manufactured goods.” (Thompson’s “Social Science,” p. 206.)

How essential are these three conditions, severally, for the resumption of specie payments?

5. Criticise the argument contained in the following proposition :—

“With every increase in the facility of reproduction, there is a decline in the value of all existing things of a similar kind, attended by a diminution in the price paid for their use. The charge for the use of the existing money tends, therefore, to decline as man acquires control over the great forces provided by the Creator for his service; as is shown by the gradual diminution of the rate of interest in every advancing country.”

6. Compare the generally received principle that paper currency tends to expel coin, with the following: —

“All commodities tend to move towards those places at which they are most utilized. . . . The note and the check increase the utility of the precious metals; and therefore is it, that money tends to flow towards those places at which notes and checks are most in use, — passing, in America, from the Southern and Western States towards the Northern and Eastern ones, and from America towards England.”

7. What is Mr. Carey’s doctrine as to the value of land in an advancing society? Compare it with his general doctrine as to the determination of value hy cost of reproduction.
8. What is Mr. Carey’s general law of distribution between labor and capital? Give the general course of reasoning leading to this law.
9. Discuss Mr. Carey’s objection to the Malthusian theory, that increase of numbers is in the inverse ratio of development, man multiplying slowly while the lower forms of animal and vegetable life multiply rapidly.
10. What logical necessity has compelled Mr. Carey to assume the existence of a law of diminishing fecundity in the human race? Compare this with the process of reasoning which leads to the Malthusian conclusion as to the necessary operation of ” checks,” positive and preventive.

Source:  Harvard University Catalogue, 1876-77, p. 233-4.

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1876-77 

NO LONGER PRESCRIBED: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Sophomore year

Political Economy is no longer listed among the sophomore prescribed courses according the Annual reports of the President of Harvard University for 1876-77, pp. 44-45.   The only prescribed course from the department of philosophy was a junior year course of Logic and Psychology, each for one semester.  Cf. Catalogue of Harvard University, 1876-77, p. 55.

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 5.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — Financial Legislation of the United States. Three hours a week. 1 Graduate, 30 Seniors, 64 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 2 Unmatriculated.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1876-77, p. 49.

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 6.
Advanced Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Advanced Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science.
Three hours a week.  2 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 3 Juniors.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1876-77, p. 49.