Harvard. Twenty years of graduate economic history exams. Gay and Usher, 1930-1949

 

This has turned into a post that is over fifty pages long when printed as a normal text document. It began with materials in a folder found in Alexander Gerschenkron’s papers at the Harvard archives that contained a test-bank of two of his predecessors in economic history at Harvard, Edwin F. Gay and Abbott Payson Usher, starting with the 1929-30 academic year. I thought this was a convenient collection to transcribe but soon found myself going through other archival material I have collected to fill in the inevitable “missing observations”. There are still a few gaps I am sorry to report, but not enough to stop me from posting this incredible collection of the exams for graduate courses in economic history at Harvard spanning twenty years during the first half of the 20th century.

Harvard’s catalogues of courses long distinguished between those “primarily for undergraduates”, “for undergraduates and graduates” and “primarily for graduates”. The exams transcribed below are from courses “primarily for graduates”.

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Previous posts
(for 1921-1941)

Biographical info for Edwin F. Gay and Abbott Payson Usher.

Readings for undergraduate european economic history (Economics 2a). Usher, 1921.

Final Exam Questions for undergraduate European Economic History (Economics 2a). Usher, 1922.

Readings and final exam for undergraduate/graduate History of Commerce to 1750 (Economics 10a). Usher, 1929-30.

Readings and Exam for undergraduate European Economic History since the Industrial Revolution (Economics 2a) Gay, 1934.

Course outline, readings, and exam for undergraduate/graduate Development of Industrial Society (Economics 10b).  Usher, 1934.

Readings for Recent Economic History (Economics 23). Gay, 1934-35.

Readings and paper topics for Economic History to 1450 (Economics 21)  Usher, 1934-35.

Topics/readings for Modern Economic History Seminar (Economics 136). Usher, 1937-41.

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1929-30

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY

Economics 23 ¹hf. Economic History to 1450

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

[Economics 24. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Gay.

Omitted in 1929-30.

 Economics 25. Recent Economic History

Tu., Th., at 4. Professor Gay.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXVI (September 19, 1929), No. 44, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1929-1930 (Second Edition), p. 124.

Enrollment

II

Economics 23 ¹hf. Associate Professor Usher. — Economic History to 1450.

Total 1: 1 Graduate.

Economics 25 Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 47: 40 Graduates, 7 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1929-30, p. 78.

1929-30.
Harvard University.
Economics 23¹.
[Mid-year Exam, 1930]

Answer five questions.

1. What distinction may be drawn between the process of invention and the process of achievement? Give illustrations.
2. What reasons may be advanced for considering the beginning of the Christian Era a line of demarcation of primary importance?
3. Comment on the individual terms and the general doctrine of the following passage:
   For centuries the Roman adhered to his “two-field system” of agriculture, and rectangular fields, and the Germans preserved the ancestral “strip system” of fields of their village communities. Even the reduction of these free villages to manorial villages and the fiscal pressure of the manorial regime failed completely to fuse or even much to modify these immemorial farming practices.
4. Discuss the meanings of the terms “civitas”, “oppidum”, “portus” and their relation to the problem of the origin of the medieval towns.
5. What distinctions may be drawn between the “free” craft and the “worn” craft? What were the functions of the wardens of a craft guild?
6. Describe the general features of a radiate market system, and explain the broader characteristics of its price structure in normal times.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1929-30
Harvard University.
Economics 25
[Mid-year Exam, 1930]

PART I

(An hour to an hour and a half)
Write an essay on one of the following topics.

1. The practical triumphs of the Ricardian economies before 1850.
2. The “movement of liberation,” or “laissez-faire,” as applied to the condition of the industrial workers.
3. An outline history of any decade between 1790 and 1860. In Europe and the United States, emphasizing the economic factors, and giving reasons for the choice of decade.

PART II

Write on three of the following questions.

4. Comment on the following statement:
   [As compared with England] “the postponement of personal freedom gave the continental serfs one signal advantage. Emancipation was accomplished without the sacrifice of their rights in the soil.”
5. Give a definition or a concise description of the “putting-out” system; justify your inclusions and exclusions.
6. Describe briefly the relations between the agricultural development of the United States and Europe before 1860.
7. Outline the attitude of the government to railroads in England, the United States, and France, before 1860.
8. On two occasions in his life — 1819 and 1844 — Sir Robert Peel thought that he had placed the English monetary system on a sure foundation. Why?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 12, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1929-30.

 1929-30
Harvard University.
Economics 25
[Year-end Exam, 1930]

Adequate and appropriate historical evidence must be presented in support of any opinions and generalizations.

Answer four of the following questions.

1. Discuss the following statement, especially emphasizing the relations between banking and agriculture in American economic history:
   “It is hardly too much to say that the political as well as economic history of America has been dominated by real estate speculation and by the cheap money controversy, largely an offshoot from the former.”
   F. H. KNIGHT, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit (1921), p. 17.
2. Explain and illustrate the following passage from Alfred Marshall, Industry and Trade (1919), p. 746:
   “[The English classical economists] overlooked the fact that many of those indirect effects of Protection which aggravated then, and would aggravate now, its direct evils in England, worked in the opposite direction in America. For the more America exported her raw produce in return for manufacture, the less the benefit she got from the Law of Increasing Return….”
3. Compare and criticize the two theories of the development of the Industrial Revolution implied in the two following quotations:
   “La préponderance économique du commerce, trait dominant de la phase économique qui s’étend du commencement du XVI^e siècle à la fin du XVIII^e, va decroître relativement à l’industrie naissante.”
   B. Nogaro and W. Oualid, L’Évolution du Commerce, du Crédit et des Transports (1914), p. 9.
   “…it was this slow process of finding out the opaque matters of fact that make up the material of technological science that occupied several generations of the British before the Germans took over any appreciable portion of it. The first acquisition of this material knowledge is necessarily a slow work of trial and error, but it can be held and transmitted in definite and unequivocal shape, and the acquisition of it by such transfer is no laborious or uncertain matter.”
   T. Veblen, Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution (1915), p. 185.
4. Discuss the tendency toward aggregation and control in industry in the United States, Germany, and England, with comment on the following statements:
   1. “Our people cannot live and thrive under the regime of bureaucracy that threatens unless industry solves its own problems. It was the abuses attendant upon an unregulated national industrial impulse that brought upon our country that legislative monstrosity known as the Sherman anti-trust law…. It is industry’s own neglect … that gives us a growing number of boards, commissions and tribunals to add their weight to the burden of industry.” American Federation of Labor (1924)
      “The state is not capable of preventing the development of the natural concentration of industry.”
      S. Gompers, Presidential Address to the American Federation of Labor, 1899.
      “Our big business has not justified the fears of our people.” Owen D. Young.
   2. As contrasted with the growth of industrial combination in other countries, a French writer thinks that “trusts” have arisen in the United States because the government has “done too little or too much” — i.e. too little intelligent and effective regulation (including the regulations of railroads) and too much protection by tariffs.
5. What have the successive booms and crises, the upward and downward swings of business cycles, during the last century taught the banker, the manufacturer, and the wage-earner?
6. Comment on the accompanying statistical table:

Net tonnage of leading mercantile fleets, 1850-1920
(in thousand tons)

		1850	1870	1890	1910	1920
United Kingdom	sail	3,397	4,578	2,936	1,114	625
	steam	168	1,113	5,043	10,443	12,026
United States (in foreign trade)	sail	1,541	2,449	749	235	937
	steam	45	97	198	557	8,626
German Empire	sail		900	710	507	342
	steam		82	724	2,397	221
France	sail	674	918	444	636	267
	steam	14	154	500	816	1,746
Norway	sail	298	1,009	1,503	628	225
	steam		14	203	897	1,149
Japan	sail			48	413	203
	steam			94	1,234	1,900

Note: The figures for the year 1920 have been obtained from another source, and are not reliably comparable with the figures for the earlier years. There is particular suspicion of error in the figures for United States shipping in that year.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, New Testament, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science (January-June 1930) in Vol. 72 Examination Papers, Finals 1930.

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1930-1931

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY

Economics 23 ¹hf. Economic History to 1450

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

[Economics 24. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Gay.

Omitted in 1930-31.

Economics 25. Recent Economic History

Wed., Fri., at 3. Professor Gay.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXVII (September 17, 1930), No. 42, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1930-1931 (Second Edition), p. 125.

Enrollment

II

Economics 23 ¹hf. Associate Professor Usher. — Economic History to 1450.

Total 2: 1 Graduate, 1 Senior.

Economics 25 Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 50: 41 Graduates, 9 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1930-31, p. 77.

1930-31
Harvard University
Economics 23.
[Mid-year Exam 1931]

Answer five questions.

1. What distinctions may be drawn between the process of invention and the process of achievement? Give illustrations.
2. What reasons may be advanced for considering the beginning of the Christian Era a line of demarcation of primary importance to economic history?
3. Sketch the history of the “colonus” in Roman Gaul and in the Frankish kingdoms.
4. Discuss the meanings of the terms “civitas”, “oppidum”, “portus” and their relation to the problem of the origins of the medieval towns.
5. What distinctions may be drawn between the “free” craft and the “sworn” craft? What were the functions of the wardens of a craft gild?
6. Describe the general features of a radiate market system, and explain the broader characteristics of its price structure.
7. Write briefly on any one of the following topics:

shipping partnerships and sea-loans,
towns and trade routes of the Mohammedan world,
Venice, Genoa, and the crusades.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1930-31
Harvard University
Economics 25
[Mid-Year Exam, 1931]

Write an essay on one of the topics in Part I, and answer briefly two questions in Part II.

I

1. The relation between the development of economic theory and the experiences of the period of the Industrial Revolution in England.
2. English Liberalism: its component elements as a body of doctrine, and its expression in political action before 1865, with especial emphasis upon its attitude toward economic policy.

Il

3. Summarize in parallel columns the outstanding events in the economic history of England and the United States between 1840 and 1850.
4. Do the same for England and France between 1850 and 1870.
5. How closely is the history of transportation in England before 1870 related to the long and the short fluctuations in general business activity?
6. Outline the chief points you would treat in a chapter on Money and Banking for an Economic History of the Nineteenth Century to 1865.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 12, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1930-31.

 1930-31
Harvard University
Economics 25
[Year-end Exam, 1931]

I
Write an essay on one of the following statements:

1. “The machine, the child of laissez faire, has slain its parent.”
2. “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”
3. “The one-crop system has been the bane of American agriculture.”
4. “In England the Reform Act initiated and the Corn Law decreed the conquest of town over country, factory over farm; in the United States a similar revolution is in process.”
5. “The Sherman Act, like Canute’s throne, was set to stem the advancing tide. Now the question is, shall it be submerged or dragged back to higher land.”

II
Write concisely on two of the following questions:

6. What are four outstanding developments of banking from about 1790 to the present time? Compare and contrast these movements in Western Europe and the United States.
7. In what successful ways did Western Europe meet the invasion of American agricultural products after 1870?
8. Place in their order of industrial and commercial importance, at 1750, 1880 and 1930, the following countries: Holland, Germany, France, England and the United States. Give your reasons.
9. Trace the connection, if any, between (a) the swings of business cycles and secular trends and (b) the development of the combination movement and trade unionism.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, New Testament, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science (January-June 1931) in Vol. 73 Examination Papers, Finals 1930.

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1931-1932

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY

Economics 23 ¹hf. Economic History to 1450

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

[Economics 24. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Gay.

Omitted in 1931-32.

Economics 25. Recent Economic History

Wed., Fri., at 4. Professor Gay.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXVIII (September 24, 1931), No. 45, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1931-1932 (Second Edition), p. 127.

Enrollment

II

Economics 23 ¹hf. Associate Professor Usher. — Economic History to 1450.

Total 1: 1 Graduate.

Economics 25. Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 65: 54 Graduates, 11 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1931-32, p. 72.

1931-32
Harvard University
Economics 23
[Final Exam 1932]

Answer five questions.

1. Write briefly on any one of the following topics:

the development of the mechanical clock,
the development of the sailing vessel, 1200-1450,
the application of power to milling, 100B.C.-1300 A.D.

2. May any of the industrial establishments of ancient Greece or Rome be properly classified as factories? Why, or why not?
   What was the significance of the types of establishment whose classification is involved in such doubts?
3. Describe the general features of the organization of the craft gilds.
   In what respect do we find differences in the various regions of Europe?
4. Describe the legal and economic features of villein tenure in France and England in the middle ages.
5. How may we explain the development of towns in Italy and Northern Europe after the ninth century?
   What were the distinctive privileges of a town?
6. Describe the operations of banks of deposit in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and discus their significance in the development of credit.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1931-32
Harvard University
Economics 25
[Mid-Year Exam, 1932]

Write an essay on one of the topics in Part I, and answer briefly three questions in Part II.

I

1. “The changes of the Industrial Revolution in England were interrelated both serially and laterally, i.e., as between commerce, industry and agriculture.”
2. “The policy of Free Trade has dislocated the whole structure of English society.”
3. Peasant proprietorship in Western Europe.

II

4. Estimate the significance of Peel’s administration (1842-46) in the economic history of England.
5. Discuss the “home-market” argument in United States tariff history.
6. Comment on the statement: “Between 1830 and 1840 the issue between individualists and collectivists was fairly joined.”
7. “The introduction of railways marks a stage in the Industrial Revolution in England, not as in some countries its beginning.” Give illustrations for three countries of this statement.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 12, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1931-32.

 

1931-32
Harvard University
Economics 25
[Year-End Exam, 1932]

Write an essay (not more than half your time) on any one of the following questions, and answer more briefly two other questions.

1. Compare the governmental railroad policies of the United States, England and Germany since 1870.
2. Explain the movement toward a protective tariff policy since 1860, with illustrations drawn from the economic history of two countries which led in the movement.
3. Does historical experience support the arguments of the advocates of ship subsidies for the United States?
4. Discuss the following statements:
   “Virtual monopoly is an incident of our industrial development.” Senator Aldrich.
   “The trust movement was and is a direct response to certain forces inherent in modern industry, and if it ought to be controlled, it must be controlled with those forces in mind.” Professor Jenks.
5. It is said that the labor movement in the United States is a generation behind that of England. Give your reasons for or against this statement.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Vol. 74 (HUC 7000.28) Examination Papers, Finals 1932.

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1932-1933

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY

Economics 23 ¹hf. Economic History to 1450

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

[Economics 24. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged, Professor Gay.

Omitted in 1932-33.

Economics 25 ¹hf. Recent Economic History

Half-course (first half-year). Wed., Fri. at 4. Professor Gay.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXIX (September 19, 1932), No. 41, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1932-1933 (Second Edition), p. 126.

 

Enrollment

II

Economics 23 ¹hf. Associate Professor Usher. — Economic History to 1450.

Total 4: 4 Graduates.

Economics 25 ¹hf. Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 51: 39 Graduates, 12 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1932-33, p. 66.

Note: Have found no copy of the Economics 23¹ exam as of yet for 1932-33.

1932-33
Harvard University
Economics 25¹
[Mid-year Final Exam, 1933]

Write an essay (not more than half your time) on any one of the following questions, and answer concisely three other questions.

1. Compare governmental regulation of railroads, as developed in the United States, with governmental ownership as in Germany, emphasizing the merits and defects of the two methods of control. Do these historical experiences throw any light upon the present railroad problem in the United States?
2. Is free trade responsible for the relative decline of the British iron and steel industry as compared with that of the United States and Germany? Enumerate and weigh the chief factors accounting for the development of the industry in these countries.
3. (a) Trace the successive steps in banking reform in England and the United States. Is there any parallelism?
   (b) How do you explain the differences between the two countries in regard to the movements of banking concentration and industrial combination?
4. Outline a series of chapters in a book on the agricultural “world invasion” of European markets.
5. “Among the agencies which labor has chosen to defend its interests are the trade union, the cooperative society, and political action.” What has been the relative importance of these agencies at three stages of the British labor movement?
6. Discuss critically Dice’s views concerning “collectivism” and its causes.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science (January-June 1933) in Vol. 75, Examination Papers, Finals 1933.

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1933-1934

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 21 ²hf. (formerly Economics 23) Economic History to 1450

Half-course (second half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

[Economics 22. (formerly Economics 24) Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Gay.

Omitted in 1933-34; to be offered in 1934-35.

Economics 23 ²hf. (formerly Economics 25) Recent Economic History

Half-course (second half-year). Wed., Fri., at 4. Professor Gay.

[Economics 24. Topics in American Economic History]

Hours to be arranged. Professor A. H. Cole.

            Omitted in 1933-34.

[Economics 25. (formerly Economics 30). Economic Problems of Latin America]

Tu., Th., at 3.

Omitted in 1933-34.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXX (September 20, 1933), No. 39, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1933-1934 (Second Edition), pp. 127-128.

Enrollment

II

Economics 21 ²hf. (formerly Economics 23). Associate Professor Usher. — Economic History to 1450.

Total 3: 2 Graduates, 1 Seniors.

Economics 23 ²hf. (formerly Economics 25). Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 18: 13 Graduates, 5 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1933-34, p. 85.

Note: Have not found exam for Economics 21 ²hf. (formerly Economics 23) Economic History to 1450

1933-34
Havard University
Economics 23²
[Final Exam 1934]

Write an essay (not more than half your time) on any one of the first six questions, and answer concisely three other questions (including question 7).

1. Discuss the following statements:
   “The present agricultural depression differs in its origin and character in many respects from the general depression of the period 1873-96, but in the conditions which brought about the depression of 1873-96 there are important points of similarity with the post-war situation.”
   “The European attitude toward agriculture is entirely different from that of the great exporting countries beyond the seas.”
2. “The choice (in railway management) is between rationalization and nationalization.” (Sir Eric Geddes.)
   “The trend, in all forms of transport and over a long period, is inevitably toward amalgamation. As between private monopoly and public ownership the choice is clear; the only question is as to the form which public ownership shall take.”
   Comment on these views. In what respects does the experience of the United States differ from that of England and Germany?
3. The Webs say that there was a time at the middle of the nineteenth century when capitalism “could claim that it had produced a surprising advance in material civilization for greatly increased populations. But from that moment to the present it has been receding from defeat to defeat, beaten ever more and more hopelessly by the social problems created by the very civilization it has built up.”
   A critic of the present governmental policies has recently declared that, with the various restrictions on output, wage and price regulations, and codes of business practice, the United States is returning to the Age of Diocletian or to the medieval gild-system, and thereby imperiling the chief gains of the great technological and economic progress since the Industrial Revolution.
   Comment on the two points of view, and give reasons for your own view as to the present direction of economic and social development.
4. Compare the history of banking reforms since 1815 in England and the United States with reference to the successive business cycles.
5. What part, according to the Macmillan Report, has the United States played in the post-war economic situation; and in the proposals for monetary and banking reform, made in this Report, what is practicable for the United States?
6. “The Cooperative movement is one of the constituent elements in the socialist state.”
   “No social group, on the Continent of Europe, is more important, and none more intensely individualistic, than the peasant landholders.”
   Which of these assertions is more nearly true? Can they be reconciled?
7. Which among the books you have read in this course do you regard as the best? State your reasons and discuss that book critically.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

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1934-1935

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 21 ¹hf. Economic History to 1450

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

Economics 22. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Gay

Economics 23 Recent Economic History

Tu., Th., at 4. Professor Gay.

[Economics 24. Topics in American Economic History]

Hours to be arranged. Professor A. H. Cole.

            Omitted in 1934-35

[Economics 25. Economic Problems of Latin America]

Tu., Th., at 3.

Omitted in 1934-35. 

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXI (September 20, 1934), No. 38, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1934-1935 (Second Edition), p. 128.

Enrollment

II

Economics 21 ¹hf. Associate Professor Usher. — Economic History to 1450.

Total 4: 2 Graduates, 2 Seniors.

Economics 23. Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 22: 16 Graduates, 1 Senior, 4 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1934-35, p. 82.

Economics 21. Economic History to 1450.
Readings and paper topics, Usher. 1934

1934-35
Harvard University
Economics 21
[Final Exam. Jan 18, 1935]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay upon some topic selected from the reading period assignments, or upon one of the following topics:
   1. a multilinear concept of historical process,
   2. systems of agriculture in the open field villages of England and Europe.

II
Answer three questions

2. Describe the rights and obligations of the peasant cultivator in two types of the perpetual leases of Roman and medieval law.
3. Describe the primary features of an organized market, and the simple and radiate forms of market systems.
4. Discuss the nature and importance of capitalistic control of industry in medieval Europe.
5. Describe the characteristic functions and features of religious gilds in England.
6. Sketch the early history of deposit banking in medieval Europe.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1934-35
Harvard University
Economic 23
[Mid-year Exam 1935]

Write an essay (not more than half your time) on any one of the following questions and answer concisely three other questions.

1. Discuss critically the following statements:
   1. In England, up to the middle of the eighteenth century, “production was regulated by local consumption…After an apprenticeship of greater or less length everyone became a master; the State guaranteed the guilds a monopoly of production and secured the interests of the consumer by requiring all products to pass certain standard tests. But this patriarchal state of things suddenly gave way before a movement which has been justly called the Industrial Revolution. To these gigantic changes (machinery, steam, factories, wide markets, chain of middle-men) the guild system soon showed itself inadequate.” (Guido de Ruggiero, History of European Liberalism.)
   2. For about fifty years before the middle of the eighteenth century in England, “trade had been freed from the oppression of the dying guilds, but machinery had not yet come to the aid of capitalism to enable it to overturn and destroy the whole social fabric and especially the livelihood of the poor.” (R. W. Postgate.)
2. “Metallurgy and the metal workers have an absolute primacy in the history of modern manufacturing industry.” (Clapham.)
   Illustrate this statement for England.
   Is it equally true for all countries?
3. “It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil of any human being.”
   Was this true when John Stuart Mill wrote it in 1848? If so, why?
4. Outline a chapter (or a book) on the Agrarian Revolution in England.
5. Describe the development of the Zollverein, distinguishing the economic and the political factors.
6. The significance of the decade of the forties in European economic history.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1934-35
Harvard University
Economics 23
[Year-end Exam, 1935]

Write an essay not more than half your time) discussing one of the quotations or topics in this paper, and comment concisely on three others.

1. “It is believed that, had it not been for the free-trade policy of Great Britain, the manufacturing system of America would at the present time have been much more extensive than it is.” (Ellison, 1858.)
   “There is some truth in the view of the cynical British exporter who thanked God for the American tariff, but for which American manufacturers would have driven him out of the world markets.’ (London “Economist,” 1912.)
   “In my belief, both Free Trade of the laissez-faire type and Protection of the predatory type are policies of Empire, and both make for War.” (H. J. Mackinder, 1919.)
   Do you find any confirmation for these views in your reading of American tariff history? Illustrate from the cotton or iron industry.
2. “On voit apparaître chaque jour davantage tout ce que l’Angleterre, depuis cent ans, devait à des circonstances que les contemporains avaient cru permanantes et qui n’etaient que passagères.
   L’hégémonie économique anglaise coincide dans l’histoire avec le règne de la machine à vapeur; la période victorienne, apogée de prosperité et de puissance, évolue tout entière sous le signe du charbon….C’est ainsi qu’a pu s’édifier, sur al base étroite d’un territoire plus que médiocre, cette paradoxale superstructure manufacturière, et parallèlement s’épanouir cette population aujourd’hui trop dense, si dangereusement dépendante, pour sa subsistance, des produits importés….
   Dans ces conditions, le jeu parfaitement agencé de la doctrine libre-échangiste paraissait avoir été concu tout exprès pour l’Angleterre, par les soins d’une Providence attentive et partiale.” (Siegfried, 1931.)
3. The National Banking system is “not only a perfectly safe system of banking, but it is one that is eminently adapted to our political institutions.” (Hugh McCulloch, 1863.)
   “American banking has not yet distinguished between solvency after an interval, and readiness to meet demands at once and without question… At present the characteristics of the American business man seem to fit him to do most things better than banking.” (Hartley Withers, 1909.)
   “Everybody will agree to-day that it would be difficult to imagine a banking system more cruel and inefficient than that prevailing in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century — a system which, instead of scientifically regulating the flow of credit and money so as to secure the greatest possible stability, was designed automatically to produce instability.” (Paul Warburg, 1930.)
4. “The technological revolution of the last hundred years furnishes the ultimate explanation of agricultural progress and of agrarian discontent both in Europe and America.” (ca. 1925)
   “Though the mechanization of industrial processes is almost universal, the great majority of farmers throughout the world are content with the simple instruments used by their forefathers.” (“World Agriculture,” 1932.)
   “The significant fact is that the periods of prosperity and the great depressions in agriculture have coincided with periods of monetary expansion and monetary contraction. Though other factors must not be ignored, the agricultural history of the last hundred years shows that favorable monetary conditions are essential to recovery.” (“World Agriculture,” 1932.)
5. “The Merchant Marine of the United States is not a burden upon the tax-payer’s back, but an economy of the first water, keeping millions in the country, giving employment to thousands of persons, aiding in the development of foreign markets and backing up the nation’s forces in any contingency that may arise.” (Senator Royal S. Copeland, 1934.)
   “Our own vessels carry only about 40 per cent of our foreign trade. We are dependent on our competitors to carry 60 per cent of our trade to market. Of course, the result is that they help themselves and hamper us. Parity in merchant ships is only less important than parity in warships. We ought to make the necessary sacrifices to secure it.” (Calvin Coolidge, 1930.)
6. D. H. Robertson, writing in 1923, concerning the American Railroad Act of 1920 and the increased powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, says:
   “The home of free enterprise has furnished us with experiments in positive State control on a scale which finds no parallel outside Communist Russia.”
   Louis D. Brandeis in 1912 wrote: “The success of the Interstate Commerce Commission has been invoked as an argument in favor of licensing and regulating monopoly.” This argument, he held, was not valid. Do you agree? Why or why not?
7. In a period when traditional standards have broken down and when the legal system is supported by laissez-faire theory, the movement toward industrial combination is “a remorseless sort of profit-seeking.” (M. W. Watkins, 1928.)
   “The only argument that has been seriously advanced in favor of private monopoly is that competition involves waste, while the monopoly prevents waste and leads to efficiency. This argument is essentially unsound. The wastes of competition are negligible. The economies of monopoly are superficial and delusive. The efficiency of monopoly is at the best temporary.” (L. D. Brandeis, in Harper’s Weekly, 1913.)
   “Our evidence goes to show that most of the Trusts and Cartels have been, in their origin at any rate, defensive movements.” (D. H. MacGregor, 1912.)
   Industrial combinations must be recognized as “steps in the greater efficiency, the increased economy, and the better organization of industry.” (Minority Report of the Parliamentary Committee on Trusts, 1918.)
8. Write on the topic which, in your reading for this course, has most interested you.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1935-1936

From Course Announcements

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

[Economics 21 ¹hf. Economic History to 1450]

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged. Associate Professor Usher.

Omitted in 1935-36.

Economics 22. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Gay

Economics 23 Recent Economic History

Wed., Fri., at 4. Professor Gay.

Economics 24. Seminar. Topics in American Economic History

Hours to be arranged. Professor A. H. Cole.

[Economics 25. Economic Problems of Latin America]

Tu., Th., at 3.

Omitted in 1935-36.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXII (September 18, 1935), No. 42, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1935-1936 (Second Edition), p. 140.

Enrollment

II

Economics 23. Professor Gay. — Recent Economic History.

Total 31: 24 Graduates, 7 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1935-36, p. 83.

1935-36
Harvard University
Economics 23
[Mid-year Exam, 1936]

Write an essay (not more than half your time) discussing one of the quotations or topics in this paper, and comment concisely on three others.

1. (a) “The essence of the Industrial Revolution is the substitution of competition for the medieval regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of wealth.”
   (b) The use of machinery “began by being the resultant of these two phenomena (the extension of the exchange of commodities and the increase in the division of labor), at one of the decisive moments in their evolution. This crisis, distinguished by the appearance of machinery, best defines the industrial revolution.”
2. The relations between the industrial and agrarian revolutions in England.
3. (a) The chief measures of factory legislation in England.
   (b) To what extent and why, on the continent of Europe, did factory legislation lag behind that of England?
4. (a) In 1850 Porter wrote: “The laissez faire system has been pregnant with great loss and inconvenience to the country in carrying forward the railway system.” Heaton has recently remarked: “Considering the novelty of the car and the strangeness of the route, parliament could retort to Porter that it had been a fairly competent back-seat driver.”
   (b) A French writer in 1883 explained the contrast between private enterprise in English railway management and public control or ownership in France and Germany as resulting mainly from the more advanced state of English economic development.
5. “The safest lesson to draw from the experience of Germany is the simple fact that changes in tariff policy were only one, and commonly not the most important, amongst the many causes of her economic progress.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1935-36
Harvard University
Economics 23
[Year-end Exam, 1936]

Write an essay (not more than half your time) discussing one of the questions in this paper, and comment concisely on three others.

1. Taussig finds that the development of trusts under protection does not “confirm the doctrine that the tariff matures monopolies permanently. … The industrial influence of the protective tariff tends to become less and less.” Illustrate with any two of his three cases — steel rails, tin plate and sugar refining. What is the basic historical relationship between the movements toward industrial combination and toward protectionism in Europe and America?
2. “The significant fact is that the periods of prosperity and the great depressions in agriculture have coincided with periods of monetary expansion and monetary contraction. Though other factors must not be ignored, the agricultural history of the last hundred years shows that favorable monetary conditions are essential to recovery.” (“World Agriculture,” 1932.) Give your reasons for agreement or criticism. What weight do you give to the “other factors”?
3. “A general view of the monetary history of the entire period of our national existence shows that each generation had to learn for itself and at its own expense the evils of unsound money and of defective banking.” Is the assertion also true of modern Europe? In outlining and comparing the experience of both America and Europe, distinguish between inherent unsoundness and lags of development.
4. “It remains clear that the Industrial Revolution is not a closed episode; we are living in the midst of it, and the economic problems of to-day are largely problems of its making.” (W. C. Mitchell, 1929.)
   “Unregulated capitalism is being superseded by a regulated, organized and controlled capitalism.” (Hansen, 1932.)
   “In the United States the profit motive . . . worked to the end of blind self-destruction.” (Childs, 1936.)
   How far are these statements true and consistent with each other? In what respects are they questionable?
5. Clapham quotes a competent German observer of the English working classes, writing in the 80’s, as finding “an improvement . .. beyond the boldest hopes of even those who, a generation ago, devoted all their energies to the work.”
   A recent writer, declaring that we must choose between security and progress, asks: “Have we reached a sufficiently high standard of per capita productivity to warrant stabilization at the present standard of living?”
   Does Clapham agree that the German estimate was justified? What connections do you see between the two quotations?
6. “For all the exaggeration in the statements that English unionism has sounded the death-knell to English industrial leadership, it remains true that the absence of firmly entrenched unions in the cotton and iron manufactures has facilitated the march of improvement in the United States.”
   “The English, by labor organization and social legislation, have built a platform over the abyss.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

Summer School of Harvard University
August 15, 1936
Economics S20 (Economics 23)

Write an essay (not more than half your time) discussing one of the questions in this paper, and comment concisely on three others.

1. (a) “The Napoleonic wars exercised the same influence upon subsequent commercial policy in France (though for different reasons) as the Civil War in the United States.” (Percy Ashley)
   (b) “The British protective system up to 1846 had been maintained chiefly for the sake of agriculture; the German protective system from 1848 to 1860 had been dictated by the interests of manufacturers; now (in 1879) an effort was to be made to harmonize these two and to give a fair measure of protection to all.” (Percy Ashley)
2. “It remains clear that the Industrial Revolution is not a closed episode; we are living in the midst of it.” (W. C. Mitchell, 1929)
3. “Two contrasting theories of banking were put forward at the beginning of the nineteenth century and subsequently they controlled the banking development of the different countries.”
   State precisely the two theories and their historical effects.
4. (a) “The one-crop system has been the bane of American agriculture.”
   (b) In what ways did Western Europe meet the invasion of American agricultural products after 1870?
5. Trace the connection, if any, between (a) the fluctuations of business cycles and secular price trends, and (b) the development of the railroad network and railroad governmental policies in England and the United States since 1830.
6. “Among the agencies which labor has chosen to defend its interests are the trade union, the cooperative society, and political action.” (Webb) What has been the relative importance of these agencies at three stages of the British Labor movement? Compare and explain the differing development of American labor history.
7. “The wastes of competition are negligible. The economies of monopoly are superficial and delusive. The efficiency of monopoly is at the best temporary… Excesses of competition lead to monopoly, as excesses of liberty lead to absolutism.” (L. D. Brandeis, 1912)
   “We are persuaded by our study of the combination movement at home and abroad that it is essentially a movement making for economy, efficiency, and better relations in business.” (Seager and Gulick, 1932)
   What is your view, supported by what evidence?
8. Select the ten-year period in English and American economic history of the nineteenth century which you believe to be the most important, giving your reasons, and then summarize in parallel columns the outstanding events of that decade for both countries.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1936-1937

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

[Economics 131 ¹hf. (formerly 21). Economic History to 1450]

Half-course (first half-year). Two hours a week, to be arranged.  Professor Usher.

Omitted in 1936-37.

Economics 133 (formerly 23). Recent Economic History

Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 4. Professor Usher.

[Economics 136 (formerly 22). Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor —

Omitted in 1936-37.

Economics 137 ²hf. (formerly 24). Seminar. Topics in American Economic History

Half-course (second half-year). Hours to be arranged. Professor A. H. Cole.

[Economics 138 (formerly 25). Economic Problems of Latin America]

Tu., Th., at 3.

Omitted in 1936-37.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXIII (September 23, 1936), No. 42, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1936-1937 (Second Edition), p. 146.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133 (formerly 23). Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History.

Total 36: 31 Graduates, 5 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1936-37, p. 93.

[NOTE: the final exams volume for 1936-37 binds January-June, 1937 together so for full courses it appears only the June exam were included.]

1936-37
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Year-end Examination, 1937]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the historical significance of the theory of monopolistic competition; the concept of interregional equilibrium.

II
(About two hours)
[Handwritten addition: Answer three questions]

2. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. In what respects did the Ricardian group misjudge the structure of the London money market of their day?
   2. Sketch the development of contacts between the United States Treasury and the New York money market in the period, 1869-1914.
3. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. Sketch the history of the petroleum industry in the United States during the decade 1870-1879.
   2. Discuss the development and the significance of any single cartel in Great Britain or Germany.
4. Describe briefly the position of British agriculture during the period 1878-1895, and discuss the relative significance of the factors primarily involved.
5. Answer (a), (b), or (c)
   1. Discuss the relations between sugar growing in Hawaii and the position of Hawaiian products in the markets of the United States.
   2. Is tariff protection likely to afford Great Britain an adequate solution to the problem of foreign dumping?
   3. Discuss the relative importance of political and economic factors in the tariff policies of France or Germany since 1871.
6. Answer (a), (b), or (c).
   1. Discuss the significance of recent tendencies toward centralized control of power production in Great Britain and continental Europe.
   2. Sketch the development of the Royal Dutch-Shell Petroleum Company and discuss the significance of its position in the world market.
   3. Discuss the relative importance of birth rates and death rates in the history of population in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1937-1938

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133 (formerly 23). Recent Economic History, 1820-1914

Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 4. Professor Usher.

Economics 136 (formerly 22). Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Usher.

[Economics 137 ²hf. (formerly 24). Seminar. Topics in American Economic History]

Half-course (second half-year). Hours to be arranged. Professor —.

Omitted in 1937-38.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXIV (October 1, 1937), No. 44, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1937-1938 (Second Edition), p. 153.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133 (formerly 23). Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History, 1820-1914.

Total 33: 25 Graduates, 2 Business School, 1 Public Administration, 4 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

Economics 136 (formerly 22). Professor Usher. — Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History.

Total 7: 7 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1937-38, p. 86.

1937-38
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Mid-year Exam, 1938]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic based upon the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the concept of social evolution as a multilinear process; the development of free trade in Great Britain.

II
(About two hours)

Answer three questions:

2. What were the more important factors underlying the differences in the rates of growth of the cotton and the woollen industries in the period, 1750-1850?
3. Answer a, b, c, or d.
   1. Describe and discuss the characteristic features of railway rates in Trunk line territory before 1887.
   2. Discuss the general features and the significance of the consolidation of railways in Great Britain in 1921.
   3. Sketch the history of the French railway network through 1883.
   4. Discuss the significance of water competition for the railways of Germany.
4. Describe the primary factors in the location and development of London, Paris, or New York city.
5. Discuss the problems presented by the proposal to include Austria in the German Customs Union, 1848-1863.
6. Answer a, b, or c.
   1. Discuss the place of the small holding in Great Britain, with special reference to its development since the agricultural depression (1878-1895).
   2. Describe the factors affecting the development of small peasant holdings in France.
   3. Describe the organization and routine on some of the large slave plantations of the old south.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-Year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 13. Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (January-Febrary 1938) included in bound volume Mid-Year Examinations 1938.

1937-38
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Year-end Exam, 1938]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period or on one of the following topics: planning in free societies; modern tendencies toward autarchy.

II
Answer THREE questions.

2. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. Discuss the policies used by the Bank of England between 1825 and 1910 in establishing its rate of discount.
   2. What considerations seem to have led Biddle to apply in January 1832 for an extension of the charter of the Second Bank of the United States?
3. Discuss the characteristic practices of pools and cartels in the United States up to 1899.
4. Discuss: “The Corn Law of 1815 like the Agriculture Act of 1920 attempted to stabilize returns to the British wheat grower, but the machinery of the act of 1920 was even less adapted to its purpose than the machinery established in 1815.”
5. Answer (a), (b), (c), or (d).
   1. Does the history of the silk manufacture in the United States afford decisive evidence of the significance of protection to young industries? Why, or why not?
   2. Discuss the argument that protection will make it possible for Britain to maintain her “standard of life.”
   3. Discuss: “In France, protection has been the parent as well as the child of fear. It has strengthened the force, which in conjunction with ignorance, gave it birth.”
   4. What principles and purposes dominated the fiscal policy of Bismarck?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 4. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (June 1938).

__________________________________

1938-1939

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

[Note change in course numbering]

Economics 133. Recent Economic History, 1820-1914.

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 4. Professor Usher.

Economics 136. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Usher.

[Economics 137 ²hf. Seminar. Topics in American Economic History]

Half-course (second half-year). Hours to be arranged. Professor —.

Omitted in 1938-39.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXV (September 23, 1939), No. 42, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1938-1939 (Second Edition), p. 150.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133. Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History, 1820-1914.

Total 46: 40 Graduates, 2 Public Administration, 2 Radcliffe, 2 Others.

Economics 136. Professor Usher. — Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History.

Total 10: 9 Graduates, 1 Senior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1938-39, p. 99.

1938-39
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Mid-year Exam, 1939]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: feudal tenures as a basis for land utilization; the significance of the quantitative method in economic history.

II
Answer THREE questions

2. Sketch the history of the application of machinery in the textile industries of Great Britain, France, Germany, or the United States for any period of 100 years between 1700 and 1900.
3. Describe the salient features of the railway network in any one country, and discuss the merits of public policy in respect of railway construction in that country.
4. Within what limits of accuracy may we compute the quantitative significance of the following inventions: Darby’s process for smelting iron with coke, Fourneyron’s turbine, the Jacquard loom action?
5. Sketch the development of the fiscal policy embodied in Peel’s budget of 1842, and discuss its significance.
6. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. Discuss: “The long succession of preemption acts were but premonitions of a free land policy, a policy destined to come, but hindered by sectional interests and differences for many years.”
   2. Discuss the economic and the political significance of the major compromises embodied in the ordinances creating the national domain in the United States.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1938-39
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Year-end Exam, 1939]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the bullionists and the Bullion Report; the anti-monopoly policy in the United States.

II
Answer three questions

2. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. What were the lessons of the crisis of 1847? In what ways did this crisis affect the policies of the Bank of England?
   2. What were the merits and the defects of the organization of the call loan market in New York prior to 1914?
3. Answer (a), (b), or (c).
   1. Discuss the attempts to establish international control of the sugar trade between 1926 and 1932.
   2. Sketch the development of trusts and cartels in Great Britain after 1914.
   3. Describe the characteristic types of “concern” in post-war Germany.
4. Answer (a), (b), (c), or (d).
   1. Has the United States gained enough from the development of the Beet Sugar culture to justify the costs?
   2. Can policy of tariff preferences between Great Britain and her dominions be defended on economic grounds?
   3. Discuss the theories which served as the basis for the development of protection in France after 1889.
   4. Sketch the development of agrarian influences upon German tariff policy after 18790 and discuss briefly the merits of the basic demands.
5. Discuss the influence of the development of hydro-electric power sites upon the industrial future of Italy.
6. What changes in the Malthusian theory of population are necessary to bring its broader elements into conformity with the historical record of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 4. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (June 1939).

__________________________________

1939-1940

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133. Recent Economic History, 1820-1914

Mon., Wed., Fri. at 3. Professor Usher.

[Economics 136. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Usher.

Omitted in 1939-40; to be given in 1940-41.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXVI (September 22, 1939), No. 42, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1939-1940 (Second Edition), p. 158.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133. Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History, 1820-1914.

Total 50: 41 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Public Administration, 4 Radcliffe, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1939-40, p. 100.

1939-40
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 133
[Mid-Year Exam, 1940]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the concept of nodality, the effective sphere of pure competition in the industrial societies of the nineteenth century.

II
Answer three questions

2. Answer a, b, c, d, or e.
   1. How many of the basic forms of industrial organization were to be found in the textile industries of the United States between 1790 and 1830? What was their relative importance?
   2. Describe the distinctive features in the organization, equipment, and management of the Boston Manufacturing Company in Waltham in its early years.
   3. Discuss: “Those who draw all their illustrative material from the textile industries fall into serious errors in their judgment of the effect of machinery upon labour.”
   4. Describe the position of organized labor in Germany towards the close of the nineteenth century.
   5. Sketch the development in the use of iron and its products in England between 1800 and 1890.
3. In what ways and to what extent do geographic factors affect the rate structure of a given railway network?
4. Answer a, or b.
   1. What considerations led the various groups of German states to accept the leadership of Prussia in the Customs Union?
   2. Sketch the activities of M. Chevalier in the negotiation of the Anglo-French Treaty of Commerce of 1860.
5. Answer a, b, or c.
   1. What elements of ambiguity made it difficult to interpret and enforce the resolutions of the French National Assembly of August 4 and 11, 1789? What interpretation was finally established by the legislation of 1792 and 1793?
   2. Does the experience of France and Germany in the late nineteenth century warrant the belief that the number of small holdings can be now increased or even maintained without tariff protection or financial aid?
   3. Discuss: “Although southerners have persistently asserted that the interstate slave trade was of no substantial significance, the structure of slave prices provides decisive evidence that the trade was vital to the perpetuation of slavery as a system.”
6. Discuss: “Southern systems of settlement were based on a policy of free land, and the actual introduction of such modes of settlement on the Public Domain was largely due to southern influence, but formal recognition of the policy was long and successfully opposed by southern members of Congress.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1939-1940
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 133
[Year-End Exam, 1940]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: Malthus and the theory of population; technological factors underlying tendencies towards integration in the production and distribution of electricity.

II
Answer THREE questions

2. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. “In actual operation, the Bank Act of 1844, instead of tying the currency more closely to gold, injected an additional amount of credit into the reserves of the English banking system.” Discuss.
   2. Sketch the development of the Suffok banking system and discuss its significance.
3. Describe the conditions in the American iron industry that led to the formation of the United States Steel Corporation. What may we presume to have been the effect of this achievement upon competition in the industry?
4. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. Discuss the effectiveness of the British Wheat Act of 1932.
   2. Describe the organization of the Russian collective farms and their influence upon productivity.
5. Answer (a), (b), (c), or (d).
   1. Discuss the relation of the changes in the duties on wool and woolens in the U. S. tariff act of 1913 to the general concept of a competitive tariff.
   2. Does Beveridge offer a satisfactory defense for a continuance of a free trade policy in Great Britain? Why, or why not?
   3. Discuss the concepts of tariff policy held by Protectionists and Liberals in France, with special reference to the precise points of difference between them.
   4. Describe and discuss Bismarck’s theories of taxation and fiscal policy.
6. Does the development of hydro-electric power significantly affect either the immediate or the ultimate location of economic activity in Europe and the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 5. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (June 1940).

__________________________________

1940-1941

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133. Recent Economic History, 1820-1914

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 3. Professor Usher.

Economics 136. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Usher.

[Previous post for the Economics 136 Seminar]

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXVII (March 4, 1940), No. 7, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1940-1941 (Provisional Announcement), p. 161.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133. Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History, 1820-1914.

Total 41: 31 Graduates, 4 Public Administration, 6 Radcliffe.

Economics 136. Professor Usher. — Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History.

Total 10: 9 Graduates, 1 Senior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1940-41, p. 59.

1940-41
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Mid-year Exam, 1941]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: typical deviations from a “normal” distance principle in railway rate structures; elements of a concept of social evolution implicit in the work of Bentham and Malthus.

II
Answer THREE questions

2. What were the primary changes in the processes of producing malleable iron in the late eighteenth century? In what fields did these changes extend the use of iron products?
3. Describe the changes in ocean shipping services that resulted in the organized attempt to control rates through shipping conferences. Do you feel that these rate agreements imposed undesirable restrictions upon free competition?
4. Under what circumstances is labor “externally conditioned”? Do such phenomena make the location of economic activity indeterminate?
5. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. What were the objectives of the Middle German Commercial Union? What were the basic factors in its failure?
   2. Describe the protectionist groups in Germany between 1833 and 1865, and point out the reasons for the ineffectiveness of their activities.
6. Describe the broader features of the concentration of ownership of land in England, France, and Prussia in the late nineteenth century. Have we reason to believe that the degree of concentration was affected by the agrarian reforms of the period 1750-1850?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 14, Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science in a bound volume, Mid-Year Examinations—1941.

1940-41
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Year-end Exam, 1941]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the significance of locational theory for the restatement of the theory of international trade; the fallacies and dangers in the concept of a closed economy.

II
Answer THREE questions

2. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. Sketch the development of the Bank of England as a central bank.
   2. Describe the nature and the extent of the concentration of bank reserves in New York city under the old National Banking system. Was this a desirable or adequate means of achieving centralization of reserves? Why, or why not?
3. What were Adam Smith’s views on the use of the corporate form in private business, both as to public policy and private administration?
   Does the history of private business corporations in the United States belie the wisdom of Smith’s judgment? Why, or why not?
4. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. Discuss the place of wheat growing in British farming, and the effect upon agriculture in general of policies affecting wheat culture.
   2. Were the countries of South Eastern Europe suffering from over-population in 1930? Why, or why not?
5. Answer (a), (b), (c), (d), or (e).
   1. What circumstances led to the revision of the United States tariff in 1909? In what measure were the objectives of revision actually achieved?
   2. Have we grounds for presuming that the development of the iron and steel industry of the United States was significantly influenced by the protection given it? Why, or why not?
   3. What changes have taken place since 1880 in the position of Great Britain in the export markets of the world?
   4. Discuss: “The agrarian interests in France made a fatal mistake in the decade of the eighties by seeking to share in protection instead of seeking reductions in the duties on manufactures.”
   5. Discuss the program of the agrarian party in Germany towards the close of the last century.
6. Do changes in the expectation of life afford a significant measure of material well-being? Why, or why not?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 5. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (June 1941).

__________________________________

1941-1942

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133. Recent Economic History, 1820-1914

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 3. Professor Usher.

[Economics 136. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Usher

Omitted in 1941-42.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXVIII (September 18, 1941), No. 54, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1941-1942, p. 61.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133. Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History, 1820-1914.

Total 34: 26 Graduates, 4 Public Administration, 4 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1941-42, p. 64.

1941-42
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Mid-year Exam, 1942]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic based upon the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the postulates of liberalism; the influence of improvements in transport upon the importance of primary nodes.

II
Answer THREE questions

2. Sketch the broader features of the process of achievement, and indicate explicitly its relation to the process of invention.
3. Discuss: “The Marxian concept of the labor problem was largely implicit in the Marxian concept of the factory. Careful analysis of the conditions of employment in factories affords a basis for a significant restatement of the problems of labor.”
4. Answer (a), (b), (c), or (d).
   1. Sketch the development of railroad rebates in the United States and discuss the elements of danger to shippers and to the public.
   2. Describe the procedure of railway amalgamation in Great Britain in 1921, and discuss briefly the treatment of basic problems.
   3. Describe the reorganization of French railways in 1921, and discuss the advantages of the plan.
   4. Does the sketch of German railway policy in Barker actually support the conclusions he draws in respect of the advantages of state ownership?
5. In what respects does the history of the iron industry show the importance of a dominant material on the location and the structure of an industry? Draw illustrative material from the history of the industry in Great Britain, France, Germany, or the United States.
6. Answer (a), (b), or (c).
   1. In what ways and in what degree did crop rotations lead to improvements in productivity and to more adequate differentiation of land use?
   2. Sketch the development of the procedures and the policy of making grants of public lands to further internal improvements.
   3. In what ways did the defects of the Harrison Act of 1800 lead to a demand for the revision of the general principles of public land policy?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 15, Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, History of Religions,…Economics,…, Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1942 in bound volume Mid-year Examinations—1942.

1941-42
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Year-end Exam, 1942]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: concepts and measures of material well-being, the gold standard in the nineteenth century.

II
Answer THREE questions.

2. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. What were the essential features of the credit policy proposed by the Banking School, 1820-1840? In what respects was it unsound?
   2. Sketch the development of the Free Banking system in the United States. Discuss its advantages and disadvantages.
3. Discuss the issues of fact raised by the prosecution of the United States Steel Corporation. Do you feel that the position taken by the Court was sound? Why, or why not?
4. Discuss the policy of Great Britain towards agriculture during and since the great depression. Do you feel that agriculture was sacrificed to misguided loyalty to a free trade policy?
5. Describe the effects of technical development upon units of management in the production and distribution of electricity since 1890.
6. Answer any one of the following:
   1. Discuss the relative merits of proration and unit operation as solutions of the problem of regulating the production of petroleum.
   2. Sketch the history of the reservation of oil lands by the government of the United States, and the development of their exploitation.
   3. Sketch the development of oil production and trade in eastern Europe and the Dutch East Indies from 1900 to 1924.
   4. Sketch the development of British oil policies, 1900-1924.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1942
Harvard University
Economics S133

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on the selected topic.

II.
Answer three questions: exclusive of the general topic of the essay.

1. Answer a or b:
   1. Sketch the development of the factory system from its origins to a position of clear dominance in Great Britain, or in Germany
   2. Sketch the development of the factory system in the United States to 1880.
2. Answer a, b, c, or d:
   1. Describe and discuss the characteristic features of railway rates in Trunk line territory before 1887.
   2. Discuss the general features and the significance of the consolidation of railways in Great Britain in 1921.
   3. Sketch the history of the French railway network through 1883.
   4. Discuss the significance of water competition for the railways of Germany.
3. Under what circumstances is labor “externally conditioned”? Do such phenomena make the location of economic activity indeterminate?
4. Answer a or b:
   1. Discuss the contributions of Peel and Cobden to the establishment of Free Trade in Great Britain.
   2. Sketch the progress of negotiations leading to the German Customs Union during the years 1828 to 1834.
5. Answer a or b:
   1. Sketch the development of the Bank of England as a central bank.
   2. Sketch the development of contacts between the United States Treasury and the New York money market in the period, 1869-1914
6. Answer a or b:
   1. Sketch the history of the petroleum Industry in the United States from 1859-1879.
   2. Discuss the development and the significance of any single cartel in Great Britain or Germany.
7. Answer a, b, c, d, or e:
   1. What was the purpose of the compensating duties in the woollen and worsted schedules of the United States tariff of 1867, 1883, and 1890? Did the duties as levied achieve this purpose?
   2. Describe the different forms of dumping. How did the forms prevalent in the United States before 1914 affect the development of our domestic industries? Was dumping disadvantageous to the consumers of similar goods in the United States?
   3. Does imperial preference meet the essential needs of ether Great Britain or her dominions? Why, or why not?
   4. Discuss: “The history of protection in France shows clearly the impossibility of securing trustworthy objective evidence of its effect, but the record of the nineteenth century affords no presumption that the benefits of protection offset the palpable increases in the cost of living due to the tariffs.”
   5. Has the experience of Germany thrown new light upon the effects of protection to agriculture? Why, or why not?
8. Answer a or b:
9. In what ways and to what extent have technological changes, since 1900, affected the regional balance of primary resources in Europe and the world at large?
10. What changes in the Malthusian theory of population are necessary to bring its broader elements into conformity with the historical record of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1942-1943

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133. Recent Economic History, 1820-1914

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 3. Professor Usher.

Economics 136. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History]

Two consecutive hours a week, to be arranged. Professor Usher.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXXIX (September 23, 1942), No. 53, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1942-1943, p. 56.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133. Professor Usher. — Recent Economic History.

Total 15: 10 Graduates, 3 Public Administration, 2 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1942-43 p. 48.

1942-43
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Mid-year Exam, 1943]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the shortcomings of Victorian liberalism, out-standing definitions of the factory and their significance.

II
Answer THREE questions.

2. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. Discuss the changing conditions of competition among the various textile products from 1750 to 1851.
   2. Describe the out-standing technical improvements in the iron industry in England in the late eighteenth century.
3. Answer one of the following:
   1. Describe the devices employed by railroads in the United States to make personal discriminations in favor of particular shippers. What success has been achieved in the suppression of these practices?
   2. Describe and discuss the primary features of the British Railway Act of 1921.
   3. Discuss the relative significance of the benefits to the railroads and the new liabilities involved in the Conventions of 1883 between the great railroad companies and the French government.
   4. Describe the inland waterways of Germany and discuss their place in the transport system.
4. What are the more important weight-losing materials? What is their relative significance for the localization of economic activity at the present time?
5. In what ways and to what extent did purely fiscal motives enter into the reform of the British tariff in the first half of the nineteenth century?
6. Answer (a), (b), or (c).
   1. In what ways did new problems of land use affect the character of agrarian reforms in England and in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?
   2. What compromises were involved in the adjustments of the claims to western lands?
   3. Sketch the development of the political agitation for free land through the passage of the Homestead Act.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1942-43
Harvard University
Economics 133
[Year-end Exam, 1943]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: modern formulations of autarky as an objective of economic policy; Victorian Liberalism — its prestige as a gospel, its deficiencies as a social philosophy.

II
Answer three questions.

2. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. Describe the primary features of the London money market in the early nineteenth century, indicating essential specialization of function.
   2. Describe the various elements in the Democratic party that were hostile to the Second Bank of the United States. In what ways, and to what extent did they influence Jackson?
3. Was the Sherman Law an appropriate and well designed instrument to prevent the kinds of abuse of economic power that were emerging in the United States about 1890? Why, or why not?
4. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. Discuss British policy towards wheat growing before and after World War I.
   2. Does German trade under exchange controls offer an adequate solution to the problems of the agricultural areas of south eastern Europe? Why, or why not?
5. Sketch the development of centralized power production in Great Britain and Germany.
6. In what respects does the record of population growth in Great Britain reveal the presence of factors unsuspected by Malthus?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1943-1944

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133a. Economic History, 1750-1860

Half-course (summer term; to be repeated in spring term). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 3. Professor Usher.

Students will attend classes in Economics 33a and do supplementary work for [graduate] credit in this course.

Economics 133b. Economic History, 1860-1914

Half-course (winter term). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 3. Professor Usher.

Students will attend classes in Economics 33b and do supplementary work for [graduate] credit in this course.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XL (March 29, 1943), No. 4, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1943-1944, p. 40.

 

Enrollment

III

Economics 133a. (winter term) Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1750-1860.

Total 16: 12 Graduates, 2 Public Administration, 2 Radcliffe.

Economics 133b. (winter term) Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1860-1914.

Total 23: 16 Graduates, 2 Public Administration, 4 Radcliffe, 1 Other

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1943-44 p. 57.

1943-44
Harvard University
Economics 33a, 133a
[Final Examination, June 1944]

I

1. Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: Bentham’s contribution to the content of liberalism: the theory of invention.

II
(About two hours)
Answer THREE questions.

2. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. What were the characteristic features of the agrarian reforms in France, 1750-1815?
   2. Have we reason to presume that the plantation would have developed significantly in southern United States if slave labor had not become available? Did slave labor make the plantation more profitable than farming with free labor? Why, or why not?
3. Why has it been misleading to develop a concept of an “Industrial Revolution” that is to be identified with the period 1760-1800?
4. The generalization of the factory system created new problems in labor relations which were very imperfectly covered by the methods of collective bargaining even at their best.
5. In what ways did the development of steam navigation create new problems in merchant service and in national policy?
6. What is the significance of water and water power for the location of economic activity?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1943-44
Harvard University
Economics 33b, 133b
[Final Exam, February 1944]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period, or on one
   of the following topics: planning in a free society, the significance of monopolistic competition theory for the formulation of policies for the control of business.

II
Answer THREE questions.

2. Answer (a) or (b):
   1. Describe the structure of the Bank of England under the Bank Act of 1844. What was the significance of the distinctive features of the new structure?
   2. Sketch the development of the Suffolk Bank system.
3. Answer (a) or (b):
   1. In what ways does the topography of a region exert an influence on the pattern of the railway network? What typical patterns of networks may be distinguished?
   2. Describe the broader features of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. Do you feel that the courts were at fault for the disappointments experienced by the advocates of strict control?
4. Answer (a), (b), or (c):
   1. What factors enabled the Standard Oil group to secure transport differentials from the railroads and from the pipe line companies?
   2. What factors have controlled the development of integration of industry in Great Britain since 1870?
   3. What changes have taken place in the structure of big business in Germany since 1919? How may we explain this development?
5. Describe the place of water power in the power system of the United States. Discuss the problems of policy involved in the full and effective utilization of these water powers.
6. What modifications of the Malthusian theory of population are necessary to bring its broader features into conformity with the historical record of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1944-1945

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133a. Economic History, 1750-1860

Half-course (winter term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Professor Usher.

Students will attend classes in Economics 33a and do supplementary work for [graduate] credit in this course.

Economics 133b. Economic History, 1860-1914

Half-course (winter term; to be repeated in spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 2. Professor Usher.

Students will attend classes in Economics 33b and do supplementary work for [graduate] credit in this course.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLI (September 15, 1944), No. 19, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1944-1945, pp. 36-37.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133a. (winter term) Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1750-1860.

Total 20: 14 Graduates, 3 Public Administration, 3 Radcliffe.

Economics 133b. (winter term) Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1860-1914.

Total 17: 15 Graduates, 4 Public Administration, 7 Radcliffe [sic]

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1944-45 p. 64.

1944-45
Harvard University
Economics 33a, 133a
[Final Exam, February 1945]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: liberalism; the structure and objectives of a free society.

II
Answer three questions

2. Answer a, b, or c.
   1. In what ways did the rights enjoyed by English “landlords” of the eighteenth century fall short of being rights of unqualified ownership?
   2. Discuss: “Homestead settlement had its essential roots in the practices of southern United States, but the formal adoption of the policy was persistently opposed by southern members in Congress.”
   3. Sketch the various types of labor management used on southern plantations.
3. What are the essential features of the system of quantity production? Was the date of its significant introduction determined primarily by economic or by technological conditions?
4. Answer a or b.
   1. Discuss the critical problems involved in the definition of a factory.
   2. Describe the more conspicuous abuses in the administration of the old poor laws. Comment on the reform accomplished in 1834.
5. What conditions stood in the way of an early development of the operation of ocean going steamships by American builders and owners?
6. Why did the application of power to industry and transport alter the significance of surplus food supplies for the location of economic activity?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 10. Papers Printed for Final Examinations Winter Term [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (February 1945).

1944-45
Harvard University
Economics 33b, 133b
[Final Exam. June 1945]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic covered by the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: revisions and restatements of the theory of population; the future of the liberal concept of economic statesmanship.

II
Answer three questions

2. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. What were the primary contentions of the Bullionist writers? In what respects would their positions now be criticized?
   2. What tendencies towards centralization of banking appeared in the United States in the early nineteenth century?
3. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. Under what circumstances does value of the transport service modify the rate structure of a railway network? Are discriminations of this nature “reasonable”?
   2. In what ways did the Hepburn Act (1906) extend the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission? Were the new powers adequate?
4. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. Describe the position of the United States Steel Corporation in the industry about the time of the decision of the Supreme Court. Do you feel that the Court was justified in finding that “full and free competition” existed in the industry?
   2. Does the experience of Germany indicate that the “cartel” is a satisfactory and permanent means of organizing big business enterprises? Why, or why not?
5. What is, at present, the relative significance of coal, oil, and water power as sources of mechanical energy? Are there grounds for believing that the future development of water power will significantly alter the pattern of industrialization in the world?
6. Describe recent tendencies toward centralization of power production in Great Britain and continental Europe. Discuss the economic and social consequences of these changes.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 10. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (June 1945).

__________________________________

1945-1946

From Course Announcements

III
ECONOMIC HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

Economics 133a. Economic History, 1750-1860

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher.

Economics 133b. Economic History, 1860-1914

Half-course (spring term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLII (March 31, 1945), No. 8, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1945-1946, p. 40.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133a. (fall term) Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1750-1860.

Total 54: 34 Graduates, 1 Junior, 1 Freshman, 4 Public Administration, 14 Radcliffe.

Economics 133b. (spring term) Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1860-1914.

Total 79: 58 Graduates, 1 Sophomore, 9 Public Administration, 11 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1945-46, p. 59.

 

1945-1946
Harvard University
Economic 133a
[Final Exam, August 1946]

Answer all questions. Question 1 is given double weight. Please write clearly and in ink.

1. Write an essay of one hour on the factors which appear to have controlled the timing and rate of industrial development of areas, using illustrative material from the industrial history of England, France, Germany, and the United States. What recommendations respecting policy would you make to a government of a backward nation anxious to achieve, not only parity in industrial development and technology, but also a position of leadership in these fields?
2. Compare the major features of the structures of land ownership and use, and of agricultural organization during the first half of the nineteenth century in two of the following regions: Great Britain, France, the southern United States, the American West. Discuss fully the economics of each of the two systems considered and criticize in the light of this discussion the public and private policies involved in each.
3. Explain how the Industrial Revolution and the factory system in Great Britain altered the position of the workers in the economic system, and discuss in the light of the prevailing concepts of economic and political organization the problems of government labor policy which arose.
4. Analyze the remarkable boom in the American shipping and ship-building industries between 1830 and 1856, and the subsequent collapse. In this connection, what features of American and British merchant marine policy appear to have been important, and which of these policies might be criticized as being undesirable or ill-conceived from the American point of view?
5. Discuss the evolution of the structure of the British money market and banking system between the late eighteenth century and the mid-nineteenth century, showing the major changes which occurred, and analyzing the primary problems which arose.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1945-1946
Harvard University
Economics 133b
[Final Exam, August 1946]

Answer all questions. Please write clearly and in ink.

1. Compare the primary features since 1860 of railway organization and public railway policy in two of the following countries: the United States, Germany, France, Great Britain. Analyze the points of strength and weakness which you find in each of the two cases.
2. Analyze the reasons for the continued failure of American foreign-trade shipping to make progress between 1860 and 1914. In particular, what problems were encountered in the use of ship subsidies, and what conclusions do you draw from this experience, and that of other countries, regarding the essentials of a good subsidy policy?
3. Analyze the reasons for the development of industrial integration in the United States, and explain the timing of the movement. In this connection compare and criticize the integration movements and associated public policies in the United States and in Germany or Britain.
4. What major problems have arisen in connection with the control and exploitations of major sources of energy for capitalistic economies? How has the energy problem conditioned the economic development and basic policies of western nations?
5. Analyze the factors responsible for the agricultural maladjustments of the period 1914-1939. In what respects does this period differ from that from 1870 to 1914?
6. Write an essay discussing those features of the economic history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which seem to you evidences of progress, and those which seem the reverse. What concept and test of progress, or of the lack of it, do you consider valid.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1946-1947

From Course Announcements

III

[NOTE: the announcement of courses of instruction no longer distinguishes “Economic history” courses from others in group III…cf: Group I Theory/Group II Statistics]

Economics 133a. Economic History, 1750-1860

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher.

Economics 133b. Economic History, 1860-1914

Half-course (spring term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLIII (September 3, 1946), No. 21, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1946-1947, p. 45.

Enrollment

III

Economics 133a. Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1750-1860 (F).

Total 68: 46 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 1 Junior, 10 Public Administration, 8 Radcliffe.

Economics 133b. Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1860-1914 (Sp).

Total 73: 50 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Junior, 12 Public Administration, 9 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1946-47, p. 71.

1946-47
Harvard University
Economics 133a
[Final Exam, January 1947]

I
About one hour

1. Write an essay based on the work of the reading period or on one of the following topics: the Marxian concept of the factory and its problems: British and American shipping subsidies.

II
Answer three questions.

2. What were the essential features of the rotation systems developed in Great Britain and in Europe? In what ways and to what extent did the introduction of the rotations require reform of tenure and of village organization?
3. Discuss: “Recent developments of science and of scientific methods have made invention a laboratory process; it has become a group activity independent of particular individual endowments.”
4. What are the characteristic features of craft industry? Describe and define the different kinds of relationships to be found in the craft industries.
5. Is Weber’s treatment of transportation costs as uniform ton-mile rates a satisfactory basis for the theoretical analysis of the location of economic activity? Why, or why not?
6. Answer a or b.
   1. What political and economic circumstances led to the success and significance of the German Customs Union?
   2. In what respects was the liberal philosophy of the nineteenth century unsound or incomplete?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1946-47
Harvard University
Economics 133b
[Final Exam, May 1947]

I
About one hour

1. Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the legal concept of “free competition” in U. S. statutes and case decisions; the significance of the value of transport in railroad rate structures.

II
Answer THREE questions

2. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. What were the merits and defects of the defense of the policies of the Bank of England made by the officers of the Bank, in the period 1820-1840?
   2. Describe the tendencies toward centralization of banking activity in the state banking systems of the United States prior to 1860.
3. Answer (a), (b), or (c).
   1. Sketch the development of British policy towards railroad construction and regulation, 1830-1914.
   2. In what ways did the government of France give financial aid to the construction and operation of railroads prior to World War I?
   3. What were the characteristic features of the rate structure in the southern United States prior to World War I?
4. In what ways did the development of the Bessemer Converter and the Open Hearth process affect the structure and organization of the iron and steel industry?
5. Discuss the social and economic problems embodied in the doctrine of “capture” as developed in the United States in respect of property rights in petroleum.
6. Discuss: “The Malthusian principles of population were not essentially incorrect, though the formulation by Malthus was infelicitous and incomplete, and later discussion has commonly exaggerated the defects of the original presentation.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1947-1948

From Course Announcements

III

Economics 133a. Economic History, 1750-1860

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher and Assistant Professor Rostow.

Economics 133b. Economic History, 1860-1914

Half-course (spring term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher and Assistant Professor Rostow.

Economics 136a. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Half-course (spring term). Hours to be arranged. Professor Usher and Assistant Professor Rostow.

Economics 136b. Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Half-course (spring term). Hours to be arranged. Professor Usher and Assistant Professor Rostow.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLIV (September 9, 1947), No. 25, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1947-1948, p. 74.

 

Enrollment

III

Economics 133a. Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1750-1860 (F).

Total 77: 59 Graduates, 11 Public Administration, 7 Radcliffe.

Economics 133b. Professor Usher. — Economic History, 1860-1914 (Sp).

Total 65: 50 Graduates, 8 Public Administration, 6 Radcliffe, 1 Other 

Economics 136a. Professor Usher. — Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History (F).

(F) Total 7: 5 Graduates, 1 Junior, 1 Radcliffe

Economics 136b. Professor Usher. — Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History (Sp).

(Sp) Total 5: 5 Graduates

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1947-48, p. 91.

 

1947-48
Harvard University
Economics 133a
[Final Exam, January 1948]

I.
About one hour

1. Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the place of energy resources in the economy of a region, the concept of the factory.

II.
Answer three questions

2. Answer a, b, or c.
   1. How did copyhold tenures arise in England? In what respects, and on what grounds, were the relations of the copyholder to his lord modified by judicial interpretation?
   2. Discuss: “The National Assembly destroys entirely the feudal régime, and decrees the abolition without compensation of all feudal dues.” Resolution of Aug. 11, 1789.
   3. Discuss the political and economic issues involved in granting rights of preemption to squatters on the Public Domain.
3. Answer a, or b.
   1. What were the more important stages in the development and application of the hydraulic and steam turbines?
   2. Describe the official and unofficial procedures for establishing wage rates in England in the eighteenth century.
4. Describe the various types of improved inland waterways, and discuss the effectiveness of competition between waterways and railroads.
5. What types of industries can be most advantageously located at wholesale market sites? why?
6. Discuss: “The function of state coercion is to override individual coercion; and, of course, coercion exercised by any association of individuals within the state.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

1947-48
Harvard University
Economics 133b
[Final Exam, May 1948]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: “malefactors of great wealth,” the judicial concept of competition.

II
Answer THREE questions.

2. Answer (a) or (b):
   1. “The Bank Act of 1844 is an outstanding illustration of erroneous policy: the act failed to achieve any of its essential purposes; it remained on the statute books because it secured incidental conveniences that were really without importance.” Discuss.
   2. Describe the relations between the United States Treasury and the National Banks, 1865-1913.
3. Answer (a), (b) or (c):
   1. What are the obstacles to the adoption of cost of service as a test of the “reasonableness” of railroad rates?
   2. In what ways, and to what extent did the British government encourage competition among railroads in the nineteenth century?
   3. Did the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 provide adequate remedies for the abuses against which it was directed? Why, or why not?
4. Describe the technical factors affecting the size of the enterprise in the iron and steel industry, or the electric power industry.
5. Discuss the competitive position of coal as a source of energy since 1900.
6. In what ways and to what extent do vital statistics throw light upon the relative well-being of different populations?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

__________________________________

1948-1949

From Course Announcements

Note: Usher’s last year, Gerschenkron’s first year.

III

Economics 233a (formerly 133a). Economic History, 1750-1860

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher and Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

Economics 233b (formerly 133b). Economic History, 1860-1914

Half-course (spring term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Usher and Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

Economics 236 (formerly 136a and 136b). Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History

Full-course. Wed., 4-6. Professor Usher and Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLV (September 15, 1948), No. 24, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction, 1948-1949, p. 78.

Enrollment

III

Economics 233a (formerly 133a). Economic History, 1750-1860 (F). Professor Usher and Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

Total 43: 38 Graduates, 1 Senior, 2 Public Administration, 5 Radcliffe. [sic]

Economics 233b (formerly 133b). Economic History, 1860-1914 (Sp). Professor Usher and Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

Total 42: 38 Graduates, 2 Public Administration, 2 Radcliffe

Economics 236 (formerly 136a and 136b). Seminar. Topics in Modern Economic History (Full Co.) Professor Usher and Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

(F) Total 2: 2 Graduates
(Sp) Total 4: 2 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Public Administration

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1948-49, p. 78.

 

1948-49
Harvard University
Economics 233a
[Final Exam, January 1949]

I
About one Hour

1. Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the process of invention, the copyhold tenure.

II
Answer three questions

2. Answer a, b, or c.
   1. Describe the primary features of the métayage tenures in France. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the tenure.
   2. In what ways did the defects of the Harrison Act of 1800 lead to a demand for the revision of the general principles of public land policy?
   3. Discuss the problems of determining the effective costs of slave labor on the plantations of the southern United States.
3. In what ways and to what extent did the development of the factory system modify the position of the capitalist or entrepreneur?
4. In what way did the development of steam navigation affect the character of competition and the organization of oceanic shipping in the second half of the nineteenth century?
5. Answer a or b.
   1. What factors must be considered in computing the capacity of a railroad? What are the more conspicuous kinds of unused capacity?
   2. Describe the primary features of the patterns of procurement and distribution costs in a material oriented industry.
6. Answer a or b.
   1. Discuss the relative significance of Peel’s budget of 1842 and the repeal of the Corn Laws as the date line for the establishment of the Free Trade principle.
   2. What were the distinctive contributions of Bentham to the development of liberalism?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 16. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (February 1949) in the bound volume Final Examinations Social Sciences, Feb. 1949.

1948-49
Harvard University
Economics 233b
[Final Exam, June 1949]

I
(About one hour)

1. Write an essay on a topic based on the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the legal concept of competition in the United States; the measurement of material well-being.

II
Answer three questions.

2. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. Describe the policies and functions of the Bank of England 1790-1819. Were the policies of the Bank essentially sound?
   2. What problems were presented in the choice of a monetary standard in the United States? What were the defects of the Mint Act of 1792?
3. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of organizing a railway network under a principle of regulated regional monopoly?
   2. Describe the Trunk Line’ Rate system in the United States. Discuss its significance for theoretical analysis of railroad rate structures.
4. Answer (a) or (b).
   1. Describe the tensions and difficulties in the steel industry of the United States in the decade 1890-1900. Did the formation of the United States Steel Corporation provide a sound and satisfactory solution for these problems?
   2. In what ways and to what extent did the development of industrial consolidation in Germany after 1919 lead to the formation of more fully integrated enterprises than the older cartels?
5. Discuss the purposes and primary features of the British Electricity Supply Acts of 1919 and 1926.
6. How may we explain the changes in the birth rates and death rates in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alexander Gerschenkron, Box 3, Folder “Examinations 233a & b [1929/30-1967/68].

Image Source: Edwin F. Gay (left) and Abbott P. Usher (right) from Harvard Class Album 1934.