Sidney Sherwood, 1860-1901 received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1891 where he was to become the successor of Richard T. Ely as head of the department of Political Economy.
This post includes two memorials that provide a bit of biographical background followed by a rich, linked course of readings that were published in an appendix to the University Extension lecture material for Sherwood’s course, The History and Theory of Money, during the year he taught at the Wharton School of Finance and Economy (1891-92).
The next post will provide the course outline with the specific reading assignments for Sherwood’s twelve lectures.
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SIDNEY SHERWOOD.
Sidney Sherwood, Associate Professor of Economics in the Johns Hopkins University, died after a brief illness at Ballston, New York, August 5,1901. While spending a part of his vacation on a farm he accidentally cut his right hand. Blood poisoning ensued which led to fatal results in spite of the best medical aid. He was buried at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, where for many years he maintained a summer home.
Dr. Sherwood was born at Ballston, May 28, 1860. He graduated from Princeton College in 1879, then entered Columbia University, where he studied law. He afterwards practiced that profession in New York City, but having become interested in economic questions he entered the Johns Hopkins University in 1888 in order to pursue advanced studies under Professors Ely and Adams. He received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1891 and was called at once to the University of Pennsylvania as Instructor in Economics. In 1892, Dr. Sherwood returned to Baltimore, having been appointed Associate in Economics; in 1895, he was made Associate Professor.
At a meeting of the Board of University Studies a committee was appointed to draft appropriate resolutions. Their report is as follows:
“The Board of University Studies is compelled with sorrow to record the death of Associate Professor Sidney Sherwood, who as student and teacher, was connected with this University for more than twelve years.
“During all this period Dr. Sherwood grew steadily in the esteem and affection of his colleagues. Beneath a modest demeanor he revealed most amiable as well as most substantial qualities. As a writer he gave evidence of solid learning and sound judgment. As a teacher and counsellor of students in this University his services were of great value and his absence will be deeply felt.
“The members of the Board desire to extend to Mrs. Sherwood and her family their heartfelt sympathy in this bereavement.”
Source: Johns Hopkins University. University Circulars. (Vol. XXI. No. 154, December 1901) p. 9.
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SIDNEY SHERWOOD: A MUCH LOVED PROFESSOR OF OTHER DAYS
BY BERNARD C. STEINER, PH.D. 1891
ABOUT a month after the opening of the University year of 1888, there came into the Historical Seminary, a quiet, rather reserved man, somewhat older and considerably more experienced than the rest of the graduate students. He chose for his subjects, history, political economy, and English, and wrote, as his dissertation, a “History of the University of the State of New York.” In 1891, he took the degree of Ph.D. — such is the skeleton of the University life of Sidney Sherwood. To those who were his fellow-students, the mention of his name recalls a personality of gentle force, an accurate and careful scholarship, a faithful friend, who could be relied upon in any emergency. In the large third story room, known as the Bluntschli Library, the historical students came into such close contact that they knew each other thoroughly and all came to esteem Sherwood highly. In a little quiz class of a few men who took their degree together, he showed his thoughtful studiousness, even more than in the larger seminary, and also displayed his sane and ripe judgment.
He was born on May 28, 1860, at Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, N. Y., his parents being Thomas Burr and Mary Frances (Beattie) Sherwood. He prepared for College at Mr. Buckley’s private school in his native town, having the reputation of being the brightest boy that the master had ever taught. In the fall of 1875, he entered the College of New Jersey, as Princeton University was then called.
After graduating from Princeton in the well-known class of ’79, with Woodrow Wilson and other prominent men, to use his own words, written to his class secretary in 1894, he “tackled life, in the capacity of professor of Latin, Greek, mathematics, French, and German in the Newton Collegiate Institute of Newton. N. J. I likewise officiated as coach in football. The idea of a college course, as giving general culture, was certainly realized in the Princeton curriculum of that period, otherwise I never should have been fitted for that broad chair.” After a year of teaching, he went to Europe and spent two years, to quote him again, “in Great Britain and Western Europe, trying to get more general culture.” When he returned to the United States, he served a few months as a reporter upon the New York Tribune, “reading law on the sly.” Then the death of his father, in February, 1883, made it necessary for him to spend a year on the paternal farm in Saratoga County, during which time he read law at Ballston Spa. In the autumn of 1884, he entered the Columbia Law School; but, after a year of study there, he left the school and entered the office of Abner C. Thomas, LL.D., with whom he formed a partnership, when admitted to the bar in February, 1886 and for whom he did much of the hard research work connected with the preparation of the well-known and useful work known as Thomas on Mortgages. He continued this connection, until he gave up the practice of law and came to Baltimore. This change of purpose came through the mayoralty campaign, in which Henry George was one of the candidates, in which campaign Sherwood was much interested. He found that it “opened up a new field of study and work — the field of social philosophy and social progress. An academic career, the study and teaching of the forces and mechanism of human progress became henceforth my chief aim.” He said “I belong to the party of progress” and his mind in an unusual manner faced the future, while preserving conservative modes of thinking.
Few men ever held opinions more firmly, or with less bigotry than Sherwood, nor did he ever confuse the essential principles, which must be held firmly, with the unessential ones, which may be changed. So he was a moderate Republican and a Presbyterian, but he was a thoroughly convinced patriot and Christian.
Shortly after leaving the University, on September 3, 1891, he married Miss Mary A. Beattie of Cornwall, N. Y.
In a sketch such as this, the delightful home life of Sherwood’s family may not be more than mentioned and yet all who knew him know also that no sketch of him should be written without some such mention. The loving devotion of that true woman, who linked her fortunes with his and the ingenuous charm of the children made a fine background to the picture, and in that home, he found refreshment and strength. Four daughters and a son came into the family — the last too late, however, to remember his father, for he was born only a few months before the end.
In the autumn of 1891 he began teaching in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, as instructor in finance. While in this position, he delivered a course of lectures on the “History and Theory of Money,” which was published in 1893. In 1892, Professor Richard T. Ely was called from the Johns Hopkins to the University of Wisconsin and Sherwood became his successor in Baltimore. He carried on the work of the economic department until his death, growing yearly in power and influence, giving faithful and patient attention to each of his students, and showing equal faithfulness in the directorship of such institutions in Baltimore as he found time to enter. His thought ripened slowly and his great work on finance was ever in preparation. One summer towards the close of his life, he forewent the pleasure of staying with his family and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Germany to collect material there, but the book remained unwritten to the end. His History of the University of the State of New York published in 1893, widened to an History of Higher Education in New York State, a bulky volume, printed by the United States Bureau of Education in 1900 as part of a series, in the preparation of which Professor Adams had enlisted the services of a number of Hopkins men.
With fearful suddenness came the interruption of the useful work he was doing. Hale and strong, in the mellow maturity of his powers, he went into the garden of his summer home one day to prune some bushes. A scratch must have conveyed some vegetable poison into his veins, blood poisoning followed, and, after a very few days’ illness, he died “during a beautiful golden sunset” on August 5, 1901. The poignancy of the grief at the loss of a friend mingled in the minds of those who knew him, with the keen regret that the University was deprived of a scholar whose teaching by his example, what should be the attitude of a professor, was as important as the principles of political economy which he laid down in his lectures. The influence of such a man is pervasive and permanent and one of the privileges which lengthening years bring to the University is that it can look back upon the unselfish and complete service of such men as Sidney Sherwood.
Source: The Johns Hopkins Alumni Magazine. Vol. 5, No. 1 (November, 1916) pp. 32-35.
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READINGS FOR THE HISTORY AND THEORY OF MONEY
USEFUL BOOKS OF REFERENCE.
The literature of Money is so vast that a wise selection of a few books is almost impossible. The list here given is meant to contain books which are easily accessible, and which will tempt to further study after the lectures are finished.
Two books mentioned in the list — viz., Report of the International Monetary Conference of 1878 and W. S. Jevons’s Investigations in Currency and Finance — contain extensive and valuable bibliographies of money which will be of great service in making a thorough study of the subject.
Reference to works in foreign languages has been avoided. The French literature on this subject is very rich; the Italian and German also. The student reading any of these languages can easily find trace of the books he needs from references in the books here mentioned.
THE GENERAL SUBJECT OF MONEY.
Andrews, E. B., Institutes of Economics.
Bastable, C. F., “Money.” Encyclopaedia Britannica [9th ed.]
Colwell, Stephen, Ways and Means of Payment.
Ely, R. T., Introduction to Political Economy.
Jevons, W. Stanley, Money and the Mechanism of Exchange. [Text-book of the course, which should be in the hands of every student.]
Mill, J. S., Principles of Political Economy. [Ashley edition of 7th ed., 1909]
Nicholson, J. S., Money and Monetary Problems.
Patterson, R. H., The Science of Finance.
Poor, H. V., Money: its Laws and History.
Ricardo, David, Works.
Smith, Adam, Wealth of Nations. [Cannan ed. (1904)]
Walker, Francis A., Money in its Relations to Trade and Industry. [Text-book of the course, which should be in the hands of every student.]
_______, Political Economy (larger edition).
_______, Money.
Walker, J. H., Money, Trade, and Banking.
Willson, H. B., Currency.
SPECIAL MONETARY TOPICS.
Ashley, W. J., English Economic History. [2nd ed. Volume I; Volume II]
Atkinson, Edward, Report on Bimetallism in Europe. (Sen. Exec. Doc, No. 34, 50th Congress.)
Bagehot, Walter, Lombard Street: A Description of the Money-Market.
Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest.
Bolles, Financial History of the United States. [1774-1789; 1789-1850; 1861-1885]
Carey, H. C, Pamphlets on the Currency. See Works, Vol. XXXI. [Perhaps “The Currency Question” in Miscellaneous Works of Henry C. Carey (1872?)]
Dunbar, C. F., Theory and History of Banking.
Evans, History of the United States Mint and Coinage.
Giffen, Robert, Essays in Finance. [1880; Second series, 3rd ed (1890)]
Gilbart, J. W., History, Principles, and Practice of Banking. [1904 ed.: Volume I; Volume II]
Goschen, Theory of the Foreign Exchanges.
Horton, S. Dana, Gold and Silver. [sic. Silver and Gold and their Relation to the Problem of Resumption (1877)]
_______, The Silver Pound.
_______, [Appendix: Historical Material for and contributions to the Study of Monetary Policy] Report of International Monetary Conference of 1878. (Sen. Exec. Doc, No. 58, 45th Congress.)
Ingram, J. K., History of Political Economy.
Jacob, William, Historical Inquiry into the Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals. [Volume I; Volume II]
James, E. J., “Banks of Issue.” Lalor’s Cyclopaedia.
Jevons, W. S., Investigations in Currency and Finance.
Knox, John Jay, United States Notes.
_______, “Banking in the United States.” Lalor’s Cyclopaedia.
Laughlin, J. L., History of Bimetallism in the United States.
Laws of the United States relating to Loans and the Currency, Coinage and Banking. (Compilation published by the Government in 1886.)
Leslie, T. E. C, Essays in Political and Moral Philosophy.
Linderman, H. R., Money and Legal Tender in the United States.
Liverpool, Lord, A Treatise on the Coins of the Realm.
Macaulay, T. B., History of England. [Volume I; Volume II; Volume III; Volume IV; Volume V; Volume VI; Volume VII;Volume VIII; Volume IX; Volume X] [Popular edition (1889) in two volumes: Volume I; Volume II]
Patterson, R. H., The New Golden Age. [Volume I; Volume II]
Rogers, J. E. T., The First Nine Years of the Bank of England.
Sherman, John, Speeches and Reports on Finance and Taxation.
Sumner, W. G., History of American Currency.
Upton, J. K., Money in Politics.
Wells, David A., Recent Economic Changes.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Annual Finance Reports of the United States, containing reports of
Comptroller of the Currency, Director of the Mint, etc.
Congressional Record.
House and Senate Documents.
Report of the International Monetary Conference of 1878.
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, London.
American Bankers’ Magazine.
Rhodes’s Journal of Banking.
Reports of the Annual Meetings of the American Bankers’ Association.
Bradstreet’s and other periodicals devoted to economic, financial,
commercial, and monetary subjects.
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Lalor’s Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and United States History. [Volume I (Abdication-Duty); Volume II (East India Company-Nullification); Volume III (Oath-Zollverein)]
OUTLINE OF A COURSE OF READING.
Two books are essential, and should be carefully studied:
- Jevons’s Money and the Mechanism of Exchange.
- Walker, F. A., Money in its Relations to Trade and Industry.
For the purpose of this course of lectures, no substitutes for these books could be suggested which would be of equal worth. If students wish to purchase a few more books, the following are recommended: Knox, United States Notes; Dunbar, Theory and History of Banking; Andrews, Institutes of Economics; Bagehot, Lombard Street: A Description of the Money-Market; Sumner, History of American Currency; Laws of United States relating to Loans, etc., 1886.
SHORT COURSE OF READING.
Jevons and Walker should be followed by the reading suggested at the beginning of each lecture. The reader will find frequent reference in these books to other books, and can follow the line of his special interest still further if he wishes. Some good text-book in Political Economy should be always at hand for the close study of the economic principles involved. Walker and Andrews are especially good on money.
LONGER COURSE OF READING.
After Jevons and Walker, Professor Bastable’s article on “Money,” in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed.), may be read as giving an admirable general review of the subject.
The historical evolution of money and money substitutes should be grasped before going deeply into the theory and the practical aspects of the subject.
Enough is given in Jevons, Walker, and Bastable on the subject of primitive money. Books of travel, writings of anthropologists, accounts of early institutions, history of ancient or barbarous peoples, old laws, early records of state, etc., furnish innumerable instances of all types of early money. The student should form the habit of making all his general reading aid his systematic special study.
On the subject of coins and coinage, read articles “Mint” and “Numismatics,” in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Liverpool’s Coins of the Realm, pp. 25-56, Walker’s Money, Chapters IX., X., XL, and Linderman’s Money and Legal Tender. Linderman was formerly Director of the Mint, and has given a very clear and interesting account of the history of United States coinage and some of the processes of coinage. Consult the Laws of the United States relating to Loans and the Currency, Coinage and Banking (1886). The coinage laws from 1792 to 1886 are there given, pp. 211-288. Consult, also, Evans, United States Mint and Coinage. Visit the Mint, and learn as much as possible of the technical processes of coinage, and examine the various collections of United States and foreign coins.
The subject of the production of the precious metals is very important. Jacob’s book is the great authority, and will repay reading through, although rather long. Walker’s Money (the large work), in Chapters V.-VIII., treats historically of this subject, and follows Jacob quite closely. An excellent plan would be to read these chapters in Walker, referring constantly to Jacob, and reading such parts as are of special interest. Having thus got the general facts clearly in mind, read Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book I., Chapter XI., ” Digression on the Variations in the Value of Silver,” for the sake of getting an idea of this old master. The most valuable discussions of the problems involved by great discoveries of gold and silver have been written since 1850. Read in Laughlin’s Bimetallism, Chapter V., on the gold discoveries; VIII., on production of gold since 1850; and XII., on cause of fall in value of silver. Follow this with the essay in Nicholson’s Money on the “Effects of Great Discoveries of the Precious Metals,” and Chapter VII. in the same book, on the international influences that fix general prices. The second article in Jevons’s Investigations, etc. (on the fall in the value of gold), may then be read, followed by “Changes in General Prices and in the Purchasing Power of Gold,” being Part VII. of Appendix D in Atkinson’s Report on Bimetallism. Various other parts of this Report will be found helpful. Patterson’s New Golden Age may be consulted with much profit. Wells’s Recent Economic Changes is excellent, as pointing out other factors than the quantity of money which may be operative in change of prices.
Passing on to credit substitutes for money, we take up first the “Organization of Credit” in the Banking System. Begin with Adam Smith’s account of the Bank of Amsterdam, Wealth of Nations, Book IV., Chapter III., Part I. Then read the chapters of Gilbart’s Banking, indicated below. Mr. Gilbart was a practical banker for half a century, from his twentieth year till his death in 1863. After twenty years’ experience in a London and in an Irish bank, and after publishing various writings on the subject of banking, he was made General Manager of the London and Westminster Bank, — the first of the Joint-Stock Banks in England, opened in 1834. It was largely through his efforts that the Joint-Stock Banks survived the opposition encountered on every side, and became established as a part of the English banking system. His book may be relied on for accuracy, and is clear in statement. Read §§ I. and II. for the early history of banks in England and elsewhere; §§ III.- VI. for an account of the Bank of England and the other English banks; § XXVIII. for a discussion of the relation of the Bank of England to the currency since the Act of 1844; § XXXV. for a sketch of the Clearing-House; and §§ XXXVI. and XXXVII. for a history of the crises of 1857, 1866, 1875, and 1878. Macaulay, in History of England, Chapter XX., tells in his graphic way the story of the founding of the Bank of England. It would be well to read also his third chapter on the state of England in 1685, and his account of the controversy over the Recoinage Act of 1696 (Chapter XXI.). Rogers’s First Nine Years of the Bank of England is very suggestive, admirably bringing out the political side of the movement for the Bank. Then read Professor Sumner’s discussion of the “Bank Restriction” in his History of American Currency, which also con tains the “Bullion Report.” Ricardo’s Works might well follow. Read Chapter XXVII. in his Principles of Political Economy, on “Currency and Banks,” and also one or two of his classical essays on currency questions. Next take up Bagehot’s Lombard Street: a Description of the Money-Market, a book written with all the nervous vigor and keen insight of this versatile author. While the book treats mainly English conditions, a clever shifting of recitals to the American money-market will throw much light on the intricate subject.
This reading will have taken the student over the Bank Charter Act of 1844 and its effects. Then read the article in Lalor on “Banks of Issue,” by Professor E. J. James, to get a general view of the subject and a clear idea of the scientific questions involved.
Turning now to American Currency and Banking, the article in Lalor, by John Jay Knox, on “Banking in the United States,” will be found the best introduction to the subject. He has described the National Bank system in his report as Comptroller of the Currency (Finance Report, 1875). Then read Sumner’s History of the American Currency. The subject of paper money is best approached through the history of American Government issues, both colonial and national. Follow Sumner with Knox’s United States Notes, Upton’s Money in Politics, and Sherman’s Speeches on the Currency. The Government compilation of Laws relating to Loans and the Currency, Coinage and Banking, published 1886, and before mentioned, should be constantly at hand for reference. Study the Legal-Tender Act and Legal-Tender Cases, the National Bank system, and the present coinage laws of the United States, so as to understand clearly our present currency. Bolles’s Financial History of the United States is especially useful. Colwell’s Ways and Means of Payment is an able, systematic treatise on money and credit, and might well be read at this point.
This reading will bring into view the principles underlying the whole monetary system as well as the practical questions at issue. For clear exposition and able discussion of these principles, especially in regard to the part played by credit as organized in the banking system, turn to J. H. Walker’s Money, Trade, and Banking, C. F. Dunbar’s Theory and History of Banking, and R. H. Patterson’s Science of Finance. This latter book discusses also the question of the relation of the state to the currency.
The problem of the monetary standard remains, — “The Battle of the Standards.”
A great classic is A Treatise on the Coins of the Realm, by Lord Liverpool, published at Oxford in 1805. The writer had held many high offices, — Secretary of the Treasury, Lord of the Treasury, President of the Board of Trade, among others. In 1774 he had successfully urged the recoinage of the gold coins. England had always had a silver standard; gold, however, being a legal tender at a certain fixed ratio to silver. The silver had become very worn. Coin was scarce, the bank having stopped specie payments in 1797. Lord Liverpool urged the change from a silver to a gold standard, the making of gold the sole, full legal tender, giving only a small legal- tender limit to silver as a subsidiary coin. This policy was substantially carried out by the Recoinage Law of 1816, which as amended in 1870 is the English law to-day, and Englishmen have now forgotten that they ever had a silver standard. S. Dana Horton says of this Treatise, it “became the great charter of Monetary Right for the Nineteenth Century.” It contains much valuable historical information on English coinage, as well as formal discussions of the nature and functions of money and the principles applying to a monetary system. Its bearing upon the bimetallic controversy is obvious. Then read Ricardo’s essay, “Proposals for an Economic and Secure Currency.” The book to be next read is Horton’s The Silver Pound and England’s Monetary Policy since the Restoration, or Horton’s Gold and Silver [sic, “Silver and Gold” is the correct title]. Laughlin’s Bimetallism in the United States should follow. The Report of the International Monetary Conference of 1878 is very valuable, containing an appendix filled with historical material bearing on this question, a brief account of the Latin Monetary Union, and an extensive bibliography mentioned above. Atkinson’s Report on Bimetallism in Europe will also be found useful. Nicholson has several good essays in favor of Bimetallism in his Money and Monetary Problems. Giffen writes on the other side. Read also Jevons’s essays on the subject in his Investigations, etc., and the chapter on “Bimetallism” in Walker’s Political Economy. Henry C. Carey’s Pamphlet on Financial Crises, and Willson’s Currency, pp. 250-284, would be a good introduction to the subject of panics. Follow with Jevons’s essays on Crises, in his Investigations, etc., and with Wells’s Recent Economic Changes.
A work of the highest importance is Lalor’s Cyclopaedia of Political Science. It should be diligently referred to throughout this entire course of reading. The unique value of this book is that it contains the whole political and eco nomic history of the United States in compact form, and with abundant reference to special authorities, while at the same time treating particular questions not merely in the light of American experience, but with a broad outlook upon European conditions, and in a manner truly scientific.
Finally, when the above outline of reading is exhausted, take up Andrews’s Institutes of Economics and study Part II., Exchange; Part III., Money and Credit; Part IV., Chapter III., Interest; Part VI., Chapters I.- III., United States Currency. It is compact with suggestive thought and an excellent stimulus to independent thinking on the part of the reader.
Source: From Sidney Sherwood, The History and Theory of Money, Appendix “Syllabus of the Preceding Course of Twelve Lectures on the History and Theory of Money” (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1896) pp. 359-365.
Image Source: Photograph of Sidney Sherwood by photographer Blessing. Johns Hopkins University. Sheridan Libraries.