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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for principles of accounting. W. M. Cole, 1907-1908

William Morse Cole, his life, career, and publications. The essence of Cole’s accounting course is to be found in his textbook:

Accounts. Their Construction and Interpretation for Business Men and Students of Affairs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908.

“The first issue of this book was brought out at a time when no general, non-technical, non-professional treatise on accounting had been published . The author had then been giving for eight years a course of instruction to seniors in Harvard College on the principles of accounting, and believed that many business men and students of affairs would be interested to see briefly but comprehensively how accounts are constructed and interpreted.”
Revised and enlarged edition, 1915.

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Earlier Accounting Exams

1901-02
1902-03
1903-04
1904-05
1905-06
1906-07

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Course Announcement
1907-08

*[Economics] 18. Principles of Accounting. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 3.30. Mr. W. M. Cole

Course 18 is not open to students before their last year of undergraduate work. It may be taken as a half-course in the first half-year.
[“A star (*) prefixed to the number of a course indicates that the course cannot be taken without the previous consent of the instructor.” Introductory note.]

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1907-08, 2nd ed., p. 50.

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 18. Mr. W. M. Cole. — Principles of Accounting.

Total 83: 10 Graduates, 41 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 18
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. Give suppositional details to illustrate the meaning of the following journal entries:
Adam Bede
To Stationery
Accounts Payable
To Bills Payable
Bills Receivable
To Machinery
Surplus
To Capital Stock
Loss and Gain
To Bills Receivable
  1. “Real Estate is a capital account, and Rent is a revenue account.” How far is this statement true? If it is correct, what does it mean? If it is incorrect or inadequate, compare these two accounts in respect to both the use and the ultimate treatment of them.
  2. Illustrate roughly any book of original entry constructed in such form that the maximum number of entries may be made so as to require only the minimum number of postings. Show ten entries with an indication of three postings to cover them.
  3. Fill out the following incomplete six-column statement, using no figures not given or implied.
Dr. Cr. Resources. Liabilities. Loss. Gain.
Cash 20,000
Office furniture 3,000 500
Expense 13,000 13,000
Interest 500 50
Bills Receivable 5,000
Bills Payable 2,000
Accounts Receivable 3,000
Accounts Payable 1,000
Merchandise 20,000 21,000
Capital Stock

Show the balance sheet for the new year, supposing no dividends to be declared.

  1. Arrange the following items in what seems to you the best form of income sheet: commission paid, 12,000; depreciation, 1,500; dividends, 20,000: rent paid, 1000; surplus for the year, 12,500; wages paid, 110,000; miscellaneous expenses, 8,000; material consumed, 85,000; sales of merchandise manufacture, 250,000. It is assumed that no goods are bought.
  2. Show the Loss and Gain account on the ledger for the corporation whose income-sheet figures are given above (problem 5).
  3. A summary of the transactions of a corporation for one year is as follows: net income, now in the form of cash, 34,000; dividends declared but not yet paid, 25,000; bills payable converted into capital stock, 20,000; real estate bought for cash, 15,000; notes received in payment of outstanding ledger accounts, 7,000; all other transactions have exactly offset each other, so that except for those mentioned above the status is exactly as it was a year ago. The balance sheet at the beginning of the old year was as follows:
Real estate 70,000 Capital stock 197,000
Machinery 86,000 Bills payable 25,000
Bills receivable 24,000 Accounts payable 12,000
Accounts receivable 20,000 Surplus 21,000
Merchandise 31,000
Cash 24,000

Show the balance sheet for the beginning of the year.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

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ECONOMICS 18
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

I.
Take all.
  1. Distinguish between
    1. Trial Balance and Balance Sheet,
    2. Balance Sheet and Income Sheet,
    3. Income Sheet and Profit & Loss account.
  2. You are receiver for an insolvent. You find accounts reported on the books as below. The bookkeeping is known to register correctly the amount of receipts and expenditures, and to do this in the accounts apparently concerned. Which of the accounts indicated below would need investigation beneath the surface, and in the case of each what investigation should be conducted to determine the facts?
    Loans on commercial paper; bonds owned; real estate; accounts payable; debts due from branches; capital stock; merchandise in branch stores; collateral held to secure loans made.
  3. Compare the purpose and nature of reserve or reserve funds in the following kinds of enterprise: fire insurance; manufacturing; banking; life insurance.
    Name and describe any other kinds of reserve that occur to you.
  4. The following items appear, among others, in one report of a corporation. Interpret each, and show the relation of each to the others if such relation exists.
Assets Liabilities
Sinking Funds bonds 250,000 Collateral Trust bonds 1,500,000
Discount on bonds 75,000 Sinking Fund 225,000
Bonds of subsidiary companies deposited as collateral 2,000,000 Replacement Fund 100,000
Surplus 500,000

 

Net earnings 200,000
Other income 100,000
300,000
Fixed charges 80,000
Discount on bonds 10,000 90,000 210,000
Dividends 150,000
Surplus 60,000
  1. Which of the following facts would you recommend to show, and where and how would you show them, in the report of a corporation?

Receipts from operations,
Expense of operations (not including improvements),
Fuel consumed,
Improvements charged to maintenance,
Improvements charged to capital,
Reserve from profits, set aside for future improvements,
Selling costs,
Guaranteed bonds of subsidiary companies,
Interest on capital stock,
Advances to cover deficits of failing subsidiary companies.

II.
Take three.
  1. Explain in municipal accounting (a) the common lack of correspondence between different sets of official figures for apparently the same expenditures, and (b) the danger in comparing costs between different cities.
  2. Compare the adequacy of a bank balance sheet, as a means of judging solvency, with that of a balance sheet of a mercantile concern.
    Why does a bank balance sheet distinguish between different kinds of cash?
  3. What is the ultimate purpose of cost accounting?
    With that purpose in view, defend or oppose the keeping of an account for idle machine time. If you defend it, show how the account should be kept.
  4. Does a 5% bond bought at 125 pay 4%? Prove the truth of your answer by indicating the correct entries to interest account when interest is received. (Do not take time to compute definite figures, but illustrate by rough figures or symbols, indicating what they stand for.)
  5. When cost figures in manufacturing are based in part on estimates for the distribution of burden, what method is available for revising and correcting such estimates? Illustrate by applying the method to a specific account or group of accounts.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 42-44.

Image Source: William Morse Cole faculty portrait in Radcliffe College, Book of the Class of 1913-14. Colorised at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Distribution Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard alumnus. Extension course of six lectures on distribution. William M. Cole, 1896

During one of my recent scavenger hunts in the internet archive hathitrust.org I  scored the serendipitous discovery of a syllabus for six lectures given in 1896 by the recent Harvard economics A.M. alumnus and later professor of accounting, William M. Cole. His subject was the unequal distribution of wealth and the lectures were held under the auspices of the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching of Philadelphia. In previous years this subject was treated by  Richard T. Ely and John Bates Clark.

Cole had been a teaching assistant for Frank W. Taussig’s introduction to the principles of economics and one presumes much (if not all) of what Cole offered his public was theory à la Taussig, warmed up and perhaps somewhat dumbed down for popular consumption.

An earlier post provides more detail about the later career of William M. Cole.

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Homecoming, 1896

…Portland people will be interested to know that Mr. William M. Cole, who is in this city to represent the American University Extension Society at Assembly hall tonight, is a Portland boy. He was a Brown medical scholar at the High school, graduating from Harvard as one of the eleven Summa cum laude men of his class, has been instructor in political economy at Harvard and at Radcliffe, and was secretary of the Massachusetts commission on the unemployed. He is now a lecturer on economics for the American University Extension Society. Mr. Cole devotes his leisure largely to literary work. His latest work is “An Old Man’s Romance,” published last summer, and favorably reviewed by such literary papers as the Bookman, the Bookbuyer, the Boston Transcript and the Atlantic Monthly. It appeared under the pseudonym, Christopher Craigie. Mr. Cole had an article “Alone on Osceola,” in the August New England Magazine.

Source: The Portland Daily Press (Portland, Maine)
6 Feb 1896, p. 8.

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Cole Lectured on Wealth Distribution four times in 1896

  • Bangor, Maine. Mar. 16, 30 Apr. 13, 20, 27 May 4
  • Farmington, Maine. Feb 18 Mar. 17, 31 Apr. 14, 21, 28
  • Portland, Maine. Apr. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 May 6
  • Saco, Maine. Feb. 19, Mar. 18, Apr. 1, 15, 22, 29.

Source: The American Society for the Extension of University Teaching, Philadelphia. The Citizen (April 1896) p. 72.

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[Series E.]

University Extension Lectures
under the auspices of
The American Society
for the
Extension of University Teaching.
Syllabus of a
Course of Six Lectures on

The Causes of the Unequal Distribution of Wealth Treated with Special Reference to the Principles Underlying the Problems of Labor, Land and Capital.

BY
WILLIAM MORSE COLE, A. B.
Late Instructor in Political Economy in Harvard University.

No. 16.
Price, 15 Cents.

Copyright, 1896, by
American Society for the Extension of University Teaching,
111 S. Fifteenth St., Philadelphia, Pa.

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The Causes of
the Unequal Distribution of Wealth.

CLASS.— At the close of each lecture a class is held for those students who wish to study the subject more thoroughly. All who attend the lectures may remain for the class discussion, whether desirous of participating in it or not. The object of the class is to give the students an opportunity of coming into personal contact with the lecturer, in order that they may, by conversation and discussion, the better familiarize themselves with the principles of the subject, and get their special difficulties explained.

PAPERS.— Students are urged to send to the lecturer at regular intervals papers on the topics set. These papers are returned with corrections and comment.

EXAMINATIONS.— Those students whose papers and attendance upon the class exercises have satisfied the lecturer of the thoroughness of their work will be admitted to an examination at the close of the course. Each student who passes the examination successfully will receive from the society a certificate in testimony thereof.

STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION.— The formation of a Students’ Association for the reading and study before and after the lecture course, as well as during its continuance, is strongly recommended. In the case of fortnightly lectures the sessions of the Association may be held on the same evening of the alternate week.

REFERENCES.

NOTE.— Since Economics is a comparatively new science, the amount of new literature of which the permanent value has not yet been determined is very great. Much of the new doctrine, moreover, is incorporated in general text-books and set forth in detail rather for the specialist than for the general reader and thinker. It is deemed wise, therefore, to refer for this course to a few only of the standard books. These will familiarize the student with recognized doctrine so that he may read new literature with discrimination.

LECTURE I.

Wealth.— J. S. Mill, Political Economy, first ten pages of Preliminary Remarks; or J. L. Laughlin’s Abridgment of Mill, Preliminary Remarks.

Agents in Production.— Mill [The reference “Mill” will mean J. S. Mill, Political Economy.], Bk. I, Chaps. I to VII (incl.); or, Laughlin [The reference “Laughlin” will mean J. L. Laughlin’s Abridgment of Mill’s Political Economy.], Bk. I. F. A. Walker, Political Economy, Part. II.

Rent.— Mill, Bk. II, Chap. XVI; or Laughlin, Bk. II, Chap. VI. Walker, Polit. Econ., Part II, Chap. I, §§ 44, 45; Part IV, Chap. II.

Law of Diminishing Returns.— Walker, Wages Question, Chap. V.

LECTURE II.

Unearned Increment.— Mill, Bk. V, Chap. II, §§ 5, 6; or, Laughlin, Bk. V, Chap. I, § 5. Henry George, Progress and Poverty, Bk. VII, Chap. III; Bk. VIII, Chap. II. Walker, Polit. Econ., Pt. IV, Chap. II, §v258; Pt. VI, Chap. VII (3d Ed., Chap. X).

LECTURE III.

Wages and Profits.— Mill, Bk. II, Chap. XI, §§ 1, 2, 3; Chap XV; or, Laughlin, Bk. II, Chap. II, §§ 1, 2, 3; Chap. V. Walker, Polit. Econ., Pt. IV, Chaps. III. IV. V.

LECTURE IV.

The Increase of Capital.— Mill, Bk. I, Chap. XI and Chap. VIII; or, Laughlin, Bk. I, Chap. VIII and Chap. VI.

Trusts.— E. von Halle, Trusts (Macmillan & Co., 1895).

Railroads.— A. T. Hadley, Railroad Transportation, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890) Chaps. III, IV, V.

LECTURE V.

Wages in Different Employments.— Mill, Bk. II, Chap. XIV; or, Laughlin, Bk. II, Chap. IV. J. E. Cairnes, Political Economy, Part I, Chap. III, § 5. Report Mass. Commission on Unemployed, Pt. IV, p. 1 to lii. Walker, Wages Question, Chap. XIV.

Trade Unions.— J. E. Cairnes, Political Economy, Pt. II, Chaps. III, IV. Walker, Wages Question, Chap. XIX.

Profit Sharing.— N. P. Gilman, Profit Sharing (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889) Chaps. IX, X.

The Question of Population.— Mill, Bk. II, Chap. XI, § 6; Chaps. XII, XIII; or Laughlin, Bk. II, Chap. II, §§ 4, 5; Chap. III. Walker, Wages Question, Chap. VI; Chap. XVIII, § 3.

The Wages Fund.— J. E. Cairnes, Pt. II, Chap. I. Walker, Wages Question, Chaps. VIII, IX.

LECTURE VI.

International Trade.— Mill, Bk. III, Chap. XVII; or Laughlin, Bk. III, Chap XIII. J. E. Cairnes, Political Economy, Pt. III, Chap. I.

The Classical View of Laissez Faire.— Mill, Bk. V, Chap. XI. J. E. Cairnes, Polit. Econ., Pt. II, Chap. V.

Instability of Modern Conditions.— Walker, Polit. Econ., Pt. III, Chap. VI. C. F. Dunbar, The Theory and History of Banking, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1891) Chaps. I, II. Report Mass. Commission on Unemployed, Pt. IV, Introduction.

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LECTURE I.
The Agents in the Production of Wealth and the Primary Principle of Rent.

The field of economic study is the production, distribution, and exchange of wealth in civilized society and among men actuated by normal motives and conducting their operations in the normal manner. Economics, therefore, does not offer its conclusions to be applied directly to abnormal conditions or transactions. It is highly practical, for it furnishes the general, fundamental principles which give an insight into all economic activity. Its relation to politics, or the art of government, is like that of physiology to hygiene. It does not decide between policies, —it furnishes the knowledge of principles which enables one possessed of facts and having certain aims to decide for himself. (See Quarterly Journal of Economics, July, 1891, “The Academic Study of Political Economy,” by C. F. Dunbar.)

A knowledge of the primary laws of production and distribution is essential for a comprehension of the problems of wealth and poverty. Not all things useful or agreeable are wealth, but only those which are also transferable, capable of accumulation, and limited in quantity.

Man’s only physical power is that of moving things. His mechanical agency in producing wealth is therefore small. Without the forces and materials supplied by nature, man would be helpless. Yet, in modern times, even with the maximum assistance of nature, few men unassisted by capital could produce a tithe of what they consume. Thus land and labor are the requisites of production: and capital, though not always absolutely necessary, is a necessity if modern methods are used, and in any case increases the produce many fold.

Not all labor is productive of wealth; but some which seems at first sight unproductive is in reality highly productive and much that is unproductive is of far greater importance to the community than it could be if it were devoted to production.

Capital, in the economic sense of the word, is wealth set apart to assist further production. The owner has sacrificed his immediate satisfaction in the use of it by devoting it to increase the productive forces of the community. It serves its use by being consumed, but would be valueless to the community if it were hoarded. Recompense for its consumption is furnished in the product which it assists in producing.

Of the three parts into which the produce of industry is commonly divided, we shall first consider rent. Rent owes its origin to the diversity of lands. If all land were like all other land and there were enough to satisfy everyone, there would be no rent. At one time in every country there was enough good land to satisfy everyone, and therefore no one paid rent. The poor lands were not cultivated. As the community grew and required a greater produce, however, the law of diminishing returns came into effect and forced cultivation down on poorer lands or induced more expensive processes of cultivation on the old lands. As the community was thus obliged to pay more for its produce, the better lands, producing as cheaply as before, yielded more than enough to pay the normal wages and profit. The owner demanded this surplus in rent, and the cultivator not only was able to pay it, but was forced to do so by the competition of others. Rent, then, is payment made to the owner of superior land for its use, and the amount of rent is measured by the superiority of that land over land which yields only normal wages and profits, i.e., the superiority of that land over the poorest land which must be cultivated to supply the needs of the community. A change in the demand for products which affects the margin of cultivation therefore affects rents.

Not only fertility, but accessibility, surroundings, etc., determine rent. These are the chief elements in the rental price of stores, offices, wharves, factories and residences. Yet a part of this is not rent but profit on the capital invested in the buildings.

Rent forms no part in the cost of production, for it is paid for superior advantages.

LECTURE II.
The Land Question.

Rent arises not only from superior fertility or productiveness, but from superior accessibility and superior surroundings. These are variable and are often the result of the growth of society, independent of effort on the part of the owners of land. Yet the owners appropriate the increase in rental or selling value without recompense to the society which produced it. Such appropriation of “unearned increment” is the origin of many fortunes in every community. Though legally and politically just, such appropriation is morally unjust. Yet there is no apparent way of remedying the injustice by any political machinery now in operation. A man who refused to appropriate the unearned increment would simply leave it for another’s benefit. The advocates of the single tax recommend the abolition of all injustice arising from appropriation of unearned increment by seizing for public benefit without compensation to the owner, except for improvements made, all land now privately owned. This would secure for society not only all present and future but also all past unearned increment. This would bring great wealth to the public treasury and thus make it possible to relieve poverty, but it would perpetrate an injustice much greater than that which it would correct; for the greater part of the unearned increment has been appropriated by past owners, and to confiscate the property of present owners would be to take away from them property for which they have already paid a presumably fair price. The single tax advocates say that there never was properly any valid title to land, since the land was created for all and no man made it, —and that therefore it is a man’s own fault if he buys and pays for a right which the seller did not possess.

This raises the question whether the right to exclusive control over land is a moral right. The usual answer is summed up in the phrase, “Give a man an insecure tenancy of a garden, and it will become a desert; but give him a nine years’ lease of a desert, and he will convert it into a garden.” Private ownership is considered necessary for a proper care and cultivation of landed property. This, however, is solely on the ground of policy. Yet, justice demands as much. In many localities population is excessive, crowds closer and closer together, and thereby not only raises the cost of living, but destroys much that makes the pleasure of the old inhabitant. If he, and his ancestors before him, or anyone from whom he may purchase, have chosen a place for their habitation or their work, no justice can demand that he be caused to suffer by the encroachment of a new population or an increased population for which he is not responsible. If population is to grow, as some predict, until it is pressed for means of subsistence, there is the more reason for sustaining, now while the world is big enough for all, the right of anyone to secure for himself and his descendants land which shall be their allotted space. Certain incompetent classes of population can grow in excess of all usefulness for themselves or others, and as their growth involves evil to those who are innocent of irresponsible growth, the one protection in the right of private property in land cannot justly be withdrawn.

This right of private property in land, however, does not include the right to appropriate the “unearned increment” which is the creation of society. The assumption of it by society would be both just and politic. The difficulty is one of practicability. The assumption could not cover the unearned increment of the past, for that cannot be traced; it could not cover all that in the present and future, for many of the present land owners have already compensated past owners for expected increment, and would thus suffer from injustice; and the line between earned and unearned increment, and the amount of increment, are not always apparent. Justice demands this assumption, however, and ways of making it practicable will be devised.

In one class of land, no private right of ownership should be recognized at all. Much of the world’s mineral wealth, for example, is locked up in few localities. This belongs to society at large. All mines, therefore, should be public property, and managed for society’s interest.

In the same category belong all lands having special narrowly-limited properties, such as that comprising grand scenery and natural transportation routes. Permanent private control of them constitutes monopoly, which is counter to public justice.

LECTURE III.
The Relation of Profits and Wages.

No man works in these days without the assistance of capital; and even his wages are paid out of capital. Temporarily, therefore, the rate of wages will depend upon the number of persons desiring employment and the number of commodities suitable for their use which are offered them by persons desiring their services. An increase in the number of persons desiring employment, without a corresponding increase in the capital available for their payment, produces lower wages, and an increase in the capital offered as wages, without corresponding increase in the number desiring employment, produces higher wages. A sudden rise in the value of commodities produced does not necessarily bring with it the ability to pay higher immediate wages, for as wages are usually paid out of capital, the wage-paying power is not immediately affected.

Labor is required by capital. The rate of wages, therefore, cannot permanently remain below the point which suffices to supply a working population. The amount which will supply population is determined largely by the workers themselves. If workers are unwilling to undertake the support of families at a given rate of wages, the number of marriages declines, the birth rate is reduced, and the population fails to supply the demand of capitalists for workers. Then the competition of employers for workers raises wages until the point at which workers are willing to marry and assume the support of families is reached. This point is in the long run the minimum limit of wages. Though there is no maximum limit, there is in most communities a natural force which tends to keep wages from reaching a very high range. The tendency of population to increase is generally manifest, and in most communities there appears to be a marked connection between the rate of increase and the wages of labor. An increase of wages among certain classes of workers often results in a larger population; and this, when unaccompanied by a proportionally increased capital, results in a reduction of wages. Thus the rise in wages counteracts itself. This increase in population, however, is by no means universal, and is in no case necessary. An important check on sudden fluctuations in wages is found in migration of laborers.

As capital greatly increases the world’s produce, and is a necessary element in carrying on business by modern methods, the possessor of it receives a share of the produce. This share is called profit, or, more strictly speaking, interest. The justification of this share lies in the fact that capital is the result of self-denial on the part of someone at sometime, in devoting to productive use wealth which might have given him immediate personal gratification if spent. Similar self-denial is involved also on the part of an inheritor of wealth who devotes it to productive use. Interest is not only just, but its payment is dictated by policy, for capital would not increase rapidly enough to assist the growing population if this inducement were withdrawn.

Chronologically, interest or profit is a residue. It consists of the balance of production after wages are paid. If the total amount of production is fixed, the greater the share of labor, the smaller that of capital, and vice versa. The rate of profit cannot permanently remain below that point at which it is worth the while of possible capitalists to save rather than to spend their wealth; for the moment it falls below that point expenditure increases and the fund for paying wages decreases, until laborers are obliged to accept lower wages or go without work. Then this reduction of wages increases profits, and it thus restores the rate at which wealth will be saved. A very high rate of profit, on the other hand, stimulates saving, and thus, by increasing the amount of capital seeking to hire laborers, raises wages and partially counteracts itself. The migration of capital is an important check upon extreme variations.

Yet high wages and high profits are not inconsistent. The interests of laborers and of capitalists are conflicting only in the act of dividing the produce of industry. They have a common ground in the desire to increase the produce so that the share of each may be larger.

The distinction between interest and profits is wide. One is the share of the owner of capital as such, and the other is the share of a manager, — or, strictly speaking, wages of superintendence. Thus, profits though usually associated with capital, are really reward for labor; and they form the usual path by which men pass from the rank of laborer to that of capitalist.

LECTURE IV.
The Problems of Capital.

No adequate understanding of economic problems is possible without some appreciation of the amount of capital involved in modern industries. Formerly, labor was assisted by capital; now the function of labor is chiefly directing capital. Dividing capital into two parts, the auxiliary (which the laborer employs in his work), and the remuneratory (which supports the laborer while he is engaged in production), the remuneratory will be found in many industries but a tithe as much as the auxiliary. Man has acquired and accumulated great control over the forces and supplies of nature, and converting these into capital he increases many fold the production of wealth. Whatever, therefore, affects the amount of capital in a community is of great importance.

No judgment upon the value of the service of capital is adequate unless it takes into account the element of risk involved in modern investment. A turn of fashion, a change of government policy, a new discovery in science, a new invention in machinery, may annihilate not only expected profits but capital itself. New investments are often surrounded with great risk. As it is the expectation rather than the actual existence of profit that determines the conversion of wealth into capital, a rate of profit extraordinarily high is justified if the possibility of it was needed to induce capitalists to enter a venture clearly for the public good.

Great combinations of capital result often from the risks of business. The prosperity of each business firm is dependent not only on the ability of its manager, but also, in a certain degree, upon that of competitors. An ill-judged move by one firm often brings disaster to its bitterest enemies as well as to itself. A union of interest so that the wisest counsel will prevail among all concerned is a natural step. Moreover, the union forms an insurance of each against the monopoly of special privileges and improvements by the others.

Much of the gain from the combination of capital arises from the conduct of business upon large scales. Too much emphasis can hardly be placed upon this element. Great saving arises from cheaper purchase of material in large quantities; from better utilization of material through a larger range of methods, machines and facilities; and through economy in purchasing, selling and directing agencies. Each member of a combination has the advantage of the best knowledge of every other member. Whether the goods produced are sold cheaper in consequence or not, society is richer, because the energy and capital saved are available for other things.

Combinations of capital to control the markets and exact tribute from consumers have no such economic basis. They are analogous to the monopoly of rich mines discovered by accident. It will be found, moreover, that combinations of capital to force unduly high prices are seldom permanently successful unless they are founded on a natural monopoly. In such cases it is the monopoly of things which should be the property of society at large, and not the combination of capital, that brings evil. Though a powerful combination having no natural monopoly may for a time control the market, it cannot long keep prices above the point at which they would be maintained without the combination; for whenever they raise prices artificially beyond that point a large profit can be made by any outside producer, and such will not be wanting.

One is not accustomed to consider crime an element in economics. Yet we find a species of it an important element in our discussion of capitalism. Unfortunately, the great combinations are not free from evidence of it. Many of them have been known to commit robbery and bribery. Their facilities for such work in bankrupting railroads, robbing stockholders, bribing legislatures, securing unjust discrimination, and the like, are great. Though their economic power gives them this political power, the question is not properly one of economics. Justice will not suffer any economic consideration, whatever it may be, to issue the final word in the matter of combinations of capital, if it is found that they create moral degradation and political corruption.

LECTURE V.
The Problems of Labor.

Though the wages of labor are found to differ in different employments in consequence of the conditions of each trade (as, e.g., the cost of learning, steadiness of employment, agreeableness, etc.,) the differences are often found much greater than can be accounted for by such causes. The explanation lies in the existence of barriers setting off non-competing groups, — the wages of the members of each group being determined largely by the economic position of the commodity which they produce. The wages of workers above the lowest class are determined partly by the principles that govern rent. This is especially clear of the entrepreneur or manager’s class.

The steady growth of improvements, adding to the productive power of capital, decreases the proportional though not the absolute share of the laborer in the product of industry. A great hope for the laborer lies in the possibility of becoming a capitalist. The law of minimum wages shows that a laborer who begins his career with determination may become a capitalist.

Co-operation is specially directed toward the realization of interest and profits for the laborer. Its failures have been due largely to inadequate appreciation by the co-operators of the functions of the entrepreneur.

Profit sharing, though aiming less high directly, may, when scientifically conducted, give the laborer as good opportunities. In principle, it furnishes the laborer opportunity to use his employer’s facilities for producing wealth, and to share with his employer the produce resulting.

The most popular agency for improving the worker’s lot is the trade-unions. Associations of workers to gather and spread information concerning trade conditions, to set high standards of workmanship, to stir up public opinion against inhuman employers, and to perform other like functions, are economic agents of good; but trade-unions have often defied natural law and involved themselves in inevitable destruction. Their danger is the blind following of unintelligent leaders, but a knowledge of fundamental economic principles is spreading among them.

Trade-unions, co-operation and profit-sharing are at best but palliatives. The ultimate labor problem lies deeper. Three fundamental questions must be asked. What does the laborer do for society? What does society do for the laborer? What does society owe the laborer?

The grades of labor are infinite, — from him who has brute strength and will work faithfully when under supervision, to him who has executive ability to direct and combine the varied works of a thousand others. The first can barely without aid support himself, and he cannot render to society much that it desires. The service of this man is hardly greater than that of his ancestors two centuries ago: if he does more, he does so through the help of inventions or the capital of others. It is the work of others, therefore, and not his work which is of increased utility.

The worker who is able by quick mind and nimble fingers to operate a delicate machine — the manipulation of which has been taught him — contributes somewhat individually to society; but the greater part of the gain here, also, lies in the machine which he operates. If, however, he can devise new methods, acquire versatility to operate several machines and thus economise time or labor, or invent a new machine or process, he has contributed something to economic progress. The services which may be rendered to society are infinite, and society’s wants are infinite.

Wages are higher in this generation than ever before in the history of the world. The poorest laborer counts as necessities articles of consumption which were luxuries for the well-to-do a century ago . Poverty to-day is rather relative than absolute. Fluctuations in circumstance rather than continued distress constitutes present-day poverty . For the fluctuations society is largely responsible, but the opportunities for success to make a fair average are continually growing.

Society does not owe more than it has received. A proper aim of life is development, which must proceed from generation to generation. A class of population industrially as incapable as its ancestors of two hundred years ago is a drag on society. Its labor is hardly more valuable to society than to itself. The highest grades of labor, utilizing the advance in knowledge and accumulated wealth, are able to render greater service to society than to themselves, and their reward is greater in consequence.

Though society may not owe more to the laborer, can she afford to give more? Clearly the advance of wealth renders high wages possible for all. Yet, even if society owes a living to every man of this generation, it does not owe a living to all the children he may beget. Whether one accepts the so-called Malthusian theory or not , one comes face to face with poverty which is clearly due to excessive population in certain classes. The growth of these classes is out of proportion to the growth of the services which they render society, and society cannot afford to assume the responsibility for their support and for the support of their increase.

The positive check to population has but infrequent play in our civilization. The preventive, though obvious, is alarmingly absent in the classes most needing a check. The true remedy for poverty, therefore, is a combination of the preventive check, operating in these classes, with an improvement in the character of the population which, through proper conditions of birth and education, shall lift the new generations into more efficient industrial classes.

LECTURE VI.
Modern Tendencies.

Not many years ago the wealth of the community depended largely upon its own industrial conditions. As the means of transportation were improved, the natural advantages of one section were reaped in part by others, through a division of labor. Division of labor sprang up internationally as well as locally, determined by comparative rather than absolute cheapness.

Nowadays though trade is continuing between different sections of the world, it is not merely international. The inhabitants of other continents obtain some of the advantages of the natural resources of America by coming personally to our shores. This change, though not wholly economic, had its origin in economic changes.

The natural resources of America are great only relatively: great because the population is unusually energetic and has not been numerous. As America absorbs more and more of the rest of the world, and becomes more and more like it, she loses more and more of her economic advantage.

Though the tendency is for greater correspondence in the industrial condition of different countries, the tendency is for greater inequality in the distribution of wealth in each country. Every year sees new control over the forces of nature, and this control is not universally shared. The man who by executive or inventive ability can add to the comfort or pleasure of many others is usually able thereby to secure a fair income. The number of men who can and do render service to society in such manner is yearly increasing. The ignorant laborer, on the other hand, has not, as a rule, ability or capital either to make or to use new discoveries, methods or combinations. The maximum productiveness of mere obedient brute force was reached many hundred years ago, and there is no economic reason why the man who has now nothing but obedient brute force to offer society should receive more for his work than such a man received several hundred years ago. Thus as society grows both in numbers and in wealth, the difference in income between the most serviceable member of society and the least serviceable member, economically speaking, becomes greater and greater.

Not only is the distribution of wealth tending to greater inequality, but to greater instability. Commercial transactions were formerly carried on largely with money. To day, money plays practically no part except in the retail trade. Its chief use is as a common measure of value. The world’s financial work is carried on almost wholly by credit. Merchants buy goods largely with notes or with checks; these notes and checks are discounted or deposited with banks, and in return bank credits are given. With these bank credits in the form of checks other payments for goods or notes are made, and thus the circuit is completed without the use of money. Though the banks hold money in reserve for the payment of their obligations, it is in small proportion to the amount of them; and much of this money, moreover, is either bank-bills or government legal tender, — both of these being paper based almost entirely on government credit. In international relations, finally, most payments are made in drafts (which correspond in nature to notes or checks), and international balances are settled largely in bonds, which are themselves forms of credit. The failure of any person concerned in these transactions to meet his obligation may precipitate difficulty on others, who again involve a new circle, and a financial crisis may result. In such a crisis not only speculative but real values collapse, and able, careful men of high financial standing may be rendered penniless by the misjudged steps of men across seas of whom they have never heard. Labor as well as capital may be involved in these disasters, for commercial stagnation often results temporarily. With most barriers broken down between nations, each is partly involved in the disasters of others, whether those disasters result from unpredictable circumstances or from mis judged or short-sighted policy.

One of the premises of economics is freedom from artificial restrictions. Until one realizes that natural laws are in operation, one is surprised to see how wages and profits, values, prices, etc., work themselves out to equilibrium. The conclusions of economics show that things must be thus and so. Yet we must not assume too readily that they are actually so in real life. All logic is based on premises, and therefore before applying the logic of economics to any particular phase of life, we must see that the premises correspond with the actual conditions. As a matter of fact, few communities realize the freedom which economics assumes. Whether one believes that this or that is the true fundamental principle for improving the condition of man- kind, one must know that a particular individual can never be judged wholly by that which is true of his class, that the hazards of modern industrial life have rendered generalization useful only for large classes, and that individual duty toward other individuals is greater than ever before.

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Questions.

LECTURE I.

  1. Which, if any, of the following persons are agents in increasing the wealth of the community: a pianist, a piano maker, a soldier, a dress maker, an architect, a hairdresser, a teamster, the captain of an excursion steamer? In each case, give your reason for including or excluding the person named.
  2. Would the total wealth of the community be increased immediately or ultimately, or both, if you sold to your neighbor for $9000 a house which cost you $8000, thus compelling him to save $1000 on the expense of a trip to Europe, and you devoted your profit to establishing a harness shop?
  3. Explain fully the cause of rent and show how rent may be estimated.
  4. How does Mr. Walker’s treatment of the law of “diminishing returns” differ from Mr. Mill’s?

LECTURE II.

  1. Explain the nature of the “unearned increment” from land.
  2. State the grounds for the assumption of “unearned increment” by the State
  3. What do you think of the justice of Mr. George’s single tax on land?
  4. What do you think of General Walker’s objections to the public assumption of the “unearned increment?”

LECTURE III.

  1. What do you understand to be the minimum rate of wages that may prevail in any community?
  2. Is there any economic reason for paying women lower wages than men?
  3. Explain by what process wages and profits are kept at an equilibrium.
  4. What is the difference between interest and profits?

LECTURE IV.

  1. Explain the chief advantages of production upon a large scale.
  2. What is the effect upon labor of the sudden conversion of large amounts of remuneratory capital into auxiliary capital? Is this a necessary result?
  3. What do you think of Karl Marx’s statement that capital is unproductive, and interest is mere confiscation of the product of laborer’s industry?
  4. What, in your opinion, are the comparative dangers in a combination of steel manufacturers and a combination of cotton cloth manufacturers?

LECTURE V.

  1. Do you believe that the restriction of population is the only fundamental remedy for poverty in the laboring classes?
  2. What would you give as the law of the differences of wages in different employments?
  3. Would you say that the failures of profit-sharing militate against it as a practicable palliative for the condition of laborers?
  4. What do you think of a proposition to “make work” by inaugurating an eight-hour day?

LECTURE VI.

  1. Do you look upon restriction of immigration as an economic necessity in the near future?
  2. Explain the effect of changes in transportation upon the growth of cities.
  3. What do you understand to be the conditions under which international trade will spring up?
  4. What is your attitude toward the doctrine of “Laissez-faire?”

Source: University Extension Lectures under the auspices of The American Society for the Extension of University Teaching. Syllabus. Series E. Number 16.

Image Source: William Morse Cole faculty portrait in Radcliffe College, Book of the Class of 1913-14. Colorised at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Principles of accounting, final examinations. Cole, 1906-07

William Morse Cole, his life, career, and publications.

The essence of Cole’s accounting course is to be found in his textbook:

Accounts. Their Construction and Interpretation for Business Men and Students of Affairs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908.

“The first issue of this book was brought out at a time when no general, non -technical, non-professional treatise on accounting had been published . The author had then been giving for eight years a course of instruction to seniors in Harvard College on the principles of accounting, and believed that many business men and students of affairs would be interested to see briefly but comprehensively how accounts are constructed and interpreted.”
Revised and enlarged edition, 1915.

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Local boy makes good
(a sample)

At a recent meeting of the president and fellows of Harvard College William Morse Cole was appointed assistant professor of accounting for five years from Sept. 1. Mr. Cole was formerly one of the teaching staff of the B.M.C. Durfee High school, which he left to teach in Worcester [South High School].

Source: Fall River [Massachusetts] Daily Evening News (May 19, 1908), p. 7.

William Morse Cole, who for a number of years was an instructor in English in the B.M.C. Durfee High school, but at the present time professor in the new school of business of Harvard University, has recently published a book entitled “Business Law and Methods.”

Source: Fall River [Massachusetts] Daily Evening News (August 20, 1909), p. 6.

William Morse Cole, formerly an instructor in the B.M.C. Durfee High school, now assistant professor of accounting in Harvard University, has published through D. Appleton & Co., a volume entitled “The American Hope,” an attempt to look beyond the unfavorable symptoms of American life to show the rational point of view toward American conditions.

Source: Fall River [Massachusetts] Daily Evening News (April 1, 1910), p. 11.

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Earlier accounting exams

1901-02
1902-03
1903-04
1904-05
1905-06

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Course Enrollment
1906-07

Economics 18. Mr. W. M. Cole. — Principles of Accounting.

Total 90: 7 Graduates, 50 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 71.

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ECONOMICS 18
[Homework?]

            The following transactions are to be entered in complete form, with full details and index references; the resulting figures are to be carried through a six-column statement; the books are then to be closed as for the end of the year, and a Balance Sheet for the beginning of the new year is to be shown.

            The books to be used are a journal, a special-column cash-book, a sales book, a purchase book, and a ledger. When insufficient details for a complete entry are given below, reasonable details are to be assumed. Interest and discount should be figured at 6%.

            In determining and recording profit, all additional facts necessary to know are to be assumed at fairly reasonable figures. Care should be taken that all necessary additional facts are considered.

            Do not attempt in this case to analyze the profit into its three elements, wages of management, interest on investment, and pure profit, but consider it an entity and carry it to the account of the proprietor, to the amount of an even $1000.

January

1. You (use any name you wish) begin business with the following capital: cash, 15,000; store building, 15,000; promissory notes to the amount of 5000 (as follows: Felix Holt, 1000, dated to-day, payable in two months; Adam Bede, 2000, dated Dec. 1, two months; Silas Marner, 500, dated Dec. 16, one month; Richard Feverel, 1500, dated Nov. 1, payable on demand with interest). Buy office and store furniture for cash, 500. Pay for postage, 15. Buy stationery, books, etc., for cash, 125.

2. Buy goods of David Copperfield, payment due in 10 days, 4000. Buy goods of Oliver Twist for cash, 3000.

3. Pay freight, 65. Pay telephone bill, three months, in advance, 25.

4. Buy horses and wagon, cash, 500. Pay for advertising, 30.

5. Sell goods to Dombey & Son, 30 days time, 700. Buy goods of Enoch Arden, cash, 6000.

8. Pay wages: bookkeeper, 25; three clerks, at 15 each; driver, 10.

9. Buy goods of Henry Esmond, 10 ds., 7000. Accept David Copperfield’s draft on you, payable in three days, for the amount of your bill.

10. Discount at a bank your own note (signed for the business) for 5000, 30 days. Richard Feverel pays his note.

11. Buy goods of Silas Lapham, cash, 6000.

12. Discount Adam Bede’s note, getting 1993.33. Pay your acceptance of the 9th.

13. Sell goods to Roderick Hudson, 10 ds., 575.

15. Sell goods to David Balfour, 10 ds., 200.

16. S. Marner’s note is paid. Sell goods to John Halifax for his note, 30 ds., 600.

17. Sell goods to John Nicholson, cash, 300.

18. Borrow on your own note for 30 ds., bearing interest, 4000.

19. Pay H. Esmond in full. Pay insurance, 100.

20. Pay freight, 75. Sell goods for cash, 150. Sell goods to Nicholas Nickleby, 30 ds., 1200.

22. Pay wages, two weeks, at the same rates as on the 8th. Pay for remodelling offices, 400. Three months’ rent is paid in advance by a tenant to whom one of the remodelled offices is let, 100.

23. R. Hudson’s bill is paid. Paid for coal, 100.

24. Pay subscription for flood sufferers, 100. Sell goods for cash, 1200.

25. Draw a draft on Dombey & Son, payable in ten days, to your own order, for the amount of their bill due Feb. 4. Pay a dry-goods bill for your wife out of the cash drawer, 75. David Balfour’s bill is paid.

26. You receive, accepted, the draft drawn on the 25th.

27. You discount at a bank Dombey & Son’s acceptance.

29. Sell goods to David Balfour, 30 ds., 1300.

30. Pay wages as before.

31. Pay for lighting, 15. You draw for your own use, 150.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1906-07”.

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ECONOMICS 18
Mid-year Examination, 1906-07

Perform and arrange your work strictly in the order of the questions, and so present it that each topic shall be in a paragraph by itself

  1. (a) Jan. 1, X invests in a partnership a note of his wife, for $5000, due in one month. (b) Jan. 14, X exchanges the note for one of his own payable at the same time. (c) Jan. 25, X takes up his own note, leaving in exchange an accepted draft, due Feb. 1, on B, who is a creditor of the partnership. (d) Feb. 1, the debt of the firm to B becomes due, and B’s acceptance is sent to him in payment.
    Journalize the entries, designating each by a letter as above.
    (e) In the meantime, B, not knowing that X is a member of the firm and that his acceptance will be used to cancel a debt to him, sends his check to X for payment of the acceptance. The two letters cross, and X, not knowing that the acceptance has been sent to B, turns in the check to the cashier, who misunderstands X and thinks the check is invested by X.
    What entry will the cashier make?
    (f) X discovers that the cashier has misunderstood him, and explains. The correct situation is discovered, is confirmed by a letter from B, and a check is sent to B, his check being already deposited.
    What entry shall now be made to correct the books?
  2. “The profit and loss account on the balance sheet is simply the difference between resources and liabilities.”
    “The profit and loss account on the balance sheet is taken directly from the ledger and represents the balance of all undistributed loss and gain.”
    Either reconcile these two statements or show why one is correct and the other incorrect.
  3. You are in charge of “taking account of stock” in a store. The clerks give you the numbers and descriptions of articles, and the invoice book-keeper fills in prices as they appear on incoming bills. How far is this material adequate for an inventory?
  4. You have balance sheets of a corporation for two successive years, but you can get no other information. How much can these sheets tell you of the business for the intervening year?
  5. A man’s business is of the cash mail-order variety, both for purchases and for sales. He handles no goods, but orders others to ship directly to his customers. For some classes of goods, he issues catalogues, which he sells for a small fee intended to pay for postage and printing; for other goods he advertises in magazines; and for other goods not covered by magazines and catalogues, he advertises by means of painted signs. He conducts a premium department for second and third orders exceeding a definite sum in value. He pays his office help, for their correspondence, on the piece-price plan, with deductions for errors.
    What ledger accounts should you recommend him to use? If you would recommend any unusual ones, state the method and the purpose of their use.
  6. Describe the principal books that you would recommend for the business described in the preceding question, and show how they could be employed with minimum labor. Illustrate by rough but intelligible forms, showing by posting-checks how posting is to be done.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1906-07.

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ECONOMICS 18
Year-end Examination, 1906-07

The points indicated at the beginning of each question show comparative value on a scale of one hundred. Omit questions to the value of fifteen points. Follow the order of the questions. Write on the exact subject set, not on some other subject that chances to be allied. As far as practicable, put your answers in tabular or parallel-column form. Give a new paragraph to each part of each answer.

  1. (7½ points.) What are the advantages and the disadvantages of keeping a separate sales ledger?
  2. (7½ points.) Is it possible (whether it is desirable or not) to keep books without a journal? If so, explain under that plan how one could best enter the exchange of bonds for stock, and defend such treatment.
  3. (15 points.) State briefly what facts are shown by each of the following ledgers: stock; stores; bond; purchase; machine; deposit.
    Classify these ledgers on the following bases: those represented by general ledger accounts; those to which posting is done; those from which posting is done; those which are purely statistical.
  4. (40 points.) Assume your inability to go behind the returns. Arrange the following items in intelligible form, and show the mathematical correctness or discrepancy of the conclusions:
Sales $249,000 Material on hand a year ago $21,600
Accounts receivable 17,000 Taxes paid 800
Material on hand 14,000 Taxes accrued to pay 800
Capital Stock 90,000 Plant 65,000
Wages due 7,000 Merchandise 67,000
Wages paid 83,000 Rentals earned and rec’d 200
Dividends paid 9,000 Rentals accrued but not due 300
Bonds issued 30,000 Accounts payable 46,000
Real estate 25,000 Suspense accounts 1,000
Cash 12,000 Repairs of plant 6,000
Patent rights 16,000 Surplus for the year 4,000
Sundry sums written off 13,000 Miscellaneous costs 11,500
Bills receivable 7,000 Material purchased 85,000
Interest paid 900 Selling costs 20,000
Interest accrued to pay 600 Estimated value of outstanding advertising paid for 2,000
Surplus on ledger 52,100
Insurance paid 500
Insurance unexpired 200
  1. (15 points.) Discuss the general principle of distinction between charging to revenue and charging to capital. Does this apply to the treatment of premium on bonds? Explain.
  2. (7½ points.) What sets of records should be kept for bonds held under each of the following circumstances: (a) ownership; (b) in trust; (c) as collateral?
  3. (7½ points.) On which side of a balance sheet are you likely to find the following accounts; will corresponding or related accounts, under the same or another name, appear for each on the other side of the sheet; if so, what relation, both as to nature and as to amount, will exist between the two: depreciation fund; treasury stock; collateral trust bonds?
  4. (7½ points.) What is the usual method of recording individual holdings of capital stock?
  5. (7½ points.) What is the argument for figuring depreciation of machinery at a fixed rate on depreciated valuation rather than on original cost?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1906-07 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 41-42.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for Principles of Accounting. W.M. Cole, 1905-06

The principles of accounting course taught by William Morse Cole in the department of economics at Harvard was expanded to two semesters in 1905-06. 

__________________________

Earlier accounting exams

About William Morse Cole
1901-02
1902-03
1903-04
1904-05

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1905-06

Economics 18. Mr. W. M. Cole. — Principles of Accounting.

Total 44: 6 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 73.

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ECONOMICS 18
Mid-year Examination, 1905-06

I
  1. What is the function of nominal accounts in double-entry book-keeping?
  2. The books which the following trial balance represents are correct and record only normal transactions. Is the trial balance satisfactory? If not, show how you would go to work to correct it.
Proprietor 45,000
Merchandise 17,200
Cash 9,000
Interest 500
Bills Payable 4,000
Real Estate 15,000
Bills Receivable 20,000
Accounts Receivable 14,000
Rentals 500
Expenses 8,200
______ ______
66,700 66,700
  1. If rent is earned on buildings owned, should the amount of rent be debited or credited? Is it objectionable to enter the amount to the Real Estate account? If so, why?
  2. Construct a special-column journal to do all the work of journal, sales book, purchase book, and special-columncash book, combined. Illustrate briefly how posting would be done from it.
  3. Name the four common groups of railroad operating-expense accounts and show the logic of the classification.
II

            Show the balance-sheet for a business which meets the following conditions: Capital stock, 200,000; cash on hand, 7,000; surplus, 50,000; manufactured goods on hand, 10,000; notes outstanding, 25,000; sums owed for raw material, 25,000; sums owed for wags, 3,000; raw material on hand, 6,000; undivided profits, 4,000; notes of customers on hand, 17,000; depreciation fund, in bonds, 8,000; sums due from customers, 15,000; real estate, 100,000; machinery, etc., 144,000.

            In the following year the business is as follows: Goods manufactured (on contract), 147,000 (contract price); goods delivered (on contract), 135,000; collected on goods, 129,000 in cash, 20,000 in notes; labor expense incurred and paid, 50,000; raw material bought, 75,000; raw material paid for, 90,000; raw material consumed, 70,000; new machinery bought and paid for, 20,000; interest paid, 1,000; interest accrued against the corporation, not yet due, 200; collected on notes, 28,000; general expenses paid, 9,000; borrowed on notes, 50,000; repairs of buildings paid from depreciation fund, 2,000; paid on notes, 20,000; losses from bad debts, 1,000; taxes, 1,000; dividends, 17,300.

            Show the income sheet for the year.

            Show the balance sheet for the new year.

            [It is probable that time will be saved and confusion will be avoided if a rough journal and a rough ledger are used for assistance in working out the above problem. Only results are required, however.]

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1905-06.

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ECONOMICS 18
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

Follow the order of the paper, not only in arrangement but also in performance.

  1. What is a trial balance? How far is it useful?
  2. What is the relation between an income sheet and a balance sheet? Can an item appear upon both at the same time?
  3. What ought books to show with regard to discounts (on merchandise) for prompt payments?
  4. Arrange the following items of a railroad report in proper form, and fill in any important omissions by figures derived from the items given:—
[Figures represent millions of dollars]
Fixed charges 5.0 Accrued liabilities 3.0
Accounts payable 4.0 Claims audited 1.0
Bills receivable 0.5 Funded debt 85.0
Other income 4.0 Supplies 3.0
Investments 67.0 Accounts receivable 4.0
Accrued assets 1.5 Earnings from operation 17.7
Dividends 1.8 Cost of road 50.0
Cash 4.0 Net earnings 5.9
Capital stock 30.0 Miscellaneous assets 1.0
Betterments charged to income 1.0
  1. A partnership is organized on January 1. On July 1 a partner dies. How far is a correct trial balance taken on the latter day a satisfactory basis for a settlement of the dissolved partnership? Assuming the ordinary commercial accounts to be kept, how should you go to work to determine the share of each partner?
  2. Except for the items mentioned below, a corporation’s balance sheets for 1905 and 1906 show the same figures. How much do these items tell about the history of the corporation for the year 1905-1906?

 

1905
Surplus $70,000

1906
Depreciation Fund $20,000 Reserve Fund $60,000
Depreciation Fund $20,000
Surplus $10,000
  1. How should you determine on an interest date the value of ten-year bonds bought (at the time of issue) at a premium and now having five years more to run? [Do not figure, but describe have process.] Should the books show that value? If so, how and where? If a portion of the bonds is now sold at less than the value so determined, how should the sale show on the books?
  2. A factory is engaged in a dying industry. Five years is the estimated life of the machinery and of the good-will. The buildings are convertible to other uses. The corporation will be dissolved at the end of five years.
    Describe a brief administrative policy that you would recommend to close the business and end the corporation, and then describe the accounting processes to record the closing transactions and to leave no balances on the books.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), pp. 42-43.

Image Source: Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Vol. XIX, No. 16 (January 18, 1917), p. 308. Portrait of William Morse Cole colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Accounting principles. Enrollment and final exam. Cole, 1904-1905

“Principles of Accounting” was one of three courses offered by the department of economics that were specifically targeted to advanced students who intended to start business careers after graduation. William Morse Cole, A.M. was the instructor. An earlier post provides an overview of his career.

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From previous years…

1900-01
1901-02
1902-03
1903-04

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 18 1hf. Mr. W. M. Cole. — Principles of Accounting.

Total 27: 7 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 18 1hf. The Principles of Accounting. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 3.30. Mr. W. M. Cole.

This course is designed primarily for students who expect to enter a business career, and wish to understand the processes by which the earnings and values of industrial properties are computed. It is not intended to afford practice in book-keeping, but to give students a grasp of principles which shall enable them to comprehend the significance of accounts.

In order that students may become familiar with book-keeping terms and methods, a few exercises will be devoted to a brief study of the common systems of recording simple mercantile transactions. The chief work of the course, however, will be a study of the methods of determining profit, loss, and valuation. This will include an analysis of receipts, disbursements, assets, and liabilities, in various kinds of industry, and consideration of cost of manufacture, cost of service, depreciation and appreciation of stock and of equipment, interest, sinking funds, dividends, and the like. Published accounts of corporations will be studied, and practice in interpretation will be afforded. Attention will also be given to the functions and methods of auditors.

The instruction will be given by lectures, discussions, reading, and written work.

Course 18 is open to Seniors and Graduates who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 47-48.

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ECONOMICS 18
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

  1. Construct an imaginary trial balance of at least eight items, of which not over three shall represent persons or corporations.
  2. In a proprietor’s absence the books of a business are opened and kept by a bookkeeper who keeps accurate record of transactions reported to him but cannot be trusted to figure valuations or profits. At the end of a year, the records show, before the books are closed and simply as the result of regular transactions, the following figures:
    Proprietor’s investment, $100,000; Bills Payable, $17,000; Bills Receivable, $26,000; Real Estate, $20,000; Accounts Payable, $15,000; Accounts Receivable, $20,000; Cash, $5,000; Merchandise on hand, valued at cost, $75,000; Merchandise Dr. on ledger, $49,500; Expense, $12,000; Interest balance received, $500.
    Now the proprietor returns and wishes to close his books for the year. If he needs any information not given above, what questions will he ask in obtaining it? Assume any fairly reasonable answers to such questions, if any, and then show what is the proprietor’s present investment in the business.
  3. The annual report of a corporation shows the following figures: Profit and Loss credit balance at the beginning of the year, $20,000; Merchandise profit, $140,000; Expense, $100,000; appreciation of Real Estate, $10,000; permanent Surplus set aside at the end of the year, $15,000; Dividends, $50,000. Present in rough ledger form i.,e. debit and credit items, the Profit and Loss account for the year, showing the balance at the end of the year.
  4. Explain the significance of each of the following accounts appearing, with a balance on the side indicated, on (1) a balance sheet for the beginning of a new fiscal year, and (2) a trial balance taken in the ordinary course of business during the year: Wages, Cr.; Interest, Dr.; Merchandise, Dr.; Profit and Loss, Dr.; Reserve Fund, Cr.; Supplies, Dr.
  5. An annual report of a corporation shows, either on the income sheet or on the balance sheet, an item of which the title means little or nothing to you, e.g., “Pro rata share of bonds of H.R.L. Co.” Assuming the accounts to be kept properly, explain to what extent the position and the treatment of the item throw light upon its character.
  6. A corporation shows the following statements:—
1903. 1904.
Plant $450,000 $440,000
Supplies 59,000 27,000
Real Estate 100,000 95,000
Cash 15,000 15,000
Bills Receivable 50,000 60,000
Accounts Receivable 20,000 15,000
Merchandise 83,000 108,000
Capital Stock 500,000 500,000
Bills Payable 150,000 150,000
Accounts Payable 100,000 90,000
Wages 7,000 10,000
Profit and Loss 20,000 10,000
Proceeds from sales 600,000
Direct cost of production 500,000
General expenses, fixed charges, etc. 70,000

Tell all you can about the history of the corporation for the year 1903-04.

  1. If bonds on hand were bought at a premium, should that fact show upon the income sheet or in any way affect it?
  2. The books of three concerns are open to your inspection. Outline briefly a scheme for consolidating the three concerns into a corporation.
    [Do not allow yourself to get involved in the fascinating details of such a scheme at the expense of time needed for other things. This may well be left for surplus time and energy. Bookkeeping entries are not required. Show how the accounts of the three concerns can be interpreted for such a purpose.]

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 37-38.

Image Source: Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Vol. XIX, No. 16, p. 308. Portrait of William Morse Cole colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exam for Principles of Accounting. Cole, 1903-1904

William Morse Cole offered his principles of accounting course as a vocational non-credit course for seniors in the Harvard economics department from 1900-1905, after which time the subject received for-credit status. In 1908 Cole was appointed assistant professor of accounting in Harvard’s newly established business school.

Exam questions for 1900-01, 1901-02 and 1902-03 have been posted earlier.

___________________________

ECONOMICS 18
Course enrollment. 1903-04

Economics 18 1hf. Mr. W.M. Cole. — The Principles of Accounting.

Total 51: 2 Graduates, 33 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 18
Mid-Year Examination. 1903-04

I.

Do not devote more than half your time to this part of the paper.

  1. (a) On which side of a balance sheet is the balance of the following accounts likely to be?
    (b) What, in each case, does the amount of such a balance indicate?

Bills Receivable.
Accounts Payable.
Plant.
Profit and Loss.
Wages.
Merchandise.

  1. If December 31 is the end of the fiscal year, and after office hours on that day the books are closed for the year, in what respects would a trial balance, taken at the opening of business on January 1, differ from one taken at the close of business December 31? Illustrate by means of specific accounts.
  2. Why, in any logical system of accounting, must there be a debit for every credit?
  3. (a) What is the function of a ledger? (b) How do items usually get into a ledger? (c) Can items in the ledger have any other origin than that referred to in (b)? If so, what?

II.

  1. Suppose you are the executor of the estate of one of two partners. Suppose you are given a trial balance of the books as they stood at the time of the death of the partner whose estate you represent, and that the surviving partner swears to the correctness of that trial balance. In order to be sure of doing justice to the heirs of the deceased partner, how far do you need, in arranging settlement, to go beyond or behind the trial balance?
  2. You organize a corporation, and on January 1, 1904, the following facts are shown by the books:—

The corporation has taken over from an individual owner a business of which the assets, determined by conservative valuation of the property, are $100,000 (Bills Receivable and Accounts Receivable, $20,000; Supplies, $5,000; Real Estate and Plant, $75,000). Capital stock to the amount of $500,000 has been issued, of which $200,000 has been given the original owner for his title, $300,000 has been sold for cash at par. The corporation has bought a neighboring plant for $100,000, paying for it by Bill Payable to that amount.

Show a brief balance sheet under these conditions.

Now, you are absent from the corporation’s affairs for two years. On your return you are told that 6 per cent. dividend has been paid in each year, and you are shown the balance sheets below.

Write a brief history of the business for each of the two years of your absence.

Jan. 1, 1905.
Real Estate and Plant, $420,000 Capital Stock $500,000
Bills Rec.& Accts.Rec. 70,000 Funded Debt 100,000
Supplies 5,000 Profit and Loss 20,000
Merchandise 105,000
Cash 20,000            
$620,000 $620,000

Jan. 1, 1906.
Real Estate and Plant $400,000 Capital Stock $600,000
Deprec’n Fund Bonds 20,000 Reserve Fund 20,000
Reserve Fund Bonds 20,000 Profit and Loss 20,000
Bills Rec.& Accts.Rec. 70,000
Supplies 5,000  
Merchandise 105,000  
Cash 20,000            
$640,000 $640,000
  1. (a) What is the difference between a revenue and a capital account?
    (b) If time shows that items originally charged to revenue account should have been charged to capital account, what treatment can be given such items at the end of the year, without changing their ledger classification, so that the profit or the loss shall be correctly determined?
    (c) Reverse the conditions of (b), — i.e., assume error to have been made in charging to capital instead of to revenue, — and designate the required treatment.
  2. Conceive the balance sheet of a railroad to be exactly the same for 1904 as for 1903. Conceive the true net income to be $11,000,000, the fixed charges $3,000,000, the “other income” $2,000,000, and the road to be operated for 66 2/3 per cent.
    Construct as much as you can of the income sheet.

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

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Principles of Accounting. Course description, enrollment, and final exam. W.M. Cole, 1902-1903

As the course description clearly indicates, this undergraduate accounting course was offered by the economics department for those Harvard students planning a business career. At the time accounting was seen to be a kissing cousin to statistics and both essentially amounted to a hill of bean-counting.

______________________

Description of Economics 18
First term, 1902-03

  1. 1hf. *The Principles of Accounting. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 3.30. Mr. W. M. Cole.

This course is designed primarily for students who expect to enter a business career, and wish to understand the processes by which the earnings and values of industrial properties are computed. It is not intended to afford practice in book-keeping, but to give students a grasp of principles which shall enable them to comprehend the significance of accounts.

In order that students may become familiar with book-keeping terms and methods, a few exercises will be devoted to a brief study of the common systems of recording simple mercantile transactions. The chief work of the course, however, will be a study of the methods of determining profit, loss, and valuation. This will include an analysis of receipts, disbursements, assets, and liabilities, in various kinds of industry, and a consideration of cost of manufacture, cost of service, depreciation and appreciation of stock and of equipment, interest, sinking funds, dividends, and the like. Published accounts of corporations will be studied, and practice in interpretation will be afforded. Attention will also be given to the functions and methods of auditors.

The instruction will be given by lectures, discussions, reading, and written work.

Course 18 is open to Seniors and Graduates who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science  [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.

______________________

Enrollment in Economics 18
First term, 1902-03

Economics 18. 1hf. Mr. W. M. Cole. — The Principles of Accounting.

Total 46: 1 Gr., 28 Se., 11 Ju., 3 So., 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68.

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Final Exam in Economics 18
First term, 1902-03

ECONOMICS 18
  1. Under normal conditions, on which side of a ledger — debit or credit — will appear the balance of the following accounts? In each case, state why you think as you do.

Bills Receivable.
Bills Payable.
Capital Stock.
Expense.
Accounts Payable.

  1. What should be debited and what credited after each of the following transactions?
    1. Buying on credit, at the first of the year, stationery expected to last eight months.
    2. Paying for that stationery by issuing a note.
    3. Paying that note.
    4. Exchanging that stationery at cost (none being used) for merchandise.
    5. Selling that merchandise at cost and receiving a note in payment.
    6. Collecting cash for the note.
      Now what is the net result, upon ledger balances, of all these transactions?
  2. Of the following transactions what would be the ultimate effect upon a railroad balance sheet? Designate, in each case, on which side of the balance sheet, and in what items, the change would appear.
    1. The issue of new capital stock and the use of the proceeds for new (additional) equipment.
    2. A conversion of bonds into stock.
    3. A distribution of accumulated profits of the past in the form of a scrip dividend which is converted into stock.
    4. A reduction in the valuation (set by the company in its own books) of stocks and bonds owned.
    5. Watering stock to represent supposed increase in earning capacity.
  3. In the middle of a business year, July 1, the sole proprietor of a store dies suddenly. You, as his executor, must determine the exact worth of his business. The trial balance of July 1 is given you. Can you get all needed information from that trial balance? If not, what is lacking? State just what you would do to determine the worth of the business. If you can explain best by figures, assume arbitrary figures (not necessarily reasonable) and proceed with those as a basis. Processes, rather than results, are to be shown.
  4. In cases of depreciation, one of at least three courses is open to the managers. State what are the three, and show how each is treated in the accounts.
  5. The following is a page of a book:–
Jan. 1 Balance 1,547.30
A. Andrews His invoice, Dec. 1 615.10
Bills receivable No. 127 paid 500.00
Bills payable No. 19 discounted 1,000.00
Merchandise Cash sales 173.28
Jan. 2 Bills receivable No. 116 paid 123.50
Insurance Premium ret’d on policy 73.23
Jan. 3 Bills receivable No. 139 paid 312.26
Bills receivable 935.76 935.76
Cash, Dr. 2,797.37 2,797.37
4,344.67

Explain fully what transactions are here recorded. What postings should be made, and to which side of each account? If any figures are not to be posted, why not?

  1. Can all the accounts of a business be nominal? Why, or why not?
    Can all the accounts of a business be real? Why, or why not?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations 1852-1943. Box 6. Papers (in the bound volume Examination Papers Mid-years 1902-1903).
Also included in Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Source: Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Vol. XIX, No. 16, p. 308. Portrait of William Morse Cole colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Principles of Accounting. Exam questions. W. M. Cole, 1901-1902

Harvard. Life of accounting professor William Morse Cole, A.M. 1896

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Course Description
ECONOMICS 181
1901-1902

For upperclass undergraduates and graduates to prepare for a business career

The Principles of Accounting. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 3.30. Mr. W. M. Cole.

This course is designed primarily for students who expect to enter a business career, and wish to understand the processes by which the earnings and values of industrial properties are computed. It is not intended to afford practice in book-keeping, but to give students a grasp of principles which shall enable them to comprehend the significance of accounts.

In order that students may become familiar with book-keeping terms and methods, a few exercises will be devoted to a brief study of the common systems of recording simple mercantile transactions. The chief work of the course, however, will be a study of the methods of determining profit, loss, and valuation. This will include an analysis of receipts, disbursements, assets, and liabilities, in various kinds of industry, and a consideration of cost of manufacture; cost of service, depreciation and appreciation of stock and of equipment, interest, sinking funds, dividends, and the like. Published accounts of corporations will be studied, and practice in interpretation will be afforded. Attention will also be given to the functions and methods of auditors.

The instruction will be given by lectures, discussions, reading, and written work.

Course 18 is open to Seniors and Graduates who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science (June 21, 1901), University Publications, New Series, No. 16, pp. 46-47.

____________________________

Course Enrollment
ECONOMICS 181
1901-02

Economics 181hf. Mr. W. M. Cole. — The Principles of Accounting.

Total 36: 1 Graduate, 24 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 78.

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Semester Final Examination
ECONOMICS 18
First Half-year 1901-1902

  1. What is the profit and loss account?
    Are charges or credits made direct to this account? If so, under what circumstances?
    How is this account closed?
  2. Formulate journal entries to express each of the following transactions :—
    1. a sale of goods for a note bearing interest;
    2. discounting the above note at a bank;
    3. annulling a personal account as uncollectible;
    4. interest charged, but not paid, on a long-standing account.
  3. What is indicated by each of the following ledger accounts when
    1. the account shows a debit balance, and
    2. the account shows a credit balance: loss and gain, merchandise, rent, commission, purchase ledger, stores?
  4. Illustrate roughly a columnar cash book and a columnar journal. Comment on the columnar system.
  5. Which of the following should be charged to capital account and which to revenue account: The purchase of a patent right; legal fees for organizing a corporation; the purchase of a lease; repairs of machinery; replacement of machinery; the purchase of additional machinery; the loss by fire of uninsured property?
    Explain in each case why you decide as you do.
  6. You contemplate purchasing an interest in a business that has run five years, and agree to pay one third the valuation of its net assets. The following statement is given you by the partners:—

Dr.
Buildings, machinery, etc., at cost $50,000
Expended for repairs and renewals $8,000
Patent rights purchased $14,000
Balance of sales ledger $26,000
Inventory, as per stores and stock books $19,000
$117,000

Cr.
Bills payable $48,000
Balance of purchase ledger $47,000
Partners’ capital $22,000
$117,000
    1. Assuming that this statement gives all that you need to know, how much must you pay for your interest in the business?
    2. Does this statement give all necessary information about the assets? If not, what is lacking?

7.  The chief items on the balance sheet of a firm may be summarized as follows :—

Assets.
Cash, stock, and accts. receivable $48,000
Buildings and machinery $37,000
$85,000
Liabilities.
Notes and accts. payable $33,000
Capital of the partners $62,000
$95,000

Is the firm solvent or insolvent? Why do you think so?

  1. The books of a firm have been kept by the ordinary methods and all transactions prior to the close of business on December 31 have been carried through the books. You are asked to determine profit or loss for the year just closed. Describe carefully the steps that you would take.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-Year Examination Papers, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume, Mid-year Examination Papers, 1901-02. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (January 1902). Also included in Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1902-03. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (June 1902).

Image Source: Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Vol. XIX, No. 16, p. 308. Portrait of William Morse Cole colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Economics semester final examinations, 1900-01.

In the first full academic year of the twentieth century the Harvard economics department offered the following courses. The course links take you to the official course announcement, instructor names, enrollment figures, and the transcribed semester examinations.

Economics 1. Outlines of Economics
Economics 2. Economic Theory of the 19th Century
Economics 3. Principles of Sociology
Economics 5. Railways and Other Public Works
Economics 6. Economic History of the U.S.
Economics 8. Money
Economics 9. Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.
Economics 10. European Mediaeval Economic History
Economics 12. Banking and Leading Banking Systems
Economics 12a. International Payments and Gold/Silver Flows
Economics 13. Methods of Economic Investigation
Economics 17. Economic Organization and Resources in Europe
Economics 18. Principles of Accounting
Economics 19. General View of Insurance
Economics 20d. Adam Smith and Ricardo

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Economics 1.
Outlines of Economics

Primarily for Undergraduates.

Course Announcement
  1. Outlines of Economics. , Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor Taussig, Dr. Sprague, Mr. Andrew, and Messrs. — and — .

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 41.

Course Enrollment
  1. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig, Drs. [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague and [Abram Piatt] Andrew, and Messrs. [Charles] Beardsley and [James Horace] Patten. — Outlines of Economics.

Total 442: 23 Seniors, 70 Juniors, 257 Sophomores, 29 Freshmen, 63 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1900-1901, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 1
[Mid-year Examination]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. In what manner do you think that (a) the individual efficiency of laborers, (b) their collective efficiency, would be affected by the general adoption of profit sharing? of socialism?
  2. It has been said that the original formation of capital is due to abstinence or saving, but its permanent maintenance is not. What do you say to either statement?
  3. Wherein is Walker’s presentation of the forces that make the general rate of wages better than Mill’s, wherein not so good?
  4. “The extra gains which any producer or dealer obtains through superior talents for business, or superior business arrangements, are very much of a similar kind. …All advantages, in fact, which one competitor has over another, whether natural or acquired, whether personal or the result of social arrangements, bring the commodity, so far, into the Third Class, and assimilate the advantage to a receiver of rent.”
    Explain (a) what is this Third Class, and what is the law of value applicable to it; (b) what Mill would say as to the proposition here stated; (c) what Walker would say?
  5. What qualifications of the general principle of rent can you state, in its application to (a) premises used for building purposes, (b) dwelling-houses, (c) mines?
  6. If all men had the same start in life, would there be differences of wages? If so, of what sort? If not, why not?
  7. “Since cost of production here fails us, we must revert to a law of value anterior to cost of production and more fundamental…” In what cases does cost of production fail us? Will “cost of reproduction” cover such cases? Is there another law more fundamental?
  8. Under what circumstances. if ever, will a general rise in wages affect the relative values of commodities? Would your answer be the same as to a general rise in profits?
  9. In what manner do you believe business profits, interest, and wages would be affected by the general adoption of the various forms of consumers’ coöperation? of producers’ cooperation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 1
[Year-end Examination]

I.
Answer three.

  1. How will the value of land be affected by
    1. an increase in population,
    2. a reduction in the rate of interest,
    3. a protective tariff on agricultural produce.
  2. How will the price of grain be affected by
    1. a tax proportioned to the economic rent of the land,
    2. an equal tax upon all land.
  3. “Profits do not form a part of the price of the products of industry, and do not cause any diminution of the wages of labor.”
    Would Mill agree to this statement? Would you?
  4. Upon what does the general level of wages depend (a) according to Mill, (b) according to Walker? What would you expect these writers to say as to the effect of a protective tariff on the general level of wages?

II.
Answer two.

  1. If a country exports on a large scale a commodity not previously exported, will its other exports be affected? If so, how? If not, why not?
  2. Can a country have a permanently “unfavorable” balance of trade? If so, under what conditions? If not, why not?
    Can a country permanently export specie? If so, under what conditions? If not, why not?
    Can the rate of foreign exchange in a country be permanently at the specie-shipping point? If so, under what conditions? If not, why not?
  3. How would you expect the issue of a paper currency to effect foreign trade,—
    1. While the notes were still redeemable;
    2. After they had become irredeemable.

III.
Answer two.

  1. Define the following terms

Seignorage,
Clearing house loan certificates,
Silver Certificates,
United States notes,
Inconvertible paper.

  1. How would the adoption of bimetallism affect the stability of the value of money?
    1. according to Mill,
    2. according to Walker,
    3. in your own opinion.
  2. How is the value of money in a country likely to be affected by an increase in
    1. the quantity of commodities produced and sold,
    2. the quantity of bank notes,
    3. the volume of bank deposits.

Which of these changes would you expect to exercise most influence? Which least? Give your reasons.

IV.
Answer all.

  1. Compare and explain the operations of the Bank of England and those of the New York banks in a time of crisis,
  2. Arrange these items…

Government Securities 40.
Surplus 3.
Notes 38.
Specie 40.
Deposits 55.
Capital 14.
Loans 30.

    1. … in their proper order, as they would stand in an account of the Bank of France.
    2. … as they would stand in an account of a national bank of the United States; and state (1) whether this could be an account of a national bank, and (2) whether the proportions of the different items are such as you would be likely to find in an account of such a bank.
    3. … as they would stand in an account of the Bank of England, assuming the uncovered issue to be 17.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), pp. 21-23.

 

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Economics 2.
Economic Theory
in the 19th Century

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course outline and readings.

Course Announcement
  1. Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century. , Wed., Fri., at 2.30 Professor Taussig. [note: Professor Carver taught the course]

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 41.

Enrollment
  1. Professor Carver. — Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 45: 6 Graduates, 15 Seniors, 16 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 3 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 2
[Mid-year examination]
  1. Define value and explain why one commodity possesses more value in proportion to its bulk than another.
  2. Explain the various uses of the term diminishing returns, and define it as you think it ought to be defined.
  3. In what sense does a law of diminishing returns apply to all the factors of production.
  4. State briefly Böhm-Bawerk’s explanation of the source of interest.
  5. What, if any, is the relation of abstinence to interest.
  6. Would you make any distinction between the source of wages and the factors which determine rates of wages? If so, what? If not, why not?
  7. Discuss the question: Is a demand for commodities a demand for labor?
  8. What is the relation of the standard of living to wages.
  9. Discuss briefly the following questions relating to speculators’ profits. (a) Do speculators as a classmake any profits? (b) Are speculators’ profits in any sense earned?
  10. In what sense, if any, does the value of money come under the law of marginal utility?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 2
[Year-end Examination]

Discuss the following topics.

  1. The bearing of the marginal utility theory of value upon the questions of wages and interest.
  2. The definitions of capital as given by Taussig and Clark.
  3. Clark’s explanation of the place of distribution within the natural divisions of economics.
  4. Clark’s method of distinguishing between the product of labor and the product of capital.
  5. Clark’s distinction between rent and interest.
  6. Böhm-Bawerk’s theory of the nature of capital.
  7. The origin of capital, according to Böhm-Bawerk and Clark.
  8. The meaning of the word “productive” in the following proposition: “Protection is an attempt to attract labor and capital from the naturally more productive, to the naturally less productive industries.”
  9. The incidence of tariff duties.
  10. The theory of production and the theory of valuation as the two principal departments of economics.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), pp. 23-24.

 

__________________________________

Economics 3.
Principles of Sociology

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement
  1. The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. , Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30. Mr. —.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 41.

Enrollment
  1. Asst. Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver. — The Principles of Sociology. Development of the Modern state, and of its Social Functions.

Total 57: 9 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 3.
[Mid-year Examination]

Answer only ten questions.

  1. Upon what does Kidd base his argument that religion is necessary to keep men from taking such political action as would suspend economic competition, and what is the crucial point in his argument?
  2. In the light of Kidd’s theory of social evolution, discuss the question: Can there be a permanent civilization? Or, do the conditions which promote progress also ensure decay?
  3. Classify the sanctions for conduct which originate outside the individual and explain your classification.
  4. Explain and illustrate the meaning of the following: “Generalizing this struggle and extending it to every form existing in the social life — linguistic, religious, political, artistic, and moral, as well as industrial — we see that the really fundamental social opposition must be sought for in the bosom of the social individual himself.” (Tarde, Social Laws. Ch. II. p. 83.)
  5. What is meant by social stratification? How does it originate? What are some of its consequences?
  6. Compare Herbert Spencer’s theory of progress with Lester F. Ward’s, giving special attention to the argument which each offers in support of his theory.
  7. What, according to Patten, are the chief obstacles to a progressive evolution.
  8. Explain the following. “The difference between that society of conscious units which we call mind, and a society of human beings on our planet, is in the completeness of the mechanism.” (Patten, Theory of Social Forces. Ch. II. p. 21.)
  9. What, according to Patten, is the significance of the transition from a pain to a pleasure economy.
  10. How does Bagehot account for the origin of national traits?
  11. Discuss the question: Does charity retard the process of race improvement?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 3.
[Year-end Examination]

Discuss the following topics

  1. The definition of progress.
  2. Charity as a factor in human selection.
  3. The way in which, according to Spencer, the different classes of institutions are related to one another.
  4. The sanctions for conduct.
  5. A moral ideal as a factor in human selection.
  6. The natural antagonism of human interests and the problem of evil.
  7. The storing of the surplus energy of society.
  8. The influence of property on the relations of the sexes.
  9. Labor and service as bases of distributive justice
  10. The influence of militarism upon race development, or deterioration.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), p. 24.

 

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Economics 5.
Railways and Other Public Works

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcements

51 hf. Railways and Other Public Works, under Public and Corporate Management. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th. and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Mr. Meyer.

52 hf. Railways and Other Public Works (advanced course). Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th. and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Mr. Meyer.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 42.

Enrollments

[Economics] 51 hf. Mr. [Hugo Richard] Meyer.— Railways and other Public Works, under Public and Corporate Management.

Total 86: 4 Graduates, 52 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 9 Others.

[Economics] 52 hf. Mr. Meyer.— Railways and other Public Works (advanced course).

Total 9: 3 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1900-1901, p.64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 51
[Mid-year Examination]

Omit the last question if the paper seems too long

  1. The construction put upon the long and short haul clause: by the Interstate Commerce Commission; by the Supreme Court.
  2. The decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission on group rates.
  3. The railway rate situation in Germany [Prussia]; does it throw any light on the railway problem in the United States?
  4. “If pooling produces any beneficial result, it necessarily does so at the expense of competition. It is only by destroying competition that the inducement to deviate from the published rate is wholly removed….By the legalizing of pooling the public loses the only protection which it now has against the unreasonable exactions of transportation agencies.”—Give your reasons for accepting or rejecting this statement.
    Alternative:—
    The reasons for the instability of pools in the United States.
  5. The Iowa Railroad Commission.
    Alternative:—
    To what extent was the long and short haul clause of the Interstate Commerce Act enforced; what was the effect of that enforcement: on railway revenues; on intermediate shipping or distributing points?
  6. The body of administrative law to be found in the decisions of the Massachusetts Gas and Electric Light Commission’s decisions upon petitions for reductions in the price of gas.
  7. (a) Is it to the public interest to insert in street railway charters provisions seeking to secure to the municipality or the state a share in any excess of profit over the normal rate?
    Alternative: (b) and (c).
    (b) The evidence as to the return on capital obtainable in street railway ventures.
    (c) What questions of public policy were raised in the case of the Milwaukee Street Railway and Electric Light Co. vs. The City of Milwaukee?
  8. What statistics were used in illustrating in a general way the statement that railway charges are based upon what the traffic will bear; in discussing the bearing of stock-watering upon railway rates; in discussing the return obtained by capital invested in railway enterprises in the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College. June, Pages 24-25.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 52
[Year-end Examination]
  1. The railways and the national finances in Prussia and Australia.
  2. Railway rates and the export trade of the United States since 1893, or, 1896.
  3. The economic situation in Australia since 1892, and the Australian railways.
  4. “A fatal objection to the income or preference bond is that it is an attempt to combine two contradictory commercial principles.”
    Discuss this statement fully. What does it mean? Is it true?
  5. If you had access to all the accounts of a railroad, how should you determine the value to it of one of its branch lines?
  6. To what accounts would you charge the following expenditures? (If you do not remember the exact Interstate Commerce Commission classification, use your best judgment.) State reasons in each case.
    Engineer’s wages on a special train conveying the general manager to an extensive flood covering the line.
    Fireman’s wages on an engine employed exclusively in switching to and from the repair shops.
    Conductor’s wages on a worktrain engaged in taking up rails on an abandoned branch.
    Brakeman’s wages on a train engaged solely in hauling company’s coal for company’s use.
    Cost of taking up comparatively new sound rails judged too light for heavy rolling stock.
    Cost at a competitive point of a new station to replace an old one which was large enough but old-fashioned.
  7. State the commonest problems facing a reorganization committee for an insolvent road, and then suggest and defend one course of procedure for each problem.
  8. Combine and arrange the following items so as to give the best information about the operation and condition of the road. (Do not rewrite the names but use the corresponding numbers where possible.)
1. Passenger train miles 2,000,000
2. Freight train miles 3,400,000
3. Passenger train earnings $2,400,000
4. Freight train earnings $5,500,000
5. Income from investments $100,000
6. Dividends $500,000
7. Operating expenses $4,700,000
8. Av. no. pass. cars per train 4
9. Av. no. passengers per car 11
10. Tons freight carried 2,800,000
11. Av. load per car (loaded and empty), tons 8.2
12. Av. no. loaded cars per train 12.3
13. Av. no. empty cars per train 6.7
14. Interest charge for year $2,200,000
15. Due other roads $100,000
16. Stocks and bonds owned $4,900,000
17. Supplies on hand $500,000
18. Taxes for the year $300,000
19. Accounts receivable $500,000
20. Cash $1,000,000
21. Surplus for the year $300,000
22. Profit and loss account $1,000,000
23. Taxes accrued but not due $100,000
24. Capital stock $50,000,000
25. Interest due $700,000
26. Funded debt $45,000,000
27. Due from other roads $100,000
28. Interest accrued not due $300,000
29. Franchises and property $90,400,000
30. Bonds of the company in its treasury $800,000
31. Accounts payable $1,000,000
32. No. of passengers carried 2,300,000

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College. June, 1901. Pages 25-27.

 

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Economics 6.
Economic History of the U.S.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement
  1. The Economic History of the United States. Tu., Th., at 2.30, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Mr. —.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 42.

Enrollment
  1. Professor Taussig. — The Economic History of the United States.

Total 164: 9 Graduates, 63 Seniors, 68 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 6
[Mid-year Examination]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer all the questions,

  1. The nature and object of the scales of depreciation established by Congress and by the States at the close of the war of the Revolution; and how far these objects were accomplished.
  2. “The year 1789 marks no such epoch in economies as it does in political history.” — Taussig. How far is this true as to (1) financial legislation; (2) tariff legislation; (3) the course of foreign trade; (4) the growth of manufactures?
  3. Explain how you would distinguish Treasury Notes designed to circulate as currency from those designed simply to meet financial needs; and state when and under what circumstances, between 1789 and 1860, the United States resorted to issues of the first kind.
  4. Suppose the charter of the first Bank of the United States had been renewed: would the effect have been favorable or unfavorable for the finances of the government, for the bank, for the community, in 1812-1815?
  5. Suppose the charter of the second Bank of the United States had been renewed: would the effect have been favorable or unfavorable for the finances of the government, for the bank, for the community, in 1835-40?
  6. Describe the Independent Treasury system, as first established and as finally settled (give dates). Do you believe it better than the alternative system proposed by its opponents? Why?
  7. The causes of the crises of 1837 and 1857: wherein similar, wherein different.
  8. State what were the duties on cotton goods in 1809, 1819, 1839, 1859; and give your opinion whether the duties at these several dates were designed to give protection, and whether protection was then expedient.
  9. Why the early railway enterprises of the States were undertaken as public enterprises; and how far their history may be fairly cited for or against the policy of public management.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 6
[Year-end Examination]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions

  1. Explain summarily at what dates and to what extent land-grants and bond-subsidies were extended to railways by the United States; and state whether you believe these measures brought advantage to the country.
  2. Was the management of the finances during the Civil War fraught with more or less evil consequences than that during the War of 1812, as regards (1) the currency, (2) the banks?
  3. State what main sources of revenue were expected to be used, what were used in fact, by the United States in each of the years 1862, 1863, 1864; and explain how the resort to the sources actually used came about.
  4. For the decade 1870-80, explain the connection between the course of prices, foreign trade, railway operations, and currency legislation.
  5. For the decade 1880-90, connect the history of the public debt, the national revenues, the banking system, the silver currency.
  6. Does the argument for protection to young industries find support in the history of (1) the cotton manufacture before 1830, (2) the silk manufacture since 1870, (3) the tin plate industry since 1890.
  7. Explain how the theory of comparative costs may be applicable to the present situation as regards carpet wool, beet sugar, glassware, woollen cloths (take three).
  8. What changes were made in the duties on raw and refined sugar in 1890, 1894, 1897? Which mode of treatment do you regard the most advisable, and why?
  9. State what causes you believe to have chiefly promoted the growth and maintenance of the sugar and oil combinations; and consider which of these two you regard as typical, and as instructive for forecasting the future of combinations.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College. June, 1901. Pages 27-28.

 

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Economics 81
Money

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement

81 hf. Money. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Mr. Andrew.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 42.

Enrollment

81 hf. Dr. [Abram Piatt] Andrew. Money.

Total 122: 3 Graduates, 56 Seniors, 41 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 13 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 8
[Mid-year Examination]

Answer only three questions from each group, but consider the questions strictly in the order of their arrangement 

I

  1. What is meant by

(1) a “double” standard;
(2) a “parallel” standard;
(3) a “limping” standard;
(4) a “single” standard;

Cite at least two historic examples of each, giving approximate dates.

  1. The following are estimates which have been made of the average production of silver, and its annual average export to the Orient in millions of ounces:

 Production Export to East
1851-55 28 mill.

20 mill.

1855-60

 29  ” 52  ”
1861-65 35  ”

53  ”

1865-70

 43  ”

25  ”

State the causes of the singular situation revealed in these figures, and explain its actual effect upon the relative values of gold and silver in Europe.

  1. Suppose that the British government in 1870 had used the right conferred by the act of 1816, and had proclaimed the free coinage of silver at the ratio then current. What differences do you think would have occurred in the subsequent currency history of the world?
  2. Describe the effect of the suspension of the coinage of silver upon the value of the currency in each of the following cases:—
    (1) in Holland; (2) in Austria; (3) in Russia; (4) in India.

II

  1. “Before 1873 we had coined in the United States only about eight million silver dollars ($8,031,238) while since the date fixed as the beginning of demonetization we have coined nearly five hundred millions ($485,427,703).”
    How do you explain (1) the small amount of dollars coined before 1873? (2) the large amount coined since then?
  2. What in your opinion was the real significance of (1) the act of 1803? (2) the act of 1873?
  3. “With the exception of the brief period of fifteen years (1544-60) the English coins have never been debased.”
    In what sense and to what extent is this statement correct?
  4. In writing of the currency history of England during the years, immediately succeeding the great recoinage (1696) Mr. Dana Horton says:—
    “And so the full weight standard coin of the Realm, to create a stock of which the State had spent a sum greater than its regular annual revenue, and equal to perhaps a fourth of the country’s total stock of cash, — was allowed to find its way back to the melting-pot in exchange for cheaper gold.”
    Explain the situation to which he refers, and the reasons for this disappearance of the “standard coin.”

III

  1. (a) What were the main arguments which Lord Liverpool advanced in favor of a single gold standard?
    (b) What were the legislative acts in which his influence is to be traced?
  2. (a) Do falling prices necessarily mean an increase in the burden of debts?
    (b) Do they in the long run inevitably diminish the productiveness of industry?
    (c) To what extent are they prejudicial to the interests of the working classes?
  3. “It is generally agreed that every fall in the value of silver acted at the time as a stimulus to Indian exports and as a check on imports into India.”
    (1) Explain this statement, (2) state how far it is confirmed by commercial statistics, and (3) show whether such a condition is ever likely to be of prolonged duration.
  4. It is alleged that the Russian government, by stimulating exports, and hindering imports, has endeavored to secure a favorable balance of trade, with the idea of increasing the quantity of gold in the country? What do you think would be the ultimate effect of such a policy if continuously pursued?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

Also: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), pp. 28-30.

 

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Economics 9.
The Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Taught by W. F. Willoughby (Edward Cummings’ successor).

Course Announcement
  1. The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Mr. —.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 42.

Enrollment

92 hf. Mr. W. F. Willoughby. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen.

Total 146: 3 Graduates, 53 Seniors, 40 Juniors, 35 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 9
[Year-end examination]
  1. Show how the change in the organization of industry from the handicraft system and production on a small scale to the factory system and production on a large scale has led to; (a) efforts to supplant the wages system by socialism[,] coöperation, etc., (b) the trade union movement, and (c) compulsory compensation acts.
  2. Give the arguments for and against profit-sharing as regards (a) it being a more just system of enumeration than the wages system, and (b) its practical advantages.
  3. What are the two systems of coöperative production now practice in Great Britain, and why are they meeting with more success than earlier efforts?
  4. Describe the trade agreement between the National Metal Trades Association and the International Association of Machinists in such a way as to show its essential character and significance, and particularly its relation to the trade union movement and the question of the prevention and adjustment of industrial disputes.
  5. What was the nature of the “new unionism” movement in Great Britain, and its success?
  6. What is the general character of the Massachusetts State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration; what its duties and its powers?
  7. Describe the essential features of the French Workmen’s Compensation Act.
  8. Give a brief sketch of the Social Democratic Party in Germany, with the names of its early leaders and important events in its history.
  9. In what ways can the municipality take action for the improvement of the housing condition of the poorer classes without itself building tenements? What are some of the objections to the municipalities themselves undertaking building operations?
  10. Show why employment bureaus can do but little for the solution of the general problem of the unemployed.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), pp. 30-31.

Enrollment (Economics 9a)

9a2 hf. Mr. W. F. Willoughby. — Provident Institutions. Workingmen’s Insurance, Friendly Societies, Savings Banks.

Total 22: 1 Graduate, 13 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-1901
ECONOMICS 9a
[Year-end Examination]
  1. What is the general situation in France at the present time in respect to insurance against old age and invalidity? Describe briefly the organization and workings of important institutions, and show particularly how the government is attempting to further this kind of insurance.
  2. What has been the general policy of the British government in respect to the regulation of Friendly Societies? Give the main features of law now regulating them.
  3. Describe the Fraternal Beneficial Orders of the United States as regards (a) their general scheme of organization, and (b) system of insurance.
  4. Show wherein this insurance system is defective by contrasting it with that of ordinary life insurance companies: indicate reforms that are necessary and how they can best be brought about.
  5. Contrast the systems of savings banks in Great Britain and the United States.
  6. In what respects are coöperative banks of the Schulze-Delitzsch and Raiffeisen type more valuable social institutions than the ordinary savings banks?
  7. Describe the principles upon which all coöperative building and loan associations in this country are organized, and indicate ways in which they might profitably be subjected to more rigid state control.
  8. Why is it impracticable to insure against unemployment?
  9. Outline briefly the system of sick insurance in Germany.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), p. 31.

 

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Economics 10.
Mediaeval Economic History of Europe.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

  1. The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Professor Ashley.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 41.

Enrollment
  1. Professor Ashley. The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe.

Total 11: 6 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 1 Junior.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 10
[Mid-year Examination]

Not more than six questions should be attempted, of which the first should be one.

  1. Translate, and briefly comment upon
    1. Toto regis Willelmi primi tempore perseveravit haec institutio, usque tempora regis Henrici filii ejus; adeo ut viderim ego ipse quosdam qui victualia statutis temporibus de fundis regiis ad curiam deferri viderint.
    2. In Kateringes sunt X hidae ad geldum Regis. Et de istis X hidis tenent XL villani XL virgas terrae.
    3. Compotus Roberti Oldeman praepositi de Cuxham, ab in crastino Sancti Jacobi anno regni Regis Edwardi filii Regis Edwardi decimo usque ad in crastinum Sancti Jacobi proxime sequentis anno regni Regis Edwardi praedicti undecimo intrante.
    4. Rogamus . . . ademptum sit jus etiam procuratoribus nedum conductori adversus colons ampliandi partes agrarias aut operarum praebitionem jugorumve.
    5. Orgeterix ad judicium omnem suam familiam, ad hominum milia decem, undeque coëgit et omnes clientes obaeratoque suos quorum magnum numerum habebat eodem conduxit.
  2. What materials have we for forming a judgment as to the position of the rural population of England in the period from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries? Classify them, and indicate the value of each class for the purposes of this enquiry.
  3. Wherein did the status of the coloni of the later Roman Empire resemble or differ from that of the medieval villein?
  4. Describe the constitution and working of manorial courts. What light does their history throw on the evolution of social classes?
  5. “Wie das Wort Dorf … dem Sinne nach einen Haufen bezeichnet, so ist auch haufenförmig oder Haufendorf der geeignetste Ausdruck für diese Art der Dorfenlage.” Explain and comment.
  6. “M. Fustel took for his point of departure the Provincial villa; Dr. Hildebrand takes the Kirghises of modern Asia.” Explain, and then show the peculiar dangers of each method.
  7. “We may safely follow Palgrave in taking the Anglo-Saxon townships as the integral molecules out of which the Anglo-Saxon State was formed.” Why? or why not?
  8. What was the gwely? What bearing has it on the general problem of “tribal” organization?
  9. What are the assumptions or postulates of modern Political Economy? To what extent were they true of the Middle Ages?
  10. Which book read in connection with this course has interested you most? Describe its method and estimate the value of its contribution to economic history.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 10
[Year-end Examination]

Not more than six questions should be attempted, of which the first should be one

  1. Briefly comment upon the following passages, and translate such of them as are not in English:—
    1. Colunt discreti ac diversi, ut fons, ut campus, ut nemus placuit. Vicos locant non in nostrum morem connexis et cohaerentibus aedificiis: suam quisque domum spatio circumdat.
    2. If a man agree for a yard of land or more, at a fixed rent, and plough it; if the lord desire to raise the land to him to service and to rent, he need not take it upon him, if the lord do not give him a dwelling.
    3. Ego S. … et ego P. … aliquantulam agri partem pro remedio animarum nostrorum W. episcopo in dominio donare decrevimus; id est xxx cassatorum in loco qui dicitur T.
    4. Si quis super alterum in villa migrare voluerit, et unus vel aliqui de ipsis qui in villa consistunt eum suscipere voluerit, si vel unus extiterit qui contradicat, migrandi ibidem licentiam non habebit.
    5. Qui habebant de tenentibus per diaetas totius anni, ut assolet de nativis, oportebat eos relaxare et remittere talia opera.
    6. If any one does an injury who is not of the gild and is of the franchise … he shall lose his franchise.
  2. Explain the position of Maitland’s Domesday Book and Beyond in the discussion concerning the origin of the manor.
  3. Distinguish between the several characteristics of mediaeval towns, and indicate the part played by each, in your opinion, in the formation of specifically urban conditions.
  4. Examine the relations between questions of personal status and questions of economic condition in relation to the ‘peasants’ of the Middle Ages.
  5. What is the nature of our evidence as to the Peasants’ Rising of 1381? Is there any reason for ascribing anything like an economic programme to the leaders of the movement?
  6. Indicate briefly (a), the several influences tending towards a corporate organization of industry in the later Middle Ages and (b) the advantages or disadvantages of such an organization.
  7. Distinguish between the several immigrations of foreign work people to England before the accession of James I, and explain the nature of their contributions to the development of English manufactures.
  8. The relation of John Major and Juan Vives to the development of the English ‘Poor Law.’
  9. What changes, if any, did the Reformation bring about in social life?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), pp. 32-33.

 

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Economics 122.
Banking and the History of the Leading Banking Systems.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement

122 hf. Banking and the history of the leading Banking Systems. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Dr. Sprague.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 43.

Enrollment

122 hf. Dr. [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague. — Banking and the History of the Leading Banking Systems.

Total 128: 4 Graduates, 51 Seniors, 43 Juniors, 16 Sophomores, 14 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1900-1901, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 122
[Year-end Examination]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer all the questions under A and two of those under B

A

  1. Explain in detail and under different circumstances the effect of an advance of the rate of discount by the Bank of England upon the money market of London and upon the foreign exchanges.
  2. Taking the separate items of a bank account point out how those of the Bank of Amsterdam differed from those of a modern bank.
  3. Define and explain:—
    1. Bill broker.
    2. Banking Principle.
    3. The State Bank of Indiana.
    4. The banking law of Louisiana.
    5. Clearing House Certificates.
  4. The extent and banking consequences of government control of the Bank of France and the Reichsbank.
  5. How do government receipts and expenditures affect the money market (a) of London, (b) of New York?
  6. Explain with illustrations from the crises of 1857 and 1893 the nature of the demand for cash in time of crisis, and consider how far that demand may be met under a flexible system of note issue.

B

  1. (a) How far and with what qualifications may banking experience in the United States before 1860 be appealed to in the discussion of changes in our banking system? (b) How far, similarly, may Canadian experience be applied?
  2. “Why compel banks to send home for redemption a multitude of notes which can as well be used in payments and are sure to be reissued at once? Why impede the free use of its power of circulation by any enterprising bank by requiring the early redemption of notes which the holder does not in fact care or need to have redeemed?”
    Explain from past experience what regulations may be expected to bring about these results, and give the reasons for demanding them.
  3. Discuss the question of branch banking with reference to the United States, including in your discussion considerations of safety and economy. Would branch banking be more desirable than at present if notes were issued against general banking assets.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), pp. 34-35.

 

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Economics 12a1.
International Payments and the Flow of Precious Metals.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement

12a2 hf. International Payments and the Flow of the Precious Metals. Half-course (second half-year). Three times a week. Mr—.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 43.

Enrollment

[Economics] 12a1 . Mr. [Hugo Richard] Meyer.—International Payments and the Flow of the Precious Metals.

Total 16: 2 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1900-1901, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 12a1.
[Mid-Year Examination]

Observe strictly the order in which the questions are arranged.

  1. Sidgwick’s criticisms on Mill’s doctrine of international trade and their validity.
  2. What temporary changes in the general level of prices in this country should you expect to see, as the result of a large permanent withdrawal of foreign capital? What ultimate change of prices should you expect?
  3. Suppose the exportation of specie from the United States to be prohibited (or, as has sometimes been suggested, to be slightly hindered), what would be the effect on rates of exchange, and on prices of goods, either domestic or foreign? Would the country be a loser or not? [See Ricardo (McCulloch’s ed.), page 139.]
  4. The conditions which led to the flow of gold to the United States in the fiscal years 1880 and 1881?
  5. What economic conditions or events tended to make the year 1890 a turning point both in domestic and in international finance?

Alternative:

The reasons for the return flow from Europe of American securities in the years 1890-1900?

  1. What sort of wealth did France actually sacrifice in paying the indemnity? What was the process?
  2. Is Mr. Clare justified in making the general statement that “the gold-points mark the highest level to which an exchange may rise, and the lowest to which it may fall”?
  3. Why is it that certain trades bills are drawn chiefly, or even exclusively, in one direction, e.g. by New York on London and not vice versa; and how is this practice made to answer the purpose of settling payments which have to be made in one direction?

Alternative:

Why has England become the natural clearing-house for the world?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

Also: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), pp. 33-34.

 

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Economics 13.
Methods of Economic Investigation.

Primarily for Graduates.

Course Announcement
  1. Methods of Economic Investigation.—English Writers. German Writers. Tu., Th., at 1.30. Professor Taussig.
    Courses 15 and 13 are usually given in alternate years.

[15. The History and Literature of Economics to the close of the Eighteenth Century. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12. Professor Ashley.
Omitted in 1900-01.]

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 43.

Enrollment
1900-01

Economics 132 hf. Asst. Professor Carver. — Methods of Economic Investigation.

Total 10: 4 Graduates, 6 Seniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1900-1901, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 13
[Year-end Examination]

Discuss ten of the following topics.

  1. The subdivision of economics into departments.
  2. The fields for the observation of economic phenomena.
  3. The place of historical and statistical research in economic investigation.

4, 5, 6. The methods of investigating:

    1. The causes of poverty.
    2. The effect of immigration on the total population of the United States.
    3. The effect of protection on the production of flax fibre, on the iron industry, or on any other industry which you may select.
  1. The nature of an economic law.
  2. The relation of the theory of probabilities to economic reasoning.
  3. The use of hypotheses in economic reasoning.
  4. The use of the terms “static” and dynamic in economic discussion.
  5. The use of diagrams and mathematical formulae in economic discussion.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), p. 35.

 

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Economics 17.
Economic Organization and Resources of European Countries.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement
  1. The Economic Organization and Resources of European countries. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12. Professor Ashley.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 42.

Enrollment
  1. Professor Ashley. The Economic Organization and Resources of European countries.

Total 34: 5 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 17
[Mid-year Examination]

Not more than eight questions should be attempted

  1. “It is less important for a particular community than ever it was to be in possession of cheap food and raw materials produced within its own domain.” Discuss this proposition.
  2. Describe very briefly the main features of the physical geography of England (illustrating your answer, if possible, with a map) and indicate in general terms their economic consequences.
  3. Set forth some of the general considerations which should be taken into account in answering the question whether the industrial development of Ireland has been injuriously affected by English legislation.
  4. Compare the number and character of the several classes maintained by agriculture in England, with those of the agricultural classes in the U.S. and on the continent of Europe.
  5. Explain the powers of dealing with his estate enjoyed at present by an English tenant for life under a settlement.
  6. What districts of England are now suffering most severely from agricultural depression, and why?
  7. Can any lessons be drawn for the U.S. from the recent history of productive coöperation in England? Give your reasons.
  8. Give a rapid survey of the apparent coal resources of the world.
  9. What points of especial interest are there to the economist in the history, situation, character, etc. of the South Wales Coal Field?
  10. What is meant by Collective Bargaining? What are its prerequisites? What examples of it are you acquainted with in America?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 17
[Year-end Examination]

Not more than eight questions should be attempted

  1. The British Chancellor of the Exchequer proposes to levy a duty of one shilling per ton upon the export of coal from the United Kingdom: He argues that the tax will not be borne by the producer, but mainly, if not wholly, by the foreign consumer. Consider (a) what are the conditions under which this is likely to be the case, (b) how far these conditions are at present realized in the case of England.
  2. Distinguish the successive stages in the technological history of iron and steel, and connect them with the industrial development of the several countries concerned.
  3. What were the questions at issue in England in the Engineering dispute of 1897? What, with your present knowledge, do you think ought to have been your attitude, had you then been (a) an English engineering employer, (b) a leading official of the employees’ union.
  4. Give a brief account of the organization of the English cotton manufacture (as distinguished from the securing either of the material or of a market for the product). Contrast it with American conditions; and consider how England and New England are likely to be affected by the growth of the manufacture in the Southern States.
  5. Distinguish between the several forms of capitalist combination at present to be observed in England. What general causes have led to the movement? What, if any, advantages does it promise, and what, if any, dangers does it threaten?
  6. Compare Bradford and Roubaix in any aspects which seem to you worthy of attention.
  7. “Lorsque il n’y a point d’hommes riches qui aient de gros capitaux à mettre dans les entreprises d’agriculture, lorsque les récoltes ne suffisent pas pour assurer aut entrepreneurs des profits égaux à ceux qu’ils tireraient de leur argent en l’employant de toute autre manière, on ne trouve point de fermiers qui veuilient louer les terres. Les propriétaires sont forcées de les faire cultiver par les métayers hors d’état de faire aucunes avances et de bien cultiver. Le propriétaire fait lui-même des avances médiocres qui lui produisent un très médiocre revenu.”
    Translate the passage from Turgot; and then consider how far his description applies to existing conditions in France and Italy.
  8. Show the relation of the great manufacturing industries of France to the distribution of coal in that country.
  9. Would the construction of the Rhine-Elbe canal be a benefit to Germany? Give your reasons.
  10. “Wir müssen uns Rechenschaft ablegen, ob ohne eine grössere Macht zur See, ohne eine solche die unsere Küsten vor Blockaden schützt, unseren Kolonialbesitz und unseren Welthandel absolut sicher stellt, unsere wirtschaftliche Zukunft gesichert sei.”
    Are there sufficient reasons in the contemporary situation of Germany for this anxiety on the part of Professor Schmoller?
  11. (a) Give a brief account of the contents, and then (b) compare the method and general attitude toward the subject, of von Schulze-Gaevernitz’s Social Peace and de Rousers’ Labour Question in Britain.
  12. What in the light of the experience in the English coal, iron, and cotton industries, would seem to you the most satisfactory form to be taken by joint wage agreements in the great industries of America?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), pp. 36-37.

 

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Economics 18.
Principles of Accounting.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement

181 hf. The Principles of Accounting. — Lectures, discussions, and reports. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 3.30. Mr. W. M. Cole.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 43.

Enrollment

181 hf. Mr. W. M. Cole. — The Principles of Accounting.

Total 56: 43 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 18
[Mid-year Examination]

Problems 1 to 5 inclusive form a connected whole;
but 6 and 7 may be substituted for 4 and 5

I

  1. Construct a rough ledger (omitting rulings and index-memoranda) to correspond with the following trial-balance:
Real estate $150,000 Proprietor $244,275
Plant $60,000 Merchandise $401,000
Patents $40,000 Rent $6,000
Supplies $228,000 Bills payable $14,000
Wages $127,000 Accounts payable $43,000
Coal $9,000 Reserve fund $12,000
Insurance $4,500
Trade discounts $8,000
Interest $1,500
Bills receivable $10,000
Accounts receivable $68,000
Cash $14,275
$720,275 $720,275
  1. The above trial-balance is supposed to be taken from manufacturing books that are kept on the ordinary commercial plan, i.e., without distinctive accounts for stores, manufacturing, stock, or trading; and to construct such accounts now is supposed to be either impossible or undesirable.
    If you were required to determine profit and loss for the year which these figures cover, what questions about the business should you wish to ask before reaching your conclusions? [Give your answer in the form of questions consecutively numbered.]
  2. State what would be fairly reasonable answers to your own questions above numbering the answers to correspond with the questions; and then, assuming your answers to be the real answers show a complete statement of resources and liabilities and of profit and loss.
  3. Close for the year the ledger that you constructed indicating all balances that you have transferred to other accounts and all balances that you have carried down for the new year.
  4. From the ledger as it now stands draw off a balance sheet showing the condition of the business at the beginning of the new year, assuming that the loss or gain is carried directly to the proprietor’s account.
  5. Journalize the following:

A gives you his note for $100, bearing interest, dated a month ago.
You discount at a bank a note for $100 payable in a month
B gives you A’s note for $100 payable in one month, and buy goods for $100 on one month’s time.
Your book-keeper charged bills receivable and credited B when B paid his bill by your own note returned to you. A counter entry is to be made, so that the original wrong entry need not be erased

  1. What is the distinguishing feature of double entry? Are two postings made for every entry? If not, what devices are employed for reducing the number of postings?

II
Omit one

  1. The balance sheet of a corporation on January 1, 1899, stood as follows:
Real estate $50,000 Capital stock $200,000
Plant $95,000 Accounts payable $20,000
Horses, etc. $15,000 Bills payable $25,000
Patents $20,000 Profit and loss $15,000
Merchandise $30,000
Accounts receivable $30,000
Cash $20,000
$260,000 $260,000

On January 1, 1900, the books showed the following facts:

Real estate $55,000 Capital stock $200,000
Plant $88,000 Accounts payable $12,000
Horses, etc. $12,000 Bills payable $17,000
Patents $19,000 Profit and loss $33,000
Merchandise $42,000
Accounts receivable $28,000
Cash $18,000
$262,000 $262,000

What has become of the profits earned?

Should you recommend that a dividend be declared? State your reasons.

  1. How should you treat interest received on a bond bought above par?
  2. Describe the following, and state the distinguishing feature of each: a real account; a nominal account; a suspense account; reserve fund: a sinking fund
  3. If payments are received on account of goods in process of manufacture, should such payments appear on the balance sheet? If so, where?
  4. Describe three different methods of treating depreciation, and show how each would appear upon the books. To what circumstances on a railroad is each adapted?
  5. A corporation is formed to unite and continue the business of three concerns, A, B, and C, engaged in the same industry. The books of the concerns show the following:
A B C
Assets (valuation) $80,000 $160,000 $120,000
Liabilities (external) $20,000 $80,000 $90,000
Average profit, last three years 10% 14% 30%
Average profit, preceding three years 9 17 25
Average profit, prior three years 10 20 20

On what basis should you determine the total amount of capital stock to be issued by the new corporation, and on what basis should you apportion it to these three concerns?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

 

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Economics 19.
General View of Insurance.

Primarily for Graduates.

Course Announcement

192 hf. A General View of Insurance. — Lectures and reports. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 3.30. Professor Wambaugh.
Course 19 cannot be counted towards the degree of A.B.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 43.

Enrollment

192 hf. Professor Wambaugh. — A General View of Insurance.

Total 9: 6 Seniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 192
[Year-end Examination]

One of the paragraphs may be omitted.

  1. From the point of view of the person procuring the policy, what is the purpose of insurance?
  2. From the point of view of the community, what are the advantages and the disadvantages of insurance?
  3. Give some account of three insurance books, pamphlets, or periodicals.
  4. Tell what you know of the history of insurance.
  5. Give a classification of the provision of the New York standard form of fire insurance policy,
  6. If either party to the fire insurance contract wishes to terminate the insurance, what are his rights?
  7. What are the benefits and the dangers of fire insurance by government?
  8. Describe ordinary life policies, single payment life policies, twenty payment life policies, endowment policies, tontine policies, assessment insurance.
  9. If a person thirty years of age wishes to obtain a life insurance policy for a single premium, how is the premium calculated?
  10. What are the chief differences between fire insurance and marine insurance?
  11. Discuss any insurance topic of which you have made a special study. 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), p. 40.

 

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Economics 20d.
Adam Smith and Ricardo.

Primarily for Graduates.

Course Announcement

20d. Adam Smith and Ricardo. Half-course. Professor Taussig.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 43.

Enrollment

20d1 hf. Professor Taussig. — Adam Smith and Ricardo.

Total 12: 7 Graduates, 5 Seniors.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 20d
[Final examination]
  1. Compare Ricardo’s conclusions with Adam Smith’s on the course of wages, profits, and rent, as society advances: discussing not only the conclusions themselves, but the reasoning by which the two writers arrive at them.
  2. Under what circumstances are real wages high, according to Adam Smith? according to Ricardo?
  3. Adam Smith’s doctrine on labor as a measure of value; Ricardo’s strictures thereon; and Ricardo’s own doctrine.
  4. S. Mill in his Autobiography says that “it was one of my father’s main objects to make me apply to Smith’s more superficial view of political economy the superior lights of Ricardo, and to detect what was fallacious in Smith’s arguments or erroneous in his conclusions.” Set forth how you believe the two Mills (father and son) set about this task as to Adam Smith’s reasoning on the following topics:—
    1. the mode in which the payment of heavy foreign obligations is brought about by the exportation of goods, not by the outflow of specie;
    2. the distinction between that land which always affords rent, and that which sometimes does and sometimes does not;
    3. the effect of foreign trade in raising the general rate of profits in a country.
  5. “That able but wrong-headed man, David Ricardo; shunted the car of Economic science on to a wrong line, a line, however, on which it was further urged by his equally able and wrong-headed admirer, John Stuart Mill.” — W. S. Jevons.
    What grounds are there for assenting to this judgment? What grounds for dissenting from it?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), pp. 40-41.

Image Source: Detail from cover of the Harvard Class Album 1946.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Examinations in Economics courses, 1892-1893

The economic historian William J. Ashley joined the Harvard economics department in 1892-93, joining Professors Charles F. Dunbar and Frank W. Taussig and the instructors Edward Cummings and William M. Cole. This post gives us a complete set of semester examinations for all the economics courses offered at Harvard and, as extra bonus, exams for the Social Ethics course taught in the philosophy department by Francis G. Peabody.

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1892-93.
PHILOSOPHY 5. ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.

Enrollment

[Philosophy] 5. Professor F. G. PEABODY. — The Ethics of the Social Questions. — The questions of Charity, Divorce, the Indians, Temperance, and the various phases of the Labor Question, as problems of practical Ethics. — Lectures, essays, and practical observations. 2 hours.

Total 131: 5 Graduates, 60 Seniors, 25 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 24 Divinity, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

 

1892-93.
PHILOSOPHY 5.
[Mid-Year Examination]

  1. Explain and illustrate the “correlation” of the Social Questions and the doctrine of Social Energy.
  2. How does the history of ethical theory illustrate the philosophy of the Social Questions?
  3. Compare the principles of the English Poor-Law with the principles of the Elberfeld System.
  4. The plan, scope, and results of Mr. Charles Booth’s Study of East London.
  5. The character of the migration to London and its effect on
    1. social conditions in London (Charles Booth, I. 501, II. 444);
    2. the problem of municipal charity.
  6. How do the Germans deal with the problem of unemployed tramps?
  7. One year of General Booth’s Social Scheme, — its achievements and its possible limitations.
  8. Define the modern Labor Question and note its special characteristics.
  9. What does Carlyle mean by:
    Gospel of Mammonism? (Bk. III. ch. 2.)
    Gospel of Dilettantism? (Bk. III. ch. 3.)
    Captains of industry? (Bk. IV. ch. 4.)
    Plugson of Undershot? (Bk. III. ch. 10.)

What is his lesson drawn from:
Gurth, the thrall of Cedric? (Bk. III. ch. 13; Bk. IV. ch. 5.)

  1. Ruskin’s doctrine of wealth, of wages, and of exchange. How far, in your opinion, is Ruskin’s view of Political Economy justifiable?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

 

 

1892-1893
PHILOSOPHY 5.
[Year-End Final Examination]

  1. State the Labor Question in terms of Ethics, arranging the various industrial propositions of the day in the order of their ethical sufficiency. Explain your arrangement.
  2. Why does the Anarchist find encouragement in the philosophy of Herbert Spencer?
  3. What is the philosophy of history which encourages the Socialist?
  4. The practical advantages which the Socialist anticipates under his programme, his reasons therefor, and your own judgment of their probability.
  5. The substitute for money proposed by Marx; with Schäffle’s criticism of the proposal. (Schäffle, pp. 77-90).
  6. The German system of insurance against old age and invalidism, — its plan, scope and difficulties.
  7. The Familistère at Guise and its lessons for socialism.
  8. Why has Coöperation gained so large a place in English industry and had such meagre success in the United States?
  9. The method of Profit-Sharing adopted in the Maison Leclaire, the secret of its success and the limits of its application in other cases. (Sedley Taylor, pp. 13-20).
  10. The special characteristics of the latest liquor Legislation proposed in Germany, in England and in the United States.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95, “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1893”.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 1. PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS

Enrollment

[Economics] 1. Professors [Frank W.] TAUSSIG and [William J.] ASHLEY, and Messrs. [Edward] CUMMINGS and [William M.] COLE. —

First half-year:

Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. 3 hours.

Second half-year:

Division A (Theoretical): Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. 3 hours.

Division B (Descriptive): Labor and Capital, Coöperation. — Hadley’s Railroad Transportation. — Dunbar’s Chapters on Banking. — Financial Legislation. 3 hours.

Total 322: 1 Graduate, 50 Seniors, 114 Juniors, 116 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 38 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

 

 

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 1.
[Mid-Year Examination]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

  1. “Production, and productive, are of course elliptical expressions, involving the idea of something produced; but this something, in common apprehension, I conceive to be, not utility, but wealth.” Why should not all labor which produces utility, be accounted productive?
  2. “The distinction, then, between Capital and Non-Capital, does not lie in the kind of commodities, but in the mind of the capitalist.” Does pig-iron cease to be capital when the owner sells it and buys a country-house?
  3. What is meant when it is said that rent is no burden on the consumer?
  4. Why are the earnings of the professional classes higher than the wages of mechanics? Why are the wages of mechanics higher than those of day-laborers?
  5. Explain the connection between:

The tendency of profits to a minimum.
The law of diminishing returns.
The effective desire of accumulation.

  1. Is a general rise in prices advantageous to the community as a whole? to any part of it?
  2. Specie, bank-notes, inconvertible paper, checks, —are they or are they not “money”?
  3. “It is when the metals are completely superseded and driven from circulation that the difference between convertible and inconvertible paper begins to be operative.” Explain.
  4. Does foreign trade tend to bring about the same level of (1) money wages, (2) prices, in the trading countries?
  5. In what manner does a country gain when its exports increase?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

 

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 1.
[Year-End Final Examination]

Division A.
[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

  1. What is meant when it is said that the rent paid for the use of a factory building enters into cost of production, while that paid for the use of the site does not?
  2. What determines the limits within which the foreign exchanges may fluctuate?
  3. According to Mill, “The universal elements of cost of production are the wages of labor and the profits of the capital.” Cairnes on the contrary says, “I repeat, therefore, that not only do wages not constitute the laborer’s share in the cost of production, but these can not be taken in any sense to represent that cost.”
    Why not?
  4. “It appears, therefore, that the fund available for those who live by labor tends, in the progress of society, while growing actually larger, to become a constantly smaller fraction of the entire national wealth.”
    Why?
  5. “The illusion which I am combatting, that Demand and Supply are independent economic forces, sometimes assumes another form in the notion that producers and consumers are distinct classes, and that production and consumption are acts which may go on irrespective of each other.”
    Explain the illusion.
  6. How is the price of wool in Australia likely to be affected by the shipment of frozen mutton to England?
  7. “In the language of Mr. Mill, ‘the produce of a country exchanges for the produce of other countries at such values as are required in order that the whole of her exports may exactly pay for the whole of her imports.’ Now, as a matter of fact, it very rarely happens that the whole exports of a country, even if we take an average of many years, exactly pay for the whole of its imports; nor can it be truly said that there is any tendency in the dealings of nations toward this result.” Why not?
  8. At what rate of interest did the United States borrow, when it exchanged 5-20 bonds for legal tender notes at par, in 1862-63?
  9. What do you infer from the success of distributive coöperation in Great Britain, as to the future development of coöperation in general?
  10. What are the grounds for saying that the general fall in prices in the United States in the period immediately after the civil war, had an effect on debtors different from that of the fall in prices since 1879?

 

Division B.
[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

  1. Does the benefit of international trade lie in the exports? in the imports?
    Why?
  2. Is a general fall in prices harmful to debtors? to creditors?
  3. Will an increase in the quantity of money in the community affect the rate of interest?
  4. How would you estimate the minimum reserve required by law to be anywhere held for deposits in country national banks of the United States?
  5. How would you explain the close correspondence in the banks of the United States between the amount of loans and the amount of deposits?
  6. Explain the decline in the volume of national bank notes in recent years.
  7. Explain why the original limit of uncovered issue for the Bank of England was put at £14,000,000.
  8. How would an act for the free coinage of silver in the United States at the present mint ratio, affect the price of silver bullion?
  9. Compare the attitude of the Latin Union toward the use of both metals in 1866 with its attitude in 1878.
  10. Compare carefully, as to the character and quantity of the issues of money provided for, the legislation of the United States in 1878 with that of 1890.
  11. Point out wherein profit-sharing is similar to coöperative production, wherein different.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95, “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1893”.

 

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 2. ECONOMIC THEORY 

Enrollment

[Economics] 2. Professor TAUSSIG. — Economic Theory. — Examination of selections from leading writers. 3 hours.

Total 38: 11 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

 

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 2.
[Mid-Year Examination]

  1. State George’s doctrine as to the cause of interest, and give an opinion of its soundness.
  2. “It may be said, we grant that wages are really paid out of the product of current industry, and that capital only affects wages as it first affects production, so that wages stand related to product in the first degree, and to capital in the second degree only; still, does not production bear a certain and necessary ratio to capital? and hence may not the measure of wages be derived from capital virtually, — though not, it is true, directly, — through its determination of product?” Consider whether so much would be granted by one holding to the wages-fund doctrine; and answer the questions.
  3. “The employer [in the West and South] advances to the laborer such provisions and cash as are absolutely required from time to time: but the ‘settlement’ does not take place until the close of the season or the year, and the final payment is often deferred until the crop is not only harvested but sold.” Under such conditions is it true that wages are paid out of capital, or limited in amount by the quantity of previously accumulated capital?
  4. What do you conceive President Walker’s opinion to be as to the effect on business profits of the possession of large means by the business man at the outset of his career?
  5. Are there grounds for saying that in a socialist community the conception of capital would be different from that in communities as now organized?
  6. Compare Adam Smith’s doctrine as to the relation of capital and wages with Ricardo’s.
  7. Compare Adam Smith’s conclusions with Ricardo’s as to the propriety of import duties levied to countervail internal taxes on necessaries consumed by laborers.
  8. “No extension of foreign trade will immediately increase the amount of value in a country, though it will very powerfully contribute to increase the mass of commodities, and therefore the sum of enjoyments.” What does Ricardo mean?
  9. “There is only one case, and that will be temporary, in which the accumulation of capital with a low price of food may be attended with a fall in profits.” What is the case, and why did Ricardo think it would be temporary?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

 

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 2.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[One question in each of the three groups may be omitted.]

I.

  1. What is the meaning and importance of the proposition that demand for commodities is not demand for labor?
  2. How far is Ricardo’s doctrine as to the connection between labor and value similar to Marx’s doctrine that value consists of the labor incorporated in commodities?
  3. What is meant when it is said that the connection between value and expenses of production depends on the mobility of capital, while the connection between value and cost of production depends on the mobility of labor and capital?
  4. “The ideal of justice in distribution, applicable both to individual producers and to the different factors in production (land, labor, capital), may be stated thus: each should have a share in net income proportionate to the contribution which, by labor or by the use of material means of production, he has made to the product.”
    What should you say as to the feasibility of carrying out such a principle?

II.

  1. Explain briefly what is meant by total utility, marginal utility, and consumer’s rent.
    “Subject to these corrections, then, we may regard the aggregate of the money measures of the total utility of wealth as a fair measure of that part of the happiness which is dependent on wealth.” Mention one or two corrections.
  2. Give your opinion on the objection raised by Carey to the theory of rent, that the total rent paid for the use of land does not exceed interest at current rates on the total capital sunk in land.
  3. How far is it an answer to the proposition that rent and business profits are analogous, when it is said that the losses of some business managers must be set off against the larger gains of others?
  4. Explain Professor Marshall’s opinion as to the bearing on the relative wages of different laborers of
    1. The “rent” of labor;
    2. the standard of living among laborers;
    3. the expenses of production of labor;

and point out the connection between his views on these subjects.

III.

  1. Explain the distinctions (1) between private capital and social capital, (2) between historico-legal capital and national capital; and point out how far the two distinctions run on the same lines.
  2. “In the present condition of industry, most sales are made by men who are producers and merchants by profession. . . . For them, the subjective use-values of their own wares is, for the most part, very nearly nil. . . . In sales by them, the limiting effect which, according to our theoretical formula, would be exerted by the valuation of the last seller, practically does not come into play.”
    Explain what is meant, and consider the consequences as to the importance of the law that price is determined by the valuations of the marginal pairs.
  3. “Our whole interest is centred in the question as to the position which the law (of cost of production), so well accredited by experience, takes in the systematic theory of price. Does it run counter to our law of marginal pairs or not? Our answer is that it does not. It is as little of a contradiction as we before found to exist between the proposition that the marginal utility determines the height of subjective value, and the other proposition that the costs determine it.”
    In what way is the apparent contradiction removed in the two cases referred to by Böhm-Bawerk?
  4. Explain the three grounds on which Böhm-Bawerk bases the superiority of present over future goods, and give your opinion as to their relative importance and significance.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95, “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1893”.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 3. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY

Enrollment

[Economics] 3. Mr. CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. 3 hours.

Total 22: 5 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

 

 

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 3.
[Mid-Year Examination]

Answer the questions in the order in which they stand. Omit two.

  1. “We have just seen that a one-sided application of the conception that society is of organic growth leads to difficulties, as well as the conception of artificial making. These we can only escape by recognizing a truth which includes them both.”
    What are these difficulties, and what is this truth?
  2. “If societies have evolved, and if that mutual dependence of parts which coöperation implies, has been gradually reached, then the implication is that however unlike their developed structures may become, there is a rudimentary structure with which they all set out.”
    What evidence do you find of such a structure?
  3. According to Aristotle, “Man is by nature a political” According to Thomas Aquinas, “homo est animal sociale et politicum.” How far is this insertion of “sociale” alongside of “politicum” significant of the different way in which the State presented itself to the mind of the Greek and to the mind of the medieval philosopher?
  4. “The theory of the social contract belongs in an especial manner to the political philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But it did not originate with them. It had its roots in the popular consciousness of medieval society. As a philosophical theory, it had already been anticipated by the Greek Sophists.”
    Indicate briefly some of the important changes which the doctrine underwent.
  5. “In primitive societies the person does not exist, or exists only potentially, or, as we might say, in spe. The person is the product of the State.” Explain. What is the theoretical and historical justification of this doctrine, as against the contention that the individual loses what the State gains?
  6. Discuss the relative preponderance of free and of un-free elements at different stages of social development.
  7. It has been remarked by Spencer that those domestic relations which are ethically the highest, are also biologically and sociologically the highest. Discuss the historical evidence on this point. What is the test of this ethical superiority?
  8. To what extent is there ground for saying that the influence of militant and of industrial organization is traceable in the status of women and the duration of marriage in the United States and in other countries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

 

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 3.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Answer the questions in the order in which they stand. Omit one.]

  1. “The different forms of the State are specifically divided, as Aristotle recognized, by the different conceptions of the distinction between government and subjects, especially by the quality (not the quantity) of the ruler.” Explain. Indicate briefly the relation of the different forms of the State to one another.
  2. “If there is any one principle which is clearly grasped in the present day, it is that political power is a public duty as well as a public right, that it belongs to the political existence and life of the whole nation, and that it can never be regarded as the property or personal right of an individual.” How far did this principle secure recognition in Greek, in Roman, and in medieval times?
  3. “The past seems to prove that kings and aristocracies make States, and that left to themselves, the people unmake them.” State carefully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the political philosophy here involved.
  4. “This is one of curious phases of the railway problem in Europe, which has a tendency to show how multiform and various are the influences at work to modify and change the conditions of the railway problem, and how little can be gathered from mere government documents and laws to shed light upon this most interesting and intricate of all modern industrial questions.” What light does Italian, French and Austrian experience with railroads throw on the general question of State control?
  5. “Expediency and the results of experience must determine how far to go. They seem to justify public ownership of gas works, water works and electric lights. The same would doubtless be true of the telegraph and telephone.” Discuss the evidence.
  6. “We will first concentrate our attention on the economic kernel of socialism, setting aside for the moment the transitory aspect it bears in the hands of agitators, its provisional passwords, and the phenomena and tendencies in religion by which it is accompanied.” State and criticise this “economic kernel.”
  7. “The philanthropic and experimental forms of socialism, which played a conspicuous role before 1848, perished them[sic, “then”?] in the wreck of the Revolution, and have never risen to life again.” What were the characteristics of these earlier forms; and what was their relation to the movements which preceded them and followed them?
  8. How are the socialistic teachings of Lasalle and Marx related to the economic doctrines of Smith and Ricardo?
  9. What ground do you find for or against the contention that “socialism is the economic complement of democracy”?
  10. “Not only material security, but the perfection of human and social life is what we aim at in that organized co-öperation of many men’s lives and works which is called the State. . . . But where does protection leave off and interference begin?”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95, “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1893”.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 4. ECONOMIC HISTORY OF EUROPE AND AMERICA

Enrollment

[Economics] 4. Mr. COLE. — Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. — Lectures and written work. 3 hours.

Total 116: 41 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 45 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 18 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

 

 

1892-93. ECONOMICS 4.
[Mid-Year Examination]

I.
[Take all.]

  1. State at least three parallels in the lives of Watt and George Stevenson.
  2. From an economic point of view, and assuming that a revolution must have come sooner or later, was the occurrence of the disturbances in France between 1785 and 1815 opportune or inopportune for France?
  3. Was there any necessary connection between the economic and the military reforms of Prussia between 1807 and 1812? If so, what?
  4. Why was the United States helped more than any other country by the introduction of steam navigation?

II.
[Omit one.]

  1. What was the origin and what were the main provisions of the English Corn Law of 1815?
  2. What were the main provisions of the French railway law of 1842?
  3. What were the main features of Gallatin’s plan for internal improvements in 1807?
  4. What was the social status at the beginning of this century of poor immigrants into America?
  5. What was the cause of the suspension of specie payments by the Bank of England in 1797?
  6. What was the effect of the Continental wars of 1793-1815 upon the English laborers? How was it manifested?
  7. What was the influence on French manufactures of Napoleon’s rise to power? Cite examples.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

 

 

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 4.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

  1. What sort of wealth did France actually sacrifice in paying the German indemnity? What was the process?
  2. Explain the influence of the Civil War upon our tariff legislation.
  3. Explain whether or not England can obtain cheap coal from abroad after her own supplies become scarce.
  4. What motives had Congress for granting lands to Western railroads, — other than the Union Pacific? What was the system of grants adopted?
  5. It has been said that after 1850 England could not well maintain duties upon any class of imports, and hence free trade was inevitable. What do you think of the statement?
  6. Was the Zollverein an experiment in free trade or in protection? Why do you think as you do?
  7. How did the extraordinary demand for gold between 1871 and 1873 affect the rate of bank discount? How do you explain the effect?
  8. Show at least three important benefits arising from improved means of transportation.
  9. Explain carefully, but concisely, why the southern soils of the United States were rapidly exhausted before the war. Could resort have been made successfully to rotation of crops, to more careful cultivation, to the use of better tools?
  10. Using only the materials which have been furnished by Economics IV, show what in your opinion, after careful thought, England would have gained or lost up to the present time if the American colonies had not won their independence.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95, “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1893”.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 5. RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION

Enrollment

[Economics] 5. Professor TAUSSIG. — Railway Transportation. — Lectures and written work. 3 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 26: 7 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

 

 

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 5.
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions].

  1. “A more powerful force than the authority of the courts was working against the Granger system of regulation. The laws of trade could not be violated with impunity. The effects were most sharply felt in Wisconsin. . . . In the second year of its operation [that of the law reducing rates], no Wisconsin road paid a dividend; only four paid interest on their bonds. Railroad construction came to a standstill. . . . Foreign capital refused to invest in Wisconsin; the development of the State was sharply checked; the very men who most favored the law found themselves heavy losers. . . . The very men who passed the law in 1874 hurriedly repealed it after two years trial.” State the essential features of the legislation here alluded to, and give an opinion as to this explanation of its effects.
  2. “The principle of tolls [rates based on cost of service] keeps rates up. If it is strictly applied, it makes it necessary that each item of business should pay its share of the fixed charges.” Why? or why not?
  3. What is meant when it is said that railway rates are governed by value of service?
  4. Compare :
    1. The natural system of rates.
    2. The German reform tariff.
    3. The maximum rates of the Granger legislatures.
  5. Is it true that the prohibition of pooling in the Interstate Commerce Act increases the severity of the long and short haul clause?
  6. What were the causes of the depression of 1888-90?
  7. Should you say that the approaching maturity of the Government debt gives a favorable opportunity for an experiment in public management, by the assumption of federal ownership of the Pacific roads?
  8. Give an opinion on two among the suggestions made by Mr. Clark as to future legislation on railways by the states.
  9. Sketch the history of railway policy in Italy.
  10. What have been the financial results of public railway management in Prussia?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 6. HISTORY OF U.S. TARIFF LEGISLATION

Enrollment

[Economics] 6. Professor TAUSSIG. — History of Tariff Legislation in the United States. 3 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 50: 7 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

 

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 6.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Answer all the questions, however briefly.]

  1. Sketch the industrial history of the country, and its bearing on tariff legislation, from 1816 to 1824.
  2. How far do protective duties account for the growth of the cotton manufacture from 1830 to 1840? Of the iron manufacture from 1840 to 1850? Of the silk manufacture from 1860 to 1880?
  3. What do you believe the state of public opinion to have been on tariff legislation in 1800? In 1824? In 1850?
  4. State the important provisions of the tariff act of 1857.
  5. Are there grounds for saying that the duty on pig iron since 1870 has proved a successful application of protection to young industries? State carefully what you think the test of success in such a case.
  6. What can be said for, what against, the change in the duties on sugar made in 1890?
  7. Compare the general character of the tariff act of 1883 with that of the act of 1890.
  8. Assume that, on the imposition of a duty on tin-plates, domestic production should so develop that tin-plates were made with less labor in the United States than in foreign countries. What would happen if thereafter the duty were removed?
  9. Explain what is the object, what the effect of minimum duties; and give two instances of their application, one before 1860, the other after.
  10. Explain briefly in what manner the connection between the tariff and wages was discussed by Webster in 1824, by Clay in 1824, and by Walker in 1845.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95, “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1893”.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 71. THEORY AND METHODS OF TAXATION

Enrollment

[Economics] 71. Professor DUNBAR. — The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special references to local taxation in the United States. 3 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 21: 7 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

 

 

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 7[1].
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

[Let your answers stand in the order of the questions.]

  1. What is Mr. Bastable’s theory (pp. 339-342) as to the incidence of a tax on a commodity, and what are the conditions on which he finds that any shifting of the tax will depend? How far does his doctrine in this particular differ from that of Ricardo?
  2. Discuss the following extract from Leroy-Beaulieu (Science des Finances, II. 303):—
    So the land tax, unless it is extraordinarily high or very badly assessed, has no influence on the price of agricultural products: it merely diminishes what in scientific language is called the rent of land, — that is the net income of the landowner after deducting the expenses of cultivation and the profits of the farmer. This proposition is generally true in all countries where the land is completely occupied: it does not apply, on the contrary, to new countries where a large part of the soil is not yet under cultivation, like the United States or Australia. In these countries the land tax acts as an increase of the general cost of working new lands, and consequently retards their reduction to cultivation.
  3. In answer to the demand for taxes resting exclusively or chiefly on land and its great unearned increment of value, it is sometimes urged that gains are often offset by losses, and that individuals can hardly be called on to give up their surplus gains unless they are guaranteed against possible loss. How much weight is to be attached to this answer?
  4. Discuss Bastable’s remark that,—
    It may be urged that progressive taxation is not in fact likely to weaken the disposition to save. It will only affect those who possess a good deal already, and such persons save as much from habit as from conscious motive. There is, too, the further fact that the heavier taxation on the rich will leave the poor a larger disposable sum, part of which they may save, and to that extent increase the store of wealth.
  5. What do you say to the proposition maintained by Mill (Book V., ch. ii. §4) and discussed by Bastable (p. 297), that the part of income which is saved should be exempt from taxation?
  6. W. is credited with having laid down two propositions: First, that “any income tax which permits of any exemption whatever is a graduated income tax”; and, secondly, that “a graduated income tax to the extent of its discrimination is an act of confiscation.”
  7. State the general plan on which the French Contribution des Patentes is levied, and then discuss the following:—
    1. Bastable says (p. 411):—
      The Patente is very far from being a proportional tax on industrial gains. It rather resembles a charge on certain necessaries of the business, such as buildings, labor, or motive power.
    2. Leroy-Beaulieu (Science des Finances, I. p. 396) says:—
      The manufacturer being taxed by the general tax on rents [personelle-mobilière] there is evident injustice in loading him with an additional tax on his habitation.
    3. And in general he says (ibid., p. 380):—
      In countries like France where incomes in general are not subject to any special direct tax, it is indisputable that a tax on the profit of manufacturers, of merchants, and of the liberal professions, has no reason for existence and can only be explained by the brutal law of fiscal necessity.
  8. Describe the changes which the Prussian income tax has gone through and the distinctive characteristics of the law of 1891.
  9. Describe the plan on which the English “death duties” are now arranged.
  10. What are the methods used in different countries for the taxation of tobacco, and how far does each appear applicable in the United States?
  11. Which of the following taxes are best fitted for national use and which for local, and why?

Excise;
Income;
Real Estate;
Stamps on deeds, commercial paper and legal instruments;
Successions.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 72. FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC DEBTS

Enrollment

[Economics] 72. Professor DUNBAR. — Financial Administration and Public Debts. 3 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 23: 10 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 1 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

 

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 7[2].
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Give one half of your time to a careful treatment of the questions under A.]

A.

  1. Discuss the conditions necessary for maintaining a thoroughgoing budget system, and show what changes (if any) of constitution, law, or political practice would be required, in order to set such a system in operation in the United States.
  2. When the United States issued the 5-20 bonds (principal and interest payable in gold), they had the choice between three courses, viz:
    1. To sell the bonds for par in gold and make the rate of interest high enough to attract buyers;
    2. to sell the bonds for gold at such discount as might be necessary, their interest being fixed at six per cent;
    3. to sell the bonds for their nominal par in depreciated paper.
      Which of these courses now seems to you the best, and why?
  3. Discuss the following:
    “Viewed as a purely financial question, it is no occasion for congratulation that a debt is widely diffused. Not only is its management necessarily more expensive, but the facility offered to politicians to use the debt for party and personal ends often defeats the best purposes of the financier. . . .France, for example, continued to pay for a number of years a higher rate of interest than was necessary, because the government feared the voting power of the holders of rentes. Nor do industrial considerations necessarily lead to the approval of widely-diffused debt. The unfailing indication of healthy state of industries is found in the personal attention of all members of society to business affairs. and this can only come with personal interest in some particular form of product. In so far as the private income of individuals arises from payments of interest by the state, the public is deprived of the beneficial workings of that solicitous care which insures success in industrial ventures. —Adams, Public Debts, p. 43.

B.

  1. State the manner in which the selling value of bonds is influenced, by, —
    1. annual drawings by lot for payment;
    2. reserved right to pay at pleasure;
    3. agreement to pay at or after some distant date;
    4. arrangement like that of the “Five-twenties.”
  2. The distinction between a bond reimbursable from the date of issue and one which is secured against redemption for ten or twenty years, is said to be “one of the most fundamental that presents itself in the entire course of credit operations,” because,—
    “A bond reimbursable from the date of its issue shows great carelessness on the part of the administration as to ultimate payment; on the other hand, a bond guaranteed against immediate payment is evidence of an intention to escape the evils of perpetual indebtedness.” — Adams, Public Debts, p. 161.
    Give your reasons for agreeing or for disagreeing with this statement.
  3. Under what conditions is the use of terminable annuities as a species of sinking fund advisable, and on what principle should the extent to which their use is carried be limited, if at all?
  4. What do you say to the following dictum as to buying public debt:
    “Payment by purchase (of bonds) upon the market at market prices is defensible when bonds are below par, but not when above par and so conditioned as to be payable, within a reasonable time, at their nominal value.”
  5. Describe the operation by which the French government converted the Morgan Loan in 1875 and state any criticism to be made upon this conversion.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95, “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1893”.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 8. HISTORY OF U.S. FINANCIAL LEGISLATION

Enrollment

[Economics] 8. Professor DUNBAR. — History of Financial Legislation in the United States. 2 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 34: 3 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

 

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 8.
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

[Let your answers stand in numerical order.]

  1. Hamilton has sometimes been charged with favoring the policy of a perpetual public debt. Discuss the grounds for this charge.
  2. The act of 1790 for assuming the debts of the States did not wait for the settlement of accounts between the States and the Union. Did this failure to wait necessarily affect the result?
  3. What is a “direct tax” of the United States and on whom and how is it laid? Give instances.
  4. What were the provisions of law or the practices in use, regulating the kinds of currency received and paid by the Treasury, between 1789 and 1846?
  5. What was the Specie Circular, and what were its effects?
  6. What is Mr. Gallatin’s view of the part played by the United States Bank and of its influence, in the disastrous period 1837-1841?
  7. Describe the Independent Treasury Act of 1846, and state any modifications that the system has undergone.
  8. Give some account of the treasury notes issued 1837-46, and show how they resembled or differed from notes now issued by the United States.
  9. What considerations are there which tend to create doubt as to the necessity of the first Legal Tender Act?
  10. State the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States on the constitutionality of the Legal Tender Acts.
  11. Sketch the legislation which has established the national banking system.
  12. Describe the change which has taken place in the meaning attached to the word “resumption,” and the circumstances which have given us a legal tender currency of fixed amount.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITION OF WORKINGMEN

An earlier post to this course with valuable links to the works quoted in the exams.

Enrollment

[Economics] 9. Mr. CUMMINGS. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen in the United States and in other countries. 3 hours.

Total 24: 3 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 68.

 

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9.
[Mid-Year Examination]

[Arrange your answers in the order in which the questions stand. So far as possible illustrate your discussions by a comparison of the experience of different countries. Omit two questions.]

  1. “In a society adjusted to manual labor, it is absolutely impossible that a labor problem, as a class problem, should take its origin; but in a society adjusted to machinery, provided the English law of property be maintained, the development of class lines will surely make its appearance in industries.”
    State fully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with these assertions.
  2. “First, government must regulate the plane of competition, for without legal regulation the struggle between men for commercial supremacy will surely force society to the level of the most immoral man who can maintain himself.”
    What evidence does the history of factory legislation furnish upon these points?
  3. Comment upon the following passage: “The object held in view by workmen, when they organized themselves into unions, was to gain again that control over the conditions of labor which they lost when machinery took the place of tools.”
  4. “The English public has had the courage and strength to leave workingmen’s associations full freedom of movement, at the risk even of temporary excesses and acts of violence, such as at one time stained the annals of trades-unions.” Explain.
    How far is this true of France? Of the United States?
  5. Describe briefly the origin, growth, and present tendencies of the English Friendly Society movement.
  6. To what extent do trade organizations and friendly societies constitute an aristocracy of labor?
  7. To what forms of remuneration can the evils of “sweating” be traced?
  8. “The aim of Coöperation is at the same time the aim of Trade Unionism.” In what sense?
  9. Sketch briefly the course of factory legislation during the present century either in England or in the United States.
  10. Comment on the following passage: “The fact that the ignorant masses are enabled by the factory to engage in what it once took skilled labor to perform has given the widespread impression that factory labor has degraded the skilled, when in truth it has lifted the unskilled; and this is the inevitable result of the factory everywhere.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

 

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Arrange your answers in the order in which the questions stand. So far as possible illustrate your discussions by a comparison of the experience different countries. Omit two questions.]

  1. How is the burden of contribution distributed in each of the three departments of the German system of compulsory insurance? What theoretical or practical objections have you to the system?
  2. “In England especially the State is not in a position to compete effectively with energetic Insurance Companies or with the Friendly Societies, pulsating with the vigour of social life; and still less can it so compete when hampered by restrictions which handicap its powers.” Discuss the evidence on this point furnished by English experience with government workingmen’s insurance. Are there any indications that German ideas are gaining ground in England?
  3. “What, we will ask, is the relation of Profit-sharing to the ordinary wage system; and to what extent does Profit-sharing constitute an improvement upon the ordinary wage system?” Are there grounds for the assertion that Profit-sharing is “inferior in point of equity and expediency to the ordinary non-coöperative wage system“?
  4. “Besides the militant trade unionist workmen, that very shrewd class of workingmen, the coöperators, regard Profit-sharing with marked disapprobation; so much so that, although Profit-sharing forms an essential part of the professed principles of Industrial Coöperation, yet by far the greater part of Industrial Coöperation is carried on upon the system of altogether excluding the employees from participation in profits.” What are the facts referred to, and how do you account for them?
  5. “Here it is necessary to interpolate a protest against the assertion almost universally made by previous writers on this subject, that ‘Industrial Coöperation has succeeded in distribution, but has failed in production,’ — an assertion generally coupled with the explanation that ‘production’ is too difficult to be, as yet, undertaken by workingmen.” What are the facts?
  6. “But the enthusiastic Coöperator will ask: why not develop the voluntary system of democratic Coöperation until it embraces the whole field of industry?” What do you conceive to be the economic limits to such extension by consumers’ associations?
  7. “Having considered the social and economic position of workers in the coal, iron and steel industries in several countries, let us now by proper combination ascertain the average conditions prevailing in the two continents.” What are the probable conclusions to be drawn from these comparative statistics of family budgets in the United States and other countries?
  8. “The Hungarians, Italians, Bohemians and Poles, who throng our gates give most concern. . . . Up to the present time there seems no ground to fear that such new comers have wielded a depressing influence. There seems rather reason for congratulation in the fact that instead of their having lowered the American standard of living, the American standard of life has been raising them.” Discuss the evidence. What light do recent changes in the character and volume of migration from different countries throw on this problem?
  9. Indicate briefly the course of short-hour legislation in Massachusetts. How does it compare with the legislation in other states and other countries?
  10. Indicate carefully how far there has been any approximation to compulsory arbitration in Massachusetts; in New York; in other countries. What are the objections to compulsory arbitration?
  11. What do you conceive to be the significance of the Farmers’ Alliance and the Single Tax movements in the United States? And how are they related to each other?
  12. Precisely what evidence is there for and against the contention that the employment of “private armed forces” has been largely responsible for violence and bloodshed during strikes? Give concrete examples. 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95, “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1893”.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10. U.S. AND EUROPEAN ECONOMIC HISTORY TO 1763

Enrollment

[Economics] 10. Professor ASHLEY. — The Economic History of Europe and America, to 1763. 3 hours.

Total 20: 6 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 3 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

 

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10.
[Mid-Year Examination]

N.B. — Not more than seven questions must be attempted.

  1. Present the substance of recent suggestions as to the origin of the Celtic Sept, and compare them with earlier views.
  2. Describe the Roman villa system, and compare it with mediaeval manorial agriculture and with modern American farming.
  3. Discuss the value of the Domesday Survey for economic history.
  4. Explain the importance of “Commutation.”
  5. State and criticize Mr. Thorold Rogers’ view of the causes of the Peasant Revolt of 1381.
  6. Describe the character of internal trade in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
  7. To what extent was the mediaeval regulation of industry justified?
  8. Trace the history, and comment on the significance, of Journeymen’s Societies.
  9. “Capital is a historical category.” statement in the light of medieval history. Explain and criticize this statement in the light of mediaeval history.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

 

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Candidates are requested to attempt only six questions, — of which six one at least must be chosen from the first set.]

  1. Compare the position of the Roman coloni with that of the peasants of the Middle Ages.
  2. “The reign of Edward I appears to mark the turning-point in the history of the craft-gilds.” Explain and criticize this.
  3. Estimate the importance of the work of M. Fustel de Coulanges in relation to Economic History.
    ________________________________
  4. How did the Reformation affect the English craft companies?
  5. Describe the “domestic system” of industry, and compare it with earlier and later systems.
  6. Narrate the later fortunes of the Hanseatic merchants in England.
  7. State and discuss the principles involved in the Poor Law of the sixteenth century.
  8. Give some account of the various discussions concerning economic policy occasioned by the East India Company.
  9. Compare a New England town with an English manor.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95, “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1893”.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 11. HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY BEFORE ADAM SMITH 

Enrollment

[Economics] 11. Professor ASHLEY. — History of Economic Theory, down to Adam Smith. 2 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 8: 7 Graduates, 1 Senior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 11.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Candidates are requested to attempt only six questions.]

  1. Explain Aristotle’s view of chrematistics.
  2. What has been the economic influence of the Roman law?
  3. Compare the fundamental ideas of the Canonists with those of the Socialists.
  4. Explain the Canonist doctrine of Partnership.
  5. What were the principles involved in the discussion concerning Montes Pietatis?
  6. Consider the influence of the Reformation on Economic opinion.
  7. Sketch briefly the various stages in the history of Mercantilism.
  8. Explain briefly the significance for the history of economic thought of either Bodin, or Sir Josiah Child.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95, “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1893”.