Tag: Laughlin

United States. Courses of Study of Political Economy. 1876 and 1892-93.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-11-22

The first article in the inaugural issue of The Journal of Political Economy, “Courses of Study in Political Economy in the United States in 1876 and in 1892-93,” was written by the founding head of the University of Chicago’s department of political economy, J. Laurence Laughlin. This post provides Laughlin’s appendix that provided information about economics courses taught in 65 colleges/universities in the United States during the last quarter of the 19th century. The bottom line of the table is that “aggregate hours of instruction in 1892-3 [were] more than six times the hours of instruction given in 1876”.

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“How little Political Economy and Finance were taught only fifteen years ago, as compared with the teaching of to-day, must be surprising even to those who have lived and taught in the subject during that period…. At the close of the war courses of economic study had practically no existence in the university curriculum; in short, the studious pursuit of economics in our universities is scarcely twenty years old. These considerations alone might be reasons why economic teaching has not yet been able to color the thinking of our more than sixty millions of people. But about the close of the first century of our national existence it may be said that the study of Political Economy entered upon a new and striking development. This is certainly the marked characteristic of the study of Political Economy in the last fifteen years. How great this has been may be seen from the tables giving the courses of study, respectively, in about 60 institutions in the year 1876 and in 1892-3. (See Appendix I.) The aggregate hours of instruction in 1892-3 are more than six times the hours of instruction given in 1876.” [Laughlin, p. 4]

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Courses of Study in Political Economy in the United States in 1876 and in 1892-93.

Note: Returns could not be obtained from Johns Hopkins University, Amherst College, and some other institutions.

Institution.	Description of Courses.	1876.		1892-3.
		No. hours per week.	No. weeks in year.	No. hours per week.	No. weeks in year.
University of Alabama.	Text Book and Lectures, Senior Year Finance and Taxation	— —	— —	4 2	36 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		216
Boston University.	Principles of Political Economy	—	—	3	20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		60
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine.	Elementary (Required) Advanced (Elective)	5 —	14 —	4 4	12 10
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	70		88
Brown University, Providence, R. I.	Elementary History of Econ. Thought Advanced Course [2^nd] Advanced Course Seminary of History, Pol. Sci., and Pol. Econ.	2½ — — — —	16-17 — — — —	3 3 3 3 2	33-34 11-12 11 11 23
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	40-42½		242-250
University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.	1. Introductory Political Economy 2. Descriptive Political Economy 3. Advanced Political Economy 4. Industrial and Economic History 5. Scope and Method 6. History of Political Economy 7. Unsettled Problems 8. Socialism 9. Social Economics 10. Practical Economics 11. Statistics 12. Railway Transportation 13. Tariff History of U.S. 14. Financial History of U.S. 15. Taxation 16. Public Debts 17. Seminary	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —	5 4 5 4 4 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4	12 12 12 24 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		996
Colby University, Waterville, Maine.	Elementary [1^st] Elementary [2^nd] Theoretical Historical	5 — — —	7 — — —	2 2 4 4	13 10 13 10
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	35		138
Columbia College (School of Political Science, New York City.	1. Principles of Political Economy (Element.) 2. Historical Practical Political Economy (Advanced) 3. History of Economic Theory (Advanced) 4. Public Finance (Adv.) 5. Railroad Problems (Adv.) 6. Finan. History of U.S. (Adv.) 7. Tariff History of U.S. (Adv.) 8. Science of Statistics (Adv.) 9. Communism and Socialism (Adv.) 10. Taxation and Distribution (Adv.) 11. Seminarium in Political Economy (Element.) 12. Seminarium in Public Finance and Economy (Adv.) 13. Law of Taxation (Adv.) 3 and 5, 6 and 7, 8 and 9 given in alternate years.	2 — — — — — — — — — — — —	17 — — — — — — — — — — — —	2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2	17 34 34 34 25 34 17 34 34 17 34 34 17
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	34		764
Columbian University, Washington, D.C.	Elements of Political Economy	—	—	5	8
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		40
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.	1. Elementary Political Economy 2. Advanced Political Economy 3. Finance 4. Financial History 5. Railroad Problems 6. Currency and Banking 7. Economic History 8. Statistics	2 — — — — — — —	11 — — — — — — —	3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1	34 34 34 13 11 10 34 34
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	22		408
Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.	1. Elementary 2. Advanced 3. Advanced Finance and Tariff	6 — —	6 — —	6 6 6	6 2/3 4 1/6 3 1/3
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	36		85
University of Denver, Col.	1. Ely’s Introduction 2. Ingram’s History 3. Gilman’s Profit-Sharing 4. Ely, Labor Movement in America 5. Kirkup’s and Rae’s Socialism 6. Finance and Taxation 7. International Commerce	— — — — — — —	— — — — — — —	2 1 1 2 2 4 2	15 5 5 5 5 5 5
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		90
DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind.	Economics (Elementary) Seminarium (Advanced)	4 —	12 —	4 2	18 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	48		144
Drury College, Springfield, Mo.	Elementary Course	5	6	5	12
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	30		60
Emory College, Oxford, Ga.	Jevons’ Text, and Lectures.	—	—	5	12
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		60
Franklin and Marshall College.	Political Economy, (Walker’s)	2	15	2	20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	30		40
Georgetown College, Ky.	1. General Economics 2. Special Topics	5 —	15 —	3 3	20 20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	75		120
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.	1. Introductory 2. Theory (Advanced) 3. Economic History from 1763 4. Railway Transportation 5. Tariff History of U.S. 6. Taxation and Public Debts 7. Financial Hist. of U.S. 8. Condition of Workingmen 9. Economic Hist. to 1763 10. History of Theory to Adam Smith Seminary	3 3 — — — — — — — — —	30 30 — — — — — — — — —	3 3 3 3 2 3 2 3 3 2 2	30 30 30 15 15 30 15 30 30 15 30
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	180		735
Haverford College, Pa.	Economic Theory	—	—	2	40
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		80
Howard University, Washington, D. C.	Elementary	5	10	5	10
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	50		50
Illinois College and Whipple Academy, Jacksonville, Ill.	Newcomb’s Polit. Economy, Seniors	—	—	5	15
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		75
University of Illinois, Champaign, Ill.	Senior Class	5	11	5	11
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	55		55
Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa.	Political Economy Taxation Railroad Problems Socialism	5 — — —	10 — — —	3 3 3 3	37 14 12 11
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	50		222
State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.	Elements of Economics Currency and Banking Industrial Revolutions of 18^thCentury Recent Econ. History and Theory Railroads, Pub. Regulation of Seminary in Polit. Econ.	5 — — — — —	14 — — — — —	5 5 2 2 2 1	14 11 14 11 10 35
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	70		230
Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kan.	Elementary, 4^th year	5	8	5	11
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	40		55
Kansas State University, Lawrence, Kansas.	1. Elements of Political Economy 2. Applied Economics 3. Statistics 4. Land Tenures 5. Finance	5 — — — —	19 — — — —	5 3 2 2 2	19 19 19 19 19
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	95		266
Lake Forest University, Lake Forest, Ill.	1. Elementary 2. Advanced	3 —	11 —	3 3	16 13
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	33		87
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass.	1. Political Economy, Elem., Junior Year 2. Financial Hist. of U.S., Jun. and Sen. Year 3. Taxation, Junior and Senior Year 4. History of Commerce 5. History of Industry, Junior and Senior Year. 6. Socialism, etc. (Option), Jun. and Sen. Year 7. History of Economic Theory (Opt.), Senior 8. Statistics and Graphic Methods, Junior 9. Statistics and Sociology (Option) Senior	2 — — — — — — — —	15 — — — — — — — —	3 3 3 3 — 3 2 2 3	15 15 15 15 — 15 15 15 15
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	30		375
Michigan Agricultural College.	Primary Course	—	—	5	12
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		60
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.	1. Elements of Political Economy 2. Elements of Political Economy 3. Hist. Devel. of Industr. Society 4. Finance 5. Problems in Pol. Econ 6. Transportation Problem 7. Land Tenure and Agrarian Movements 8. Socialism and Communism 9. Currency and Banking 10. Tariff History of U.S. 11. Indust. and Comm. Develop. of U.S. 12. History of Pol. Econ. 13. Statistics 15. Economic Thought 16. Labor and Monopoly Problems 17. Seminary in Finance 18. Seminary in Economics 20. Social Philosophy with Economic Relations 21. Current Econ. Legislation and Literature	2½ — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —	18 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —	3 4 3 4 4 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 1 2	18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	45		756
Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont.	1. Elementary (Junior Class) 2. Advanced (Senior Class) 3. Finance (Senior Class) 4. Seminary	4 4 — —	10 10 — —	3 2 2 1	35 21 14 21
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	80		196
University of Minnesota.	1. Elementary 2. Advanced 3. Am. Pub. Economy 4. Undergraduate Seminary 5. Graduate Seminary	5 — — — —	13 — — — —	4 4 4 2 1	13 13 10 23 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	65		226
University of Mississippi, University, Miss.	Advanced	—	—	5	30
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		150
Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass.	Polit. Econ. (General) Polit. Econ. Seminary	— —	— —	4 2	12 12
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		72
College of New Jersey at Princeton.	Pol. Econ. (Elem., Elective) Pol. Econ. (Elem., Required) Finance (Elective) Historics—Econ. Semin.	2 — — —	13 — — —	— 2 2 2	— 16 16 15
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	26		94
College of the City of New York.		—	—	—	16
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		48^*
New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Hanover, N. H.	Elementary—Perry or Walker	4	10-12	5	10
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	48		50
Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.	1. Elementary Polit. Econ. 2. Advanced Polit. Econ. 3. Finance 4. History Econ. Thought 5. Economic and Social Problems 6. “Money,” etc.	5 — — — — —	12 — — — — —	5 5 3 3 3 2	11 12 25 13 12 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	60		337
Ohio State University.	Elementary Advanced Finance Seminary (Indust. History)	— — — —	— — — —	2 2 2 2	38 26 12 38
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		228
Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio.		4	12	4	12
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	48		48
Penn. Military Academy, Chester, Penn.	Elementary	—	—	5	13
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		65
University of Pennsylvania, Wharton, School of Finance and Economy, Philadelphia, Penn.	1. Grad. Course in Finance 2. Grad. Course in Theoretical Polit. Econ. 3. Grad. Course in Statistics 4. Elem. Course in Finance 5. Elem. Course in Theoret. Polit. Econ. 6. Elem. Course in Statistics 7. Elem. Course in Practical Polit. Econ. 8. Course in Money 9. Course in Banking 10. Advanced Course in Political Economy 11. Economic History of Europe 12. Grad. Course in Practical Polit. Econ. 13. Econ. and Fin. History of U.S. 14. Grad. Econ. History of the U.S. 15. Grad. English Econ. History from 13^th to 17^th century 16. Modern Econ. History.	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —	1 2 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 2 3 2 2 4 3 3	30 30 30 30 30 15 15 15 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		1020
Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.	Elementary Course	—	—	3	19
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		57
Randolph Macon College, Ashland, Va.	Elementary	2	32	2	32
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	64		64
University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y.	Elementary Econ. Polit. History U.S.	5 —	14 —	5 1	14 20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	70		90
Rutger’s College.	Polit. Econ. (Elementary)	3	12	4	22
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	36		88
Smith College, Northampton, Mass.	Elementary Course Adv. Course in Theory Seminarium Practical Studies	3 — — —	12 — — —	3 3 2 2	14 14 10 12
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	36		128
South Carolina College, Columbia, S.C.	Polit. Econ. Senior Class Applied Polit. Econ.	— —	— —	2 2	40 20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		120
Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Penn.	Polit. Econ. (Walker) Finance Protection and Free Trade Money and Banking History of Econ. Theories	— — — — —	— — — — —	4 4 4 4 4	20 10 10 10 10
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		240
Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.	Elementary Finance Industrial Development since 1850 Seminary	— — — —	— — — —	3 2 2 2	14 10 12 38
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		162
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.	Elementary Advanced (Post-Graduate)	— —	— —	3 2	20 Varies
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		100?
University of Texas, Austin, Texas.	General	—	—	3	36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		108
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.	Elementary Advanced Finance	4 — —	13 — —	3 4 2	17 17 17
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	52		153
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.	Political Economy, Elementary Political Economy, Advanced	3 —	36 —	3 3	36 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	108		216
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York.	Principles of Economics Economic History Railroads, Trusts, and Relation of State to Monopolies Labor Problem and Socialism Seminary	— — — — —	— — — — —	3 3 2 2 2	18 18 18 18 18
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		216
University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont.	Elementary Advanced	— —	— —	3 2	20 20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		100
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.	Theory of Economics Science of Society	3 —	26 —	3 2½	16 16
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	78		88
Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pa.	Political Economy	3	11	3	16
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	33		48
Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.	Elementary Advanced	— —	— —	3 3	14 26
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		120
Washington University, St. Louis.	Prescribed Course	3	20	3	20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	60		60
Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.	Industrial History Economic Theory Statistics (Seminary) Socialism (Seminary)	— — — —	— — — —	3 3 3 3	18 18 18 18
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		216
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.	General Introductory (Sen.) General Introductory (Jun.) Economic Problems	1½ — —	36 — —	2 3 2	36 18 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	54		198
West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia.	Elementary Pol. Economy Advanced Pol. Economy	— —	— —	2 2	14 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		100
Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.	Political Economy	6	14	3	15
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	84		45
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.	Econ. Seminary Distribution of Wealth History of Pol. Econ. Money Public Finance Statistics Recent Econ. Theories Synoptical Lectures Outlines of Economics	— — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — —	2 5 5 5 3 3 3 1 4	37 14½ 12 10½ 37 12 14½ 15 37
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		612½
Yale University, New Haven, Conn.	Pol. Econ.**—Elem. (2) Pol. Econ.—Adv. (3) Economic History (2) Finance, Public (2) Finance, Corporate (2) Mathematical Theory (1) Seminary Instruction (2)	3 2 — — — —	36 36 36 — — — —	4 3 4 2 3 1 1	36 36 36 36 36 36 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	180		648

_{* [College of the City of New York] A few hours additional are given in the work of the Department of Philosophy; the whole number amounting to some 52 or 53.}

_{** [Yale University] Figures in brackets represent numbers of courses under each head.}

Source: Appendix I to “The Study of Political Economy in the United States” by J. Laurence Laughlin, The Journal of Political Economy, vol. 1, no. 1 (December, 1892), pp. 143-151.

Image Source: J. Laurence Laughlin drawn in the University of Chicago yearbook Cap and Gown (1907), p. 208.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Year-end exam on Practical Economic Questions. Laughlin, 1884

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-09-28

The 1883-84 academic year at Harvard marked a notable expansion in economics course offerings. That year the third course (on practical economic questions) was taught by J. Laurence Laughlin. According to the brief description included in the annual report of the Harvard College President, it appears that the first semester was devoted to “the general question of Bimetallism”. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet found the mid-year final examination for the first semester. However, I have found a copy of the end-of-year final exam covering government policy regarding sea transportation and paper currency. Those questions have been transcribed and are included below.

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Course Enrollment

Political Economy 3. Prof. Laughlin. Discussion of Practical Economic Questions. — Theses and lectures on the general question of Bimetallism, on its history, and on the production of gold and silver. — Lectures on the Navigation Laws and American shipping, and on the relative advantages of government issues and national bank notes.

Total 7: 1 Graduate, 6 Seniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1883-1884, p. 71

_____________________

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Year-end Examination. June 1884]

Discuss the effects of the English Navigation Acts of 1651 on English and Dutch shipping.
Explain the following terms: enumerated articles, Pacte colonial, droit de tonnage, surtaxe de pavillon, surtaxe d’entrepôt.
Describe the causes which led to the American Navigation Laws. State some of the existing anomalies in their provisions.
To what do you ascribe the decline of our merchant marine? What is our position in regard to wooden sailing vessels since 1869?
Discuss the argument that so long as foreigners carry our goods, this country is paying them a tribute for freight which is an utter loss to us.
In looking at the history of the issues of paper money by the two United States Banks and the State Banks, which have furnished the safest currency? Why?
Describe the workings of the New York Banking Act of 1838, and its results. Of what was this legislation the natural outcome?
In the provisions of the National Banking Act of 1864, what are the exact provisions as to immediate, and ultimate redemption of notes? Is convertibility secured?
Explain the operations by which the national banks can now contract their issues. Does this furnish an “elastic currency” since the passage of the Free Banking Law?
Discuss the main disadvantages of a government paper money. By what interpretation of the Constitution has the recent decision of the Supreme Court declared the post-bellum issues constitutional?
What are the merits of the Potter Bill now pending in the present Congress?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1883-1886. Papers set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1884), pp. 9-10.

Image Source: Portrait (1885-88) of James Lawrence Laughlin. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Transfer from the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for the three courses in political economy. Laughlin and Taussig, 1882-1883

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-08-19

After Professor Charles Dunbar stepped down from his Harvard Deanship, he took sabbatical leave to go to Europe in 1882-83. Frank William Taussig was appointed instructor to help J. Laurence Laughlin cover the three course offerings for political economy that year. In Taussig’s course scrapbook in the Harvard archive, we find that he listed grades for 71 students in Political Economy 1 (1882-83), i.e., about half of the reported enrollment for that course. Thus we may presume that Laughlin and Taussig taught separate sections of the course with a common final examination.

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Course Announcements

Political Economy.

1. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on Banking and the Financial Legislation of the United States. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Mr. Taussig and Dr. Laughlin .

2. Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — History of Political Economy. – McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science. — Lectures. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2. Dr. Laughlin.

As a preparation for Course 2, it is necessary to have passed satisfactorily in Course 1.

3. Economic Effects of Land Tenures in England, Ireland, France, Germany, and Russia. Once a week, counting as a half-course. Dr. Laughlin.

Source: The Harvard University Catalogue, 1882-83, pp. 89-90.

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Course Enrollments

1. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures. Dr. Laughlin and Mr. Taussig.

Total 155: 1 Graduate, 22 Seniors, 113 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 6 Others. 3 hours/week.

2. Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — History of Political Economy. — McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science. — Lectures. Dr. Laughlin. 3 hours/week.

Total 35: 2 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Other.

3. Studies in Land Tenures of England, Ireland, and France. — Theses. Dr. Laughlin. 1 hour/week.

Total 7: 1 Graduate, 6 Seniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1882-1883, p. 66.

______________________________

Course Examinations

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-year 1882-83

I.
(Answer briefly all of the following.)

What distinction does Mill draw between productive and unproductive labor? Discuss the value of this distinction. Distinguish between productive and unproductive consumption.
What is the distinction between fixed and circulating capital? Is money part of the fixed or of the circulating capital of a country? Why?
What are the classes among whom the produce is divided? Are these classes necessarily or usually represented in as many different sets of persons? How could you classify the peasant proprietor?
Of what commodities are the values governed by the law of cost of production? Explain the process by which that law operates.
“Rent does not enter into the cost of production of agricultural produce.” Explain.
What regulates the value of an inconvertible paper currency? What cause it to depreciate? Discuss briefly the results of depreciation.
Arrange the following items on the proper sides of the account:—

Circulation	315.0
Due to Bans	259.9
Legal Tender Notes	63.2
Loans	1,243.2
Bond for circulation	357.6
Due from Banks	198.9
Deposits	1,134.9
Specie	102.9

Compute just how much circulation is permitted by our laws; and give in figures both the (1) reserve required at 25%, and the (2) difference between the actual and required reserve, on the basis of the above account.

Compare the plans of our National Bank system with those of the Bank of England and the Imperial Bank of Germany in regard to the security of note-issues.

II.
(Answer more fully three of the following.)

What are the constituent elements of what Mill calls “profits”? Explain what is meant in common language by the word “profits,” and discuss the nature of profits in this sense.
“The laws of the production of wealth partake of the nature of physical truths…It is not so with the distribution of wealth. That is a matter of human institution solely.” Explain the distinction, and show its connection with the subjects of communism and socialism.
Mention the methods by which it is attempted to keep gold and silver concurrently in circulation. Explain why “a double standard is alternately a single standard.” Does this tend to be the case now in the United States?
Distinguish between real and proportional wages, and illustrate the distinction. In what sense is the word wages used when it is said that the profits depend on wages, rising as wages fall, and falling as wages rise?
It is not a difference in the absolute cost of production which determines the international cost of exchange, but a difference in the comparative” Explain this proposition, and apply it to the trade between the United States and European countries. Is the trade between tropical and temperate countries based, in the main, on a difference of absolute or of comparative cost?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound volume Examination Papers, 1881-83. Papers Set for Mid-Year Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (February, 1883), pp. 8-10.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-end 1882-1883

I.
(Take all of this group.)

Explain what is meant by a bill of exchange. What causes bills on a foreign country to be at a premium or discount? Show in what way the premium (or discount) is prevented from going beyond a certain point.
Is there any connection between the rate of interest and the abundance or scarcity of money? Explain and illustrate the following: “The rate of interest determines the price of land and of securities.”
Describe the three different kinds of cooperation, and say something of the success attained by each. What are the two classes of distributive cooperation, and wherein do they differ?
Show under what circumstances the increase of capital brings about the tendency of profits to fall. What influences counteract this tendency?
Explain what is meant by the rapidity of circulation of money. What is the effect of great rapidity of circulation on prices and on the value of money? What is the effect of the use of credit? Mention the more important methods in which credit is used as a substitute for money.

II.
(Omit one of this group.)

Discuss the effect of the introduction of a new article of export from a given country on the course of the foreign exchanges in that country, on the flow of specie, and on the terms of international trade (i.e. on international values).
What are the causes which enable one country to undersell another? Do low wages, or a low cost of labor, form one of those causes?
Discuss the immediate and the ultimate effects on rents of the introduction of agricultural improvements. Do those ultimate effects which Mill describes necessarily take place?
What is the immediate and what the ultimate incidence of a tax on houses? Show in what manner the incidence of a tax on building-ground differs, according as the tax is specific (so much on the unit of surface), or rated (so much on the value).

III.
(Omit one of this group.)

Describe the situation which caused the banks in the United States to suspend specie payments in 1861.
What is the difference between bonds and Treasury notes? Name and explain the different kinds of bonds issued during the war.
Explain the causes which made possible the great sales of five-twenty bonds in 1863.
What arguments were advanced for the continuance of the National Bank System in 1882?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound volume Examination Papers, 1881-83. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1883), pp. 7-8.

______________________________

Course Examinations

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-year 1882-83

Give a careful statement of Mr. Cairnes’s theory of market and normal value.
How far is it right to suppose that the competition of (1) capital and (2) of labor is effective?
Explain and discuss the statement that “the wages-fund expands as the supply of labor contracts, and contracts as the supply expands.”
Agricultural products in England are as dear as one hundred years ago; in the meantime there has been extraordinary industrial progress. What conclusion is to be drawn as to the increase of wages and profits from the first fact, and who has ultimately gained by the second?
Mill thinks that, although “the great efficiency of English labor is the chief cause why the precious metals are obtained at less cost by England,” the “somewhat higher range of general prices in England” is accounted for by the foreign demand, and the unbulky character of her commodities.
What different explanation is offered by Mr. Cairnes?
Examine the following:—
“It seems to me that protection is absolutely essential to the encouragement of capital, and equally necessary for the protection of the American laborer….He must have good food, enough of it, good clothing, school-houses for his children, comforts for his home, and a fair chance to improve his condition. To this end I would protect him against competition with the half-paid laborers of European countries.”— Cong. Globe.
If there should be a considerable falling off in the foreign demand for the products of one group of industries, such as our bread-stuffs, how would that affect wages in this country?
What is the argument against the theory that the Bank of England brought about resumption of specie payments in England in 1821 by a contraction of its note-issues?
In what period in the history of economic doctrines would you place the writer of the following passage?
“The strength of a community declines with increase in the rate of interest. That increase results from efflux of the precious metals.” Explain.
Comment on the main doctrines held by Cantillon and Storch.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end 1882-1883

[Do not change the order of the questions.]

Examine the following doctrine:—
“If invention and improvement still go on, the efficiency of labor will be further increased, and the amount of labor and capital necessary to produce a further increased, and the amount of labor and capital necessary to produce a given result further diminished. The same causes will lead to the utilization of this new gain in productive power for the production of more wealth; the margin of cultivation will be again extended, and rent will increase, both in proportion and amount, without any increase in wages and interest. And so,…will…rent constantly increase, though population should remain stationary.”—Henry George, Progress and Poverty (p. 226).
What is meant by the “comparative costs of production,” on which international values are said to depend, and how is that dependence to be reconciled with the fact that any given sale of goods is found to be an independent transaction, determined by the price of the commodity?
How does the doctrine of reciprocal demand between different industries apply to the argument in favor of a diversity of employments in a new country, as laid down by Hamilton in his Report on Manufactures?
Of the economic doctrines generally accepted to-day which would you consider as having originated with Adam Smith?
Discuss the following words of Mr. Carey:—
“From 1810 to 1815 mills and furnaces were built, but with the return of peace, their owners…were everywhere ruined…From 1828 to 1834, such establishments were again erected, and the metallic treasures of the earth were being everywhere developed; but, as before, the protective system was again abandoned, with ruin to the manufacturers.” (Vol. II, p. 224.)
Explain the relation, in Mr. Carey’s system, between “wealth,” “utility,” “value,” and “capital.” State clearly the “harmony of interests” between labor and capital, and the connection of this with the wages question.
Point out Mr. Carey’s objections to the doctrine of Malthus. How far does his position on this question affect his acceptance of Ricardo’s law of rent?
Discuss the following statement:—
“If such [a] league be formed on a permanent basis between a considerable number of important commercial countries, even though it does not embrace all countries, the relative value of gold and silver will be kept close to the mint ratio so established.”—A.Walker, Political Economy (p. 408).
Examine this position:—
“The rent of mines is not governed wholly by the economic law of rent which, as stated, has reference to the native and indestructible powers of the soil….By the very nature of such deposits [i.e. in mines], the enjoyment of mining privileges diminishes the sum of the mineral in existence. The mine may be ‘worked out’ in ten years or in twenty….The rent must be increased sufficiently to compensate for the ultimate exhaustion of the deposits: the destruction of the value of the estate.”
Describe the form in which Germany actually received the payment of the indemnity from France.

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Course Examinations

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-year 1882-83

What is the usual legal conception of property in the increased value of land? How far is this justified?
In the claims of tenants for compensation for unexhausted improvements what weight do you give to the argument of landlords that legislation on this subject would be an interference with freedom of contract?
What was the Agricultural Holdings Act of 1875? What were its results?
Discuss the present length of leases in England, and compare with that of a century ago. Are there any political causes affecting the question?
What is the aim of the Registration of Titles Act of 1875? What is the system of transferring property in England now actually in use?
State some of the effects of the practice of entails on the application of capital to land. Point out how this question has been discussed in its relation to wages.
What change has been going on in the character of English agriculture within the last thirty years? What influences do you attribute to American competition in this matter?
In the depression of English agricultural interests, which class connected with the land seems to have suffered most?
What has been the relation of the agricultural laborer to the land, and how far has it been possible for him to improve his position?
It is said that farmers can use their capital more profitably in farming hired land than in sinking it in the purchase of the soil. What do you think on the advantages to the cultivators of owning the land in England?

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Year-end 1882-1883

State what you believe to be the most important effects of the Repeal of the Corn Laws upon agriculture and the present system of land-holding in England.
It has been asserted that “a peasant population, raising their own wages from the soil, and consuming them in kind, are universally acted upon very feebly by internal checks, or by motives disposing them to restraint. The consequence is, that unless some external cause, quite independent of their will, forces such peasant cultivators to slacken their rate of increase, they will, in a limited territory, very rapidly approach a state of want and penury, and will be stopped at last only by the physical impossibility of procuring subsistence.” What testimony on this question is offered by the experience of France and Germany?
How does absenteeism (1) affect the production of agricultural wealth? (2) Does it modify the laws of distribution?
Give an explanation of the fact that in Ireland custom forces the tenant, not the landlord, to carry out the improvements on the soil. How far does this affect the question of compensation for unexhausted improvements.
To what do you ascribe the “land-hunger” and rack-rents in Ireland? Why have manufactures not aided the agricultural classes, as they have in the north of England?
What were the “Bright clauses” of the Irish Land Act of 1870, and their results? Describe briefly the provisions of the Irish Land Act of 1881.
In view of new legislation in favor of English tenants, it is stated by the journals that to-day the Irish stands on a better legal footing than the English tenant. If this is true, point out the different advantages by the former.
Under the old régime in France it is clear not only that there were many peasant proprietors, but also that agriculture was not flourishing. What other economic forces were at work, and what causes would you assign as the ones unfavorable to agriculture?
What were the facts as to the increase of population (1) under the old régime, and (2) after the extension of small holdings? What light does this throw on the Irish land question?
Discuss the evils supposed to arise from the French law of equal partition of property among the heirs at the death of the owner.
Describe briefly the reforms of Stein and Hardenberg in the land legislation of Germany. What parallel is drawn between this plan and the course followed by France?

Image Source: Harvard Library, Hollis Images. James Laurence Laughlin (left) and Frank W. Taussig (right).

Tags Dunbar, Laughlin, Taussig

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Examinations for both political economy courses. Dunbar and Laughlin, 1881-1882

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-08-19

Course offerings in economics at Harvard were pretty meager at the start of the 1880s. Two instructors covered two courses in 1881-82. Professor Charles Dunbar was serving his last year as Dean which probably explains why a young Ph.D., J. L. Laughlin (Harvard PhD, 1876), was even needed to share the burden of teaching the large introductory course.

Note: the mid-year examinations appeared to have been missed during my last visit to the Harvard archives, so I’ll need to try to fill that gap during a future visit.

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Course Announcement

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
ELECTIVE COURSES.

1. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Financial Legislation of the United States.—Lectures. Three times a week. Professor Dunbar and Dr. Laughlin.

Course 1 may be taken twice a week, if notice to that effect is given in advаnсе.

2. Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy.—Giffen’s Essays in Finance.—Lectures. Three times a week. Professor Dunbar.

As a preparation for Course 2, it is necessary to have passed satisfactorily in Course 1 (three hours).

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1881-82, p. 84.

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Course Enrollments

Political Econ. 1. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.— Lectures on Banking and the Financial Legislation of the United States (3 hours, 2 sections). Prof. Dunbar and Dr. Laughlin.

Total 147: 23 Seniors, 97 Juniors, 17 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 8 Others.

Political Econ. 2. Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy.— Giffen’s Essays in Finance.— Lectures and Theses. (3 hours, 1 section). Prof. Dunbar.

Total 32: 2 Graduates, 21 Seniors 9 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1881-82, p. 5.

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Course Examination

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-end 1881-1882

(Omit one question from each group.)

I.

What conclusion is reached by Mr. Mill respecting the objections to the use of labor-saving machinery?
Are railway shares, stocks of wine, wheat, munitions of war, and land considered capital, or not?
Explain fully why it is that capitalists cannot compensate themselves for a general high cost of labor through any action on values and prices.
What determines the rate of interest on loanable funds? Is the “current [or ordinary] rate of interest the measure of the relative abundance or scarcity of capital”?

II.

How is it that some agricultural capital pays rent, even if resort is not had to different grades of land?
What connection exists between the rate of wages in any country and the productiveness of its soil?
Explain what is meant by the tendency of profits to a minimum, and by the stationary state.
In what cases would duties on imported commodities fall on the producers?

III.

What are the reasons for the change in the normal values of manufactured and of agricultural commodities, respectively, during the progress of society?
In trying to explain high prices (as at the present time), point out what other factor than quantity of money is to be taken into account. As a matter of fact, how does the importation of specie enter the channels of trade and affect prices?
Why is it necessary to make any different statements of the laws of value for foreign than for domestic products? What is the law of international value?
In what way are gold and silver distributed among the different trading countries? Between different parts of the same country?

IV.

How did depreciation of the currency facilitate the sale of five-twenty bonds in 1863-64?
What advantage did the government obtain by giving the five-twenty form to so many of its bonds?
What provision was made in the original National Bank Act as to reserves to protect circulation and deposits, and what reserves are now required by law
In what cases can payments be legally made in greenbacks and in national bank-notes respectively?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1914, Box 2, Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1881-83. Annual Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1882), pp. 7-8.

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Course Examination

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end 1881-1882

In answering the questions do not change their order.

What is the reason for Adam Smith’s proposition that “the price of corn, in the progress of society, reaches a maximum, beyond which it cannot advance”? Can you work out the same result by a different course of reasoning from that given by Cairnes?
Explain the statement that “the high scale of industrial remuneration in America, instead of being evidence of a high cost of production in that country, is distinctly evidence of a low cost of production.”
If the common saying that “the value of gold is the same all the world over” has no foundation, how does a supply of new gold distribute itself over all countries and over all commodities in each country?
Malthus, Ricardo, Mill, Cairnes:—State their relation to each other in the development of economic science.
How did the payment of the French indemnity to Germany affect the economic condition of Austria and of the United States?
In a speech made in April, 1876, Senator Sherman says that, after the introduction of the gold standard by Germany in 1873 and the limitation of the coinage of silver by the Latin Union,—
“A struggle for the possession of gold at once arose between all the great nations, because everybody could see that if $3,200,000,000 of silver coin were demonetized, and $3,500,000,000 of gold coin made the sole standard, it would enormously add to the value of gold, and the Bank of France, the Bank of England and the Imperial Bank of Germany at once commenced grasping for gold in whatever form. Therefore, what we have observed recently is not so much a fall of silver as it is a rise of gold, the inevitable effect of a fear of the demonetization of silver.”
In what form would the process of “grasping for gold” manifest itself, and how do the facts bear out the above statement?
To what extent is it, in the long run, a misfortune for England that her agriculture should be in part superceded by supplies of cheap food poured in from America?
State your views as to the economic significance and probable permanence of the present excess of exports from the United States.
How is the supposed accumulation of capital by England in the period from 1875 to 1881 to be reconciled.
(1), with the great depression of business for most of the time;
(2), with the remarkable excess of imports?
Examine the reasoning of the following extract:—
“About $11,000,000 is now spent in the United States annually for new ships, wooden and iron, and about $2,000,000 more for the repair of old ones….Under a policy of government encouragement, expenditures for iron and wooden ships would be increased at least to $40,000,000 a year….[and] the expenditures for American labor and supplies, in operating the ships, would be increased by $10,000,000 or $15,000,000, perhaps considerably more. That is to say, there would then be expended in the United States an immense sum of money not now expended, which might be as large as $40,000,000, which would diffuse itself throughout the community, and bless and quicken every department of human industry. Best of all, the money, thus spent, would be principally obtained from the foreigner. It would come from the earnings of the ships, which, in the export trade at least, are paid by consumers in foreign lands. In the import trade the money is paid by consumers here and is carried away from the country. The larger part of the money, therefore, would be a pure gain to the United States…These lines would save to the country at least one half of the $50,000,000 of freight money now paid on imported goods, and they would earn at least one half of the large sum paid by foreign nations on the goods exported from this country. Then, they would give encouragement to tens thousands more of American citizens on land and sea.”

Image Source: Harvard Library, Hollis Images. Charles F. Dunbar (left) and James Laurence Laughlin (right).

Tags Dunbar, Laughlin

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for Elementary, Full, and Advanced Political Economy. 1880-81

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-07-29

This post reaches back to the early years of Harvard’s (then) department of political economy. A grand total of three courses were offered in 1880-81. The textbooks of choice were Mill’s Principles of Political Economy and Cairnes’ Leading Principles of Political Economy. Some links to the chapters/sections cited are included below.

1879-80 Harvard Exams in Political Economy

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Harvard College Courses
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

The Elements of Political Economy.—Financial Legislation of the United States.—Lectures. Twice a week. Professor Dunbar and Dr. Laughlin.
Course 1 is intended for students who desire to pursue the study for only one year.
Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. —Financial Legislation of the United States. —Lectures. Three times a week. Professor Dunbar and Dr. Laughlin.
Courses 1 and 2 cannot be taken together, nor can either be taken by any student who has taken the other.
Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. —McLeod’s Elements of Banking. —Bastiat’s Harmonies Economiques. —Lectures. Three times a week. Professor Dunbar.
Students proposing to take course 3 must first consult the Instructor.

Source: The Harvard University Catalogue, 1880-81, pp. 82-83.

Harvard Graduate Department
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Public Finance. —Leroy-Beaulieu’s Science des Finances. Once a week. Professor Dunbar.

Source: The Harvard University Catalogue, 1880-81, pp. 192. [apparently not taught in 1880-81 according to the Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1880-81, p. 62.]

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Political Economy Course Enrollments
1880-1881

				No. of Sec-tions	Hours per week for stu-dents	Hours per week for instruct-tors
Prof. Dunbar and Dr. Laughlin	Political Econ. 1	Elementary Course.—Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures	22 Total: 7 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, 2 Others.	1	2	2
Prof. Dunbar and Dr. Laughlin	Political Econ. 2	Full Course.—Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures on Currency and the Financial Legislation of the United States	100 Total: 13 Seniors, 73 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 1 Other.	2	3	6
Prof. Dunbar	Political Econ. 3	Advanced Course.—Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy.—Giffen’s Essays in Finance.—Lectures	12 Total: 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Law.	1	3	3

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1880-1881, p. 49.

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The John Stuart Mill’s Principles:
textbook of Harvard choice

Most likely edition of John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy used at Harvard was a New York reprint of the London 5th edition. It corresponds to the pages given for the mid-year exam in Political Economy 1 from 1879-80.

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Final Examinations
Mid-Year and End-Year, 1880-1881

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Mid-Year Examination, 1880-81 with references to J. S. Mill]

Explain the following terms: Real Wages, Fixed Capital, Allowance System, Margin of Cultivation, Price, Demand, Medium of Exchange, Seignorage, Value of Money, and Bill of Exchange.
In what way would a general demand for luxuries effect productive laborers, and the wealth of the community? ( I., ch. v, §5)
State the laws which regulate the permanent and temporary values of agricultural products.
How far does the law of Demand and Supply govern the value of money? ( III., ch. ii., §5.)
Explain the following statement: “It is true, the absolute wages paid have no effect upon values; but neither has the absolute quantity of labor.” ( III., ch. iv., §3.)
Show how Gresham’s Law is illustrated by the history of the currency in the United States between 1834-1873.
What are the different forms assumed by credit? What are their relative effects on prices? ( III., chs. xi. and xii.)
State the doctrine of Comparative Cost. What is the advantage of international trade to the production of a country?
What determines the value of imported commodities?
Describe the issue of assignats, and point out the mistakes committed.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Papers Set for Mid-year Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (February, 1881) included in the bound volume Examination Papers, 1880-81, pp. 14-15.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Final, Year-End Examination, 1880-81, with references to J. S. Mill]

Define Supply, Value of Money, Productive Consumption, Cost of Production, Cost of Labor, Exchange Value, Law of Production from Land, Rate of Profit, Capital, and Gresham’s Law.
Explain fully whether you consider that United States bonds are capital or not. (Book I., ch. 4, §3.)
(1) What is the lowest rate of profit which can permanently exist?
(2) Why is this minimum variable? (Book II., ch. xv., §2.)
(1) What connection exists between the Price of agricultural products and the amount of Rent paid?
(2) Can rent affect the Price?
Explain carefully the following:—
“The average value of gold is made to conform to its natural value in the same manner as the values of other things are made to conform to their natural value.” (Book III., [ch. ix] §2.)
State the conditions under which International Trade can permanently exist. (Book III., ch xvii.) What will be the ultimate effect of a large movement of foreign gold upon Prices, Imports, and Exports in the receiving country?
How does the general rate of interest determine the selling price of stocks and land? (Book III., ch. xxiii., §5.)
Point out carefully the connection of money wages with the productive power of the land cultivated by a community. (Book III., ch. xxvi. §1.)
What is the general effect of the progress of society on the land-owner, the capitalist, and the laborer? (Book IV., chs. ii., iii., iv.)
On whom does a tax of a fixed proportion of agricultural produce fall? (Book V., ch. iv., §3.)
Describe the leading provisions of the national bank system, as they now exist, in regard to (1) the security for notes; (2) reserves; redemption of notes; (3) aggregate limit of circulation; (4) gold banks; (5) and state the important changes made since the passage of the original act. (6) Compare our system with that of the Bank of England.
State the provisions of the Resumption Act, and the circumstances which made it easy to resume specie payment at the date fixed upon

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Papers Set for Annual Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1881) included in the bound volume Examination Papers, 1880-81, pp. 10-11.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Mid-Year Examination, 1880-81, with references to J. S. Mill]

In answering the Questions, do not change their order.
In all cases give the reasons for your answer.

Is an actor to be classed as a productive laborer? The inventor of a machine? A confectioner?
If in a country like this a large amount of capital becomes fixed in the building of railroads, what effect will this change taken by itself have upon the laboring class, supposing the capital to be (1) domestic, or (2) borrowed wholly or in part from abroad?
How do banks help forward the tendency of profits to equivalent rates in different employments?
To what extent is it true that “wages (meaning money wages) vary with the price of food, rising when it rises, and falling when it falls.” [Book II., ch. xi. §2]
What determines
1. the general rate of wages in a country,
2. the relative rates of wages in different employments?
How is it shown that “rent does not really form any part of the expenses of production or of the advances of the capitalist?” [Book II., ch. xvi. §6]
How are we to reconcile these two passages from Book III., ch. IV.:—
1. “High general profits cannot any more than high general wages, be a cause of high values.” (§4.)
2. “Every rise or fall of general profits will have an effect on values.” (§5.)
What is the system upon which the small silver currency of the United States is coined and issued?
What will be the effect if the circulating medium of a country is increased beyond its natural amount,
1. when the medium is coin?
2. when it is coin and convertible paper?
3. when it is inconvertible paper?
Why does the increase or diminution of the reserve of a bank affect its ability to lend?
What is the plan of the National Banks of the United States and of the Bank of England respectively, as regards (1) the ultimate redemption, and (2) the convertibility, of their notes?
Arrange the following resources and liabilities of the Bank of England in the proper form, separating the Issue and the Banking Departments:—

Notes Issued	£41.5	Government Securities	£14.2
Other Deposits	27.9	Reserve	9.4
Other Securities (Loans)	27.9	Public Deposits	5.6
Coin and Bullion	26.5	Rest	3.2
Government Debt, &c.	15.0	Seven-day Bills	0.3
Capital	14.5

Having arranged the account, show what changes would be made in it, if the Bank increased its loans by 3 millions, and sold 1 million of government securities, and if depositors at the same time withdrew 2 millions to be sent abroad.

**If you have time, state any difficulty which you find in Ricardo’s doctrine of rent.**

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Final, Year-End Examination, 1880-81, with a link to J. S. Mill]

One question may be omitted from each of the four groups.

Show carefully the distinction between wages, cost of labor and cost of production.
Why is it that a potential change of the supply of other commodities is enough to make their value conform to any change in their cost of production, but that in the case of gold and silver the change of supply must be actual?
What is the error involved in the assumption frequently made by writers and public speakers, that the currency of a country ought to increase in like ratio with its wealth and population?
What effect does the great durability of gold and silver have upon the value of money?

II.

Explain the incidence of taxes laid on wages.
Explain what effect, if any, will be produced on the price of corn by,
1. a tax upon rent;
2. a tithe;
3. a tax of so much per acre, irrespective of value;
4. a tax of so much per bushel.
What is the meaning of the statement that “it is not a difference in the absolute cost of production, which determines the interchange [of commodities between countries], but a difference in the comparative cost.” [Book III., ch. xvii, §2.]
Why does cost of production fail to determine the value of commodities brought from a foreign country? Does it also fail in the case of commodities brought from distant parts of the same country?

III.

What effect is produced upon rents, profits and wages, respectively, in a country where population is stationary and capital advancing, like France?
Explain the doctrine of the tendency of profits to a minimum, the cause of that tendency, and the circumstances which counteract it.

IV.

Explain the changes in the amount of greenbacks outstanding, beginning at February, 1868.
Describe the provisions of the national bank system, as they now exist, and compare them with those of the Bank of England, in regard to (1) the security of notes; (2) reserves; (3) redemption of notes; (4) aggregate limit of circulation; (5) gold banks.
State the provisions of the Resumption Act, and the circumstances which made it easy to resume specie payment at the date fixed upon.
What was the difference between the five-twenty bonds and the six per cents. of 1881 (Act of July, 1861)? Why was it good policy for the government to issue such a large proportion of the former?

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Mid-Year Examination, 1880-81, with references to Cairnes, et al.]

Do not change the order of the questions.

“No article is dearer than another simply in virtue of the skill bestowed upon it.” What then is the relation of skill to value? [J. E. Cairnes. Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (1874), p. 76]
What is the argument for the proposition that the price of corn, in the progress of society, reaches a maximum, beyond which it cannot advance?
When a depreciation of currency is in progress, what will be the difference in the effect on the prices of manufactured goods, vegetable products, and animal products respectively?
What is meant by saying that a nation is interested, not in having its prices high or low, but in having its gold cheap?
Explain the statement that “the high scale of industrial remuneration in America, instead of being evidence of a high cost of production in that country, is distinctly evidence of a low cost of production.” [J. E. Cairnes. Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (1874), p. 385]
This being shown, “how is the fact to be explained, that the people of the United States are unable to compete in neutral markets in the sale of certain imported wares, with England and other European countries?” [J. E. Cairnes.Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (1874), p. 386]
“The laws of political economy express tendencies.” Examine this statement, and show the meaning of the word “law” as used in economic discussion.
Examine the following statement of the doctrine of rent and of the deductions therefrom:—
“Ricardo taught that cultivation begins, when land is first open to occupation and population is scarce, with the richest soils, and thence of necessity proceeds, with the growth of numbers, steadily to poorer and still poorer, until at last all proportion must cease, and famine and death relieve the overburdened earth; the end being only postponed, as assassination is said to temper despotism, by a graduated massacre, in the forms of war, pestilence and famine, which anticipate by performing the catastrophe in detail; that is, if people did not die prematurely in series adjusted to the overruling law they would have to perish at last in the lump.—Elder’s Memoir of Carey, p. 14.
Examine the position taken in the following extract from an argument in disproof of the Malthusian Theory:—
“The question of fact into which this issue resolves itself is not in what stage of population is most subsistence produced? But in what stage of population is there exhibited the greatest power of producing wealth? For the power of producing wealth in any form is the power of producing subsistence—and the consumption of wealth in any form, or of wealth producing power, is equivalent to the consumption of subsistence….Thus the power of any population to produce the necessaries of life is not to be measured by the necessaries of life actually produced, but by the expenditure of power in all modes.
“There is no necessity for abstract reasoning. The question is one of simple fact. Does the relative power of producing wealth increase with the increase of population?”— Henry George’s Progress and Poverty, pp. 126-7.
Also the following:—
“Agricultural profits cannot fall unless recourse is had to poorer land, but such land will never be cultivated, since capitalists can never be willing to submit to a fall of profit: and the very meaning of the expression that some land is not worth cultivating, is, that it will not yield the ordinary profit to the farmer who should attempt to reclaim it. It appears then, that the rate of profit is stationary in agriculture, and, consequently, in all other trades; and that whatever rate be established in an early stage of society, it must remain the same throughout its subsequent development.”— Shadwell’s System of Political Economy, p. 165.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Final, Year-End Examination, 1880-81, with references to Cairnes and Giffen]

What effect has the existence of “non-competing groups” on the exchange of commodities, each of which is the product of several classes of labor, as g. the exchange of a steam engine for cotton cloth?
How far are prices determined by Reciprocal International Demand, Reciprocal Domestic Demand, and cost of Production respectively? Is any change to be made in Cairnes’s statement that “an alteration in the reciprocal demand of two trading nations will act upon the price, not of any commodity in particular, but of every commodity which enters into the trade?” [J. E. Cairnes. Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (1874), p. 93]
What inferences are to be drawn from a regularly recurring excess of exports? In what respect is it to be viewed with satisfaction, or the reverse?
The destruction of our carrying trade is spoken of as causing us a serious economic loss. What is the nature of the loss?
A public officer in a recent interview set forth that,—
“The sorghum, tea and silk industries will before many years save the United States importations amounting to about two hundred million dollars;” and that, inter alia, “we can raise on American soil a tea that will compete successfully in the market of the world and that will save us an annual tribute to foreigners of twenty-two millions.”
What effect, if any, would this be likely to have on the competition of foreign manufactures with our own?
How was the payment of the French indemnity effected with so little immediate disturbance of the money market, and what connection had the payment with the financial crisis of 1873?
Although “war, it is understood, makes money dear,” still Mr. Giffen (writing in 1872) says that “we are entitled to say that money has been cheap in Europe, notwithstanding the war.” Why did the war not produce the usual effect? [Robert Giffen. Essays in Finance (3^rd 1882), p. 55.]
What grounds are there for believing that, at the lowest point of the recent commercial depression, England, instead of “living on her capital,” as some maintained, was still accumulating?
“If we observe that the commencement of the great crisis in the commerce and trade of the world coincides precisely with the demonetization of silver in North America and Germany, we shall easily perceive the connection of causes between that fact and these phenomena, and see that the mischievous results of the demonetization of silver must, from year to year, become more apparent.”
What are Mr. Giffen’s views as to the possibility of an early reduction of the English national debt? What is the nature and advantage of the operation in terminable annuities sometimes undertaken for this purpose?

Image Source: Harvard Square in 1882 from the Brookline Photograph Collection, Public Library of Brookline.

Tags Dunbar, Laughlin

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Mid-year and Final Exams for all three courses in Political Economy. Laughlin and Dunbar, 1879-80

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-03-02

All you could learn in political economy at Harvard in 1880 was packed into four semesters (two full courses). The core textbook was John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Economics. This post provides enrollment data together with the mid-year and course final examinations for Political Economy 1, 2, and 3. What makes this post particularly interesting is that the relevant sections or pages of Mill’s Principles are cited along with the examination questions. Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has added links to those items below.

_________________________

Actually only two distinct political economy courses offered in 1879-80

From the following note in the annual Harvard course catalogue we see that Political Economy 1 only offered a “lite” version of Political Economy 2. “Courses 1 and 2 cannot be taken together, nor can either be taken by any student who has taken the other”; “Course 3 is open to those only who have passed satisfactorily in Course 2.” The Harvard University Catalogue (1879-1880), p. 84.

An important guest lecturer at Harvard in 1879-80:

Besides prescribed and elective courses for credit, Harvard offered opportunities for “voluntary instruction”: In 1879-80 Professor Simon Newcomb gave three public lectures on Political Economy.

Source: The Harvard University Catalogue (1879-1880), p. 90.

The John Stuart Mill textbook of Harvard choice

“From the fifth London edition” 2v. New York: D. Appleton, 1868.

_________________________

Political Economy 1

Enrollments and Text
Political Economy 1
1879-80

Political Economy 1. Dr. Laughlin and Prof. Dunbar. (partial Course.) — Selections from Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — 1 Section; 2 Exercises per week for Students; 2 Exercises per week for Instructors.

Total 21: 7 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 1 Law.

Source: Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1879-80, page 56.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-Year Examination
1879-80

Comment on the following: “The cry was constantly — I know it myself from my intimate acquaintance with the large manufacturers and the small manufacturers too — that every one of them needed more currency than they had. They had capital, but could not get that which enabled them to pay off their hands…The manufacturers need a currency which will enable them to pay their weekly and daily debts.” — Cong. Record, April 7, 1874.
State some of the objections made to Malthus’ Law of Population. (I. 439-40)
Give the law of value regulating manufactured products. (I. 560) How far are such products affected by the Law of Diminishing Returns? (I. 238)
State the argument for or against the common saying “wages are high when trade is good.” (I. 421)
In what way can an increase of Population affect the Cost of Labor to the Capitalist?
Define clearly Value, Price, Real Wages, and Cost of Production.
Describe the offices which are performed by Money. (B. III., ch. vii.)
What is to be said to the following: “Some political economists have objected altogether to the statement that the value of money depends on its quantity combined with the rapidity of circulation; which, they think, is assuming a law for money that does not exist for any other commodity.” (II. p. 43)
What effect had the discovery of gold in this century upon the coinage of the United States?
What circumstances led to the establishment of the Bank of Amsterdam and of the Bank of England respectively?
What changes would be made in the subjoined accounts by,
1. the deposit of £1,200,000;
2. the sale of £2,000,000 of government security;
3. new loans amounting to £3,000,000;
4. repayment of £750,000 of loans.
If the Bank of England announces an increase of its rate of discount, what is to be inferred as to the cause of this step and its probable effect?

November 12, 1857.

Issue Department.
Notes Issued	£21.1	Government Securities	£14.5
		Coin and Bullion	£6.6
	£21.1		£21.1

Banking Department
Capital	£14.5	Government Securities	£9.4
Rest	£3.4	Other Securities	£26.1
Public Deposits	£5.3	Notes Coins	£1.4
Other	£12.9	Notes Coins	£1.4
7-day Bills	£0.8
	£36.9		£36.9

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Mid-Year Examinations, 1879-80, pp. 11-12.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-End Examination
1879-80

[Let the answers be given in their proper order]

“If there are human beings capable of work, and food to feed them, they may always be employed in producing something.” (Book I., ch. v., §3.)
When the growth of population outstrips the progress of improvements, what are the means of relief for the laborer? (Book I., ch. xiii., §3.)
What is the reason why land-owners can demand rent? (Book II., ch. xvi., §1.)
State the law of the value of money which governs general prices. What change is to be made in the statement, if credit is to be taken into consideration? (Book III., ch. vii., §§3, 4.)
On what does the desire to use credit depend? What connection exists between the amount of notes and coin in circulation and the use of credit? (Book III., ch. xii., §8.)
In what consists the benefit of international exchange? (Book III., ch. xvii., §3.) State the Law of International values. (Book III., ch. xviii., §4.)
What is the effect of a depreciated currency on (1) foreign trade, and (2) the exchanges? (Book III., ch. xxii., §3.)
Why should a tax on profits, if no improvements follow, fall on the laborer and capitalist? (Book V., ch. iii., §3.)
What effect is produced on prices, profit, and rent by the removal of a tithe? (Book V., ch. iv., §4.)
On whom does a tax on imports generally fall? (Book V., ch. iv., §6.)
Give a history of the circumstances under which the first Legal Tender Act was passed. When were the other acts passed?
Describe the following: (1) national bank-note; (2) five-twenty; (3) seven-thirty; (4) compound interest note; (5) certificate of indebtedness; (6) subsidiary silver coinage; (7) national bank reserve; (8) Resumption Act (briefly).

Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Annual Examinations, 1879-80, p. 12.

_________________________

Political Economy 2
1879-80

Enrollments and Text
Political Economy 2
1879-80

Political Economy 2. Prof. Dunbar. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Financial Legislation of the United States. — Lectures. — 2 Sections; 3 Exercises per week for Students; 6 Exercises per week for Instructors.

Total 108: 10 Seniors, 83 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 2 Unmatriculated.

Source: Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1879-80, page 56.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-Year Examination
1879-80

State once more and with care the reason for the following proposition: —
“There is a distinction, more important to the wealth of a community than even that between productive and unproductive labor; — the distinction, namely, between labor for the supply of productive, and for the supply of unproductive, consumption.”
What is the argument for Dr. Chalmers’s opinion that funds required for public unproductive expenditures should be raised by taxes and not by loans, and what cases are to be excepted from his reasoning?
What conclusion as to the limit to the increase of production, does Mr. Mill deduce from his investigation of the laws of the increase of labor, capital and land?
Why are the wages of women generally lower than those of men?
Show carefully the distinction between wages, cost of labor and cost of production.
Define natural value and market value and show what determines them respectively, distinguishing between the three classes into which Mr. Mill divides commodities.
What effect may the great durability of gold and silver have upon the value of money at any given time?
What effect has a general rise of wages upon the values of commodities?
How is it shown that rent forms no part of the cost of production?
The silver dollar contains 412 ½ grains of standard silver, but a dollar of silver change contains only 384 grains. On what theory is this difference of weight made?
What difference has the Act of 1844, known as Peel’s act, made as to the convertibility of the notes of the Bank of England?
If a serious drain of money from England, e.g., to this country, takes place, what steps will the Bank of England take, and what effect is likely to be produced on its account?
If more convenient, this may be illustrated by using the following account: —

Issue Department.
Notes Issued	£36.5	Government Securities	£15.0
		Coin and Bullion	£21.5
	£36.5		£36.5

Banking Department
Capital	£14.5	Government Securities	£16.0
Rest	£3.2	Other Securities	£22.0
Public Deposits	£7.6	Notes Coins	£8.0 £1.1
Other	£21.5	Notes Coins	£8.0 £1.1
7-day Bills	£0.3
	£47.1		£47.1

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end Examination
1879-80

[Let the answers stand in your book in their proper order
Take TEN QUESTIONS, including 6, 8, 11, 12 and 13.]

Why is it that “ceteris paribus, those trades are generally the worst paid, in which the wife and children of the artisan aid in the work?” (Book II., ch. xiv., §4.)
If the general rate of profit falls, how will the value of commodities made by hand be affected in comparison with those made by machinery? (Book III., ch. iv., §5.)
“Another of the fallacies from which the advocates of an inconvertible currency derive support, is the notion that an increase of the currency quickens industry.” (Book III., ch. xiii., §4.)
Why is it that in international trade “a thing may sometimes be sold cheapest, by being produced in some other place than that at which it can be produced with the smallest amount of labor and abstinence?” (Book III., ch. xvii. §1.)
What determines the values at which a country exchanges its produce with foreign countries? (Book III., ch. xviii., §8.)
Suppose that a country whose exports have hitherto balanced her imports, makes an improvement which cheapens one of her articles of export, e.g. cloth. Will money flow into or out of the country? Will foreign or domestic consumers of cloth obtain the greater advantage of its cheapness? Give the reasoning on which your answers depend. (Book III., Chap. xxi., §2.)
What effect does an annual payment of interest to foreign creditors have upon the imports and exports of a country? Will interest “payable in gold” necessarily cause gold to be sent out of the country? Why, or why not? (Book III., Chap. xxi., §4.)
How do taxes on agricultural produce, e.g. tithes, affect landlords, farmers, and consumers, respectively, —
1. when first laid on?
2. when of long standing? (Book V., ch. iv. §5.)
What are the arguments for and against an income tax? (Book V., ch. iii., §5.)
Discuss the reasons for and against maintaining a surplus revenue for the extinction of national debt. (Book V., ch. vii. §2.)
Explain the changes in the amount of greenbacks outstanding, beginning with February, 1868.
State briefly the history of our gold and silver coinage, as found in the coinage acts of 1792, 1834, 1853, 1873, and 1878.
The silver dollar contains 371 ¼ grains of silver.
To what extent is the national banknote a legal tender? in what is it payable? what provision is made for its redemption? and what security is there for its ultimate payment?

_________________________

Political Economy 3
1879-80

Enrollments and Texts
Political Economy 3
1879-80

Political Economy 3. Prof. Dunbar. Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — MacLeod’s Elements of Banking. — Bastiat’s Harmonies Économiques. — 1 Section; 3 Exercises per week for Students; 3 Exercises per week for Instructors.

Total 24: 24 Seniors.

Source: Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1879-80, page 56.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-Year Examination
1879-80

Give a careful and logical summary of the laws determining the values of all commodities, monopolized or free, domestic or foreign, using the corrected definition of Cost of Production. [Forty minutes.]
In the case of accessory products, as, e.g. wool and mutton, what determines their normal values respectively, and what determines the course of their respective values as time goes on?
In his enumeration of the causes which determine the Wages Fund, Mr. Cairnes finds himself obliged to include the rate of wages. How does he avoid the charge of reasoning in a circle?
Comment on the following: —
“The advocates of the wages-fund theory assume, first, that the capital of a country is a fixed quantity, and that the capital employed in industry is a fixed proportion of this quantity; and, secondly, that wages are paid out of that proportion of capital which is set apart for industry. Both of these propositions, in my opinion, are erroneous.
“With regard to the first…there is no fact in Economic Science so well established as this, that capital follows profits….Capital is always forthcoming wherever there are prospects of large profits….The capital of a country, therefore, is not a fixed quantity, for if its credit is good, and sufficient inducements are offered in the shape of interest, it can readily borrow whatever it wants. For the same reason the capital employed in industry Is not a fixed quantity, and varies, not in proportion to the gross amount in the country, but in proportion to the profitableness of the industry of that country.
“With regard to the second proposition…This is true to a limited extent only. No doubt a certain amount of capital is required for the payment of wages, just as a certain amount of capital is necessary for the purchase of raw material. There is this essential difference between the two cases, however, that while raw material is paid for (in cash or bills) before being used, wages are not paid till they have been earned….The employé, in fact, stands to his employer in the relation of a capitalist who advances him the use of his services, which services are ultimately paid for, not out of a wages-fund, but out of the produce of the services themselves.” (Outlines of an Industrial Science: by David Syme. p. 138.)
Give a careful but briefly stated outline (as if written for a rather elaborate Table of Contents) of Mr. Cairnes’s reasoning as to the relations existing between the demand for commodities and the wages fund, and between prices and money-wages.
What is meant by the “comparative costs of production,” on which international values are said to depend; and how is that dependence to be reconciled with the fact that any given sale of goods is found to be an independent transaction, determined by the price of the commodity.
What reasoning led Mr. Cairnes in 1873 to look for a fall of prices in this country, and for possible commercial crises?
What is Mr. Cairnes’s reason for believing that, in the United States, protection is not needed to secure diversity of industries?
If the common saying that “the value of gold is the same all the world over” has no foundation, how does a supply of new gold distribute itself over all countries and over all commodities in each country.
Stafford; Colbert; Sir J. Stewart; Quesnay.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Mid-Year Examinations, 1879-80, pp. 13-14.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Year-End Examination
1879-80

Professor Cairnes says that “the notion which prevails both here and in the United States, that the high rate of general wages obtaining in each country is a hindrance to the extension of its foreign trade, must be pronounced to be absolutely without foundation.”
By what reasoning this this conclusion supported?
How much truth is there in the maxim that “the value of gold is and must be the same all the world over”?
A few years ago an American writer said, —
“We will be able to resume specie payments when we cease to rank among the debtor nations, when our national debt is owed to our own people, and when our industry is adequate to the supply of the nation’s need of manufactured goods.”
With what degree of justice can this be treated as a prediction verified by the events?
Sherman says, —
“During the last four years the value of our exports of merchandise has exceeded the value of our imports of merchandise $753,271,475. The excess of exports has heretofore been mainly met by the remittance to this country of American securities, but the time appears to have come when the balance of trade in our favor is to be adjusted by means of the precious metals.” — (Finance Report for 1879, p. xxxi.)
It is becoming a serious problem what (English) agriculturists are to do. They will not get rents much lowered in a hurry, for land still commands a high value in the market, and is difficult to be got at all except under special circumstances. Large proprietors would rather cultivate their own land at a loss than submit to a reduction of rent telling on its value.” — (London Times, May, 1880.)
Criticising Professor Cairnes’s reply to M. Alby, Sir Anthony Musgrave remarks,—
“It is precisely because in no country are all industries equally favored by nature that Mr. Cairnes’s objection fails…. It is exactly because the favored industry in any nation requires no assistance, that it can assist the industries not so fortunate….Suppose that the high price secured by protection is rendered necessary by the onerous conditions under which native industry is tempted to work; suppose that Frenchmen, as Mr. Cairnes says are encouraged to produce iron from ores of inferior quality by the high price secured to them — what has happened? Useful iron has been extracted from ores which would have otherwise have been wasted; employment has been afforded to many who might otherwise have been idle for want of occupation; people have been fed who would otherwise have starved and as a set-off to this, some others have been obliged to smoke fewer cigars and drink less wine than they would have had money to purchase, if they had not been compelled to spend it in iron. In the absence of protection “they,” we are told,” would obtain their iron on more favorable terms at a smaller sacrifice of labor and abstinence by exchanging for it their wines and silks with England.”…Whose labor? and abstinence from what? Unfortunately the persons who have the wine and silk are not those who want the iron. The truth is, we do not want to save labor — we want to find wholesome and remunerative employment for paupers. And if the sacrifice of “abstinence” only means, as I believe it does, that riches will not accumulate so fast in the hands of capitalists — that the employers of labor will have to forego some luxuries that they may give higher wages to the laborers, and that the comforts of life may be thus more equally distributed — I cannot see much objection to this.” — (Contemporary Review, January, 1877.)
“Ever half year we see summaries in the newspapers shewing that the Joint Stock Banks have in the aggregate perhaps $200,000,000 of deposits, and it is supposed that they have that quantity of money to trade with. But it is a complete and entire delusion.”
How does discounting differ from the cash credit system, long practiced by the Scotch banks?
State and explain Bastiat’s law of value.
What is the reasoning in support of the following? —
“A mesure que les capitaux s’accroissent, la part absolue des capitalistes dans les produits totaux augmente et leur part relative Au contraire, les travailleurs voient augmenter leur part dans les deux sens.”
What is Bastiat’s theory of the value of land, and how is it reconciled with the value attaching to natural fertility?

Image Source: Charles F. Dunbar photographed by William Notman. Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard College Library.

Tags Dunbar, Laughlin, Newcomb

Chicago Economists Policy Race Socialism

Chicago. Laughlin’s anti-bank-deposit-insurance talk, 1908

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-12-16

There are two things that I have not been able to figure out about the following report of a talk given by the founding head of the University of Chicago’s Department of Political Economy, J. Laurence Laughlin, against the bank-deposit guarantees promised in the 1908 Democratic Party Platform: (1) what was the point of his joke about the black man and the razor and (2) does “Shivers” refer to a person’s name or does it refer to the physical “shivers” of nervous bank depositors? William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candidate in the Presidential election of 1908, is clearly Laughlin’s target.

Image Source: From the election of 1908. Davenport, Homer, 1867-1912, “William Jennings Bryan, bank deposits, political cartoon,” Nebraska U, accessed December 16, 2019.

__________________

Shivers Bryan Bank Plank
Chicago University Financial Expert Declares It Chimerical.
Points Out Its Injustice

Guaranty of Deposits Is Described as a Socialistic Scheme.

Prof. J. Laurence Laughlin, head of the department of political economy of the University of Chicago, who is a national authority on monetary matters, took another hard rap yesterday at the democratic plank for the guaranty of bank deposits.

In concluding his statements, which were made in Cobb hall at the university, the economist declared his opinion about the democratic plank was epitomized by the story of a negro who went into a shop to buy a razor.

“The negro,” said Prof. Laughlin, “was asked if he wished a common razor or a safety razor. “

‘No, sah,’ returned the negro, ‘I just want one for social purposes.’ There you have the bank deposits guaranty idea.

“No one,” continued the speaker, “is so senseless to promote an immediate fund to secure all deposits. It is purely chimerical. Immediate redemption in cash is impossible, especially in any serious crisis since there is no ready money.

Would Work in Insane Asylum.

“The 1907 panic would have spread far and wide if this guaranty of deposits had been in effect then. This guaranty would have been a mere bagatelle. The proposal shows mere ignorance in asking absolute security—just as if any one in this world could give absolute security.

“It is just as well to ask a clergyman on becoming a pastor of a church to guarantee that every member of his flock will not tell a lie, be guilty of any misconduct or go to everlasting damnation,

“It is like A robbing B and going up on the hill to rob C so that B could be reimbursed. In this way C would have to pay for all the deviltry in town. Yes; the bank deposits guaranty would work perfectly-in an insane asylum.

Safety in Bank’s Integrity.

“Do these advocates really know what they are talking about? Good banks can’t prevent bad banks from making poor loans. They can’t stop the initial loans. Why, it would be worse than a disease.”

Source: Chicago Tribune, 7 October 1908, p. 5.

Image Source: Caricature of J. Laurence Laughlin in the University of Chicago yearbook, Cap and Gown, 1907.

Tags Laughlin

Chicago Economist Market Economists Teaching

Chicago. Laughlin’s observations on state of economics department, 1924

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-09-20

This post features a memorandum from 1924 that summarizes a conversation between the president of the University of Chicago and the first head of the department of political economy called in after retirement to help the department in covering a vacancy in its professorial ranks. Among other things we learn that Laughlin’s pension from the university was $3000/year.

Backstory 1: Shortly after being promoted to professor of economics, Harold G. Moulton left the University of Chicago in September 1922 to head the Institute of Economics established by the Carnegie Corporation in Washington, D.C. The department had trouble finding a successor, so among temporary measures it brought James Laurence Laughlin out of retirement during the academic year 1924-25 to help cover the money field. The last item transcribed below summarizes Laughlin’s observations on the state of the department ca. eight years after his retirement in 1916.

Backstory 2: L. C. Marshall’s request to resign both the Deanship of the school of Commerce and Administration [succeeded by W. H. Spencer] and school of Social Service Administration [succeeded by Edith Abbott] was accepted to take effect 31 December 1923. He agreed to continue on as Chairman of the Department of Political Economy under the condition that funds be provided for additional clerical services.

____________________

Letter from Chairman L. C. Marshall to President Ernest D. Burton

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy

June 1, 1924

My dear Mr. Burton:

The department of Political Economy sees no way of filling Mr. Moulton’s place in terms of the present situation. We turn, therefore, to temporary measures.

As one phase of the matter, will you approve of bringing Mr. Laughlin back for the Autumn Quarter, in case he is available? The 1924-25 budget contains the funds. I am at this same time asking Mr. Plimpton what would be involved as far as the relationship of stipend to retiring allowance is concerned.

A carbon of this letter is going to Mr. Tufts and Mr. Laing for their information.

Yours very sincerely,
[signed] L C Marshall

LCM:OU

____________________

Letter from Chairman L. C. Marshall to Nathan C. Plimpton, comptroller

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy

June 2, 1924

My dear Mr. Plimpton:

In case Mr. J. L. Laughlin should be engaged to give work with us this coming Autumn Quarter would his compensation for this work be in addition to his retiring allowance for that period, or would the allowance be discontinued for that period?

The department is thinking in terms of a stipend of about $2500 if his allowance continues. If it does not, probably $3000 would suffice even though this would less than $2500 plus allowance.

Yours very sincerely,
[signed] L C Marshall

LCM:OU

____________________

Letter from Chairman L. C. Marshall to President Ernest D. Burton

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy

May 29, 1924

President Ernest DeWitt Burton
The University of Chicago

My dear Mr. Burton:

This is a request to include in the Political Economy budget for the year 1924-25 the sum of $1,500.00 for clerical assistance.

In order that you may not need to consult files I give below an abstract of the situation up to the present time.

Along about January 1 you expressed a willingness to take up with the expenditures committee the provision of clerical assistance. While you were on your vacation I took the matter up through Mr. Dickerson and a sum was granted providing for clerical assistance during the remainder of this current budgetary year.
I asked Mr. Tufts to insert in the 1924-25 budget a request for $1,500.00 but he indicated the need of awaiting your return before taking action on the matter.
Sometime after your return I asked Mr. Tufts whether he wished to take the matter up with you or whether I should take it up. The reply received indicated that Mr. Plimpton was under the impression that you had some understanding on the matter.
The official copy of the budget received from Mr. Tufts a day or two ago contains no such item.

Yours very sincerely,
[signed] L C Marshall

LCM:EL

____________________

Carbon copy of letter
from President Ernest D. Burton to L. C. Marshall

June 4, 1924

My dear Mr. Marshall:

In reference to your letter of May 29 I am glad to be able to state that the budget of next year as approved by the Board of Trustees carried with it an appropriation of $1500 for clerical service for your department. The statement sent to you by Mr. Tufts was intended to cover only the salaries of the teaching staff.

I am sure the Board of Trustees would approve the recommendation of the department that Mr. Laughlin be invited to give lectures in the autumn quarter. As respects his compensation, concerning which you wrote to Mr. Plimpton, the custom has been to add a stipend for such service to the retiring allowance which is continued without interruption. Mr. Small [Department of Sociology] and Mr. Coulter [Department of Botony] are both being retained next year on this basis, each of them rendering substantially half service throughout the year. The extra compensation is, in one case, $1500, in the other $2000. May I raise the question whether either sum would not be sufficient in Mr. Laughlin’s case also? In other words, $2000 for the special service, in addition to the $3000 of his regular retiring allowance?

Very truly yours,

Mr. L.C. Marshall
The University of Chicago

EDB:HP

____________________

Memorandum of Conversation with
Professor Laughlin
—November 19, 1924

On returning to the University Mr. Laughlin is struck with two things in respect to the Department of Political Economy.

1) The introductory courses are not as well conducted as they were in 1916. Then some of the abler men of the department were giving them. Now they are largely in the hands of instructors and assistants.

2) There has been a large increase in the number of graduate students.

There are four Universities that have graduate departments in Political Economy that need to be taken into account by us.

Columbia has the largest department.

Chicago is second in size.

Harvard is falling off.

Wisconsin is falling off.

The task of meeting graduate students and overseeing their work is an arduous one. We must, however, hold our own in dealing with this class of students. It would be desirable to raise the level of undergraduate work, but not at the expense of sacrificing our graduate work.

We must hold our present staff. Marshall, Clark and Viner are the best men. Wright is a good man. Field and Millis are pretty set in their ways, but this whole staff should be retained.

(In subsequent conversation with Marshall he said Field was the best man of the whole group, but that his Harvard inhibitions made it impossible for him to bring things to pass. He is afraid of what people will say and of the tendency of things. Millis is a good man, but no longer capable of much re-adjustment.)

Mr. Laughlin urges that we must get a first class man in money. He believes that the business interests should be asked to give money for this particular purpose.

The weakness of the undergraduate department is due to the lack of good men and salaries to pay them. C & A is doing most of the undergraduate work. This is not in itself objectionable. The spirit of C & A is good.

It is very desirable to unify the Department of Economics and the School of Commerce and Administration further.

Source: The University of Chicago Archives. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administration Records. Box 23, Folder 6 “Department of Political Economy, 1894-1925) Part 2”

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-03687, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Tags ClarkJM, Edith Abbott, Field, Laughlin, MarshallLC, Millis, Moulton, Viner

Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Examination questions for Political Economy I, 1884-1888.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-05-28

With this post we add about fifty new questions to our growing stock of Harvard economics examinations. Nine of the sixty-three questions transcribed below are identical or nearly identical to those found in the 310 questions appended to Laughlin’s abridged version of John Stuart Mill’s Principles that served as the course textbook at Harvard at the end of the 19th century.

See: Principles of political economy, by John Stuart Mill. Abridged with critical, bibliographical, and explanatory notes, and a sketch of the history of political economy by, J. Laurence Laughlin. New York: D. Appleton, 1884.

The new questions come from what we would today call a “Student’s Guide” to the Mill/Laughlin textbook. He called the printed 72-pages a “Synopsis”.

________________________

About Laughlin’s “Student’s Guide to John Stuart Mill”

This Synopsis is intended to replace the text book in preparing for the examinations, but it will also be found extremely useful during the year in answering the weekly written questions. The index at the end has been prepared especially for use in connection with the examination papers contained in the appendix to this book, and in the second appendix to the text book.

A Synopsis of the First Three Books of John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy, as revised by Prof. J. L. Laughlin with an appendix containing the recent examination papers in Political Economy I. Cambridge, Mass.: W. H. Wheeler, 1888.

________________________

PAPERS SET FOR EXAMINATION IN POLITICAL ECONOMY I.
[# in Laughlin’s list of 310 questions (1884)]

1883-1884.

Explain carefully the following terms: production, consumption, effectual demand, margin of cultivation, cost of production, value of money, cost of labor, wealth, and abstinence. [#2, virtually identical]
What conclusion as to the limit to the increase of production does Mr. Mill deduce from his investigation of the laws of the various requisites of production? [#54]
Explain clearly how it is possible for the land of a country which is all of a uniform fertility to pay rent. [#105]
Point out distinctly the connection between the money wages of laborers in the United States and the productiveness of the soil. [#244]
Explain the operation of the laws of value by which the relative prices of wool and mutton would be regulated. [#194]
Why is it necessary to make any different statement of the laws of value for foreign than for domestic products? What is the cause for the existence of any international trade? [#199]
(1) What is the true theory of one country underselling another in a foreign market? (2) What weight should be attributed to the fact of generally higher or lower wages in one of the competing countries? [#241]
If capital continued to increase and population did not, explain the proposition that “the whole savings of each year would be exactly so much subtracted from the profits of the next and of every following year.” [#254, virtually identical]
Give the arguments for and against the income tax. Would the tax on any kinds of income not fall upon the persons from whom it was levied? Explain.
Define the term banking-reserve. What is the theory on which only a small part of the total resources is constantly kept as a reserve? What relation exists between the items of deposits, loans, and reserve?
Explain the provisions of the Resumption Act, and show how the actual results were produced.
Was the issue of greenbacks in February, 1862, an actual necessity?

1885-1886.

Explain what is meant by the “standard of living” of the laboring class. In a densely populated country would the standard of living have any influence on the general rate of wages?
Show clearly why there must be land in cultivation which pays no rent.
Explain carefully the relation between Cost of Labor and Real Wages. How can an increase of population affect Cost of Labor?
Under what conditions can it be said that normal value depends on the “expenses of production”? State the law of market and normal value for commodities affected by the law of diminishing returns.
Explain the reason for the existence of foreign trade. Is there any different reason for the exchange of goods in domestic trade?
What is inconvertible paper money? From the history of the United States notes state the main events showing the attitude of Congress towards their issue, while the notes were inconvertible.
Why is a bank obliged to limit its loans when its cash reserve is seriously impaired?
Why is it that the products of extractive industries are liable to great variations of market value?
Upon whom would a tax on Rent fall? Would such a tax be a discriminating tax on the agricultural interests?
What are the advantages of direct taxation? State by what kinds of taxation, direct or indirect, the United States gets its revenue.
Is it correct to say that high wages alone prevent us from selling manufactured goods in foreign markets!

1886-1887.

Compare the economic effects of defraying war expenditures by loans and by taxation. [#33, virtually identical]
Does the rent of a factory building affect the value of the goods made in it? Does the rent of a farm affect the value of the grain grown on it? Does the rent paid for a lot near a great city, from which gravel is taken, affect the value of the gravel?
It has been said that “the laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths. There is nothing optional or arbitrary in them.” State briefly the laws of the production of wealth here referred to, and whether the statement in regard to them is true.
It has been said that the law of population and the law of diminishing returns from land point inevitably to misery and want as the destiny of the mass of mankind. What influence affecting the operation of these laws are to be taken into account; and if they are taken into account, are the laws of population and diminishing returns from land thereby shown to be invalid?
Explain briefly the nature of the remuneration received by the following persons: a farmer tilling his own land; a merchant carrying on business with his own capital; a manufacturer carrying on business with borrowed capital; a holder of railway stocks; a holder of government bonds; a patentee.
Wherein is the value of metallic money governed by different principles from those that regulate the value of commodities in general? And wherein is the value of inconvertible paper money governed by different principles from those that regulate the value of coin?
Credit is said to be purchasing power. Explain what is meant by this proposition, and in what manner it bears on the theory of the value of money. Point out in what form credit, as purchasing power, is most likely to affect prices in the United States and in France.
(a) Suppose that:
In the U. S. one day’s labor produces 2 bushels of corn;
In the U. S. one day’s labor produces 10 yards of cotton cloth;
In England one day’s labor produces 1 bushel of corn;
In England one day’s labor produces 5 yards of cotton cloth.
Would trade arise between England and the United States? If so, how?
(b) Suppose that in England one day’s labor produced 8 yards of cotton cloth, other conditions remaining the same as in (a). Would trade arise? If so, how?
(c) Suppose that in England one day’s labor produced 2 yards of cotton cloth, other conditions remaining the same as in (a). Would trade arise? If so, how?
Suppose a new article to appear among the exports of a given country. Trace the effects in that country on the course of the foreign exchanges; on the flow of specie; on the value of money; on the terms of international exchange. Would the results be the same if, instead of a new article of export, some article previously exported were to be sold abroad in larger quantity because of a lowering of its cost and price?
(a) Arrange in proper order the following items of a bank account: Loans, $538,000; Bonds and Stocks, $40,000; Capital, $200,000; Real Estate, $26,000; other assets, $26,000; Surplus, $65,100; Deposits $440,000; Notes, $101,550; Cash, 124,000; Cash Items, $52,650.
(b) Suppose the bank to discount four months paper (at 6 per cent) to the amount of $10,000 of which it purchases one-half by promises to pay the bearer on demand, and one-half by cash. How would the account then stand?
(c) Suppose a borrower to have repaid a loan of $2000 by giving $1000 in cash, and $1000 in a cheque on the bank. How would the account then stand?
(d) Suppose the bank to be confronted, in a time of general embarassment, with demands from depositors for cash, and from borrowers for discounts. What policy would be adopted if it were the Bank of England? if it were a United States national bank?

1886-1887.

DIVISION A.

If taxes levied on the rich cause a diminution in their unproductive expenditure, would that in any way affect the employment offered for labor? Discuss fully.
What principle does Mr. Mill furnish by which the respective shares of labor and capital are determined? Has his Wages-Fund Theory any connection with his exposition of the dependence of “profits” on Cost of Labor?
In discussing the distribution of the product, why is it that the relative shares of labor and capital can be discussed independently of rent? Would an increase of rent affect the share of labor or of capital?
Why is it that city banks make a greater use of the deposit liability than of the note liability? Why is the fact just the reverse with country banks?
State fully the difference between Cost of Labor and Cost of Production. Would a decrease in Cost of Production affect Cost of Labor in any way?
If the returns, and consequently wages, in our extractive industries were to decline, how would the course of our foreign trade probably be affected?
Explain carefully how, and under what conditions, Reciprocal Demand regulates Normal Value.
How do you reconcile the doctrine of comparative cost in international trade with the fact that a merchant regulates his conduct by a comparison of prices at home with prices abroad?
Explain how a tax on “profits” may fall either (1) on the laborer, or (2) on the landlord.
Discuss the argument that protection raises wages.
Is the customs-duties on sugar economically justified?

DIVISION B.

Suppose the price of silver to rise to such a point that the ratio of silver to gold would be 15 to 1, what change would take place in the money at present in use in the United States? Is such a change probable? if so, why? if not, why not?
State the essential differences between the coinage acts of 1792, 1834, and 1878.
“All experience has shown that there are periods when, under any system of paper money, however carefully guarded, it is impracticable to maintain actual coin redemption. Usually contracts will be based on current paper money, and it is just that, during a sudden panic or an unreasonable demand for coin, the creditor should not be allowed to demand payment in other than the currency in which the debt was contracted. To meet this contingency, it would seem to be right to maintain the legal tender quality of United States notes. If they are not at par with coin, it is the fault of the Government and not of the debtor, or rather it is the result of an unforeseen stringency not contemplated by the contracting parties.” From the Report of the Treasury, dated December, 1887.
Under what circumstances was this passage written? Is the recommendation made by it a wise one? Has it been acted on?
Ten men club together to buy flour at wholesale, each taking a part and paying his share of the price. Ten others club together, borrow money jointly, and lend it out to themselves for aid in carrying on their trades. A third ten club together, set up a work shop on joint account and work in it, and periodically divide the net proceeds. What kinds of cooperation are typified, respectively, by these proceedings? In what countries has each kind been most widely applied? Which seems to you to be of greatest intrinsic interest for the social question?
What is meant by the eight-hour law? Wherein does it resemble, and wherein differ from, factory legislation in England?
Compare the regulations of the Knights of Labor in regard to strikes with those of an English Trades-Union.
“The present doctrine is that the workman’s interests are linked to those of other workmen, and the employer’s interests to those of other employers. Eventually it will be seen that industrial divisions should be perpendicular, not horizontal.” Explain what is meant by this passage; state by what devices it is endeavored to promote the ” horizontal ” and the “perpendicular” divisions, respectively; and give an opinion as to which line of division is likely to endure.
The declaration of principles of Knights of Labor demands “the enactment of laws providing for arbitration between employers and employed, and to enforce the decision of the arbitrators.” Is it desirable to comply with that demand in whole, in part, or not at all?
Suppose a tax were levied of ten per cent on the house-rent paid by every person, those who occupied their own houses being assessed for the letting value of their dwellings. Would such a tax be direct or indirect? Would it conform to the principle of equality of taxation? Give your reasons.

1887-1888.
Mid-year. 1888.

Is productive consumption necessarily consumption of capital? Can there be unproductive consumption of capital?
Distinguish which of the following commodities are capital, and, as to those that are capital, distinguish which you would call fixed capital and which circulating.
A ton of pig iron; a plough; a package of tobacco; a loaf of bread; a dwelling-house.
Can you reconcile the statement that one or other of these commodities is or is not capital with the proposition that the intention of the owner determines whether an article shall or shall not be capital?
Suppose an inconvertible paper money to be issued, of half the amount of specie previously in circulation. Trace the effects (1) in a country carrying on trade with other countries, (2) in a country shut off from trade with other countries.
Explain in what manner the proposition that the value of commodities is governed by their cost of production applies to wheat, to iron nails, and to gold bullion.
Explain the proposition that rent does not enter into the cost of production. Does it hold good of the rent paid for a factory building? Of the rent paid for agricultural land?
It has been said that wages depend (a) on the price of food, (b) on the standard of living of the laborers, (c) on the ratio between capital and population. Are these propositions consistent with each other? Are they sound?
Suppose that
One day’s labor in the United States produces 10 pounds of copper,
One day’s labor England produces 8 pounds of copper,
One day’s labor in the United States produces 5 pounds of tin,
One day’s labor England produces 5 pounds of tin,
Would trade arise between England and the United States, and if so, how?
Suppose that, other things remaining as above, one day’s labor in England produced 12 pounds of copper, would trade arise, and if so, how?
Explain what is meant when it is said that “there are two senses in which a country obtains commodities more cheaply by foreign trade: in the sense of value, and in the sense of cost.”
Arrange in proper order the following items of a bank account: Capital, $300,00; Bonds and Stocks, $35,000; Real estate and fixtures, $20,000; Other assets, $20,000; Surplus, $80,000; Undivided Profits, $10,500; Notes, $90,000; Cash, $110,000; Cash items, $90,000; Deposits, $850,000; Loans, $1,050,000; Expenses, $5,500. ,
Suppose loans are repaid to this bank to the amount of $100,000. One half by cancelling deposits, one quarter in its own notes, and one quarter in cash; how will the account then stand?
What is the effect of the use of credit on the value of money? Wherein does credit in the form of bank deposits exercise an effect on the value of money different from that of credit in the form of bank notes?

Source: A Synopsis of the First Three Books of John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy, as revised by Prof. J. L. Laughlin with an appendix containing the recent examination papers in Political Economy I. Cambridge, Mass.: W. H. Wheeler, 1888.

Image Source: James Laurence Laughlin. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-03687, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Tags Laughlin

Chicago Third Party Funding

Chicago. Sources of private graduate fellowship funding, 1905-1923

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-04-22

To give a sense of the real magnitudes involved below, here the following table that provides estimates of annual expenses exclusive of tuition for thirty-six weeks of a student residing with the quadrangles in 1919.

	Lowest	Average	Liberal
Rent and care of room	$60.00	$105.00	$225.00
Board	$162.00	$193.00	$240.00
Laundry	$18.00	$30.00	$45.00
Textbooks and stationery	$10.00	$20.00	$50.00
Total	$250.00	$353.00	$560.00

Source: University of Chicago. The Colleges and Graduate Schools. Circular of Information Vol. XIX, No. 4 (April 1919), p. 9.

______________________

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
STATEMENT OF THE
POLITICAL ECONOMY FELLOWSHIPS

In February, 1905, through the efforts of members of the Department of Political Economy, the sum of $1,000.00, in the form of ten gifts of $100.00 each from Chicago business men was received, to be used for Special Fellowships in the Department of Political Economy. This was the beginning of an interest which has continued year by year with gifts of varying amounts, and which gives promise at the present time of increasing, inasmuch as larger gifts from new sources have recently been received. As reported by the President to the Board of Trustees at the meeting held May 18, 1922, Marshall Field III, now of New York, proposes to give $1,000.00 annually until such time as he is able to provide the principal sum which will yield an annuity of that amount. His first payment of $1,000.00 was received on April 14, 1922.

Since 1905 to date, a total of $12,190.00 has been contributed by the following:

Hart, Schaffner & Marx	$4,640.	A. C. Bartlett	$ 100.
Marshall Field I	100.	Ira N. Morris	100.
Marshall Field III	1,000.	Victor Moravitz	100.
George M. Reynolds	300.	Stuyvesant Fish	100.
C. R. Crane	1,100.	Santa Fe Railway Co.	100.
Frank O. Lowden	850.	H. H. Swift	2,000.
Samuel Insull	800.	P. Wasburg	100.
Byron L. Smith	375.	From friends, through J. L. Laughlin	425.

During the period, a total of $9,668.94 has been used for fellowships, leaving a balance of $2,521.06 unused. Only three fellowships are being used at the present time, but plans are under way for extensive work under these fellowships for the year 1923-24.

The contributions and expense of the fellowships by years are as follows:

Year	Gifts	Expended for Fellowships
1904-05	$1,000.00
1905-06	600.00	$1,600.00
1906-07	720.00	640.00
1907-08	670.00
1908-09	325.00	650.00
1909-10	720.00	386.65
1910-11	820.00	347.21
1911-12	820.00	1,011.09
1912-13	645.00	1,136.53
1913-14	325.00	463.19
1914-15	645.00	249.97
1915-16	620.00	792.77
1916-17		172.22
1917-18	320.00
1918-19		11.11
1919-20	320.00	88.88
1920-21	320.00	541.66
1921-22	2,320.00	300.00
1922-23 (part)	1,000.00	1,277.66
	$12,190.00	$9,668.94
Balance		2,521.06
	$12,190.00	$12,190.00

Respectfully submitted,
[Signed]
N. C. Plimpton

March 31, 1923

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations. Records. Box 43. Folder “Fellowships, 1896-1924”.

Tags Laughlin

Courses of Study in Political Economy in the United States in 1876 and in 1892-93.

Course Enrollment

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3. [Year-end Examination. June 1884]

Course Announcements

Political Economy.

Course Enrollments

Course Examinations

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. Mid-year 1882-83

I. (Answer briefly all of the following.)

II. (Answer more fully three of the following.)

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. Year-end 1882-1883

I. (Take all of this group.)

II. (Omit one of this group.)

III. (Omit one of this group.)

Course Examinations

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. Mid-year 1882-83

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. Year-end 1882-1883

[Do not change the order of the questions.]

Course Examinations

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3. Mid-year 1882-83

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3. Year-end 1882-1883

Course Announcement

POLITICAL ECONOMY. ELECTIVE COURSES.

Course Enrollments

Course Examination

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. Year-end 1881-1882

(Omit one question from each group.)

I.

II.

III.

IV.

Course Examination

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. Year-end 1881-1882

In answering the questions do not change their order.

Harvard College Courses POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Harvard Graduate Department POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Political Economy Course Enrollments 1880-1881

The John Stuart Mill’s Principles: textbook of Harvard choice

Final Examinations Mid-Year and End-Year, 1880-1881

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. [Mid-Year Examination, 1880-81 with references to J. S. Mill]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. [Final, Year-End Examination, 1880-81, with references to J. S. Mill]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. [Mid-Year Examination, 1880-81, with references to J. S. Mill]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. [Final, Year-End Examination, 1880-81, with a link to J. S. Mill]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3. [Mid-Year Examination, 1880-81, with references to Cairnes, et al.]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3. [Final, Year-End Examination, 1880-81, with references to Cairnes and Giffen]

Actually only two distinct political economy courses offered in 1879-80

An important guest lecturer at Harvard in 1879-80:

The John Stuart Mill textbook of Harvard choice

Political Economy 1

Enrollments and Text Political Economy 1 1879-80

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. Mid-Year Examination 1879-80

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. Year-End Examination 1879-80

Political Economy 2 1879-80

Enrollments and Text Political Economy 2 1879-80

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. Mid-Year Examination 1879-80

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. Year-end Examination 1879-80

Political Economy 3 1879-80

Enrollments and Texts Political Economy 3 1879-80

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3. Mid-Year Examination 1879-80

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3. Year-End Examination 1879-80

Shivers Bryan Bank Plank Chicago University Financial Expert Declares It Chimerical. Points Out Its Injustice

Guaranty of Deposits Is Described as a Socialistic Scheme.

Would Work in Insane Asylum.

Safety in Bank’s Integrity.

Letter from Chairman L. C. Marshall to President Ernest D. Burton

The University of Chicago Department of Political Economy

Letter from Chairman L. C. Marshall to Nathan C. Plimpton, comptroller

The University of Chicago Department of Political Economy

Letter from Chairman L. C. Marshall to President Ernest D. Burton

The University of Chicago Department of Political Economy

Carbon copy of letter from President Ernest D. Burton to L. C. Marshall

Memorandum of Conversation with Professor Laughlin —November 19, 1924

About Laughlin’s “Student’s Guide to John Stuart Mill”

PAPERS SET FOR EXAMINATION IN POLITICAL ECONOMY I. [# in Laughlin’s list of 310 questions (1884)]

1883-1884.

1885-1886.

1886-1887.

1886-1887.

DIVISION A.

DIVISION B.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Year-end Examination. June 1884]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-year 1882-83

I.
(Answer briefly all of the following.)

II.
(Answer more fully three of the following.)

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-end 1882-1883

I.
(Take all of this group.)

II.
(Omit one of this group.)

III.
(Omit one of this group.)

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-year 1882-83

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end 1882-1883

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-year 1882-83

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Year-end 1882-1883

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
ELECTIVE COURSES.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-end 1881-1882

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end 1881-1882

Harvard College Courses
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Harvard Graduate Department
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Political Economy Course Enrollments
1880-1881

The John Stuart Mill’s Principles:
textbook of Harvard choice

Final Examinations
Mid-Year and End-Year, 1880-1881

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Mid-Year Examination, 1880-81 with references to J. S. Mill]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Final, Year-End Examination, 1880-81, with references to J. S. Mill]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Mid-Year Examination, 1880-81, with references to J. S. Mill]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Final, Year-End Examination, 1880-81, with a link to J. S. Mill]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Mid-Year Examination, 1880-81, with references to Cairnes, et al.]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Final, Year-End Examination, 1880-81, with references to Cairnes and Giffen]

Enrollments and Text
Political Economy 1
1879-80

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-Year Examination
1879-80

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-End Examination
1879-80

Political Economy 2
1879-80

Enrollments and Text
Political Economy 2
1879-80

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-Year Examination
1879-80

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end Examination
1879-80

Political Economy 3
1879-80

Enrollments and Texts
Political Economy 3
1879-80

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-Year Examination
1879-80

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Year-End Examination
1879-80

Shivers Bryan Bank Plank
Chicago University Financial Expert Declares It Chimerical.
Points Out Its Injustice

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy

Carbon copy of letter
from President Ernest D. Burton to L. C. Marshall

Memorandum of Conversation with
Professor Laughlin
—November 19, 1924

PAPERS SET FOR EXAMINATION IN POLITICAL ECONOMY I.
[# in Laughlin’s list of 310 questions (1884)]

1887-1888.
Mid-year. 1888.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
STATEMENT OF THE
POLITICAL ECONOMY FELLOWSHIPS