It is now time to begin posting transcriptions of course material for the Harvard academic year 1906-07. Sometimes, even for the curator of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror, this becomes a tedious task. Still, the opportunity to assemble a long time series of economics exams into searchable text for one of the leading economics departments has the virtue of being steady work.
In the beginning… there is the undergraduate principles of economics course and that is the subject of this post. Subsequent posts more or less follow the course numbering used at the time by Harvard.
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Taussig explains the course structure
In a letter Aug 8, 1906 to E.R.A. Seligman at Columbia describing how Economics 1 was taught we learn that Frank Taussig gave the first semester lectures and his younger colleagues, Charles J. Bullock and A. Piatt Andrew split the second semester’s lectures between themselves. The textbooks used in the course were “Mill, Walker, and Seager.” Taussig also gave himself credit for introducing the course structure of having a common set of lectures and small-section work for discussion and exercises.
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Course Enrollment
1906-07
Economics 1. Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Asst. Professors [Charles Jesse] Bullock and [Abram Piatt] Andrew, assisted by Messrs [Selden Osgood] Martin, [Frank Richardson] Mason, G. R. [George Randall] Lewis, [Charles Phillips] Huse, and [Arthur Norman] Holcombe. — Principles of Economics.
Total 392: 1 Graduate, 15 Seniors, 43 Juniors, 252 Sophomores, 50 Freshmen, 31 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 70.
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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1906-07
Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
- Explain briefly what is meant by, — free goods; public goods; utility; marginal utility; productive labor.
- Explain the relation between, — the rate of interest; the selling price of land; the capitalization of monopolies; vested rights.
- What is meant by urban site rent? Does such rent differ from the rent of agricultural land? If so, in what essentials? If not, why not?
- Are business profits a return different in kind from wages, according to Mill? Seager? the instructor in the course?
- Is a high birth-rate to be regarded with anxiety? a low birth-rate? a high death-rate? a low death-rate? State (in round numbers per 1000 of population) what you would regard as high and low rates.
- Would you expect the price of a commodity to fall if its cost of production were lowered? If so, under what conditions? If not, why not?
Would you expect the cost of producing a commodity to be lowered if its price fell? If so, under what conditions? If not, why not? - Wherein had immigration into the United States during the decade just passed differed from immigration in earlier times; and what effect has recent immigration had (a) on the general rate of wages, (b) on wages in particular occupations?
- Explain the connection between, — collective bargaining; the closed shop; the open union.
- Suppose socialism, in the form proposed by Fourier, were adopted: how would wages, rent, interest, business profits, be affected? What if socialism, as outlined by modern writers, were adopted?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1906-07.
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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1905-06
I.
Answer three questions.
- Does the value of a commodity depend on its utility? Does the price of a commodity depend on its value?
- Explain briefly what is meant by (a) the sweating system, (b) producers’ coöperation, (c) collective bargaining.
- Suppose a great increase in the supply of (a) gold, (b) silver, (c) wheat: would the values of these three articles be affected in the same way and in the same degree?
- What is the nature of the income received by (a) an owner of lodging house who lets rooms to students; (b) an owner of shares a “trust”; (c) an author receiving royalty on a copy-righted book; (d) a mine owner receiving a royalty (so much per ton) on minerals extracted from his mine.
II.
Answer three questions.
- Describe the various forms of credit which serve as means of exchange. Does their existence afford any disproof of the “quantity theory”? Explain why or why not.
- If there were no legal restrictions, would anything tend to prevent an over-expansion (a) of deposits, (b) of notes?
If the present legal restrictions on note issue were abolished, what substitutes would you suggest? - The imports of the United States from Brazil permanently exceed our exports to that country. What movements of specie between these countries are involved? The total exports of merchandise from the United States permanently exceed its imports. What movements of specie to or from this country are involved?
- Given mint par with England 4.86 2/3, France 5.18, Germany 0.952. What conditions with regard to American trade are indicated by the following quotations of exchange in New York, 4.84, 5.20, 0.945? How ought these rates to stand if the American dollar were to fall to half its present gold value?
III.
Answer three questions.
- According: to the principles laid down by Adam Smith and Mill, what changes should be made in the system of taxation employed by our national government?
- Compare the history of the income tax in the United States with the history of the tax in two European countries.
- What are the principal arguments for and against the proposal to levy progressive income taxes in order to prevent “undue” concentration of wealth? What are the arguments for and against using progressive inheritance taxes for the same purpose?
- Should a national debt be extinguished? Should municipal debts be extinguished? (In each case state fully the reasons for your answer.)
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1907), pp. 24-25.
Image Source: Frank W. Taussig in the Harvard Class Album, 1906. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.
