Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. A.B. Division Examination, Economic Theory, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “special examination” questions in economic theory given at Harvard in May 1939.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[SourceHarvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • One of the Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates. (May 12, 1939; 3 hours)

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Economic Theory

(Three hours)

A candidate may, at his option, write hour essays on TWO topics in Part I and omit Part II.

Part I

(About one hour)

  1. Write an essay on one of the following topics:
    1. monopolistic competition and excess capacity,
    2. selling costs and social waste,
    3. the theory that interest is the price paid for ‘the service of waiting’,
    4. the effects on employment of a general cut in money wage-rates in the early stages of depression,
    5. the nature and causes of ‘pure profit’.

Part II

(About one hour)

Answer two questions.

  1. Explain, and discuss briefly, the meanings, the main ‘geometric’ properties and relations, and the main uses as aids to analysis, of the following ‘tools’: the demand curve for a firm’s output; the firm’s marginal revenue curve; its short- and long-period curves of average total unit costs; and its curve of marginal costs.
  2. “Although the ‘individual firm approach’ to value theory is in general superior, the ‘whole industry approach’ of Marshall still is capable of being used, without assuming ‘pure competition’, as an effective way of exploring certain important problems, which the other approach leaves out of sight.” Discuss.
  3. Explain the essential propositions of the ‘marginal productivity theory’ of income distribution in an economy characterized by pure competition; and the principal changes which must be made in this theory when account is taken (a) of monopoly elements in the markets in which products are sold, and (b) of monopoly elements in the markets in which factors are hired.
  4. “Those who hold that competitive allocation of economic resources in free markets would bring maximum satisfaction only if incomes were approximately equal, are in effect admitting that the market neither does, nor can, give sound guidance in any economic system that relies upon the profit motive to keep going.”
  5. Discuss the proper definitions, provinces, difference in assumptions, and relation to each other, of economic ‘statics’ and ‘dynamics’.
  6. Explain and discuss one major, novel concept introduced into economic theory by J. M. Keynes.

 

Part III

(About one hour)

Discuss two of the following questions.

  1. “Men are no longer units; they are being compulsorily coagulated into groups, and the forces of combination and regulation are producing a society very different from that which the nineteenth century Political Economy set out to interpret.”
  2. “The nature of an economic law is such that it can be neither established nor refuted by an appeal to the facts.”
  3. “The conception of the economic process as a circus off commodities and prices divorced from class relations is neither Marxian nor Classical.”
  4. “If we find something approaching pure competition in any branch of production, we can conclude that it is subject to increasing costs.”
  5. “Given fresh natural resources to develop, a rapidly increasing population, and foreign markets for goods and capital, even a trustified capitalism might be able to maintain high utilization of economic resources and an increasing national income. But in the absence of these favoring conditions it will be undermined more and more by direct government action to ward off the ever-present tendency to continuous depression.”

 

May 10, 1939.

Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

 

Categories
Columbia Courses Undergraduate

Columbia. Undergraduate Economic Courses Chosen. 1923-1929

In a university with the scope of  Columbia, economics courses are taught within several different administrative units. While the economics department that grew within the graduate Faculty of Political Science is of primary importance, we probably want to keep an eye on developments in the undergraduate programs of Columbia College and Barnard College and courses taught in the Business School. The following table caught my eye in a folder labelled “Columbia College” in an archival box of the economics department. I have inserted a column with the course names found in the annual university catalogue. I find it interesting that “comparative economic systems” was already a course designation no later than 1921-22 (p. 114 of the departmental listings in the 1921-22 catalogue, taught by assistant professor W. E. Weld). Google N-Gram first registers the use of “comparative economic systems” in 1955.

From the 1921-22 catalogue (p. 38): William E. Weld, Assistant Professor of Economics,  A.B., Wooster, 1903; A.M., 1909; Ph.D., Columbia, 1920. He went on to become professor and Dean at Rochester University (1929-1937) and President of Wells College (1936-48).  Here is his obituary in the New York Times.

Historical enrollment figures by class as well as course-staffing information are easily available (on-line!) for Harvard in the Annual Reports of the President. For other universities  I just continue to look for relevant administrative memos (like that posted here) in departmental and university records.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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COURSES AND ELECTIONS
[by Columbia College Students]

I A. Elections by Courses

 

Course number or letter

[course name] Or, is this course one in business? 1928-29* 27-28 26-27 25-26 24-25 23-24

Increased
Decreased
Steady

Economics

1

Principles of Economics—Principles and practical problems. 6 points. 301 271 259 274 281 322

1r

7

2 230 241 244 264

286

3

Economic institutions in operation. 2 points. 12 20
6 Principles of economics. Combination of Economics 1-2. 5 points. 56 60 52 29

32

7

Phases of American economic life. 2 points. 14 17 9 41 20

8

Proposals for economic reorganization. 2 points. 8 23 15 33

8

9

Comparative economic systems, or International comparison and economic welfare. 6 points. 19 35 34 10

20

10 33 29 9

13

11

Early, Legal economics. Then, The development and content of present-day economic theory. 4 points 8 15 15 23
12 11 9

8

14

Financial organization. 2 points. Yes 25 6

17

Elements of business administration 152 107 82 81 94 138
18 90 67 53 68

105

20

Earlier, Elements of Business Administration. Later, Financial and business organization. 4 points. 41 16 11 13 26
33 Methods in social sciences. 2 points. 4 15

101

Public finance. 6 points. Yes 15 13 11 17 21 38
102 11 6 12 12

25

103

Principles of money and banking. 3 points. 75 38 26 28 25

54

104

The organization of the banking system. 3 points. 31 23 25 19

34

105

Labor problems. 3 points. 20 7 14 6 10 32
106 Corporation and trust problems. 3 points. 13 9 5 10

31

107

Fiscal and industrial history of the United States. 3 points. 3 3
108 Railroad problems; economic, social and legal. 3 points. 4 7

131

Earlier, Legal economics. Later, Legal factors in economics. 4 points. 5 8 8 6
132 6 3 2

Total Elections of Economics Courses by Columbia College Students 621* 1010 972 923 1002 1254

*For Winter Session Only

 

Source: Columbia University Libraries and Archives. Columbiana. Department of Economics Collection. Box 6, Folder “Columbia College”.

Image Source: Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. (1913). Library Columbia University, New York City. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-8bad-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Categories
Chicago Courses Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Economic Doctrine, Modern Tendencies. Lange, 1942

“Modern Tendencies in Economic Economic Doctrine” was the title of the course taught by Oscar Lange in 1942 at the University of Chicago. According to the notes to the course taken by Norman Kaplan, the first two lectures appear to be Lange’s Apologia for the rationality postulate in modern economic theory that are then followed by lectures in which many themes of Hicks’ Value and Capital are addressed. Karl Marx, Max Weber and Talcott Parsons all get mention in his reflections on the rationality postulate. One can characterise Lange’s mission here and elsewhere as seeking to graft advances in economic theory from the marginal revolution that led to neoclassical economics to the trunk of (Marxian) classical economics.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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[Course Announcement, Economics 303, Spring 1942]

303. Modern Tendencies in Economic Doctrine.—A critical study of controversial questions in the general body of economic theory, and of some modern developments of that theory. The fundamentals of the theory of general equilibrium, the approach to dynamic economics, the foundations of welfare economics, the place of economics among the social sciences and problems of methodology will be discussed. Prerequisite: Economics 301 or equivalent. Spring, Tu., Th., 3:30-5:30, Lange.

 

Source: University of Chicago, The College and the Divisions for the Sessions of 1941-1942. Announcements Vol. XLI, No. 10 (April 25, 1941), p 307.

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Spring, 1942

ECONOMICS 303
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Required

J. R. Hicks. Value and Capital

H. Schultz. Theory and Measurement of Demand, chap. vi

J. Dean. “Department-Store Cost Functions,” Studies in Mathematical Economic and Econometrics, p. 222.

F. Lindahl. Studies in the Theory of Money and Capital, part I [(handwritten marginal note: (Read along with dynamic part of Hicks)]

H. Makower and J. Marschak. “Money and the Theory of Assets,” Economica (Aug. 1938)

M. Kalecki. “The Principle of Increasing Risk,” Essays in the Theory of Economic Fluctuations

G. L. S. Shackle. “Expectations and Employment,” Econ. J. (Sept. 1939)

________________. “The Nature of the Inducement to Invest,” RES (Oct. 1940)

A. G. Hart. “Uncertainty and Inducements to Invest,” RES (Oct. 1940)

T. Scitovszky. “A Study of Interest and Capital,” Economica (Aug. 1940)

J. Tinbergen. “Econometric Business Cycle Research,” RES (Feb. 1940)

R. F. Harrod. “Essay in Dynamic Theory,” Econ. J. (March 1939)

R. F. Kahn. “Some Notes on Ideal Output,” Econ. J. (March 1935)

N. Kaldor. “Welfare Propositions and Inter-Personal Comparability of Utility,” Econ. J. (Sept. 1939)

J. R. Hicks. “The Foundations of Welfare Economics,” Econ. J. (Dec. 1939)

A. P. Lerner. “From Vulgar Political Economy to Vulgar Marxism,” JPE (Aug. 1939)

H. D. Dickinson. “A Comparison of Marxian and Bourgeois Economics,” The Highway 1937

Eric Roll. “The Social Significance of Recent Trends in Economic Theory,” Canadian J. of Economics (Aug. 1940)

 

Optional

F. H. Knight. Risk, Uncertainty and Profit

G. Tintner. “A Contributionof the Non-Static Theory of Choice,” QJE (Feb. 1942)

A. G. Hart. “Anticipations, Uncertainty and Dynamic Planning,” J. of Business of the U. of C. (Oct. 1940)

J. R. Hicks. “A Suggestion for the Simplification of the Theory of Money,” Economica (1935)

P. N. Rosenstein-Rodan. “The Co-ordination of the General Theories of Money and Prices,” Economica (Aug. 1936)

J. Tinbergen. A Method and its Application to Investment Activity, League of Nations

H. D. Dickinson. The Economics of Socialism

M. H. Dobb. Political Economy and Capitalism

A. P. Lerner. “Statics and Dynamics in Socialist Economics,” Econ. J. (June 1937)

Talcott Parsons. The Structure of Social Action, chap. iv

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ECONOMICS 303
Spring, 1942

 

I. Discuss briefly the relation of the analysis of consumers’ behavior in terms of indifference curves and in terms of traditional marginal utility theory. Explain

(1) the concept of the marginal rate of substitution and its relation to marginal utility.

(2) the relation between the law of diminishing marginal utility and the convexity (toward the origin) of indifference curves.

(3) the assumptions underlying measurability of utility.

(4) the consequences which dispensing with the hypothesis that utility is measurable has for the law of diminishing marginal utility and for the Edgeworth-Pareto distinction between substitute, independent and complementary commodities.

(5) whether the use of indifference curves and of the marginal rate of substitution requires that utility be immeasurable.

 

II. Explain the difference between “co-operant” factors of production in the sense of Pigou (i.e., “complementary” factors in the sense of Edgeworth-Pareto) and complementary factors in the sense of Hicks-Allen-Schultz. Show why in the case of only two factors used to produce a product both definitions are equivalent but cease to be so if more than two factors are used. What is the purpose of replacing in the theory of production “co-operancy” by complementarity in the Hicks-Allen sense?

 

III. Describe the way in which uncertainty of price expectations influences the production plans of firms and the consumption plans of households. Explain

(1) what features of uncertain price expectations influence the planning of sales and purchases.

(2) apply your explanation to the determination of forward prices.

(3) discuss how uncertainty influences the length of the economic horizon and how this accounts for the insensitiveness of current investment to changes in interest rates.

 

IV. State the conditions of stability of general economic equilibrium and try to link them up with the relation of changes in the quantity of money to changes in the demand for cash balances. Don’t worry if you cannot answer the second part of the question. If you can answer it, give an example of a behavior of the monetary system which will make general equilibrium unstable.

 

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Norman Kaplan Papers, Box 2, Folder 6.

Image source: Wikipedia/commons.

Categories
Bibliography Courses Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Empirical Economics. Orcutt, 1950

This is the second batch of material I post from Guy Henderson Orcutt’s undergraduate course Economics 110 at Harvard. His bibliography on the scientific method was included in the previous posting.

A four item reading list for Economics 110 in 1949-50 and a selective reading list (Part I, no part II in the folder) for the 1950-51 course have been transcribed for this posting.

One more bibliographic list is filed under 1949-50, Economics 110: “A Bibliography of Statistical or Inductive Studies of the Determinants of Imports or Exports”. That bibliography is identical to Appendix 4B of Orcutt’s famous paper, Measurement of Price Elasticites in International Trade (Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 32, No. 2. May, 1950), 117-132. This material was explicitly discussed in the academic year 1950-51 in the course in Economics 210b (see Orcutt’s course offerings below).

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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1949-50
Economics 110
Reading List

(Additions will be made to this list)

Henry Schultz—The Theory and Measurement of Demand, University of Chicago Press, 1938.

William H. Nicholls—Labor Productivity Functions in Meat Packing, University of Chicago Press, 1948.

Dale Yoder, D. G. Paterson, et al—Local Labor Market Research, University of Minnesota Press, 1948.

Jacob MarschakIntroduction to Econometrics, Mimeographed lectures (Buffalo and Chicago). Only about two dozen copies are still available. They can be mailed for $2.25 a copy plus postage. To obtain them write the Cowles Commission, University of Chicago, Chicago 37, Illinois. I expect to use this book for Economics 110 and Economics 125b this semester and for mathematical economics next fall.

 

Source:   Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1949-50, (1 of 3)”

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[Course offerings 1950-51: Orcutt’s Empirical Economics]

Economics 110a. Empirical Economics: National Income and Business Fluctuations

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Assistant Professor Orcutt.

This course will deal with the empirical foundations of economic theory in the fields of national income and business fluctuations, The methods by which various types of prediction are attempted will be given considerable attention.

 

[Economics 110b. Empirical Economics: The Price Mechanism]

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Assistant Professor Orcutt.

Omitted in 1950-51; to be given in 1951-52.

This course will deal with the empirical foundations of economic theory concerning the functioning of the price mechanism. The agricultural and foreign trade sectors will receive particular attention.
Properly qualified undergraduates will be admitted Economics 210b.

 

Economics 210a. Empirical Economics: National Income and Business Fluctuations
Half-course (fall term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Assistant Professor Orcutt.

This course will deal with the problems and techniques of testing economic theory and of prediction in the fields of national income and business fluctuations.

 

Economics 210b. Empirical Economics: The Price Mechanism

Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Assistant Professor Orcutt.

This course will deal with the problems and techniques of testing economic theories and predictions concerning the functioning of the price mechanism. The agricultural and foreign trade sectors will receive particular attention. Properly qualified undergraduates will be admitted to this course.

 

Source. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1950-51. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLVII, No. 23 (September, 1950) , pp. 80, 84.

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A Selected List of Readings Relevant to
Economics 110a and 210a
Part I

Asher Achinstein, Introduction to Business Cycles, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1950

John Maurice Clark, Strategic Factors in Business Cycles, National Bureau of Economic Research (1935), reprinted Augustus M. Kelley, Inc., 1949
http://papers.nber.org/books/clar34-1

James Duesenberry, Income, Saving and the Theory of Consumer Behavior, Harvard University Press, 1949

William J. Fellner, Monetary Policies and Full Employment, University of California Press, 1946

Edwin Frickey, Economic Fluctuations in the United States, Harvard University Press, 1942

Gottfried Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, 3rd ed., 1943, reprinted by United Nations, 1946

P. M. Hauser and W. R. Leonard, Government Statistics for Business Use, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1946

J. R. Hicks, A Contribution to the Theory of the Trade Cycle, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1950

Lawrence R. Klein, Economic Fluctuations in the United States, 1921-1941, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1950

Tjalling C. Koopmans and others, Statistical Inference in Dynamic Economic Models, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1950

Wassily Leontief, Structure of the American Economy, 1919-1929, Harvard University Press, 1941

Jacob Marschak, Introduction to Econometrics, Cowles Commission, University of Chicago, 1949

A. F. Burns and Wesley C. Mitchell, Measuring Business Cycles, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1946

Oskar Morgenstern, On the Accuracy of Economic Observations, Princeton University Press, 1950

Philip Neff and Annette Weifenbach, Business Cycles in selected Industrial Areas, University of California Press, 1949

W. Nelson Peach and Walter Krause, Basic Data of the American Economy, 3rd ed., Richard D. Irwin, Inc., Chicago

D. H. Robertson, A Study of Industrial Fluctuation, 1915, reprinted by London School of Economics and Political Science, 1948

Richard Ruggles, An Introduction to National Income and Income Analysis, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1949

J. Tinbergen, Statistical Testing of Business-Cycle Theories, Vol. I, “A Method and Its Application to Investment Activity,” Vol. II, “Business Cycles in the United States of America, 1919-1932,” League of Nations Economic Intelligence Service, Geneva, 1939

J. Tinbergen and J. J. Polak, The Dynamics of Business Cycles, University of Chicago Press, 1950

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, 1789-1945

Thomas Wilson, Fluctuations in Income and Employment (3rd ed.), Pitman Publishing Company, New York, 1949

 

 

Source:   Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1949-50, (1 of 3)”

Image Source: Cropped from portrait in Harold W. Watts (1991). Distinguished Fellow: An Appreciation of Guy Orcutt. Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 5, No. 1, Winter, pp. 171-179.

 

 

Categories
Bibliography Courses Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Undergraduate Econometrics. Orcutt, 1950

Guy Henderson Orcutt (1917-2006) taught the first real course in econometrics to undergraduates at Harvard in the second semester of the 1949/50(!) academic year. Today I have selected his bibliography on the scientific method that provides us nice leads to those academic scribblers from whom one of the pioneers of econometrics had distilled his methodological frenzy.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

__________________________________

Economics Department Has Excellent Staff of Teachers

…Those who favor the mathematical approach to Economics will find two courses to interest them in the Department, Economics 104, introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Economic Theory, and Economics 110, Introduction to Econometrics. The latter course represents the first time undergraduates will be given more than a glimpse of the field of econometrics, a combination of mathematics and economics of rapidly growing importance in the world of economic study….

Source: Harvard Crimson, April 22, 1949.

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[Economics 110. Announcement, 1949-50]

Economics 110. Introduction to Econometrics

Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Dr. ——-

The matter will be presented in order of increasing mathematical difficulty. Only simplified models will be used to familiarize the students with the econometric approach: and to complete their knowledge of mathematical tools needed in quantitative economic analysis.

 

Source. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1949-50. Official Register of Harvard University, Vo. XLVI, No. 24 (September, 1949) , p. 79.

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[Economics 110. Applied Economics. Enrollment 1950]

110 Applied Economics. (Sp) Assistant Professor Orcutt.

(Sp) 1 Graduate, 2 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore. Total: 6.

 

Source: Harvard University, Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1949-50, p. 72.

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1949-50
Economics 110
A Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Scientific Method
by Guy Orcutt

1. Books

Bacon, F., Novum Organum, edited by Thomas Fowler, Oxford. The Clarendon Press, 1878.

Bowley, A.L., The Nature and Purpose of the Measurement of Social Phenomena, London. P. S. King and Son, 1915.

Boyle, R., The Philosophical Works of. edited by Peter Shaw, Vol. II, London. W. and J. Innys, 1725.

Bridgmen, P. W., The Logic of Modern Physics, New York. The Macmillan Co., 1938.

Cairnes, J. E., The Character and Logical Method of Political Economy, London. Macmillan and Co., 1888.

Carnap, R., The Logical Syntax of Language, New York. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1937.

Cassel, G., Fundamental Thoughts in Economics, New York. Harcourt, Brace and Co, 1925.

———-, On Quantitative Thinking in Economics, New York. Oxford. The Clarendon Press, 1935.

Clark, C., The Conditions of Economic Progress, London. Macmillan and Co., 1940.

Cohen, M.R., and Nagel, E., An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method, New York. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1934.

Dalmulder, J.J.J., On Econometrics, Haarlem. De erven F. Bohn N.V., 1936.

Darwin, C. R., The Life and Letters of, Edited by Francis Darwin, Vol. 1, New York. D. Appleton and Company, 1919.

Dewey, J., Logic—The Theory of Inquiry, New York. H. Holt and Company, 1938.

Eddington, A.S., The Philosophy of Physical Science, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1939.

Enriques, F., The Historic Development of Logic, translated from the Italian by Jerome Rosenthal, New York. Henry Holt and Company, 1929.

Frank, P., Between Physics and Philosophy, Cambridge. Harvard University Press, 1941.

Gilbert, W., On the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies also, and On the Great Magnet of the Earth, London. The Chiswick Press, 1900.

Herschel, J. F. W., Natural Philosophy, London. Longmans, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1851.

Hume, D., A Treatise on Human Nature, edited by T. H. Green and T. H. Grose, London. Longmans, Green and Company, 1874.

Hutchison, T. W., The Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory, London. Macmillan and Company, 1938.

Jeans, J. H., Physics and Philosophy, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1943.

Jeffreys, H., Scientific Inference, Cambridge. The University Press, 1937.

Jevons, W.S., The Theory of Political Economy, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1871.

———-, The Principles of Science, London. Macmillan and Company, 1887.

———-, Elementary Lessons in Logic: Deductive and Inductive, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1895.

Keynes, J. M., The Scope and Method of Political Economy, 3rd edition, revised, London. Macmillan and Company, 1904.

Lindsay, R.B., and Margenau, H., Foundations of Physics, New York. John Wiley and Sons, 1936.

List, F., National System of Political Economy, translated from the German by G. A. Matile, Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott and Company, 1856.

Margenau, H., see Lindsay, R.B.

Meyerson, E., Identity and Reality, translated from the French by Kate Loewenberg, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1930.

Mill, J.S., A System of Logic Ratiocinative and Inductive, London. G. Routledge and Sons, 1892.

Minto, W., Logic Inductive and Deductive, New York. C. Scribner’s Sons, 1893.

Moore, H.L., Synthetic Economics, New York. The Macmillan Compnay, 1929.

Nagel, E., see Cohen, M.R.

Nicod, J., Foundations of Geometry and Induction, translated from the French by Philip Paul Wiener, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1930.

Pearson, K., The Grammar of Science, London. Walter Scott, 1892.

Pigou, A.C., The Functions of Economic Analysis, London. Oxford University Press, 1930.

Poincare, H., Science and Method, translated from the French by Francis Maitland, London. Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1914.

Reade, W.H.V., The problem of Inference, Oxford. The Clarendon Press, 1938.

Ritchie, A.D., Scientific Method, New York. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1923.

Robbins, L., An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, London. Macmillan and Company, 1932.

Roepke, W., Crises and Cycles, adapted from the German and revised by Vera C. Smith, London. W. Hodge and Company, 1936.

Roscher, W., Principles of Political Economy, translated from the German by John J. Lalar, New York. H. Holt and Company, 1878.

Senior, N.W., Four Introductory Lectures on Political Economy, London. Longmans, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1852.

Sidgwick, H., The Scope and Method of Economic Science, London. Macmillan and Company, 1885.

Stamp, J., The Statistical Verification of Social and Economic Theory, London. Oxford University Press, 1927.

Thurstone, L.L., The Vectors of Mind, Chicago. The University Press, 1935.

Venn, J., The Principles of Empirical or Inductive Logic, London. Macmillan and Company, 1889.

Whewell, W., The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. II, London. John W. Parker, 1847.

Whitehead, A.N., An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge, Cambridge, University Press, 1925.

Wolf, A., Essentials of Scientific Method, London. G. Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1925. Textobook of Logic, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1930.

 

2. Articles

Fisher, I., “The Application of Mathematics to the Social Sciences,” Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, Vol. 36 (1930), pp. 225-243.

Fisher, R.A., “The Logic of Inductive Inference,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 98 (1935), pp. 39-54.

Frisch, R., “Editorial,” Econometrica, Vol. 1 (1933), pp. 1-4.

Harrod, R.F., Scope and Method of Economics, Economic Journal, Vol. 48 (1938), pp. 383-412.

Mitchell, W. C., “Quantitative Analysis in Economic Theory, “ American Economic Review, Vol. 15 (1925), pp. 1-12.

Source:   Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1949-50, (1 of 3)”.

Image Source: Orcutt’s senior year picture from the University of Michigan yearbook, Michiganensian, 1939.

Categories
Courses Harvard Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Business Organization and Control. Sydney Alexander 1948-49.

Sydney Stuart Alexander (1916-2005) [Harvard S.B., 1936; A.M., 1938; Ph.D. 1946] taught the popular undergraduate course on Business Organization and Control before it was taken over by John Kenneth Galbraith and Carl Kaysen. While waiting for a delivery of material one day in the Harvard Archives, I thumbed through the 25th anniversary report of the Class of 1936 and came across Alexander’s report to his class (1961). You can see him standing in the front-row of the Department of Economics (MIT) group picture taken in 1976.

I was touched by the philosophical reflection in his 1961 report to his class that I have transcribed and now post before his syllabus for Economics 161.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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“My professional life since graduation can be told as a tale of three cities: Cambridge, New York and Washington, each with a multiple exposure. Three tours of duty in Cambridge as teacher and research worker, two in New York, once in empirical research and once in business, and two in Washington, once in wartime intelligence-oriented economic research, and once as an international civil servant for the International Monetary Fund….the many job shifts have simply been alterations between theory and practice. Now I juggle both theory and practice at the same time. I teach economic theory to practically oriented students of management at the School of Industrial Management at M.I.T…

“…I try to balance my interest in applied economics with the study, as yet embryonic, of the foundations of welfare judgments…There is a substantial body of economic doctrine, in the theory of economic welfare, which deals with the problem of how given wants of individuals can be best (most economically) satisfied. But the doctrine starts from the assumption of given want, and it leaves open the question of how important it is to satisfy those wants. Once the problem is viewed more broadly, it becomes obvious that the merit of want satisfaction depends on the desirability of the wants. The wants themselves are generated largely by the social framework, not least by the economy itself as it operates to satisfy the wants.

Inquiry into this range of problems runs counter to the last fashion but one in the social sciences—that of positivism, which scorned the questions that could not be expressed in operational terms. It is my thesis that the most important social issues cannot be handled in operational terms like problems in physics, nor yet in analytical terms, like problems in mathematics, but only by a sort of discussion which is more like literary criticism. That discussion cannot be based on the authority of experimental evidence or logical truth, though it may draw upon both. Its foundations, however, must be in the non-operational field in which terms like important, better, or worse have meaning…”

Source: Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, Harvard Class of 1936. Cambridge, 1961, pp. 11-12

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[Economics 161, 1948-49: Enrollment]

161 (formerly Economics 61a and 62b). Business Organization and Control. (Full Co.) Assistant Professor Alexander.

(F) 1 Graduate, 68 Seniors, 147 Juniors, 31 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 10 Radcliffe:   Total 261.
(Sp) 66 Seniors, 126 Juniors, 15 Sophomores, 7 Radcliffe: Total 214

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1948-49, p. 77.

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Economics 161 (formerly Economics 61a and 62b). Business Organization and Control
Full Course. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Assistant Professor Alexander.

Source: Harvard University. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1948-49, p. 75.

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Economics 161
1948-49
Business Organization and Control

 

I. Fundamentals of Economic Organization

September 28

Introduction Brookings, Ch. 2
Fainsod and Gordon, Ch. 1
Meade and Hitch, Part D, Chs. 1 and 2

October 1

The Free Enterprise System

II. Nature and Origin of the Corporation

October 4

The legal character of the corporation: Buchanan, Ch. 3
B & M, Book II, Ch. 1
Dewing, Book I, Chs. 1 and 2

October 6

The history of the corporation:

III. Financial Structure and Operation of the Corporation

October   8

Structure and Operation MLPF & B (entire pamphlet) and
Dewing, Book I, Ch. 4 to p. 83, Ch. 7, 8, 9 to p. 218, and 230-242
Dewing, Book III, Chs. 1 and 2

11

13

14 or 15

Section

IV. The Large Corporation

October 11

The extent and consequences of concentration: Gordon, Ch. 2, 4, and 5
Baker, Ch. IVB & M: Book I, Ch. I; Book IV, Chs. I through IV
Burnham, Chs. VI-IX, & XVI

20

The operation of the large corporation:

22

Section

25

The separation of ownership from control:

27

The managerial revolution?

29

Section

V. Active Governmental Regulation of the Corporation

November 1

New issues and the securities markets: Cherrington, Chs. 9 & 10 and
Dewing, Book IV, Ch. 9 & 6

3

5

Section

8

The holding company & its regulation: Allen, Ch. 9

10

Corporate reorganization: Buchanan, Ch. XV or
Dewing, Book V, Chs. 3, 5, & 6

12

Section

VI. Theory of Markets

November 15

Competition, perfect and monopolistic: Boulding, Chs. 24 and 27
F & G, Ch. 9

17

Duopoly and oligopoly:

19

Section

VII. Markets and Their Regulation

November 22

Railroads and their Regulation: Locklin, Chs. VIII, XV, & XVI

24

26

Section

29

Agriculture and the Government: Black & Kiefer, Chs. VIII, IX, XI, XVIII, XX, XXI, XXV, and XXX.

December 1

3

Section

6

The Petroleum Industry Rostow, Parts I, II, III and V.

8

10

Section

13

Lumber industry and trade associations: Burns, Ch. II and IV

15

The meat industry

17

Section

Reading period

 

References

Allen, Frederick L., The Lords of Creation, 1935.
Baker, John C., Directors and Their Functions, 1945.
Berle, A. A., and Gardiner C. Means (B & M), The Modern Corporation and Private Property, 1932.
Black, John D., and M. E. Kiefer, Future Food and Agricultural Policy, 1948.
Boulding, Kenneth E., Economic Analysis.
Brookings Institution (Lyon and associates), The Government and Economic Life, Vol. I, 1939.
Buchanan, Norman S., The Economics of Corporate Enterprise.
Burnham, James, The Managerial Revolution (Penguin, 1945).
Burns, Arthur R., The Decline of Competition.
Cherrington, Homer V., Business Organization and Finance, 1948.
Dewing, Arthur S., Financial Policy of Corporations, 1941, 2-vol. edition.
Fainsod, Merle, and A. L. Gordon (F & G), Government and the American Economy, 1941.
Gordon, Robert A., Business Leadership in the Large Corporation, 1945.
Locklin, D. Philip, Economics of Transportation, 1947.
Meade, J. E., and Charles Hitch, An Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy.
MLPF & B: Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Beans, How to Read a Financial Report.
Rostow, Eugene V., A National Policy for the Oil Industry, 1947.

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Reading Period — Economics 161 — December 1948

Read 5 articles in FORTUNE, all from within one of the following groups. Within your chosen group read at least two articles from subgroup a, the remaining three articles may be chosen freely from either subgroup a or b. For brevity, titles are not given verbatim. Bracketed items should be read together as a group.

All copies of FORTUNE needed for this course may be found with the other bound periodicals on the open shelf.

Group I—Transportation

Subgroup a

Subgroup b

1. British Rys., p. 87, April ‘47 1. Penns. R.R., I, p. 67, May ‘36

2. Penns. R.R., II, p. 87, June ‘36

3. Penns. R.R., III, p. 84, March ‘48

2. Rate Battle, p. 149, Oct. ‘44
3. Railroads, p. 50, Aug. ‘39
4. Inland Waterways, p. 39, Oct. ‘31 4. Young & Ce & O., p. 97, May ‘46
5. R.R. Consolidations, p. 39, Mar. ‘30 5. Santa Fe, p. 122, Nov. ‘48
6. Rock Island, p. 140, Dec. ‘44

7. Keeshin Trucking, p. 47, Feb. ‘36

8. Pullman I, p. 39, Jan ‘38

9. Pullman II, p. 73, Feb. ‘38

10. Southern Pacific, p. 91, Nov. ‘37

 

Group II—Petroleum and Gas

Subgroup a

Subgroup b

1. Oil Shortage? p. 94, Jan. ‘44 1. Amerada, p. 128, Jan. ‘46
2. Oil Play, p. 69, Aug. ‘48 2. Engineers of Energy, p. 107, Nov. ‘48
3. Pipelines, p. 125, Jan. ‘45 3. Sun Oil, p. 51, Feb. ‘41
4. Natural Gas, p. 56, Aug. ‘40 4. Socony, I, p. 111, Nov. ‘42

5. Socony II, p. 114, Feb. ‘43

5. Ickes Arab. Nights, p. 121, June ‘44
6. Oil Abroad, p. 37, March ‘31 6. Standard (N.J.)I, p. 49, April ‘40

7. Standard (N.J.)II, p. 79, May ‘40

8. Standard (N.J.)III, p. 61, June ‘40

9. Gulf, p. 79, Oct. ‘37
10. Sinclair, p. 60, Nov. ‘32

 

Group III—Steel

Subgroup a

Subgroup b

1. Steel in War, p. 121, May ‘46 1. Labrador Venture, p. 115, Dec. ‘48
2. Basing Point Muddle, p. 73, Sept. ‘48 2. Spark in Steel, p. 95, Dec. ‘48
3. Iron Ore Dilemma, p. 129, Dec. ‘45 3. Steel in West, p. 130, Feb. ‘45
4. Steel I, p. 85, May ‘31 4. Great Lakes I, p. 31, July ‘40
5. Steel II, p. 52, July ‘31 5. Great Lakes II, p. 43, July ‘40
6. Steel III, p. 41, Sept. ‘31 6. Bethlehem, p. 61, April ‘41
7. National, p. 31, June ‘32
8. Republic, p. 54, Sept. ‘33
9. U. S. Steel I, p. 59, March ‘36

10. U.S. Steel II, p. 127, April ‘36

11. U.S. Steel III, p. 113, June ‘36

 

Group IV—Agriculture

Subgroup a

Subgroup b

1. Agriculture, p. 68, July, ‘40 1. Garm Co-ops, p. 153, Aug., ‘45
2. Planning for Plenty, p 61, Oct., ‘41 2. Cotton I, p. 138, Nov. ‘45

3. Cotton II, p. 159, Dec., ‘45

3. Agriculture, p. 80, March, ‘36
4. Cattle, p. 88, April, ‘43
5. Wingate, p. 72, Oct. ‘41
6. Farm Income, p. 89, Oct. ‘37
7. Milk in Chicago, p. 80, Nov. ‘39

8. Grade A, p. 83, Nov., ‘39

 

Group V—Food Processing, etc.

Subgroup a and b combined

1. Continental Baking, p. 67, July ‘38 18. Pineapple, p. 33, Nov. ‘30
2. Nabisco, p. 86, June, ‘48

3. Nabisco, p. 64, Aug., ‘36

19. Armour and Co., p. 59, June ‘34

20. Hormel and Company, p. 127, Oct. ‘37

21. Swift and Co., p. 55, Feb. ‘30

4. Standard Brands, p. 77, Jan. ‘38
5. Life Savers, p. 94, Feb ‘38 22. Procter and Gamble, p. 77, April ‘39
6. Planters’ Peanuts, p. 78, Apr. ‘38 23. General Mills, p. 117, April ‘45

24. General Mills, p. 81, Nov. ‘30

7. Del Monte, p 77, Nov. ‘38
8. Corn Products, p. 55, Sept. ‘38 25. Nestle’s, p. 117, Feb. ‘46
9. Coca-Cola, p. 65, Dec. ‘38
10. Cream of Wheat, p. 68, Jan. ‘39
11. Frozen Foods, p. 61, June ‘39
12. Wessen Oil, p. 67, Sept. ‘39
13. General Goods, p. 69, Oct. ‘34
14. Hershey Chocolate, p. 72, Jan. ‘34
15. Ralston, p. 84, Jan. ‘48
16. Beech Nut, p. 85, Nov. ‘36
17. Campbell Soup, p. 69, Nov. ‘35

 

Group VI—Public Utilities

Subgroup a

Subgroup b

1. Power to Burn, p. 141, Feb. ‘45 1. I. T. & T., p. 145, Sept. ‘45
2. A. T. & T., p. 37, Sept. ‘30 2. A. G. & E., p. 165, Dec. ‘45
3. Com & Sou., p. 83, May ‘37
4. TVA, p. 167, May ‘35
5. TVA, p. 92, Oct. ‘33
6. Cal. G. & E., p. 77, July ‘30
7. Niagara Hudson, p. 43, June ‘31

 

 

Group VII—Retail Trade

Subgroup a and b combined

1. Marshall Field, p. 143, Dec. ‘45

2. Marshall Field, p. 79, Oct. ‘36

9. May Stores, p. 109, Dec. ‘48
10. Bergdorf-Goodman, p. 62, June ‘31
3. Allied Stores, p. 123, March ‘47 11. Neiman-Marcus, p. 133, Nov. ‘37
4. Sears Roebuck, p. 84, Aug. ‘48

5. Sears Roebuck, p. 43, Feb. ‘32

12. Woolworth, p. 63, Nov. ‘33
13. A & P, p. 41, July ‘30

14. A & P, p. 53, March ‘33

15. A & P, p. 93, April ‘38

6. Montgomery Ward, p. 69, Jan. ‘35
7. Macy’s, p. 82, May ‘30

8. Macy’s, p. 23, April ‘33

 

Group VIII—Coal and Coke

Subgroup a

Subgroup b

1. British Coal, p. 118, Oct. ‘46 1. Koppers, p. 73, April ‘37
2. Coal I, p. 86, March ‘47 2. Pittsburgh, p. 57, Oct. ‘33
3. Coal III, p. 99, April ‘47 3. Island Creek, p. 87, March ‘38
4. Anthracite, p. 72, Feb. ‘31

 

Group IX—Distilling and Brewing

Subgroup a

Subgroup b

1. Whiskey, p. 28, Nov. ‘33 1. Seagram’s, p. 97, Sept. ‘48
2. Liquor Reviewed, p. 98, Oct. ‘34 2. Schenley, p. 99, May ‘36
3. Econ. of Repeal, p. 47, May ‘32 3. Anheuser-Busch, p. 42, July ‘35
4. Ballantine’s, p. 64, June ‘38
5. Hiram Walker, p. 68, March ‘39

 

Group X—Automobiles

Subgroup a

Subgroup b

1. Ford, Chev., Plym., p. 86, Oct. ‘31 1. Studebaker, p. 89, Feb. ‘35
2. General Motors I, p. 41, Dec. ‘38 2. Chrysler, p. 103, Oct. ‘48
3. General Motors II, p. 37, Jan., ‘39 3. Chrysler, p. 57, Dec. ‘40
4. General Motors IV, p. 45, March ‘39 4. Willys, p. 80, Aug. ‘46
5. Kaiser, p. 91, Dec. ‘47
6. Nash, p. 125, Sept. ‘45
7. Borg-Warner, p. 109, June ‘46
8. Ford, p. 63, Dec. ‘33
9. Ford, p. 82, May ‘46
10. C.I.T., p. 71, Jan. ‘33
11. Auto Selling, p. 38, Dec. ‘31
12. Packard, p. 55, Jan. ‘37
13. Used Car, p. 39, June ‘38

 

Group XI—Ferrous Metals

Subgroup a and b combined

1. Aluminum Co., p. 20, Nov. ‘32
2. Aluminum Co., p. 46, Sept. ‘34
3. Anaconda, p. 53, Jan. ‘42

4. Anaconda, p. 83, Dec. ‘36

5. Anaconda, p. 71, Jan. ‘37

6. Copper Ind’y., p. 70 April ‘30

7. Phelps Dodge, p. 40, July ‘32

8. St. Joseph Lead, p. 93, June ‘37
9. U.S. Smelting, p. 74, July ‘35
10. Climax Molybdenum, p. 105, Oct. ‘36

 

Group XII—Housing

Subgroup a

Subgroup b

1. Mr. Wyatt’s Shortage, p. 105, April ‘46 1. Metro. Life in Housing, p. 133, April ‘46
2. Fed. Housing Policy, p. 76, June ‘35 2. Where is Prefabrication? p. 127, April ‘46
3. Slum Clearance, p. 27, Feb. ‘34 3. Ind’y. Capitalism Forgot, p. 61, Aug. ‘47
4. Housing Survey I, p. 61, Feb. ‘32
5. Housing Survey III,   p. 35, April ‘32
6. Housing Survey VI, p. 60, July ‘32

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Spring Term, 1948-49
Economics 161—Business Organization and Control

 

Text: Burns, required; Purdy, optional.

Outline and Assignments

Date

Lecture

Reading

Feb. 9 Integration Purdy, Ch. 22, and Burns, Ch. IX and pp. 76-92, 140-145; TNEC No. 21, pp. 121-132.
Feb. 11 Price Leadership
Feb. 14 Price Discrimination and the Basing Point System Burns, Ch. VI and VII
Feb. 16
Feb. 17 & 18 Sections
Feb. 21 Patents TNEC No. 21, pp. 158-165, 215-224;
Brookings, V 1, Ch. VI;
Purdy, Ch. 24; Stocking, Ch. 3
Feb. 23 Cartels
Feb. 24, 25 Sections
Feb. 28 Competition among Giants Hamilton, Section II; F& G, pp. 636-654
TNEC, No. 21, pp. 31-39, 48-51, 24-26, 194-198 and pp. 179-182, 170-172
March 2 Too Much Competition?
March 3 and 4 Sections
March 7 Housing, Problem Industry TNEC No. 8, Ch. IV; 20th Century, Housing. Chs. 5 and 6; TNEC No. 21, pp. 287-293
March 9 Non-Price Competition Burns, Ch. VIII
March 10-11 Sections
March 14 Chain Stores 20th Century, Distribution, pp. 133-141, and pp. 146-165; F&G 595-608
March 16 Problems of Small Business Kaplan, Chs. II, VIII, X
March 17-18 Sections
March 21 Anti-Trust History Purdy, Chs. 15, 16, and 17
Readings, Chs. 1 and 2
March 23
March 24-26 Sections
March 28 Recent Landmarks in Anti-Trust Purdy, Ch. 11; TNEC No. 21, p. 185-189; Oppenheim, Ch. 5 and pp. 310-328
March 30
Mar 31/Apr 1 Sections
April 3-10 Vacation
April 11 Unfair Competition and the F.T.C. F & G, Ch. 14

Burns, Ch. X

April 13 The N. R. A.
April 14-15 Sections
April 18 O. P. A. and W. P. S. U. S. at War, pp. 50-63, and Chs. 5, 9, and 10 (excluding pp. 281-298)
April 20
April 21-22 Sections
April 21 (sic) Price Flexibility Economic Report, January, 1948, pp. 75-79; Economic Report, January, 1949, pp. 43-45, 65-66
N.R.C., Part II, pp. 27-34; TNEC No. 1, ch. II; Nourse, Ch. XI
April 28-29
April 28-29 Sections
May 2 Modification of Competition and Full Employment Wallace, Entire Article
May 4 Workable Competition
May 6 Summary of Course

Reading Period Assignment to be Announced

 

References

Brookings Institution (Lyon et al.), Government and Economic Life, Vol. I
Burns, Arthur R., The Decline of Competition
Economic Report, Economic Report of the President, January, 1948 and January, 1949
F. and G., Fainsod and Gordon, Government and the American Economy
Hamilton, Walton H., Price and Price Policy
Kaplan, A. D. H., Small Business: Its Place and Problems
Nourse, Edwin, Price Making in a Democracy
N. R. C., U. S., National Resources Committee, Structure of the American Economy, Part II (Note that the assignment is in Part II, a volume separate from part I)
Oppenheim, S. Chesterfield, Cases on Federal Anti-Trust Laws (1948)
Purdy, Lindahl and Carter, Corporate Concentration and Public Policy
Readings in the Social Control of Industry (Blakiston Press)
Stocking and Watkins, Cartels or Competition? (Not to be confused with Cartels in Action by the same authors)
TNEC: U. S., Temporary National Economic Committee Monographs.

No. 1, Price Behavior and Business Policy
No. 8, Toward More Housing
No. 21, Competition and Monopoly in American Industry

20th Cent.; Distribution, Dewhurst et al., Does Distribution Cost Too Much?
20th Cent., Housing
U. S. at War, U. S. Bureau of the Budget, The United States at War
Wallace, Donald, “Industrial Markets and Public Policy,” in Public Policy, 1941, edited by Friedrich and Mason, pp. 59-129

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1948-49 (2 of 2)”.

Image Source: Harvard Album 1950.

Categories
Bibliography Courses Harvard History of Economics Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. History of Economic Thought. Fellner, 1950

 

 

To William John Fellner (1905-1983) I personally owe my career-long interest in the history of economics. He agreed to meet with me for a year in a one-on-one tutorial upon my request since Yale did not offer a course in the history of economics then (1971-72). 

I discovered the following Harvard syllabus that I only recently realized was for a course actually given by my mentor, apparently to help satisfy the continuing demand of Harvard undergraduates for history of economics following Schumpeter’s death in January 1950.

Because I owe so much to William Fellner, in his honor I have gone to the trouble of providing links to as many of the items on his syllabus and bibliography as I could find (in a half-day).

Between us, this is not a particulary well-crafted or imaginative selection of assigned readings and the bibliography is clearly a rush-job. But this nonetheless demonstrates that Fellner was on a mission to integrate the history of economics with the teaching of the principles of economics which he did at Yale through ca. 1970 as reflected in his book Emergence and Content of Modern Economic Analysis, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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Economics 100.
History of Economic Thought

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Professor Fellner (University of California).

 

Source: Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLVII, No. 23 (September 1950): Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences During 1950-51, p. 79.

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1950-51
Economics 100
Fall Term

History of Economic Thought

In addition to the textbook assignments here listed, students will be required to do some amount of reading in the works of the writers who will be discussed in the course. The students will have a limited range of choice in this respect.

The textbook assignments here listed are not quite final. Some adjustments will presumably be made to include writers who will be discussed in the course but are not covered, or are covered inadequately, by the present assignments. Also, Assignment XI is too long and will be shortened so as to have it correspond to the classroom discussion.

 

I. Economic Ideas of Greek Philosophers

Gray, Ch. 1

II. Economic Ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas

Gray, Ch. 2

III. Mercantilism

Gray, Ch. 3

IV. The Physiocrats

Gide-Rist, Book I, Ch. 1

V. Adam Smith

Gide-Rist, Book I, Ch. 2

VI. Malthus and Ricardo

Gide-Rist, Book I, Ch. 3

VII. Early Expressions of “Neo-classical” Ideas

Gray, Ch. 7, pp. 190-197; Ch. 8, pp. 238-248; Ch. 10, pp. 266-277.

VIII. Mill

Gide-Rist, Book III, Ch. 2

IX. Protectionist Views and the National Outlook

Gray, Ch. 8, pp. 227-238; Ch. 9, pp. 248-260.

X. Forerunners of Socialism (Simondi; the Ricardian Socialists)

Gide-Rist, Book II, Ch. 1

XI. French Pre-Marxian Socialists

Gide-Rist, Book II, Chs. 2, 3, and 5.

XII. Marxism

Gray, Ch. 11 and Roll’s chapter on Marx

XIII. The Historical School and Institutionalism

Gide-Rist, Book IV, Ch. 1

XIV. Early Expressions of the Welfare State Ideology

Gide-Rist, Book IX, Ch. 2, Ch. 4

XV. The Neo-classical School

Gray, Ch. 12

XVI. Neo-classical, Historical-Institutionalist and Socialist Influences on Contemporary Thought

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1950-51
Economics 100
History of Economic Thought

List of Books and Articles

I. General

Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (Edwin R. A. Seligman, Ed.: Alvin Johnson, Assoc. Ed.) [Vol. I; Vol. II ; Vol. III ; Vols.III & IV ; Vol. V ; Vols. VI & VI ; Vol. VII ; Vol. VIII ; Vol. IX ; Vol. X ; Vol. XI ; Vols. XI & XII ; Vol. XIII ; Vols. XIII & XIV ; Vol. XV .
Gide, Charles and Rist, Charles, History of Economic Doctrines
Gray, Alexander, The Development of Economic Doctrine
Haney, Lewis H., History of Economic Thought
Roll, Eric, A History of Economic Thought
Whittaker, Edmund, History of Economic Ideas [Schools and Streams of Economic Thought (1960)]
Schumpeter, Joseph, Epochen der Dogmengeschichte [1954 English translation]

II. On Problems of Methodology

Schumpeter, Joseph, Science and Ideology, American Economic Review, March 1949
Keynes, John Neville, Scope and Method of Political Economy
Robbins, Lionel, Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science
Hutcheson, T. W., Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory
Boehm-Bawerk, E. v., The Historical vs. the Deductive Method in Political Economy. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1890
Cairnes, J. E., The Character and Logical Method of Political Economy
Senior, Nassau W., Four Introductory Lectures on Political Economy
Sidgwick, Henry, Scope and Method of Economic Science
Bagehot, Walter, Economic Studies
Myrdal, Gunnar, Das politische Element in der nationaloekonomischen [Doktrinbildung]

II. On Specific Topics

O’Brien, G., An Essay on Mediaeval Economic Teaching
Laistner, M. L. W., Greek Economics
Tawney, R. H., Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
Boehm-Bawerk, E. v., Capital and Interest
Heckscher, Eli F., Mercantilism [Volume I; Volume II]
Horrocks, J. W., A Short History of Mercantilism
Hull, Charles H., Petty’s Place in Economic Theory, Q. J. E., 1900
Monroe, A. E., Monetary Theory before Adam Smith
Johnson, E. A. J., Predecessors of Adam Smith
Schmoller, Gustav, The Mercantile System and Its Historical Significance
Angell, James W., The Theory of International Prices
Viner, Jacob, Studies in the Theory of International Trade
Higgs, H., The Physiocrats
Oncken, August, Geschichte der Nationaloekonomie (on the Physiocrats)
Spengler, J. J., The Physiocrats and Say’s Law of Markets, Journal of Political Economy, September and December, 1945.
Rae, John, The Life of Adam Smith
Bonar, James, Malthus and his Work
Bowley, Marian, Nassau Senior and Classical Economics
Viner, Jacob, Bentham and Mill, American Economic Review, March 1949
Knight, F. H., The Ricardian Theory of Production and Distribution (Canadian Journal of Economics, 1935)
Williams, John H. The Theory of International Trade Reconsidered (Economic Journal, 1929)
Dicey, A. V., Law and Public Opinion in England
Cannan, Edwin, Theories of Production and Distribution
Stephen, Leslie, The English Utilitarians [Vol I Jeremy Bentham; Vol II James Mill; Vol III John Stuart Mill]
Halevy, Elie, The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism
Schumpeter, Joseph, The Communist Manifesto in Sociology and Economics, Journal of Political Economy, June 1949
Kautsky, Karl, The Economic Doctrine of Karl Marx [German original]
Carr, E. H., Karl Marx: A Study in Fanaticism
Mehring, Franz, Karl Marx
Keynes, J. M., Essays in Biography (Alfred Marshall)
Boehm-Bawerk, E. v., Karl Marx and the Close of His System
Schumpeter, Joseph A., Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
Gray, Alexander, The Socialist Tradition
Sweezy, Paul, The Theory of Capitalist Development
Croce, Benedetto, Historical Materialism
Stigler, George J., Theories of Production and Distribution
Schumpeter, Joseph, Vilfredo Pareto, Q.J.E., May 1949
Mulcahy, Richard E., The Welfare Economics of Heinrich Pesch, Q.J.E., August, 1949

IV. Some Important Works in the History of Economic Thought

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Monroe, A. E., Early Economic Thought
Petty, Economic Writings of Sir William Petty, edited by Charles Henry Hull
King, Two Tracts of Gregory King, edited by George E. Barnett
Steuart, Sir James, Principles of Political Economy
Quesnay, François, Oeuvres Économiques et Philosophiques
Hume, David, Political Discourses
Smith, Adam, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Malthus, T. R., Essay on Population (7th ed.) [eighth edition]
Malthus, T. R., Parallel chapters from the first and second edition of the “Essay” (edited by W. J. Ashley)
Malthus, T. R., Principles of Political Economy
Ricardo, David, Political Works (Ed. J. R. McCulloch, with a short biography by idem)
Ricardo, David, Principles of Political Economy
Ricardo, David, Letters of David Ricardo to the Rev. T. R. Malthus
Say, Jean Baptiste, Traité d’Économie Politique [2nd ed. 1814]
Say, Letters of J. B. Say to the Rev. T. R. Malthus
Sismondi, S. de, Nouveaux Principes d’Économie Politique
Senior, Nassau William, Outline of Political Economy
Carey, Henry Charles, Principles of Political Economy
List, Friedrich, Das Nationale System der politischen Oekonomie [German; 1909 English translation]
Cournot, Augustin, Researches into the Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth (N. Bacon, translator)
von Thuenen, Heinrich, Der Isolierte Staat
Mill, John Stuart, Principles of Political Economy
Mill, John Stuart, Autobiography
Smith, Adam, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Cairnes, J. E., Some Leading Principles of Political Economy
Mill, John Stuart, Dissertations and Discussions [Vol. I ; Vol. II ; Vol. III ; Vol. IV]
Marx, Karl, Capital
Marx, Karl, Capital and other works (Selections)
Marx and Engels, The Correspondence of Marx and Engels, 1846-95 (collected by the Marx-Lenin Institute)
Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party
Hilferding, Rudolf, Das Finanzkapital
Luxemburg, Rosa, Die Akkumulation des Kapitals
Lenin (Vladimir Ulianov), Imperialism; The State and the Revolution
Gossen, Hermann Heinrich, Entwicklung der Gesetze des menschlichen Verkehrs
Jevons, W. S., The Theory of Political Economy (2nd or later edition)
Menger, Carl, Grundsaetze der Volkswirtschaftslehre
Walras, Leon, Élements d’Économie Politique Pure
Pareto, Vilfredo, Manuel d’Économie Politique
Pareto, Vilfredo, The Mind and Society (A. Livingston, Ed.) [Vol. I & Vol. II ; Vols. III & IV]
Boehm-Bawerk, E. v., Capital and Interest; and The Positive Theory of Capital
Wieser, F. v., Natural Value
Marshall, Alfred, Principles of Economics
Marshall, Alfred, Money, Credit and Commerce
Marshall, Alfred, Official Papers
Wicksteed, Philip, Commonsense of Political Economy
Wicksteed, Philip, The Coordination of the Laws of Distribution
Wicksell, Knut, Lectures on Political Economy [Vol. I ; Vol. II], [German translation 1913]
George, Henry, Poverty and Progress
Walker, Francis A., The Wages Question
Clark, J. B., The Distribution of Wealth
Clark, J. B., Essentials of Economic Theory
Fisher, Irving, The Purchasing Power of Money
Fisher, Irving, The Theory of Interest
Davenport, H. J., The Economics of Enterprise
Davenport, H. J., Value and Distribution
Veblen, Thorstein, The Theory of Business Enterprise
Veblen, Thorstein, The Place of Science in Civilization
Commons, John R., Institutional Economics
Schmoller, Gustav, Grundriss der allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre [Erster Teil (1908); Zweiter Teil (1904)]
Wagner, Adolf, Grundlegung der Politischen Oekonomie [Vol. I, part 1. 1892, 3ed. ; (Vol 1, part 2. 1894 3ed]
Weber, Max, Theory of Social and Economic Organization
Rerum Novarum (Papal encyclical of May 15, 1891, Leo XIII)
Quadragesimo Anno (Papal encyclical of May 15, 1931, Pius XI)

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1950-1951, (1 of 2)”.

Image Source: AEA portrait of William Fellner, Number 71 of a series of photographs of past presidents of the Association, in American Economic Review, Vol. 60, No. 1 (1970).

 

 

Categories
Courses Harvard Syllabus

Harvard. Economic and Political Ideas. O. H. Taylor, 1948

 

As wonderful as is the Harvard University Archive’s collection of old syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), coverage is by no means complete and there are many gaps and omissions. Unfortunately I could not find the syllabus from the second term of the two term course taught by Overton Hume Taylor (1897-1987) that can be seen as an expanded, grown up version of a freshman/sophomore level, one semester course “The Intellectual Background of Economic Thought” that he taught in 1940-41. Sometime soon I’ll try to cobble together likely content for his second semester course from 1949. But for now, the first term can certainly serve as a stand-alone course. As can be seen from the course description below, Economics 115 was the union of two related, but distinct, courses, Economics 15a and Economics 15b.

In the meantime I have found the final examination questions for this course in the Harvard archives.

Here is a link to Taylor’s A History of Economic Thought (1960). My guess is that the second term of the course covered  Chapters 14-17 in Taylor’s text (rise of Communism and Fascism, Welfare State Economics, Imperfect Competition, Keynesian Macroeconomics).

Overton Hume Taylor (1897-1987) was born in Colorado, received his B.A. at the University of Colorado in 1921 and Ph.D. from Harvard in 1928. He held the rank of instructor 1929-1960, was promoted to professor, 1960-64. He retired from Harvard in 1964, going on to teach at Vanderbilt University.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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[Course Description from Announcement of Courses, 1948-49]

Economics 115 (formerly Economics 15a and 15b). Economics and Political Ideas in Modern Times.

Full course. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Dr. O. H. Taylor.

A course which may be of interest equally to Economics, Government, and History concentrators; dealing with both economic and political thought in their joint historical development. Hobbes and the mercantilists; Locke, the physiocrats, Adam Smith and Smith’s successors (economic liberalism), Marxism; and other, including present-day, ideologies and economic theories. Prerequisite: Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year, 1948-49, p. 74.

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[Course Enrollment: Economics 115, 1948-49.]

115 (formerly Economics 15a and 15b). Economics and Political Ideas in Modern Times. (Full Co.) Dr. O. H. Taylor.

(F) 10 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 3 Radcliffe, 1 Other. Total: 44.
(S) 7 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 14 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 1 Radcliffe, 1 Other: Total: 38.

Source: Reports of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1948-49, p. 76.

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Economics 115
Fall Term, 1948-49

Economics and Political Ideas in Modern Times – First Semester

I. September 30-October 9.
Introduction; Plato and the Middle Ages; Hobbes and Mercantilism.

Reading due October 9:
(1) Plato, Republic Book II; and
(2) Hobbes, Leviathan 1-6, 13, 14, 17, 18, 21, 24.

Thursday, September 30. Introductory lecture. Aim and Nature of the Course. Economics, politics, philosophy, and political economy. Economics in modern western civilization and in pre-capitalist civilizations. Visionary and prosaic philosophies and cultures. Economic science and political faiths.
Saturday, October 2. The modern west’s partial break with and debts to, its ancient-medieval heritage. Latter’s debt to philosophy of Plato. Platonic views in philosophy, politics, and economics; and the ruling medieval views.
Tuesday, October 5. The rise of modernity; 17th century Europe and England; Hobbes vs. Plato.
Thursday, October 7. 17th century English mercantilism and economic theory.
Saturday, October 9. Class discussion of the reading in Plato and Hobbes. (no lecture).
II. October 12-23.
Liberalism; Locke; the Physiocrats and Adam Smith.

Reading due October 23:
(1) Locke, Civil Government, II, Chs. 2, 5, 7-12, inclusive;
(2) Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Chs. 1-7.

Tuesday, October 12. [Holiday]
Thursday, October 14. Varieties of liberalism and associated economic thought from early-modern times to present.
Saturday, October 16. Natural law and early-modern liberalism. Locke vs. Hobbes. Locke, Newton, and the 18th century.
Tuesday, October 19. The philosophy and economics of the Physiocrats (French 18th century liberal economists).
Thursday, October 21. The philosophy and economics of Adam Smith.
Saturday, October 23. Class discussion of the reading in Locke and Adam Smith
III. October 26-November 6.
Bentham, Malthus, and Ricardo; Opposition Currents; and J. S. Mill

Reading due November 6:
J. S. Mill essays, “Utilitarianism” and “Liberty.”

Tuesday, October 26. Bentham and his followers. Utility vs. natural law. Utilitarian liberalism and classical economics.
Thursday, October 28. Malthus vs. the anarchist-socialists.
Saturday, October 30. Ricardo and classical economics.
Tuesday, November 2. The “Manchester School,” free trade in England, and the popular version of the Bentham-Ricardo doctrines. Opposition movements, Romantic Toryism, Comtism, and early socialism.
Thursday, November 4. The education, career, and mature opinions of J. S. Mill.
Saturday, November 6. Class discussion of the Mill essays.
Tuesday, November 9. Hour exam.
IV. November 9-20.
The Romantic Reaction, and Comte

Reading due November 20:
(1) Either Carlyle, Past and Present or Ruskin Unto This Last; and
(2) Comte, Positive Philosophy, Introduction, Ch. 1, and Book VI, Chs. 1, 2.

Thursday, November 11.                             [Holiday]
Saturday, November 13. The romantic movement vs. rationalism and liberalism. Political and economic ideas of the English romanticists.
Tuesday, November 16. Romantic-reactionary thought in Germany, from the period between Kant and Hegel to Hitler; and its expressions in the sphere of economics.
Thursday, November 18. Romanticism, positivism, and the main 18th century outlook—interrelations. The positivism of August Comte vs. liberalism and economic science.
Saturday, November 20. Class discussion of the Carlyle-Ruskin and Comte reading.
V. November 23-December 4;
Marxism

Reading due December 4:
(1) Burns, Handbook of Marxism, Chs. 1, 13, 22, 29, 30;
(2) Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Part I.

Tuesday, November 23. “Utopian” socialism, Hegel, Ricardo, and Marx; and the Marxian theory of history.
Thursday, November 25.                             [Holiday]
Saturday, November 27. The Marxian economic theory of capitalism, I: value, wages, and profits.
Tuesday, November 30. The Marxian economic theory of capitalism, II: the system’s destined evolution and self-destruction.
Thursday, December 2. The Marxian vision of the future beyond capitalism—the revolution and the new society; and concluding appraisal of Marxism.
Saturday, December 4. Discussion of Marx reading.
 
VI. December 7-18.
Victorian Conservative Liberalism and Neo-Classical Economics.

Reading due December 18:
(1) C. Brinton, English Political Thought in the 19th Century,
Ch. III, Sections 1, 2, and IV, 1, 2, 4;
(2) A. Marshall, Principles of Economics, Book I, Chs. 1, 2, Appendix A and B; Book IV, Chs. 1-3, inclusive; and V, 1-5 inclusive.

Tuesday, December 7. How in the late 19th century the classical liberalism, originally a radical, became a conservative ideology. New developments of economic theory in the conservative liberal context, after 1870.
Thursday, December 9. Utility economics and utilitarianism; the free price system and economic welfare.
Saturday, December 11. Marginal productivity and distributive justice—Clark and Carver
Tuesday, November 14. Neo-classical theories about capital, money, business cycles, monopoly, and economic progress.
Thursday, December 16. The special views and system of Alfred Marshall.
Saturday, December 18. Class discussion.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 4, Folder “Economics 1948-49 (1 of 2)”.

Image Source: Harvard Album, 1952.

Categories
Columbia Germany Harvard Johns Hopkins Michigan Undergraduate

American Colleges and German Universities, Richard T. Ely, 1880

The economist Richard T. Ely was 25 years of age with a freshly earned Heidelberg doctorate when he wrote the following article on American colleges and German universities in late 1879 or early 1880 while still in Germany. According to his autobiography, he was down to his last three pfennige when the check came in the mail from Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. I have highlighted a few passages in the article for those in hurry.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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“This article served to get me out of a very tight spot. One day I had left in my pocket, if I recall correctly, the total sum of three pfennigs, about three-quarters of a cent. What was I to do? At the University of Halle, another fellow-student and American was Marcus Hitch, who afterwards became a lawyer in Chicago. I put on my hat and made my way to my friend’s home about a mile away. When I got there, I said, “Marcus, I am dead broke, I have come to you for a loan.” He replied, “I was just putting on my hat to come to you.” He, too, had reached the end of his resources. I then returned to my room, trying to think of what to do next. What friend did I have in Berlin who could help me out in the present emergency? When I arrived at my room, I found a letter from Harper and Brothers, London, with twelve pounds sterling in it, in payment for my article “American Colleges and German Universities.” I was delighted with this amount. Twelve pounds sterling was equal to two hundred and fifty marks, which was about fifty dollars in New York at that time. My spirits rose and I made my way to my friend Hitch to tell him the good news. When I did, he replied that he had just received a remittance from home and was about to visit me to tell me of it and also to help out.”

Source: Richard T. Ely, Ground Under Our Feet, An Autobiography. New York: Macmillan, 1938, pp. 52-3

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AMERICAN COLLEGES AND GERMAN UNIVERSITIES.

by Richard T. Ely

Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Vol. LXI, No. 362 (July, 1880), pp. 253-260. Copy at Hathitrust.org.

MANY excellent articles and addresses on college and university education in the United States and Germany have been written during the last ten years, but the authors have usually taken it for granted not only that all have clear ideas as to the character and purposes of these institutions, but also that perfect harmony exists between these ideas. The discussion has, therefore, turned upon the means of realizing a character and accomplishing ends not plainly defined. Had, however, each educational reformer first obtained a clear conception of the actual “final cause” of American and foreign universities and colleges, and then compared that conception with the desired “final cause,” it is safe to assert that the present notions in respect to both would be far less confused.

The comparison universally made is between our colleges and the German universities. It is shown that the condition of higher education in the United States is in a sad state—and about this there can be no doubt; that in Germany, on the contrary, it is in a flourishing one; ergo, let us turn our colleges into German universities. The next question is, How? In answer to this it is explained that in the German universities the studies are all elective and optional; in the colleges of the United States, compulsory. The conclusion is not difficult to be drawn. Make all studies in the colleges elective, and the work is done! The country is provided with a set of first-class universities! The German universities have thus been taken as models, and a sort of blind attempt made to imitate them in the way described. German universities are an acknowledged success, it is true; but what does it mean to pronounce an institution a success? It signifies that a harmony exists between the intentions of its founders and managers and the accomplished results. The questions then naturally arise, What is the purpose of the German university? What is its real distinguishing feature? Then, after having answered these, the further questions, Do American colleges have the same aims? If they do not, is it desirable that they should?

The answer to the first questions is not difficult. A German university is, from beginning to end, through and through, a professional school. It is a place where young men prepare to earn their “bread and butter,” as the Germans say, in practical life. It is not a school which pretends or strives to develop in a general way the intellectual powers, and give its students universal culture. This is the first point which should be clearly understood by all trying to Germanize our institutions. As soon as the student enters the university he makes a selection of some one study or set of studies—law, medicine, theology, or some of the studies included in the “philosophical faculty”— chemistry, physics, Latin, Greek, philosophy, literature, modern languages, etc. If a student pursues chemistry, it is because his chemistry is to support him in afterlife; if Latin and Greek, because he is preparing himself for a position as teacher; so it is with the other branches. The first question a university student asks before selecting a study is, “Of what practical benefit will this be to me ?” An opportunity is given to extraordinary talent and genius of developing, however, by allowing a certain freedom in “learning and teaching.” There is no regulation to prevent a student of law from hearing a lecture, e. g., on the Agamemnon of AEschylus; but this rarely happens. Each one has the examination in mind which is to admit him into active life, and, as a rule, pursues only the studies required for passing it, and what is more, pursues them no farther than is likely to be demanded. If a smattering of the history of philosophy is required, as in the theological examination in Prussia, the candidate will read the little work by Schwegler, but stop there. There are exceptions: some study for the love of study, for the love of science, of truth; but they are few. The professors who teach sciences not required for some examination complain that comparatively few students attend their lectures. Professor Wundt, the distinguished psychologist and philosopher of Leipzig, explains in this way the little attention paid to philosophy by German students. In the philosophical magazine Mind, for November, 1877, he compares the German and English universities. “The German student does not,” says he, “like his English compeer, reside at the university simply with the object of general scientific culture, but, first and foremost, he pursues a ‘Brodstudium.’ He has chosen a profession which is to procure him a future living as doctor, practicing lawyer, clergyman, master in one of the higher schools, or the like, and for which he must establish his fitness in an examination at the close of his university career. But how enormously have the subjects of instruction increased in the majority of these professions! …….It requires either compulsion or a specially lively interest to bring our doctors, lawyers, philologists, to the philosophical lectures. But of late compulsion has for the most part ceased.” Professor Wagner, the political economist, of Berlin, has not long since expressed himself quite similarly. He says only a small number of the law students hear his lectures on political economy, or any other lectures which are not absolutely required for examination. In the University of Berlin there are over three thousand matriculated students, and nearly two thousand non-matriculated attendants at lectures; but so celebrated a man as Zeller has only a small number of hearers at his lectures on psychology, because it is a subject required for but few examinations. At Halle in the winter semester 1877-78 only one course of lectures on psychology was announced, that, however, by a clever young man, an author of some philosophical works. Although there are nine hundred students at Halle, the lectures were not delivered, because two could not be found who desired to hear them. The only one who presented himself was the writer, a foreigner, and when he was trying to find number two, and proposed to others to hear the lecture, the answer was, “It is not required for the examination.”

This shows how seriously those college professors and trustees have erred who have imagined that they were turning our American colleges into German universities by making the studies elective and optional. The German institution which corresponds to an American college as a school of general intellectual training is the gymnasium, where there is but a minimum of election in the studies; e.g., Hebrew is optional, and the student has perhaps a choice between English and some other study. The Germans suppose that experienced teachers and men of tried ability, who have devoted years to investigating the matter, are better able to judge of the studies advisable for the general development of the intellectual powers of boys than the boys themselves. It would seem that they might be in the right. On the contrary, the essence of the freedom which each university student has of electing his studies is simply the freedom given to men of selecting their own professions. The door through which every German must pass into office or profession is the examination; but the Minister of Instruction and other public authorities prescribe very minutely the studies required for each examination. Each German student is required to have pursued certain sciences, differing according to his intended profession, before he can enter active life. He has only the liberty of pursuing them when, where, and in the order which he will. He selects his own books, professors, and has his own method. He may be five years in preparing for the examination, or ten, if he chooses to waste time. This is truly a considerable liberty, but far less than it is generally supposed the German students enjoy. Professor Helmholtz, in his inaugural address, delivered October 15, 1877, as rector of the University of Berlin, acknowledges that many German fathers and statesmen have demanded a diminution of even the existing liberty of university life, and adds, farther, that a stricter discipline and control of the students by the professors would undoubtedly save many a young man who goes to ruin under the present system.

There are three departments of our colleges or universities which correspond to three of those of the German universities, and offer no insurmountable difficulty in the perfection of our school system. These departments are those of law, theology, and medicine. The reforms necessary must be evident to men of the respective professions: greater freedom of the schools from the principle of private money-making institutions; a longer and more thorough course of study, as in Germany, where the time required to be passed in previous study for admittance to the professions of law and medicine is about double what it is in the United States; higher requirements for admittance to these professional schools. That here is a place where the government, if not the central, at least that of the separate States, has a duty to perform, no political economist or statesman of note is so given to the laissez-faire principle as to deny. All of our States recognize this, and exercise some control as regards physicians and lawyers. If a tailor makes me a poor suit of clothes, no great harm is done: I try another next time. Besides, I can demand samples of his work beforehand, and even if no tailor myself, am not utterly unable to judge of his work. Here the principle of private competition is the only proper one. But the principle of private competition in respect of law and medicine is not sufficient. If a medical quack kills my child, it does not help the matter to reply to my complaints, “Well, try another doctor next time.” It is heartless. My child is dead, and nothing can help the matter now. “But you should have known that the man was a humbug, ” says some one. I should have known nothing of the kind. It is precisely because I do not know, because I am no physician, that I require one. Again, in many small towns there is only one physician, and the people have no choice. It is the same case with lawyers. An ignorant or incapable man may cause me the loss of my property, or even my neck. This “next time” theory helps the matter not at all. It is too late. There is for me no next time. The man appeared to me clever; he talked well, and I tried him. I judged as well as I could, but my not being a lawyer made it impossible for me to be a competent judge of his abilities. The State, then, does its citizens a real service, and one they can not do for themselves, in forcing candidates for the legal and medical professions to submit themselves to an examination by competent authorities, who pronounce upon their fitness for exercising the functions of lawyers or doctors. This principle is recognized by every civilized government in the world, though perhaps nowhere so laxly and negligently as in the United States. What is necessary, then, as regards these professional schools is for the State by proper legislation to raise the standard of requirements, and so assist the colleges and universities in giving us an able and properly educated set of professional men, as in Germany, where actual legal and medical malpractice are exceedingly rare. England has lately been forced to take a step in the right direction by making the requirements for becoming a physician severer. The profession was too open to the principle of free competition, and the abuses became intolerable. One other means of improving these professional schools would be to bring them in closer connection with the college departments, so that a medical or law student should have the liberty of hearing lectures on history, political economy, etc., if he wished. All the different schools should, of course, have one common library. This is the plan pursued on the continent of Europe. It frequently happens, too, that students of different departments have the same studies, and it is a waste of time, money, and force to separate them here. The law student is not the only one who needs to understand “international law,” nor the medical student the only one who ought to have some knowledge of physiology and hygiene.1

1 The writer does not consider the theological schools, because that is a matter which each Church must take care of for itself, so long as state and church are entirely separate. Where there are so many sects as in the United States it may be well that the schools of divinity should be by themselves.

The so-called college department, or “college proper,” is the one which offers most difficulty to the reformer, and the one where the most confusion prevails. When the course of study is simply one for general culture, it is no part of a university, in the continental European sense of that term. There is, therefore, in America a want of a school offering opportunities to large and constantly increasing classes of men for pursuing professional studies—a want which is deeply felt, and which sends every year many students and millions of dollars out of the country. Where in the United States can a young man prepare himself thoroughly to become a teacher of the ancient classics? A simple college course is not enough. The Germans require that their teachers of Latin and Greek should pursue the classics as a specialty for three years at a university after having completed the gymnasium, which as a classical school would be universally admitted to rank with our colleges. Every college professor of Latin and Greek must admit the need of better preparatory teachers. The poor entrance examinations, when the candidates for admissions do not come from some one of our few old and excellent but expensive academies, like Exeter, Andover, and the Boston Latin School, bear only too strong witness of their previous training. If an American wishes to pursue a special course in history, politics, political economy, mathematics, physics, philosophy, or in any one of many other studies lying outside of the three professions, law, medicine, and theology, he must go to Europe. Even to pursue the study of United States history, the American will do better to go abroad. From Maine to California, from Minnesota to Texas, there is no institution which teaches United States history thoroughly. Many colleges require no knowledge of it, either for entering or graduating. Others imagine that they have done their full duty in demanding a few historical names and dates as condition of admittance. As many—in the country the majority—of our lower schools do not teach history, the result is sad enough. English papers have with reason spoken slightingly of historical instruction in our country. Again, whoever desires, even in theology, medicine, or law, to select some one branch as a specialty, must go to Europe to do so. But these professional schools are already organized, and their needs recognized.

What is to be done about the college department? How get system out of the confusion of our system, or rather no system? for we have in the United States, with the exception of a few States, no school system, although some good schools.2 Until we have adopted a satisfactory system, we may rest assured that thousands of parents will continue to educate their children in Europe.

2 He who would be convinced of the unreason of our educational organization, can do no better than read the able and interesting address delivered by Andrew D. White, LLD., now United States Minister at Berlin, before the National Educational Association at Detroit, August 5,1874. It is entitled, “The Relations of the National and State Governments to Advanced Education,” and published in pamphlet form by “Old and New,” Boston.

We have the materials in the United States for a good school system, beginning in the common school and ending in the university; the need is organization. Dr. Barnard would have three grades—the school, academy, and college.3 But should not a. fourth be added—the university? It is not necessary that the university should be separate from the college, though in some places it might be, as in the Johns Hopkins University, which started with the intent of becoming a university. Harvard will serve as an illustration. If Harvard required a college education for entering any one of its departments, placing them all on a level, made all studies elective except in examination, and enlarged its curriculum so as to enable one to pursue special courses in Latin, Greek, political science, etc., it would become in every respect a professional school, i. e., a. university.4 Those who entered would already have finished their general studies, and would go there to prepare for some particular profession, as that of teacher of Latin and Greek, or some one or two of the natural sciences, or to become physician, editor, etc. Now it is different. Harvard demands very limited requirements for entering its professional schools, but desires that the students of these schools should first complete the college course of four years. So long as this is expected, it seems impossible that the requirements for admission to the college department should be raised. If a young man is eighteen years of age upon entering, he is not able to begin his professional studies before twenty-two, which makes him at least twenty-five upon entering practical life—quite old enough. Harvard’s requirements for admission give the American student a rather longer course before beginning his professional career than is required from his German compeer, who commences them at twenty or thereabouts. If Harvard continues to increase its conditions for admission to the college department, it can not expect the lawyers, doctors, and clergymen to pursue just the college course. The result would be that more young men than at present would begin their professional studies without having previously pursued even an ordinary college course. The solution of the difficulty lies in rather diminishing than otherwise the requirements for admission to the college proper, or academic department, of Harvard, in putting the extra studies in the graduate courses, which latter form part of the university proper, and in requiring a college education at Harvard or some other good college as a condition of entering any department of the university. The writer would thus separate distinctly college education and university education. Their methods and aims are different. The college should adhere to its old plan, give thorough instruction in Latin, Greek, French, German, mathematics, general history, etc. The courses should be, for the most part, prescribed, and contain such studies as would fit young men for taking a position in society as educated gentlemen; then should follow business or professional studies. It would seem that this course ought to be finished at twenty, as Dr. McCosh recommends. In other countries the corresponding courses of study do not require more time, though in most the professional courses are longer and severer, as they will surely become in the United States, as they must become, in a time when all professions are making such strides, and the number of studies increased proportionately. If colleges, then, consecrated themselves to this more modest but more useful plan of becoming higher academies, and nothing more, we should find that our four hundred and twenty-five colleges were not such a great superfluity as we now think. Great laboratories, costly observatories, and apparatus indispensable to a university, would be entirely unnecessary. Thoroughness, of which there is now great lack, should be one of the main points. In some places in the West there would be still too many colleges, but by uniting in some places, and by a better local distribution in others, this could be remedied. Let us compare the statistics of two other countries, in which the excellence of higher instruction is admitted alike by friend and foe— France and Germany. In 1874 Germany had 333 gymnasia, besides 170 progymnasia and Latin schools. The progymnasia are a low grade of academy, but some of the Latin schools rank with the gymnasia. Since 1874 over twenty new gymnasia and progymnasia have been established. We can calculate, therefore, that Germany has at least 350 gymnasia or classical colleges. But besides these there were, in the beginning of the year 1874, 106 “Realschulen erster Ordnung, ” which have a curriculum similar to the Latin and scientific course of some of our colleges, as Cornell. Germany has, therefore, over 450 “colleges proper,” scientific and classical, and is increasing the number. Germany’s population is a trifle greater than that of the United States. Prussia, with less than 26,000,000 inhabitants, had, in 1874, seventy-nine “ Realschulen erster Ordnung, ” with 23,748 scholars ; 228 gymnasia, with 57, 605 students; together, 81,353. It is not to be forgotten that the scholars enter the gymnasia and Realschulen when very young, so that the time required to complete the course is eight years. The programmes of these schools and the statistics seem to justify us in ascribing to a little less than one-third of the scholars the rank of American college students, say, 25,000 in Prussia.

3 Dr. Bernard‘s position is not here accurately stated. In his Albany address he was considering general, and not professional, education; and his complaint was that the ground is taken away from under any possible university proper, in this country, by clothing every petty college with university powers.—Editor Harper’s Magazine.

4 The term university is here used in the sense in which it is, or has come to be, used in Germany. It is not the primary signification. The German universities have developed into professional schools, while the British, originally identical in form with those of the continent, have not undergone that development. Is not the power of conferring degrees, as Dr. Barnard suggests, the distinctive function of a. university, i. e., of a university in the European sense of the term? Are not all the elements that go to make a school a university simply those which fit it for the exercise of this function?— Editor Harper’s Magazine.

France, with a smaller population than the United States, has eighty lycées, with 36,756 scholars, and 244 colleges, with 32,744 scholars; together, 69,500. These schools resemble German gymnasia, and we shall not probably be far out of the way in giving 20,000 of them the rank of American college students.

According to Dr. Bernard’s statistics, as given in Harper’s Weekly, the number of under-graduates in all American colleges is 18,000. We see that a greater proportion of the youth of France and Germany devote themselves to liberal studies than of America. Besides, there are over 19,000 university students in Germany, not to speak of those in the mining and technical schools, undoubtedly many more than in the graduate and professional schools in the United States. In France, in 1868, the attendance at university lectures amounted to 11,903. But in France the faculties have the right of holding examinations and granting diplomas. Twenty-seven thousand six hundred and thirty-four examinations were held in the same year; 9344 received diplomas.

As America becomes older and wealth increases, we might expect, a priori, the proportionate number of Americans availing themselves of the advantages of higher education to increase. This is unfortunately not the case, as the careful statistics of Dr. Barnard too clearly demonstrate. Many reasons can be given for this decrease. One may be the higher standard required for admission by some of the best colleges. One would hardly like to say that, abstractly considered, even Harvard‘s requirements were too severe, but they stand out of all relation to the condition of the lower schools in the greater part of the country. It is not daring to assert that there are entire States in the Union where scarcely a suitable preparatory school for institutions like Harvard, Yale, and Columbia exists. Now parents may be willing to send their sons away from home at sixteen, but most fathers and mothers do not like to do so when they are only ten years old. The remedy lies in a better provision and more careful supervision of grammar and high schools. It were very desirable that none but college graduates, or those who should pass an examination implying the same amount of knowledge as a college graduate is expected to have, should be permitted to occupy the higher positions in these schools. The government has manifestly the same right to demand this that it has to require the present minimum of knowledge. It seems childish to argue the question, but so many good people among us are blindly attached to the laissez-faire principle of the last century that it may be well to put one or two questions to them. What right has the state to force those who wish to teach to pass any examination at all? How can one limit this right, once conceded, so as to make it meaningless? If the government has the duty of seeing that the rising generation is educated, why should it not have the right of using such means as will enable it to accomplish its duty effectually? Nay, what right has the government to use the people’s money, or allow it to be used, in employing public servants who are incapable of performing their duties efficiently? At present the requirements are so low that the supply of teachers greatly exceeds the demand, and that American has had an experience as happy as rare who has not repeatedly seen brazen effrontery take the place away from modest merit. The Germans, whom we often accuse of a lack of practical understanding, exhibit more common-sense in these matters than we. In Germany the requirements are proportioned to the grade of the teacher, and are kept so high that the demand for teachers is slightly in excess of the supply. There is thus a tendency toward a continual advance in quality. Every encouragement is offered to excellence, as it is rewarded proportionately. Another probable cause of the small number of college students is the discredit brought on higher education by Western institutions like the “universities” of Ohio, of which not one, according to so distinguished and well-informed an educational authority as Minister White, can rank above third or fourth class, “judged even by the American standard.” The chief struggle and chief rivalry of each seems to be to obtain a larger number of students than its neighbors. One institution in Ohio has been promised a large sum of money when the number of its students attains a certain figure. The effect on entrance and other examinations is self-evident. Besides, one can not avoid reflecting that that is a rather low state of culture in which men are valued like sheep, at so much a head! To learn what a wise system of State action can do, we have but to look to Michigan, whose educational system, ending in the university at Ann Arbor, is an honor to the country.5

5 For a farther consideration of this point, see the admirable address on advanced education by Dr. White.

A third reason why there are so few college students is palpable in a literal sense—as palpable as gold and silver. The expenses of living at the first-class colleges have increased faster than the wealth of those classes which supply them with their under-graduates. A student can not live comfortably at Harvard for less than $700 per annum, but in the wealthy State of New York there are towns of several thousand inhabitants where a man can easily count on his fingers all the fathers who can educate their sons at such an expense. The scholarships at Harvard are not equal to the demand, and many who would otherwise go to Harvard are too independent to accept them. The tuition fee of $150 is comparatively enormous. The same number of hours’ instruction at an expensive German university, e. g., Heidelberg, do not cost one-third so much, at the University of Geneva not one-sixth. In fact, it is cheaper to go to Europe to study than to go to Harvard. If men of wealth would employ their money in reducing the expensiveness of the first-class colleges, and so opening them up to new classes of society, they would confer a benefit on their country.

When it becomes generally understood that a college education is not a university one, but, according to the old idea, an intellectual training which is desirable for every man who is able to enjoy its privileges, whatever is to be his business or profession, and when colleges return to their former aims, often too hastily forsaken, we may expect to see classes of the people flock to their learned halls who up to this time have neglected them.

Universities are needed, and a few of the best colleges, the development of which already lies in that direction, ought to supply this want. These colleges are well enough known—Harvard, Cornell, the University of Michigan, and, since it has been under President Barnard’s management, Columbia. Many think that Columbia has a special duty in this direction on account of its wealth. It has also the good fortune of being situated in a great city—the only place for a true university, however it may be with a college. Columbia is, too, less expensive than Harvard and some other New England colleges. In fact, in a city like New York one can live upon what he will. Columbia’s generosity in regard to tuition fees, and the way they are remitted, is truly praiseworthy. It is said that one-third pay none whatever; but the. writer was a member of a class in Columbia three years without learning the name of one classmate who did not pay his tuition.

Let no one blame the presidents and professors of our best institutions for not doing more. They are men who do not suffer morally or intellectually by comparison with the faculties of the most renowned European universities. If they had the same advantages as the German professors, they would not do less in advancing science; but at present they are overloaded with work. They are also less independent than the German professors. Science is a tender plant, and requires favorable circumstances for a high development. A professor ought to be lifted above all fear of party and sect.

Germany has twenty-one universities, including the academy at Münster, which has the same rank. We might in the course of time support as many. Once more here is a place for government interference, for we may as well make up our minds once for all that private initiative is not sufficient. England’s educational history proves it as well as America‘s. It is doubtful if in the whole history of the world one single case can be pointed to where private competition and private generosity have proved themselves sufficient. None but universities should be allowed to call themselves such. The government has precisely the same right to forbid this that it has to prevent me from travelling about as Mr. Evarts, and thus securing the various advantages which might accrue to me from representing myself as the Honorable Secretary of State.

The colleges could continue to give the degree of artium baccalaureus, as the French collége and lycées do ; but it should be clearly understood that it is a college and not a university degree. The universities could give the artium magister, or still better, as being more distinct from the baccalaureus, the doctor philosophies, doctor juris, doctor medicinae, doctor scientiarum naturalium, etc., as the German universities do. It should be clearly stated on the diploma in what subject the student had passed his chief examination, as is also the case in the German universities. If a student desired to teach Latin or Greek in an academy or college, he should be obliged to take a course of Latin or Greek at a university. But his doctorate of ancient classics ought not to assist him in securing a position as professor of astronomy.

 

Categories
Courses Curriculum Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Three Economics Courses. Texts and Exams, 1874-77.

In the mid-1870’s there were three courses in political economy offered at Harvard every year. The first was a one-term prescribed course in political economy required of all undergraduates in their sophomore year.  The other two courses in political economy were electives of which one was recommended for students of history while the other presumably put greater emphasis on economic theory. In the Harvard University Catalogues for the academic years 1874-5 through 1876-7, there is exactly one examination for each of these three courses. Using the annual Reports of the President of Harvard College, I was able to use enrollment data to determine the dates of the examinations.

The textbooks for the courses are identified and we see the first graduate students recorded in the class-enrollments for 1876-77.  I have grouped the courses below by academic year.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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1874-75

PRESCRIBED: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Sophomore year

Prof. Dunbar. Fawcett’s Political Economy for Beginners. — Constitution of the United States (Alden’s Science of Government, omitting the first four and the last three chapters).
Two hours a week. Half-year. 208 students, 4 sections, 2 exercises per week for students, 8 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1874-75, p. 45.

 

[Note: Courses 7 and 8 are parallel Courses, Course 7 being preferable for students of History.]

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 7.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — Fawcett’s Manual of Political Economy. — Blanqui’s Histoire de l’Èconomie Politique en Europe.— Bagehot’s Lombard Street.
Three hours a week. 19 Seniors, 14 Juniors.
1 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 3 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 49. Also, Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 56.

 

[EXAMINATION FOR 1874-75(?) FROM 1875-76 CATALOGUE]
PHILOSOPHY 7.

[In answering the questions do not change their order.]

  1. State the general principles which determine the exchange of commodities between two countries, and show the analogy between this case and that of exchange between individuals under the familiar law of demand and supply.
  1. If the United States were to levy an export duty on cotton, on whom would it fall? What objection is there to the proposition?
  1. It is known that the people of the United States are debtors to Europe to a large amount; should our annual returns show a balance of imports or of exports? Why? If, in fact, the balance appears to be the wrong way, what conclusion is to be drawn?
  1. With commerce in its normal condition, would exchange on Europe be in our favor, against us, or at par? Why? Would this state of things be for our disadvantage or not?
  1. What causes the tendency of profits to fall as a nation advances?
  1. If a tax were laid, at a uniform rate, on all property of every description, would it meet the requirements of Adam Smith’s first rule? Give the reason.
  1. Why should not large incomes be taxed at a higher rate than moderate ones; as, e.g., incomes of $10,000 and upwards higher than those between $5,000 and $10,000?
  1. How much control has the Bank of England over the rate of interest in the money market?
  1. Under the national bank act, how does the action of our banks, when the reserves are suddenly reduced, differ from that of the Bank of England in like case?
  1. What difference would there be likely to be in the operation of these two methods, at a time when the condition of monetary affairs is critical?
  1. State the following leading facts relating to the issue of legal tender notes: —

(1) When they were first authorized;
(2) The maximum prescribed by the act of June, 1864;
(3) The point to which they were reduced by Mr. McCulloch;
(4) The amount of expansion under Mr. Richardson
(5) The provision contained in the act of June, 1874;
(6) The provisions for withdrawal in the act of January, 1875.

  1. How do the deposit of bonds required of the national banks and the reserve required for their circulation differ in purpose?
  1. Give the date and circumstances of the first issue of fractional currency.
  1. Why did the government issue 5-20 bonds rather than 20-year bonds bearing the same rate of interest? Which is more valuable? Why?
  2. If all business were done for cash, what difference would it make as to the ease of resuming specie payments? Why?

Source: The Harvard University Catalogue, 1875-76. Cambridge, p. 238.

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 8.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Bagehot’s Lombard Street. Legislation of the United States on Currency and Finance.

Three hours a week. — 65 Seniors, 33 Juniors.
2 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 6 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1874-75, p. 48. Also, Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 56.

 

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1875-76

PRESCRIBED: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Sophomore year

Mr. Macvane. Fawcett’s Political Economy for Beginners. — Constitution of the United States (Alden’s Science of Government, omitting the first four and the last three chapters).
Two hours a week. Second half-year. 182 students, 4 sections, 2 exercises per week for students, 8 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 44.

 

[Examination of 1875-76(?), from 1876-77 Catalogue]
PRESCRIBED POLITICAL ECONOMY.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

[Those who take the examination in the Constitution may omit the questions marked with a star (*).]

  1. Explain the service which Capital renders to production. Should you call a coal mine capital? a steam engine? a mill stream? Why?
  2. Define Value. Show whether a general rise of values is possible. Distinguish between natural value and market value. Do they ever coincide?
  3. What do you understand to be “the value of money “? On what does it depend? How does a rise in the value of money show itself?
  4. Mention the three classes into which commodities are divided in relation to their value. In which class should you place gold and silver?
  5. (*) Show how far the action of demand and supply controls the value of commodities in each class.
  6. Explain the relations between rent of land, price of food, and growth of population.
  7. What is meant by cost of labor? Show that a man’s wages may be low and yet the cost of his labor be high. Point out the connection between cost of labor and profit of capital.
  8. (*) Wherein do productive and unproductive consumption differ? “A knowledge of one of the first principles of political economy is sufficient to show that society is no gainer by the reckless expenditure of the spendthrift:” State the principle referred to, and illustrate the truth of the assertion.
  9. (*) Show that foreign trade is advantageous to both countries only when the relative cost of the commodities exchanged is different in the two countries. When exports and imports fail to balance each other in any country, how is the equilibrium restored?
  10. Give the four “canons of taxation,” and show the application of any two of them. How may the burden of taxation be distributed according to the first canon, in a country where the revenue is raised by duties on tea, sugar, wines, etc.
  11. (*) Distinguish direct from indirect taxes. To which class does the income tax belong? Ought permanent and temporary incomes to be taxed equally?
  12. (*) Show whether high wages make high prices. Suppose that laborers, by combinations and strikes, should succeed in raising wages so much as to bring profits down to a very low figure, would they be benefited thereby? Why?

 

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

[Those who take the examination in Political Economy will answer questions 1-7 only.]

  1. Explain the terms exclusive and concurrent as applied to legislative power. Mention two subjects in reference to which Congress has exclusive, and two in which it has concurrent, power of legislation.
  2. Through what stages must bills go in their passage through each house? Mention the ways in which a bill may become a law. In what case does a bill fail to become a law though passed by both houses and not vetoed by the President?
  3. State the qualifications required for Vice-President; for senators. Describe the mode of electing senators. How, and under what authority, has this mode been established?
  4. Show how the amendments relating to slavery (XIII.-XV.) affected the apportionment of representatives. How far has the right of each State to make its own franchise law been abridged by these amendments?
  5. When a president is to be elected, how many electors are appointed by each State? How are the electors chosen? What control has Congress over the election?
  6. What officers are subject to impeachment? For what offences? What is the effect of resigning? How may persons convicted on impeachment be punished?
  7. Give the provisions of the Constitution in reference to trial by jury. Describe the function of grand juries. Explain fully “the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.”
  8. Define treason. What courts have jurisdiction in cases of treason? What evidence is necessary in order to convict? What is provided in the Constitution as the punishment of treason 1
  9. How are direct taxes apportioned? What taxes are direct in the meaning of the Constitution? Compare this sense of the word with its use in Political Economy.
  10. Give the provisions in the original Constitution relating directly or indirectly to the subject of slavery. What difficulties, arising from the existence of slavery, were encountered in framing the Constitution?
  11. Taxes on exports. Taxes on immigrants.
  12. The treaty-making power in the United States and in England.
  13. Copyright and patent rights.
  14. Naturalization of aliens. Expatriation.
  15. Bills of credit. Legal-tender notes.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1876-77, p. 229.

 

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 5.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — Bagehot’s Lombard Street. –Lectures on the Financial Legislation of the United States.
Three hours a week. Second half-year. 36 Seniors, 80 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.
2 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 6 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 49.

 

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 6.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Advanced Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science. Lectures.
Three hours a week. 24 Seniors.
1 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 3 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 49.

 

[EXAMINATION OF 1875-76(?) FROM 1876-77 CATALOGUE]
PHILOSOPHY 6.

  1. Give Mr. Cairnes’s statement of the wages-fund doctrine. (p. 167.)
  2. Criticise the following extracts from Walker’s “Wages Question,”
  3. 128-130: —

“A popular theory of wages is based upon the assumption that wages are paid out of capital, the saved results of the industry of the past. Hence, it is argued, capital must furnish the measure of wages. On the contrary, I hold that wages are, in a philosophical view of the subject, paid out of the product of present industry, and hence that production furnishes the true measure of wages. … So long as additional profits are to be made by the employment of additional labor, so long a sufficient reason for production exists; when profit is no longer expected, the reason for production ceases. At this point the mere fact that the employer has capital at his command no more constitutes a reason why he should use it in production when he can get no profits, than the fact that the laborer has legs and arms constitutes a reason why he should work when he can get no wages.

“The employer purchases labor with a view to the product of the labor; and the kind and amount of this product determine what wages he can afford to pay. … If the product is to be greater, he can afford to pay more; if it is to be smaller, he must, for his own interest, pay less. It is, then, for the sake of future production that the laborers are employed, not at all because the employer has possession of a fund which he must disburse; and it is the value of the product, such as it is likely to prove, which determines the amount of the wages that can be paid, not at all the amount of wealth which the employer has in possession or can command. Thus it is production, not capital, which furnishes the motive for employment, and the measure of wages.”

  1. What is the reasoning which leads Mr. Cairnes to predict an ultimate fall of prices in the United States as compared with prices elsewhere? How will a protective tariff affect the movement? (p. 304.)
  2. A recent writer says: —

“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.” (Thompson’s “Social Science,” p. 206.)

How essential are these three conditions, severally, for the resumption of specie payments?

  1. Criticise the argument contained in the following proposition :—

“With every increase in the facility of reproduction, there is a decline in the value of all existing things of a similar kind, attended by a diminution in the price paid for their use. The charge for the use of the existing money tends, therefore, to decline as man acquires control over the great forces provided by the Creator for his service; as is shown by the gradual diminution of the rate of interest in every advancing country.”

  1. Compare the generally received principle that paper currency tends to expel coin, with the following: —

“All commodities tend to move towards those places at which they are most utilized. . . . The note and the check increase the utility of the precious metals; and therefore is it, that money tends to flow towards those places at which notes and checks are most in use, — passing, in America, from the Southern and Western States towards the Northern and Eastern ones, and from America towards England.”

  1. What is Mr. Carey’s doctrine as to the value of land in an advancing society? Compare it with his general doctrine as to the determination of value hy cost of reproduction.
  2. What is Mr. Carey’s general law of distribution between labor and capital? Give the general course of reasoning leading to this law.
  3. Discuss Mr. Carey’s objection to the Malthusian theory, that increase of numbers is in the inverse ratio of development, man multiplying slowly while the lower forms of animal and vegetable life multiply rapidly.
  4. What logical necessity has compelled Mr. Carey to assume the existence of a law of diminishing fecundity in the human race? Compare this with the process of reasoning which leads to the Malthusian conclusion as to the necessary operation of ” checks,” positive and preventive.

Source:  Harvard University Catalogue, 1876-77, p. 233-4.

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1876-77 

NO LONGER PRESCRIBED: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Sophomore year

Political Economy is no longer listed among the sophomore prescribed courses according the Annual reports of the President of Harvard University for 1876-77, pp. 44-45.   The only prescribed course from the department of philosophy was a junior year course of Logic and Psychology, each for one semester.  Cf. Catalogue of Harvard University, 1876-77, p. 55.

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 5.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — Financial Legislation of the United States. Three hours a week. 1 Graduate, 30 Seniors, 64 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 2 Unmatriculated.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1876-77, p. 49.

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 6.
Advanced Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Advanced Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science.
Three hours a week.  2 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 3 Juniors.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1876-77, p. 49.