Because A. Piatt Andrew is listed for the Fall semester course on money in 1900-1901 and 1902-1903, and the first semester’s required reading is identical for all three academic years (including 1901-02), I have assumed that the more complete listing from 1901-02 (that includes three pages of bibliography) is A. Piatt Andrew’s work. Not only was he to go on to play an important role in Senator Aldrich’s national monetary commission, he was a founder of the American Field Service during the First World War and won election to the U.S. Congress seven times. But for our purposes, his role as critical staffer in the work that would lead to the establishment of the U.S. Federal Reserve System is what makes him most interesting.
The exam questions for the course were transcribed and included in a later post.
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ANDREW, Abram Piatt, Jr., economist, was born at La Porte, Ind., Feb. 12, 1873, son of Abram Piatt and Helen (Merrill) Andrew, and grandson of Abram Piatt Andrew, a pioneer surveyor and turnpike builder of Hamilton Co., who settled in northern Indiana in 1831. He was educated at the Lawrenceville (N.J.) School, at Princeton University (1893) and Harvard University (1895-97), receiving the degree of Ph.D. from the last in 1900. He also studied at the universities of Halle, Berlin and Paris in 1898-99. In 1900 he became instructor in the department of economics at Harvard University and during 1903-09 was assistant professor of economics and assistant editor of the “Quarterly Journal of Economics.” In 1908 Sen. Aldrich organized the national monetary commission to devise a plan of permanent relief from such financial depressions as overcame the United States in 1907. Mr. Andrew was employed to assist the commission in its researches, and obtaining two years’ leave of absence from his university, he visited London, Berlin, Paris and other financial centers of Europe to study their methods of conducting business and to get information regarding the national and other laws governing banks and stock transactions. Upon his return to this country he had charge of editing the commission’s report, which comprised twenty large volumes and constituted the most comprehensive and valuable publication dealing with the world’s banking and financial interest ever published. His duties at Washington included arranging for the contribution of special articles by men of the highest standing in their particular lines. In August, 1909, Pres. Taft appointed him director of the mint. The statistical presentations made by that office are the most celebrated of their kind in the world. Numerous articles, many of which have since been republished as pamphlets have been contributed by Prof. Andrew to leading publications. Among those which have attracted wide attention was “The Treasury and the Banks under Secretary Shaw,” an arraignment of the latter’s policies, issued at the time of his retirement as secretary of the treasury in 1907. He has published several articles on currency questions as they concern Oriental countries, notably one on the adoption of the gold standard in India. He also wrote “The End of the Mexican Dollar,” “The Influence of the Crops upon Business,” “Hoarding in the Panic of 1907,” and “Substitutes for Cash in the Crisis of 1907,” in which he describes more than 200 substitutes used for money at that time. Prof. Andrew predicted the panic of 1907 in an article published in the New York “Journal of Commerce” on Jan. 1, 1907, and also predicted a rapid recovery in an interview published in the “Boston Daily Advertiser.” Nov. 2, 1907. For several years he was Harvard faculty representative of the “Cèrcle Francais,” and in that capacity entertained most of the distinguished Frenchmen who came to America in that period. In 1906 the French government conferred upon him the title of “Officier d’Académie.” He is unmarried.
Source: The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. XIV, Supplement I, New York: James T. White & Company, 1910, pp.430-431.
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From the Course Catalogue, 1901-1902
[Economics] 8. Money, Banking and International Payments. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Drs. Andrew and Sprague, and Mr. Meyer.
Source: Harvard University. Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1901-02 (2nd edition), June 25, 1901.
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Course Enrollment
For Undergraduates and Graduates:—
[Economics] 8. Drs. Andrew and Sprague, and Mr. Meyer. — Money. Banking and International Payments.
Total 78: 5 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 30 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 4 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 78.
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Course Description
- Money, Banking, and International Payments.
Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Drs. Andrew and Sprague, and Mr. Meyer.
The first part of the year will be devoted to a general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory. The course will begin with a history of the precious metals, which will be connected, in so far as possible, with the history of prices, and with the historical development of theories as to the causes underlying the value of money. The course of monetary legislation in the principal countries will be followed, with especial attention to its relation to the bimetallic controversy; but the experiences of various countries with paper money will also be reviewed, and the influence of such issues upon wages, prices, and trade examined. Some attention, moreover, will be given in this connection to the non-monetary means of payment and to the large questions of monetary theory arising from their use.
The second part of the course will begin with an historical account of the development of banking. Existing legislation and practice in various countries will be analyzed and compared. The course of the money markets of New York, London, Paris, and Berlin will be followed during a series of months, and the various factors, such as stock exchange operations and foreign exchange payments, which bring about fluctuations in the demand for loans and the rate of discount upon them, will be considered. The relations of banks to commercial crises will also be analyzed, the crises of 1857 and 1893 being taken for detailed study.
The course will conclude with a discussion of the movement of goods, securities, and money, in the exchanges between nations and in the settlement of international demands. After a preliminary study of the general doctrine of international trade, it is proposed to make a close examination of some cases of payments on a great scale, and to trace the adjustments of imports and exports under temporary or abnormal financial conditions. Such examples as the payment of the indemnity by France to Germany after the war of 1870-71, the distribution of gold by the mining countries, and the movements of the foreign trade of the United States since 1879, will be used for the illustration of the general principles regulating exchanges and the distribution of money between nations.
Course 8 is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1. With the consent of the instructors, it may be taken by Seniors and Graduates as a half-course in either half-year.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902, Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901), pp. 42-43.
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ECONOMICS 8
FIRST HALF-YEAR
[1901-02, Dr. A. Piatt Andrew]
BOOKS TO BE PROCURED
Francis A. Walker: International Bimetallism.
J. Laurence Laughlin: History of Bimetallism in the United States.
Leon[ard] Darwin: Bimetallism.
REQUIRED READING
October
Walker: 1-84.
Macaulay: History of England, ch. XXI. (Passages concerning the currency and its reform.) [vol. 4].
Macleod: Theory of Credit, 738-760, 551-573 [(2nd ed.) Vol I; Vol II—Part I; Vol II—Part II]; or Theory of Banking, I, 516-539, II, 1-95: or Sumner, American Currency, 231-310.
The Bullion Report in Sumner, History of American Currency, Appendix: or in Sound Currency pamphlet, Vol. II, No. 14.
Laughlin: 109-206.
Walker: 85-110, 118-183.
November
Laughlin: 1-105, 209-280.
Walker: 110-117, 183-9, 217-224.
Darwin: 1-154.
December
Taussig: Recent Investigations on Prices in the United States, in the Yale Review for November, 1893.
Walker: 190-288.
Darwin: 157-280.
Taussig: The International Silver Situation in the Quarterly Journal of Economics for October 1896.
January
(To be assigned later.)
The most complete bibliography of monetary questions is Ad. Soetbeer’s Litteraturnachweis über Geld und Münzwesen, Berlin , 1892. This work is chronologically arranged, covers the period from the year 1500 to 1892, and includes books in all languages. A short annotated list of the more important writings on money will be found in the [Palgrave’s] Dictionary of Political Economy. London, 1896. Vol. II, pp. 795-6. [Vol. I (A-E); Vol. II (F-M); Vol. III (N-Z)]For a record of more recent and currently appearing works upon the same subject consult Division VIII of the classified bibliography in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. The titles in this list are briefly annotated and refer to articles in periodicals as well as to books.
The following list includes, with a few exceptions, only books of contemporary issue, and only such as will be reserved in the library, and members of the course are recommended to familiarize themselves with as many of them as possible.
Bimetallic League Publications. Manchester, 1888-1900.
[The Proceedings of the Bimetallic Conference held at Manchester, 4th and 5th April, 1888. The Bimetallic League, 1888.
The bimetallic question: deputation to the Prime Minister and to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, May 30th, 1889
Bimetallism, speech by Henry Chaplin, M.P., in the House of Commons, June 4th, 1889 ]
Bourguin (M.). La Mesure de la Valeur et la Monnaie. Paris, 1896. pp. 276.
Cairnes (J.E.). Essays in Political Economy. London, 1873. pp. 371.
Carlile (W.W.). The Evolution of Modern Money. London, 1901. pp. 373.
Chalmers (R.). A history of currency in the British Colonies. London, 1893. pp. 496.
Chevalier (M.). La Monnaie. Paris, 1866 (2d ed.). pp. 779.
Darwin (L.B.) Bimetallism. London, 1898. pp. 341.
Davis (A. McF.). Currency and Banking in the province of Massachusetts Bay. Part I, Currency. [Part II, Banking] New York, 1901. pp. 473.
Farrer (Lord). Studies in Currency. London, 1898. pp. 405.
Fisher (I.). Appreciation and Interest. New York, 1896. pp. 98.
Giffen (R.). The Case against Bimetallism. London, 1896. pp. 254.
Giffen (R.). Essays in Finance. London, 1880. pp. 347.
Giffen (R.). Essays in Finance. Second Series. London, 1887. pp. 474.
Report of the Monetary Commission of the Indianapolis Convention. Chicago, 1898. pp. 608.
Ruding (R.). Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain. 4 vols. London (3d ed.) 1840. [Vol. I; Vol. II; Vol. III; Vol. IV].
Russell (H.B.). International monetary conferences. New York, 1898. pp. 477.
Senior (N. W.). The Cost of Obtaining Money. London, 1830. pp. 103.
Senior (N.W.). The Value of Money. London, 1840. pp. 84.
Shaw (W.A.). A History of Currency, 1252-1894. London, 1895. pp. 437.
Shaw (W.A.). Writers on English Monetary History, 1626-1730. London, 1896. pp. 244.
Soetbeer (A.). Materials for the illustration and criticism of the currency question. Berlin, 1886.
Sound Currency pamphlets. New York, 1894 to 1901.
Sumner (W. G.). History of American Currency. New York, 1874. pp. 391.
Taussig (F.W.). The Silver Situation in the United States. New York (3d. ed.) 1896. pp. 157.
Walker (F.A.). International Bimetallism. New York, 1896. pp. 297.
Walker (F.A.). Money. New York, 1878, pp. 550.
Walker (F.A.). Money in its relation to Trade and Industry. New York, 1880. pp. 339.
White (H.). Money and Banking. Boston, 1896. pp. 488. [2nd edition, 1902]
Wicksell (K.). Geldzins und Güterpreise. Jena, 1898. pp. 189. [Kahn Translation]
Willis (H.P.). A History of the Latin Monetary Union. Chicago, 1901. pp. 332.
Wolowski (M.). L’or et l’argent. Paris, 1870. pp. 440 + 125.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, HUC 8522.2.1, Box 1, Folder “1901-1902”.
Image source: http://www.federalreservehistory.org/People/DetailView/253