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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading list and final exam for U.S. economic and financial history. Taussig and Gay, 1905-1906

Assistant Professor Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the Harvard course “Economic History of the United States”/ “Economic and Financial History of the United States” in 1901-02 (with James Horace Patten), 1902-03, 1903-04, and 1904-05. The course was taken over in 1905-06 by Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay after Sprague left for a full professorship at the Imperial University of Japan.

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Course Enrollment
1905-06

Economics 6 2hf. Professor Taussig and Asst. Professor Gay. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 79: 14 Graduates, 15 Seniors, 37 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 72.

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READING FOR ECONOMICS 6
(1905-6)

Prescribed reading is indicated by an asterisk (*).

1. COLONIAL PERIOD.

*Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-30; printed also in Surveys, pp. 309-335.

Schmoller, Mercantile System, pp. 57-80.

Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 1-158.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.

Eggleston, Agriculture and Commerce in the Colonies, The Century Magazine, Jan. and June, 1884, Vol. V, pp. 431-449; Vol. VI, pp. 234-256.

2. COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES, 1776-1815.

*Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer Econ. Assn. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.

Pitkin, Statistical View of the United States, ed. 1835, ch. ix, pp. 368-412.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 287-324, 95-145.

Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-108.

3. REVOLUTIONARY AND NATIONAL FINANCE – WESTWARD MOVEMENT, 1776-1815.

*Dewey, Financial History of the United States, chs. ii-vi, pp. 33-141.

Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-78.

Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. 1, pp. 15-37, 64-67.

Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assn., 1893, pp. 199-227.

Semple, American History and its Geographical Conditions, chs. iv, v, pp. 52-92.

4. FINANCE AND BANKING, 1815-1860.

*Dewey, Financial History, pp. 223-237, 252-262.

Sumner, Andrew Jackson, ed. 1886, pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.

Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States, chs. xvi-vviii, pp. 376-403, 430-452.

Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, ch. xiv, pp. 310-347.

White, Money and Banking, chs. ix-xii, pp. 324-361.

5. TARIFFS AND MANUFACTURES, 1815-1860.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 1-154.

Taussig, State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 108-385.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, 146-199, 325-383.

6. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, 1815-1860.

*Callender, Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 111-162.

Chevalier, Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States, chs. vii, xx, xxi, pp. 80-87, 209-276.

Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), Vol. XII, pp. 531-581.

Gallatin, Plan of Internal Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I.

Tanner, Railways and Canals of the United States. See, especially, the map.

7. LAND POLICY AND AGRICULTURE, 1815-1860.

*Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257.

*Hammond, Cotton Industry, ch. iii, pp. 67-119.

Donaldson, Public Domain.

Sato, History of the Land Question in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, 4th series, nos. 7-9, pp. 127-181.

8. POPULATION AND SLAVERY, 1815-1860.

*Cairnes, Slave Power, chs. ii, iii, v, pp. 34-93, 120-150.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, ch. ii, pp. 34-60.

Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, ch. ix, pp. 150-177.

9. FINANCE, BANKING, AND CURRENCY PROBLEMS, 1860-1900.

*Dewey, Financial History, chs. xii, xiii, xx, pp. 271-330, 463-473.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, chs. i, ii, iii, x, pp. 1-72, 234-254.

Taussig, Silver Situation, pp. 1-157.

Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-36.

10. TRANSPORTATION; TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 155-230.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.

Johnson, American Railway Transportation, chs. ii, ii, v, pp. 13-38, 52-68.

Taussig, Contribution to the Theory of Railway Rates, Q.J.E., Vol. V, pp. 438-465.

Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 24-56.

11. INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION AND TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 230-409.

Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.

Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.

Twelfth United States Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 723-743.

Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol. VIII, pp. 1-39.

Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 610-647.

Willoughby, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-115.

12. AGRICULTURE AND OPENING OF THE FAR WEST.

*Industrial Commission, XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-168.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, Book I, chs. iv-vii, ix, pp. 120-228, 324-356.

Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CLXXV, pp. 394-424.

13. COMMERCE AND SHIPPING.

*Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Qr., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 167-209.

Wells, Our Merchant Marine, chs. i-v, pp. 1-94.

14. WAGES AND THE LABOR PROBLEM.

*Levasseur, American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Mitchell, Organized Labor.

Industrial Conciliation, National Civic Federation.

Wright, Industrial History of the United States, Part III, pp. 231-322.

15. IMMIGRATION AND THE RACE QUESTION.

*Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, chs. iii, iv, pp. 33-78.

Tillinghast, Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-227.

Hoffman, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 141-148, 170-176, 310-329.

Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.

Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 79-167, 227-283.

Walker, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-434.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in conomics, 1895-2003, Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1905-1906”.

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ECONOMICS 6
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

  1. Describe the history of the agitation for “cheap money” in the United States; the forms assumed both before and after 1860, its causes and the probability of its recurrence.
  2. Compare critically the financing of the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the Spanish War.
  3. (a) Summarize the principal features of our tariff legislation from the close of the Civil War to the Dingley Tariff.
    (b) What has been the effect of the tariffs on the iron and steel industry?
  4. Give the history of the Union Pacific Railroad and its relations to the government.
  5. Account for the changes in the character of the foreign trade of the United States in respect to the excess of imports or of exports.
    Take one of the following questions:
  6. Discuss the significance and causes of the increase of farm tenancy and the rural exodus.
  7. What can you say as to agricultural conditions in the South before and since the Civil War? What about the negro problem?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), pp. 31-32.

Image Source: Portraits of Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay from the Harvard Class Album 1906.

 

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Exam Questions Harvard International Economics

Harvard. Enrollment, course description, and final exam for international trade and payments. Sprague, 1904-1905

At the beginning of the 20th century international economics was covered within a single semester course. Now it is at least a two semester sequence for international trade and international payments, respectively…and one such sequence at the undergraduate and again at the graduate level. The banking specialist, Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague, would have been more interested in the payments part of the course, but the top dog in the department, Frank W. Taussig, left a strong tradition with a focus on real trade theory and commercial policy as can be seen in the exam questions below.

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 12a 2hf. Asst. Professor Sprague. — International Trade.

Total 18: 5 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

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

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 12a 2hf. International Trade. Half-course (second half-year) Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri. at 10. Asst. Professor Sprague.

Course 12a begins with a careful study of the theory of international trade, and of the use and significance of bills of exchange. The greater portion of the time will be devoted to an analysis of the foreign trade of the United States and Great Britain in order to distinguish the various factors, permanent and temporary, which determine the growth and direction of international commerce. With this purpose, also, a number of commodities important in foreign trade and produced in more than one country will be studied in detail. Each student will be given special topics for investigation which will familiarize him with sources of current information upon trade matters, such as trade journals, consular, and other government publications. In conclusion, certain topics of a general nature will be considered, among which may be mentioned, foreign investments, the effects of an unfavorable balance of payments under different circumstances, and colonial trade.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 45.

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ECONOMICS 12a
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. “The tendency of commerce is to bring about a more equal distribution of industry all the world over, and to give more and more importance to purely geographical conditions.” — Chisholm.
    Explain and illustrate.
  2. The extent to which coal supplies seem to determine the localization of industries in England, in Germany, and in the United States.
  3. Analyze carefully the effects upon the foreign trade of a country of a large increase in its production of gold.
  4. May free trade under any circumstances cause a decline in the population of a country?
  5. Why have commercial treaties proved an ineffective means of securing greater permanent freedom of trade?
  6. Discuss the policy and effects of “dumping.”
  7. The character and significance of the iron and steel exports of the United States.
  8. The purely commercial aspects of shipping subsidies.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 31-32.

Image Source: “Weighed and Not Wanting.” From Puck (March 13, 1901). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

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Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Historical and comparative look at banking systems. Enrollment, course description, final exam. Sprague, 1904-1905

Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the banking course that together with Andrew Piatt Andrew’s currency course constituted the money and banking sequence at Harvard’s economic department in the first decade of the twentieth century. Both economists later made major contributions to the work of Senator Nelson W. Aldrich’s National Monetary Commission

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Related, earlier posts

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 8b 1hf. Asst. Professor Sprague. — Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems.

Total 82: 5 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 37 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 1 Other.

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

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 8b 1hf. Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems. Half-course (first half-year).Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Asst. Professor Sprague.

In Course 8b, after a summary view of early forms of banking in Italy, Amsterdam, and Hamburg, a more detailed account is given of the development, to the middle of the nineteenth century, of the system of banking in which notes were the principal form of credit and the chief subject of discussion and legislation. The rise and growth of the modern system of banking by discount and deposit is then described. The work is both historical and comparative in its methods. The banking development, legislation, and present practice of various countries, including England, France, Germany, Scotland, and Canada, are reviewed and contrasted. Particular attention is given to banking history and experience in this country: the two United States banks; the more important features of banking in the separate states before 1860; the beginnings, growth, operation, and proposed modification of the national banking system; and credit institutions outside that system, such as state banks and trust companies.

The course of the money markets of London, Paris, Berlin, and New York will be followed during a series of months, and the various factors, such as stock exchange dealings, and international exchange payments, which bring about fluctuations in the demand for loans, and the rate of discount upon them will be considered. In conclusion the relations of banks to commercial crises will be analyzed, the crises of 1857 and 1893 being taken for detailed study.

Written work, in the preparation of short papers on assigned topics, and a regular course of prescribed reading will be required of all students.

The course is open to those who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 42-43.

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ECONOMICS 8b
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. What influences gave the Bank of England its “monarchical” position? What was Bagehot’s explanation?
  2. Why does New York exchange on London, on Paris, and on Berlin tend to move in the same direction?
  3. French banks of issue other than the bank of France.
  4. The relation of “Other Deposits” to the market rate of discount in London.
  5. The use of certified checks in connection with Stock Exchange dealings.
  6. Did the establishment of the national banking system create a demand for government bonds?
  7. Discuss the proposal to repeal the ten per cent. tax on State bank notes.
  8. Reasons for depositing the money of the government with the banks.
  9. The history and present practice of note redemption under the national banking system.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 29.

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Course enrollment, description and final exams. U.S. economic history. Sprague, 1904-1905

 

Judging from his faculty photos published in the Harvard Classbook Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague (1873-1953) was an assistant professor of economics with boyish good looks. His main field was banking and finance but he carried on Charles Dunbar’s interest in monetary and financial history in both his teaching and his research. He was sort of a Charles Kindleberger in his day, see his History of crises under the national banking system (Washington, Gov’t Print. Off., 1910, 1911).

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 6. Asst. Professor Sprague. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 79: 9 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 42 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 74.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 6. The Economic and Financial History of the United States. Tu., Th., Sat., at 9. Asst. Professor Sprague.

Course 6 gives a general survey of the economic history of the United States from the close of the eighteenth century to the present time, and aims to show on the one hand the mode in which economic principles are illustrated by American experience and, on the other, the extent to which economic conditions have influenced social and political development. The following are among the subjects considered: aspects of the Revolution and commercial relations during the Confederation and the European wars; the history of the protective tariff policy and the growth of manufacturing industries; the settlement of the West and the history of transportation, including the early canal and turnpike enterprises of the states, the various phases of railway building and the establishment of public regulation of railways; various aspects of agrarian history, such as the public land policy, the growth of foreign demand for American produce and the subsequent competition of other sources of supply; certain social topics, such as slavery and its economic basis, emancipation and the present condition of the Negro, and the effects of immigration. Comparisons will be made from time to time with the contemporary economic history of Europe. Finally the more important features of our currency and financial history are reviewed.

The course is taken advantageously with or after History 13. It is open to students who have taken Economics 1, and also to Seniors who are taking that course.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 40-41.

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ECONOMICS 6
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

  1. Mention at least five of the means by which, according to Hamilton, manufactures may be encouraged. Comment upon the one which he considers at greatest length, and as probably the most effective.
  2. Compare the views of Hamilton and Gallatin upon the effect which the trade policy of other countries should have upon that of the United States.
  3. What section of the country suffered most severely from the separation from England?
  4. (Take seven.) Whitney, Slater, Dallas, Cheeves, Biddle, McDuffie, Guthrie, Taney, Walker, Morrill.
  5. United States monetary legislation, 1830-1860.
  6. What lessons may be drawn from the financial experience of the Government during (a) the War of 1812; (b) the years following the Crises of 1837 and 1857?
  7. Mention by date and character (more or less protective) the chief tariff acts between 1810 and 1860.
  8. The relation of tariffs to crises to 1860.
  9. The policy adopted with reference to their debts by Ohio, Michigan, and Mississippi.

Source: Harvard University Archives. . Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1904-05.

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ECONOMICS 6
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. (a) The negro and the cultivation of tobacco.
    (b) The negro death rate.
    (c) The negro in the North.
  2. Protection and the iron industry before and after the Civil War.
  3. The taxation policy of Congress in successive wars.
  4. Government deficits and the currency, 1893-96. Would the situation have been essentially different if the act of 1900 had been in operation during those years?
  5. The act of 1894 as a free trade measure.
  6. Treasury arrangements for the resumption of specie payments.
  7. The policy and the results of refunding under the acts of 1870 and 1900.
  8. Wages and prices, 1890-1903.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 26.

Image Source:   Harvard University. Quinquennial Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates, 1636-1920Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1920. Front cover.

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Exam Questions Harvard International Economics

Harvard. Enrollment and final exam for international trade and payments. Sprague, 1903-1904

Time (it’s always “time” I suppose) to get back to the feeding of the slowly growing databank of Harvard economics exams with that from the semester course on international trade and payments taught by O.M.W. Sprague during the 1903-04 academic year.

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Related Posts

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Course  Enrollment

Economics 12a 2hf. Dr. Sprague. — International Trade and International Payments.

Total 23: 5 Graduates, 6 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 2 Others. 

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

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ECONOMICS 12a
Year-End Examination. 1903-04

  1. Analyze the effects of increasing exports of commodities produced under conditions of diminishing returns upon (a) laborers and capitalists, (b) upon landlords.
  2. What significance do you attach to differences in the per capita amount of foreign trade of different countries?
  3. Sir Robert Griffin’s criticism of the young industries argument.
  4. Does the extension of our export trade to tropical countries, e.g. South America, give promise of as satisfactory results as an equal growth to other parts of the world?
  5. Indicate the more important factors which determine the localization of manufacturing industries. Have these factors the same relative importance that they had fifty years ago?
  6. Analyze the recent course of English exports, indicating the chief tendencies for the future on the assumption of an unchanged fiscal policy.
  7. Do tariff barriers exert a steadying influence upon prices?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, p. 34.

Image Source: Samuel D. Ehrhart, “Another of our exports; the American fortune”, cover of Puck, Vol. 50, No. 1278 (1901 August 28). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Semester Examinations in US Economic History. Sprague, 1903-1904

 

Exam questions for the Economic History of the United States taught by Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague in academic years 1901-02, and 1902-03 have been posted earlier.

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ECONOMICS 6
Enrollment. 1903-04

Economics 6. Dr. Sprague. — The Economic History of the United States.

Total 58: 14 Graduates, 18 Seniors, 18 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 66.

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ECONOMICS 6
Mid-Year Examination. 1903-04

  1. Give reasons for the failure to engage in diversified agriculture in the South before 1860.
  2. Contrast the Southern plantation managed by owners with those under the management of overseers.
  3. Why should 1839 rather than 1837 be regarded as the close of the speculative movement of the thirties?
  4. Why may it be considered fortunate that the national government did not take an important part in the early internal improvement movement?
  5. To what extent was distrust of private corporations a factor in the internal improvement movement?
  6. Contrast the effects of protection upon the cotton and upon the woollen industry.
  7. Are wages and profits higher in protected than in other occupations, (a) raw materials, (b) manufactures?
  8. What, in your opinion, was the strongest argument for protection in 1816? What seems to you the strongest argument which has general validity?

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

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ECONOMICS 6
Year-End Examination. 1903-04

  1. How is immigration said to have affected the birth rate?
  2. Point out any indications which give promise of future negro progress.
  3. Briefly.
    1. The Homestead Law.
    2. The Copper Act of 1869.
    3. Reciprocity in the Tariff Act of 1890.
    4. The effects of specific duties according to Walker’s Report of 1846.
  4. Point out striking differences in the protective movement before and since 1860, taking illustrations especially from the Woollen Act of 1867 and the Act of 1890.
  5. The cotton manufacture in the South and the young industries argument.
  6. Why has the iron and steel industry developed more satisfactorily than the woollen industry?
  7. Account for changes in the character of the foreign trade of the United States with reference to the excess of imports or of exports.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, p. 29.

Image Source: Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague portrait in the Harvard Class Album 1915, colorised by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Semester exams for money and banking. Andrew and Sprague, 1903-1904

 

Abram Piatt Andrew (b. 1873, Princeton A.B. 1893; Harvard  Ph.D. 1900) and Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague (b. 1873, Harvard A.B. 1894; A.M. 1895; Ph.D. 1897) were rising stars in the department of economics at Harvard in the 1903-04 academic year. Together they covered the bases of money, banking, and international payments. 

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Related, previous posts

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Course Enrollment
Economics 8a and 8b

1903-04

Economics 8a 2hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times. [note: taught second semester]

Total 91: 8 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 39 Juniors, 24 Sophomores, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 66.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Economics 8b 1hf. Dr. Sprague. — Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems. [note: taught first semester]

Total 77: 6 Graduates, 30 Seniors, 30 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, 2 Others.

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

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ECONOMICS 8a
Year-End Examination
1903-04

Arrange answers in the order of the questions.
Omit one question.

  1. Explain the character, merits, and defects of
    1. the arithmetical mean;
    2. the geometrical mean;
    3. the median;
    4. the mode;
    5. weighted averages.
      Discuss Pierson’s criticism of index numbers.
  2. When a government issues inconvertible notes, is the premium on gold apt to measure the depreciation of the notes
    1. at the beginning of the issue?
    2. in the course of a war?
    3. at the restoration of peace?
    4. if the crops fail?
    5. “in the long run”?
      Give reasons, and where possible, illustrations.
  3. What justification is there for the respective claims that the United States adopted the gold standard
    1. by the act of 1834?
    2. by the act of 1853?
    3. by the act of 1873?
    4. by the act of 1874?
    5. by the act of 1900?
  4. To what extent was England’s adoption of the gold standard the result of a policy deliberately adopted and intentionally pursued? To what extent was it the result of unforeseen conditions?
  5. Suppose that owing to the increasing gold supply the ratio between gold and silver were to fall again below 32 to 1 how would foreign trade and the price level be affected
    1. in Mexico?
    2. in the Philippines?
  6. Would an ideal monetary standard always measure the same exchange value?
    1. according to Darwin?
    2. according to Walker?
    3. in your own opinion?
      Answer both from the points of view of production and of distribution.
  7. Is there any significance for “the quantity theory” in the currency history
    1. of India between 1893 and 1898?
    2. of Austria between 1878 and 1892?
    3. of Russia between 1878 and 1896?
    4. of Holland between 1873 and 1875?
      Where possible give variant opinions.
  8. Trace the general changes in the value of money in the United States from 1830 to the present time, analyzing the reasons for these changes.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, pp. 30-31.

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ECONOMICS 8b
Mid-Year Examination.
1903-04

  1. Sight exchange, $4.86; sixty-day bills, $4.83; commercial bills, $4.82. What would be the probable effect of an advance of one per cent of the market rate of discount in London? Consider each quotation separately.
  2. The government of the Bank of England.
  3. Why does the existing system of note issue in the United States tend to check the expansion of credit in the form of deposits?
  4. Discuss briefly:—
    1. The payment of interest upon deposits by commercial banks.
    2. The significance of statistics relative to clearing-house transactions.
    3. The publication of weekly reports by the trust companies of New York.
    4. The use of certified checks in Stock Exchange dealings.
    5. The taxation of national banks.
  5. Contrast the value for purposes of reserve of call loans in New York made by the Canadian banks with those made by the banks of the city.
  6. The Suffolk Bank system.

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

Image Sources: Portrait of Abram Piatt Andrew from the Hoover Institution archives posted at the Federal Reserve History website. Portrait of Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague from the Harvard Classbook 1912. Images colorized and edited by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Economists Harvard

Harvard. Class of 1894 reports of Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague, 1895, 1897, 1902, 1904, 1909, 1914, 1919

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is always (well, almost always) on the lookout for artifacts providing autobiographical detail on the economists whose course materials have been transcribed and posted here. While trawling the hathitrust.org archive yet another time for material on the Harvard economics/business professor O. M. W. Sprague, I found seven reports of the secretaries of the Harvard Class of 1894, of which Sprague was a distinguished graduate. Sprague’s personal reports are sometimes repetitive, but it is still handy to put them together in one post.

Bonus Material: Sprague’s brief faculty bio found in the 1924-25 Harvard Business School yearbook.

A recent earlier post provides Sprague’s lifetime c.v.

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, First Report (1895)
Misc. facts

A.B. Harvard College, June 1894 [p. 4]

Second Year Honors (1892-93) in History. [p. 25]

A.B. Final Honors in Political Science (Highest Honors) [p. 26]

A.B. Honorable Mention in History and Economics [p. 30]

Oration at Commencement (12 graduating students held orations) [p. 37]

Memberships:

Christian Association [p. 62]
Historical Club [p. 67]
International Law Club [p. 68]
Phi Beta Kappa [p. 69]

Graduate School. University Scholarship. Appointed in 1894. [p. 36]

Resident of the Graduate School 1894-95. Address: 40 Kirkland St., Cambridge [p. 139]

A.M. June 1895 [p. 31]

Source: Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. I. (1895).

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Second Report (1897)

“Have been studying economics, especially economic history, at Harvard Graduate School. Received degree of A.M. in ’95, [and Ph.D. in ’97. Subject of doctor’s thesis, ‘The English Woolen Industry in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.’]”

Source: Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. II. (1897), pp. 96-97.

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Third Report (1902)

“During the college year (’97-’98) was in England, holding a Rogers Fellowship. Since that time I have been teaching Economics at Harvard, aside from two months last winter on leave of absence to give a course on foreign travel at the University of Michigan. I have edited a new edition of the late Professor Dunbar’s little book on banking regularly used in Economics 1. I am now preparing essays for publication in book form.” [p. 106]

One publication listed [p. 191]:

Sprague, O.M.W. — “The German Coinage Act of 1900,” Quarterly Journal of Economics”.

Source: Harvard University Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. III. (1902).

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Fourth Report (1904)

Sprague, Oliver Mitchell Wentworth, Professor, 21 Stoughton Hall, Cambridge.

Assistant Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Source: Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. IV. (1904), p. 37.

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Fifth Report (1909)

Both my father, William Wallace Sprague, and my mother, Miriam Wentworth Sprague, were discended [sic] from early New England settlers. I was born at Somerville, Massachusetts, and prepared for college at St. Johnsbury (Vermont) Academy.

In college I loafed egregiously the first two years, and then specialized in Political Science, in which, largely through habits acquired from an almost Scotch turn for disputation, I received at graduation, Highest Honors and therewith a summa cum. Beguiled by this rather unexpected success, I turned aside from the law — my first love — and entered the Graduate School where in due course I received the A.M. degree in 1895, and the degree of Ph.D. in 189.

The following year, I studied in England, holding a travelling fellowship. In the autumn of 1898, I returned to Harvard as Assistant in Economics, in which capacity I had the satisfaction of being of some slight use to Professor Dunbar, in his last years. From this, its lowest rung, I began the toilsome ascent of the academic ladder. From 1899 to 1901, I served as an annual Instructor, then came three years as a Faculty Instructor; and in 1904 I was appointed to an Assistant Professorship in Economics. In 1905, I resigned this position, to accept a professor ship in the Tokio Imperial University. After three years in the Orient — a delightful episode — I accepted a cabled invitation to return to Harvard as an Assistant Professor, on second appointment, in Banking and Finance in the Graduate School of Business Administration. I have published a few articles on banking subjects and expect to publish many more. Am now engaged in preparing a report for the National Monetary Commission on the experience of the national banks during crises since the establishment of the system; and also a report upon banking in Japan.

Married Fanny Knight Ide, June 21, 1905, and have one child, Katherine Ide Sprague, born at Tokio, Japan, May 1, 1906. Address: 18 Sumner Road, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Source: Fifteenth Anniversary of the Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. V (1909), pp. 227-228.

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Sixth Report (1914)
Born Somerville, Mass., April 22, 1873.
Parents William Wallace, Miriam (Wentworth) Sprague.
School St. Johnsbury Academy, St. Johnsbury, Vt.
Years in College 1890-1894.
Degrees A.B., 1894; A.M., 1896; Ph.D., 1897.
Married Fanny Knights Ide, St. Johnsbury, Vt., June 21, 1905.
Children Katharine Ide, May 1, 1906; Theodore Wentworth, Sept. 1, 1911.
Business University Professor.
Address 18 Sumner Road, Cambridge, Mass.

In 1898, I studied in England, holding a traveling fellowship. In the autumn of 1898, I returned to Harvard as assistant in Economics, in which capacity I had the satisfaction of being of some slight use to Professor Dunbar, in his last years. From this, its lowest rung, I began the toilsome ascent of the academic ladder. From 1899 to 1901, I served as an annual instructor, then came three years as a faculty instructor; and in 1904, I was appointed to an Assistant Professorship in Economics. In 1905, I resigned this position, to accept a professorship in the Tokio Imperial University. After three years in the Orient – a delightful episode I accepted an invitation to return to Harvard as an Assistant Professor, on second appointment, in Banking and Finance in the Graduate School of Business Administration, and in March, 1913, I was appointed Edward Cogswell Converse Professor of Banking and Finance. I have written two books, a “History of Crises Under the National Banking System,” and “Banking Reform in the United States.” Member: Boston Harvard Club, American Economic Association.

Source: Twentieth Anniversary of the Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. VI (1914), pp. 207-208.

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Seventh Report (1919)

Born at Somerville, Mass., April 22, 1873. Son of William Wallace and Miriam (Wentworth) Sprague. Prepared at St. Johnsbury Academy, St. Johnsbury, Vt.

In College, 1890-94; Graduate School, 1894-98. Degrees: A.B. 1894; A.M. 1895; Ph.D. 1897.

Married to Fanny Knights Ide at St. Johnsbury Vt., June 21, 1905. Children: Katharine Ide, born May 1, 1906; Theodore Wentworth, born Sept. 1, 1911.

Occupation: Teaching.

Address: (home) 32 Bates St., Cambridge, Mass.; (business) Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

After obtaining the degree of Ph.D. in 1897, I received a travelling fellowship and spent the following year studying in England. In the autumn of 1898, I returned to Harvard as Assistant in Economics, in which capacity I had the satisfaction of being of some slight use to Professor Dunbar, in his last years.

From this, its lowest rung, I began the toilsome ascent of the academic ladder. From 1899 to 1901, I served as an annual instructor, then came three years as a faculty instructor; and in 1904, I was appointed to an Assistant Professorship in Economics. In 1905 I resigned this position, to accept a professorship in the Tokio Imperial University. After three years in the Orient — a delightful episode — I accepted an invitation to return to Harvard as Assistant Professor of Banking and Finance in the Graduate School of Business Administration, and in March, 1913, I was appointed Edward Cogswell Converse Professor of Banking and Finance. I have written two books, a “History of Crises under the National Banking System,” and “Banking Reform in the United States,” and have revised and enlarged Dunbar’s “Theory and History of Banking.” During the war, I advocated in articles and in other ways the advisability of financing the contest mainly by taxation. I am convinced that such a policy was feasible and that it would have proved far less burdensome and much more equitable than the borrowing policy with its attendant inflation. Between July and December, 1918, I was in Washington engaged in work on reconstruction problems for the Council of National Defense. [pp. 411-12]

War Record
O. M. W. SPRAGUE

U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  Member of the War Finance Committee and the Foreign Exchange Committee, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Reconstruction research worker, Council of National Defense, July-Dec., 1918.  [p. 550]

Publications
O. M. W. SPRAGUE

The English woolen industry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Doct. diss., 1897.

Ed. Chapter on theory and history of banking. By Charles Franklin Dunbar. 2d ed., enlarged. New York, Putnam’s, 1901, 1907, etc., pp. viii, 252, 3d ed. under title The theory and history of banking, 1917, pp. viii, 297.

Ed. Economic essays. By Charles Franklin Dunbar. New York, Macmillan, 1904, pp. xvii, 372.

History of crises under the national banking system. Washington, Gov’t Print. Off., 1910, 1911, pp. v, 484.

Banking reform in the United States. Reprints from Quart. Journ. Econ., 1910, pp. 176. Harv. Univ., 1911.

Loans and investments. (With others.) Amer. Inst. of Banking, N. Y., 1916, pp. 304.

Recent articles:

Proposals for strengthening the national banking system. Quart. Journ. Econ., xxiv (1910), pp. 44. [I. (February); II. (August); III. (November)]

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Quart. Journ. Econ., Feb., 1914.

The Federal Reserve system in operation. Ibid., Aug., 1916.

Loans and taxes in war finance. Amer. Econ. Ass’n Publ., Mar., 1917. [Discussion]

The crisis of 1914 in the United States. Amer. Econ. Rev., v (1915), pp. 35.

Financing “the armed nation.” Military Historian and Economist, Jan., 1916.

The relation between loan and taxes in war finance. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. and Soc. Sciences, Jan., 1918.

Labor and capital on reconstruction. Amer. Econ. Rev., Dec., 1918.

Source: Twentieth-fifth Anniversary of the Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. VII (1919), pp. 411-12.

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OLIVER M. SPRAGUE
Edmund Cogswell Converse Professor of Banking and Finance

Degrees: A.B., A.M., Ph.D. at Harvard.

History in brief: Unofficial activities for banking reform, preceding passage of the Federal Reserve Act. Unofficial activities designed to secure imposition of adequate, i.e., heavy, taxation during the Great War. Council of National Defense and War Trade Board, July to December, 1918. Assistant Professor, 1908–1913. Professor since 1913.

Source: Harvard Business School Year-Book, 1924-1925, p. 13.

Image Source: O.M.W. Sprague in the Harvard Class Album, 1915, colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Final examination and enrollment for international trade and payments. Sprague, 1902-1903

Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. and Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague were the instructor team that picked up and ran with the baton for the field of money and banking at Harvard after Charles Dunbar had died in 1900. Their division of labor was for Andrew to cover money and for Sprague to teach banking.

Both semester courses continued to be offered in 1902-03. The examination questions with enrollment data for Sprague’s course have been transcribed for this post.

A timeline for his life has been added to “really tie the room together.”

For a recent view of Sprague, see Hugh Rockoff’s NBER Working Paper (October 2021) “O.M.W. Sprague (the man who ‘wrote the book’ on financial crises) meets the Great Depression”.

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O.M.W. Sprague

1873,
Apr. 22
Born in Somerville, Massachusetts
1894 A.B., summa cum laude, Harvard
1894-95 University Scholar, Harvard
1895 A.M., Harvard
1895-96 Henry Lee Memorial Fellow, Harvard
1896-97 Thayer Scholar, Harvard
1897 Ph.D. (Political Science), Harvard. Thesis: The English woolen industry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
1897-98 Study of economic history in London, England as Rogers Fellow
1898-99 Assistant in Economics, Harvard
1899-1900 Austin Teaching Fellow in Political Economy, Harvard
1900-04 Instructor in Political Economy, Harvard
1904-05 Assistant professor of economics (five year appointment), Harvard
1905,
June 12
Married Fanny Knights Ide (2 children)
1905-08 Professor of Economics, Imperial Univ. of Tokyo
1908-13 Asst. Professor, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard
1913-41 Edmund Cogswell Converse Professor of Banking and Finance, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard
1929 Member of the Gold Delegation of the League of Nations in a final effort to maintain the gold standard
1930-33 Economic adviser to Bank of England
1933 Financial and executive adviser to Secretary of Treasury
1937 39th President of the American Economic Association
1938 Litt.D., Columbia University
1941-1953 Professor emeritus, Harvard
1953,
May 24
Died in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Sources:

Cole, Arthur H., Robert L. Masson, and John H. Williams. Memorial [for] O.M.W. Sprague, 1873-1953. American Economic Review, Vol. 44 (1), March 1954, pp. 131-132.

Committee on the History of the Federal Reserve System, Register of Papers: Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague (1873-1953), 1 November, 1955, p. 2.

Reports of the President of Harvard College.

Obituary in The Boston Globe May 25, 1953.

Books:

Economic Essays by Charles Dunbar, edited by O.M.W. Sprague. New York: Macmillan, 1904.

History of Crises Under the National Banking System. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1910. (Prepared for National Monetary Commission)

Banking Reform in the United States: A Series of Proposals including a Central Bank of Limited Scope. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1911.

Theory and History of Banking by Charles F. Dunbar, Fifth edition, with supplementary chapter presenting the record of the Federal Reserve System by Henry Parker Willis. Revised and in part rewritten with additional material by Oliver M. W. Sprague. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1929.
[Original 1st edition by Charles F. Dunbar, 1891; 2nd edition, 1901; 3rd edition, 1917; 4th edition, 1921]

Recovery and Common Sense. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1934.

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Course Description.

International Trade and Payments
1902-03, first semester

  1. a 1hf. *International Trade and International Payments. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Dr. Sprague.

Course 12a begins with a careful study of the theory of international trade, and of the use and significance of bills of exchange. The greater portion of the time will be devoted to an analysis of the foreign trade of the United States in order to distinguish the various factors, permanent and temporary, which determine the growth and direction of international commerce. With this purpose, also, a number of commodities important in foreign trade and produced in more than one country will be studied in detail. Each student will be given special topics for investigation which will familiarize him with sources of current information upon trade matters, such as trade journals, consular, and other government publications. In conclusion certain topics of a general nature will be considered, among which may be mentioned, foreign investments, the effects of an unfavorable balance of payments under different circumstances, and colonial trade.

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

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Course Enrollment.

International Trade and Payments
1902-03, first semester

Economics 12a. 1hf. Dr. Sprague. — International Trade and International Payments.

Total 10: 1 Gr., 3 Se., 5 Ju., 1 So.

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

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Course Final Examination

International Trade and Payments
1902-03, first semester

ECONOMICS 12a
  1. Compare the English Consular Reports with those of the United States.
  2. Explain carefully the reasons which render possible permanent differences in the general level of prices between countries, assuming (1) free trade, (2) a high general tariff in one country and free trade in the other. How would the removal of tariff barriers probably affect prices in the United States?
  3. The temporary effects of an unfavorable balance of foreign payments.
  4. Characteristics and advantages of trade with the tropics.
  5. Exports of manufactures from the United States.
  6. Analyze the effects to each country of complete reciprocity between Cuba and the United States. Would there be any advantage which the United States does not gain from unrestricted trade with Porto Rico?
  7. The effect of the growth of the foreign trade of other countries upon the absolute amount of British exports.

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

Image Source: O.M.W. Sprague in the Harvard Class Album, 1915, colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Banking and its history. Enrollment and final exam. Sprague, 1902-1903

Money and banking were the subjects in a two semester sequence of distinct courses at Harvard in 1902-03. Material for the money course taught by Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. can be found in the previous post. Here we have a description, enrollment figures, and the final exam questions for economics instructor O.M.W. Sprague’s banking course in the sequence.

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8b2hf. Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. Sprague.

In Course 8b, after a summary view of early forms of banking in Italy, Amsterdam, and Hamburg, a more detailed account is given of the development, to the middle of the nineteenth century, of the system of banking in which notes were the principal form of credit and the chief subject of discussion and legislation. The rise and growth of the modern system of banking by discount and deposit is then described. The work is both historical and comparative in its methods. The banking development, legislation, and present practice of various countries, including England, France, Germany, Scotland, and Canada, are reviewed and contrasted. Particular attention is given to banking history and experience in this country: the two United States banks; the more important features of banking in the separate states before 1860; the beginnings, growth, operation, and proposed modification of the national banking system; and credit institutions outside that system, such as state banks and trust companies.

The course of the money markets of London, Paris, Berlin, and New York will be followed during a series of months, and the various factors, such as stock exchange dealings, and international exchange payments, which bring about fluctuations in the demand for loans, and the rate of discount upon them will be considered. In conclusion the relations of banks to commercial crises will be analyzed, the crises of 1857 and 1893 being taken for detailed study.

Written work, in the preparation of short papers on assigned topics, and a regular course of prescribed reading will be required of all students.

The course is open to those who have taken Economics 1.

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

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Economics 8b. 2hf. Dr. Sprague. — Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems.

Total 133: 2 Gr., 38 Se., 52 Ju., 27 So., 1 Fr., 13 Others.

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

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ECONOMICS 8b

Answer the questions strictly in their order.

  1. (a) Why does a fall in the prices of stock exchange securities tend to reduce the loans and the deposit liabilities of the New York banks?
    (b) Why is the rate for call loans subject to greater fluctuations than those for time loans or on commercial paper?
  2. (a) Explain the relation between the supply of commercial bills of exchange and the rates for bankers’ sterling.
    (b) Explain the usual method by which a profit is realized from the export of gold from New York to Paris.
  3. Define or explain—
    1. Due to approved reserve agents.
    2. Bills payable.
    3. Cable transfers.
    4. The bank price of gold.
  4. Changes in the charter of the Reichsbank in 1899.
  5. What changes in other items would involve a change in the amount of deposits?
  6. Discuss the advantages of a central reserve bank and consider its applicability to the United States.
  7. Give some account of failures of the national banks.
  8. How do loans in Europe serve to reduce the credit liabilities of the New York banks?

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

Image Source: Portrait of Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague in the Harvard Class Album 1915, colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.