Month: July 2026

Categories
Libertarianism Popular Economics Wing Nuts

Northwood Institute. A Libertarian Credo. V. Orval Watts, 1973

In the Beginning…

…Mr. Leonard Read became general manager of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the largest C. of C. in the country and, I believe, the most enlightened. He had me chosen as a member of his board of directors, which position I have held since 1939. Another result was that the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce added an economic counsel to its staff, Dr. V. O. Watts, a former student of mine at Harvard.

     Through the influence of Messrs. Mullendore [president of the Southern California Edison Co.] , Read, Watts, and myself, the L.A. C. of C. became the spearhead of an active crusade for the return to the principle of freedom of enterprise. That crusade seems to have made an impression, since nearly everybody now (1947) talks in favor of free enterprise and against the police state. If I had something to do with starting Mullendore, Read, and Watts on this crusade, it may turn out to be the most important work of my life.

Source: Thomas Nixon Carver, Recollections of an Unplanned Life (Los Angeles, 1949), p. 241.

_________________________

The following artifact is found in the papers of V. Orval Watts at the Hoover Institution Archives. It bears no date, but essentially the same document has been posted as an article at the Foundation for Economic Education with a date of March 1, 1973 with a prefatory note “This article is from remarks at a recent faculty meeting [at the Northwood Institute].” The introductory paragraphs differ and there is an interesting obiter dictum added to the FEE version that “our rules prohibiting the use of liquor and marijuana and requiring the women students to return to the dormitories at a certain time” are not coercive.

V. Orval Watts, Harvard Ph.D. (1932), was a disciple of Harvard Professor Thomas Nixon Carver, his initial academic career morphed into becoming an apostle of laissez-faire, anti-Keynesianism, anti-globalism, and anti-communism. Ultimately he continued his crusades as the economics research pillar at the Judeo-Christian libertarian Northwood Institute (now Northwood University). Watts’ biographical details can be found in a 2018 post and his graduate economics record at Harvard has also been transcribed by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

_________________________

THE NORTHWOOD IDEA

By V. Orval Watts, Ph.D.
Northwood Institute

NOTE ON AUTHOR

Dr. V. Orval Watts has served as an inspiration and mentor for colleagues and the students of Northwood Institute for almost as long as the College has existed. Organizations grow and prosper because of their distinctive personalities. Ours has been molded and maintained by Dr. Watts. As director of Economic Education, he has reminded us of what we can be, if we will. More than this he carried the message of freedom to every corner of our country for more than six decades. His explanation of the Northwood Idea is a declaration of beliefs around which this institution has been built.

Dr. David E. Fry
President

Introduction: The Northwood Idea

By V. Orval Watts

The Northwood Idea — the thought that went into the founding of Northwood Institute — is as conservative as The Ten Commandments or The Golden Rule.

It is as liberal and progressive as the gains that come to humans as they learn to live by these principles.

Yet this does not make The Northwood Idea new or different. “Education,” we hear again and again, is the one way to solve our problems of crime, poverty, prejudice, racism, and war. Particularly in these United States, schooling in regard for one another’s welfare and in the skills necessary for making ourselves useful in a peaceful society are what every parent and teacher want for our huge investments in the world’s greatest educational effort.

This schooling, we all agree, should teach the ways of peace, goodwill and mutual aid.

Yet crime — especially juvenile crime — is higher than ever and is increasing faster in our cities and states where these expenditures of time and resources are greatest. Levels of literacy and self-discipline actually rose faster in the days before these great investments in compulsory and universal schooling.

The menace of terrorism, war, economic breakdown and famine is greater despite advances in technology which make peaceful cooperation more fruitful than ever before in human history. They offer the opportunity to abolish hunger, famine and pestilence forever.

Clearly something is wrong or lacking in our systems of schooling. At least, the founders of Northwood Institute thought so. Therefore, they ventured and risked greatly to offer something different from the general run of college schooling. My work and contacts with these men and women, and with their helpers and supporters, almost from the beginning of this institution, make me think of their aims — The Northwood Idea — in these terms:

First, the philosophy of Northwood’s founders springs from certain oft-forgotten aspects of the Judeo-Christian Ethic, or culture. In particular, it implies firm belief in the fact of personal, individual responsibility.

Second, the founders and supporters of Northwood Institute have shown by their lives and dedicated efforts that they look on work not merely as the means for obtaining the material necessaries and comforts of life but also as the way to what some call “mental health.” Strenuous and continuing effort in the hope of achieving a better life for oneself and others they see as essential for spiritual (psychological, emotional, mental) well-being.

Finally, they recognize that human progress depends on freedom for business enterprise. This requires private property. It means freedom to buy and sell, freedom to advertise and dicker, freedom to lend and borrow, and freedom to save and invest for profit.

This free-enterprise business, they believe, has been essential in the rise of great civilizations. It arises with acceptance of individual responsibility, the work ethic, and the self-discipline necessary for freedom.

I. THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN ETHIC

As to the Judeo-Christian Ethic, I’ve been tempted to use instead the phrase “Bourgeois Ethic,” meaning the ethic of the tradesman, but Karl Marx and others have given that phrase so nasty a connotation that I know I would have two strikes against me at the outset if I called our moral code the “Bourgeois Ethic.” Yet, whatever we call it, the moral basis for our Northwood philosophy is the ethic which is necessary for a good life as a trader or financier.

The Idea of Individual Responsibility

This ethic begins with the idea of individual responsibility. That concept is basic for the Judeo-Christian Ethic.*

* The Islamic faith, we should note, stems from the Judeo-Christian ethic and theology.

The Ten Commandments and the moral injunctions of both the Old and the New Testaments were always directed to the individual: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”; “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image”; “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.“

Note that “thou,” “thy” and “thee” are singular pronouns, not plural as is “you” or “your.” Therefore, these ancient commandments were directed to one person, the individual, who is thereby charged with responsibility for what he chooses to do. They take it for granted that humans can choose. Our actions are not determined by instinct.

In fact, humans must choose. That is what individual responsibility and self-determination mean. Ideas and acquired values determine our specific actions, and they may prompt us to ignore various influences in the outside environment. We can direct our own actions to prolong and enrich our lives, or we can choose suicidal paths as people choose to smoke when they have abundant evidence that it shortens life. We can choose to jump off cliffs, we can choose to play Russian roulette; or we can choose to follow ways of life, ways of health and well-being.

The Idea of Moral Law

Of equal importance in the Judeo-Christian Ethic is recognition of the enduring nature of Moral Law. The essence of this moral law is summed up in the “Golden Rule,” and it derives from the fact that humans need one another.

Without other human beings, we cannot be born, cannot be reared, cannot prosper; and to have the cooperation of other humans — to avoid the conflicts which would be suicidal for humans — we must follow the “Golden Rule.” When we apply that rule in practice, we find it is the unifying principle of these commandments that refer to the relations between the individual and his fellows: “Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not kill,” and “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”

Now, it should be clear that obedience to Moral Law means voluntary cooperation and freedom. If we don’t steal, we leave other persons free to use their talents in peaceful and cooperative ways to produce goods for their own use, for exchange, or for gifts to others, such as gifts to one’s family or heirs.

Therefore, we have a state of individual freedom if we live by the “Ten Commandments.” We have private property and numberless associations for voluntary cooperation. Humans develop as humans and make progress only in this condition of individual freedom and voluntary association established by adherence to these moral principles. Therefore, these moral principles are antecedent to and take precedence over all man-made laws and customs.

Respect for Property

In other words, these enduring moral principles require of us respect for the property rights of other people — that is, respect for their rights to control their own persons and for their rights to control those things which they obtain in voluntary cooperation, whether by gift, by voluntary exchange, or by the productive use of these things. Living by these principles requires that we fulfill our contracts, that we speak the truth, and that we revere the laws of Life and Nature. The first four of The Ten Commandments tell us of this need for reverence: a Higher Authority enforces laws vastly more enduring and exacting than the statutes of kings and parliaments.

We should note, incidentally, that this voluntary cooperation and exchange is doubly productive of benefits in contrast to the one-sided gain that anyone may get by coercion, as for example, by burglary, by slavery, or by taxation. In voluntary cooperation, all participants must benefit if the cooperation is to continue, for if it is voluntary, anyone may withdraw when he feels he is not benefiting, when he feels that the gains are distributed unjustly or going entirely to one person or group at the expense of the time and energy of others.

We should note also that living by the Golden Rule involves respect for privacy — the right to be left alone and the right to choose one’s associates. Coercion — the attempt to compel people to associate with others — leads to conflict rather than to the attitudes and actions which are mutually beneficial. Freedom established by the Moral Law of the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments includes the moral right to withdraw from an unwelcome contact with other persons, as well as the right to cooperate freely in mutually beneficial ways.

As Paul wrote in his “Second Letter to the Corinthians” two thousand years ago, “Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness? … Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord … and I will receive you.” (II Cor. 6:14-17)

II. EMPHASIS ON WORK AND THRIFT

Next, I wish to call attention to Northwood’s emphasis on work and thrift as marks and means of human progress. It is fashionable in some circles nowadays to disparage both of these values. But, work is merely persistent, purposeful effort. It is investment of human time and energy for long-range, indirect benefits.

Long-range benefits are those that occur in the future. Indirect benefits are those that may first benefit another person, but bring a return benefit of some sort to us later.

Such planned, purposeful effort for a long-range or indirect benefit is surely necessary for human survival and progress; and the traits of character and personality developed by such effort we regard as virtues.

Thrift is the postponement of present consumption in order to obtain greater satisfactions in the future. Like work, it requires the highest human qualities of understanding and imagination to foresee the future and to hold it in mind in order to gain the necessary self-restraint.

In short, work and thrift require understanding, self-control. They are means, not only of self-development, but of service to others.

We’d Still Live In Caves

Where would we be today had it not been for the thrift and work involved in the creation of our buildings, and the production of the myriad tools, or capital goods, that we use? The answer is we would still be living in caves, scratching out a short-lived, hand-to-mouth existence derived from the roots and grubs we could dig up, the small animals we could catch in our hands, and the berries we could get in season.

Everything that we call the material aspects of civilization, and the moral and spiritual ones as well, our understanding that enables us to live longer, to live better and to cooperate — all of this comes from thrift and work, the accumulations of thousands of years of human effort, inventiveness, planning, thrift and self-discipline.

This Puritan Ethic — this system of values, this way of life — is essential to progress. It is essential not only for economic progress but also for developing the qualities that are most distinctively human, the qualities that make us humans. It is mental, moral and spiritual “therapy,” to use a modern cliche.

III. THE IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS

Finally, if we are to have cooperation, we must exchange services; and as the cooperation gets more and more complicated, we need specialists to work out the terms and procedures of the multitudinous exchanges. Therefore, we must use money and credit; and we must have traders and financiers, advertisers, brokers and salesmen, accountants and collection agencies to complete the exchanges, including those exchanges which are made over a period of time and which therefore require credit and finance.

Finance is the monetary aspect of credit. Credit is merely a delayed exchange, an incomplete exchange. In every civilized society, most exchanges take time to complete because they are indirect, three-cornered or four-cornered exchanges, taking place over a distance and involving roundabout capital-using methods of production. In all such time-consuming transactions, we must have credit (trust and waiting). Therefore, money, credit and financial experts are as necessary for civilized life and progress as are tools and machines, mechanics, and engineers.

Business, then, means those aspects of voluntary cooperation which we call commerce and finance, and the function of the businessman is to promote, inspire, and guide cooperation. He organizes and teaches competitive cooperation — cooperation to provide better opportunities for life and for a more abundant life. These business activities — organizing, inspiring, leading and teaching cooperation — promote development of the highest qualities of mind, character and personality.

Now, from time immemorial — from the first introduction of money and the specialists who traded and promoted trades — business has been widely regarded with suspicion and looked down upon as a degrading occupation. In primitive societies, the view prevails that a merchant or moneylender profits only at the expense of producers. This belief helps explain why such societies remain backward, or “under-developed.”

Of course, this belief is an entire misjudgment as to what most of a businessman’s wealth consists of and what he contributes to the value of other producers’ services and incomes. Most of his wealth consists of the means for serving his customers, and he contributes some of the most essential ingredients of human progress.

Wherever this disparaging attitude toward business becomes general, we find that business is harassed, regulated, plundered and repressed. Under such persecution, the character and wisdom of businessmen tends to fall.

Where opinion-makers teach that business is a dishonest racket, then those who are willing to be racketeers or cheats will monopolize business, while achievers who value the good opinion of their fellows will choose other occupations, such as religion, politics and the military. Then we find the kind of government the Pharaohs had in ancient Egypt, or that prevailed as the Roman Republic gave way to a welfare state Empire. Under such oppressive governments, a businessman must be something of a trickster to survive.

Spreading Hostility

As hostility to businessmen grows, politicians tax them more heavily, while debasing and inflating the currency to maintain an illusion of prosperity. Then, when these policies cause rising price levels, a deluded populace demands price controls, which ambitious politicians are all too ready to impose.

The resulting shortages and “black markets” provide further excuses for more government action to combat these supposed evidences of private “greed.”

This cancerous growth of government produces political “leaders” who promise peace and plenty even while they squander the fruits of industry in pauperizing the poor and waging “perpetual war for perpetual peace.”

The result must be, sooner or later, a spreading decline in the quality of life despite (or because of) the increasing largess to “the poor” and the privileged, the rise of great new public works, and the display of awe-inspiring armaments.

Civilization progresses when business is widely regarded as Horatio Alger represented it in his stories seventy-five or more years ago. In those once-popular tales, work and thrift in honest business service were the high road to personal success in the broadest sense of that word. That view of business helped attract able, enterprising youths into business careers. It prevailed in this country long before Alger wrote and helps explain the astounding economic and cultural progress of the United States during the past two centuries.

On the other hand, insofar as we lose the Horatio Alger understanding and spirit, we succumb to increasing paternalism and despotism, collectivism and war, which demoralize and belittle the individual and produce a wide-spread cultural decline. This retrogression has happened time and time again in history, and if we don’t learn the lesson from this history, we shall be doomed to repeat it.

Every nation has developed and flowered — with art, music, and the other ornaments and means of civilization — only on the basis of flourishing business, trade, commerce. This was true of the Phoenicians, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Egypt, the Chinese civilization, the Byzantine Empire, Venice, Florence, Spain, England, France, Germany and the United States. Go through the history of each and you’ll find in its origins that period in which commerce and finance were highly regarded and relatively free in a developing civilization.

Again and again, however, these eras of progress have ended as the intelligentsia became worshipers of the Almighty State. Then these intellectuals — scribes and priests — became more and more scornful of businessmen; and business lost its vision because it lost its men of vision. Men of talent and imagination, instead, accepted the faith of the state-employed intellectuals that a well-schooled elite must make more and more choices for the general run of the population and compel the inferior masses to accept this planning and direction of their lives.

Submerging the Individual

With this elitist excuse for tyranny, governments organize militaristic and imperialistic gangs to substitute forms of slavery for the voluntary cooperation of free individuals. Then, as in Communist countries today, even the ablest of the ruling bureaucracies find that any individual is expendable — trapped and exploited or liquidated — as millions of humans are sacrificed on the altars of Planned Perfection. The Moral Law of the Golden Rule and of the Ten Commandments may be violated, but not with impunity. He who harms others, harms himself; he who deceives another, cheats himself.

This faith in Moral Law permeates the philosophy of our Northwood administration and faculty. Along with it goes insistence on the fact of individual responsibility and a broad, long-range view of personal success. A businessman’s moral responsibility is no less than that of a teacher, physician, minister, artist or writer.

Essential to The Northwood Idea, then, is appreciation of the unlimited opportunities for character development in voluntary business enterprise.

Temptations correspond to the opportunities, and each occupation has its own peculiar temptations as it has its own peculiar opportunities. As few find the “strait gate” and “narrow way” of righteousness in other walks of life, likewise few businessmen will claim that they have always followed the right path in their work. Only those who look for business profits in life-supporting efforts that are mutually beneficial can achieve success in the true meaning of that word.

This objective may be the most distinctive feature of The Northwood Idea — the view that our graduates should look on business not merely as an easier way to attain ease and affluence but also as an opportunity for utilizing their highest human qualities and attaining lasting satisfaction in a life well spent.

Image Source:  Freedom School. Newsletter (January 1964).

Categories
Distribution Exam Questions Harvard Theory

Harvard. Wealth Distribution. Course description, enrollment, and final exam. Carver, 1911-1912

In preparing this post I found myself pursuing the c.v. of Thomas Nixon Carver’s teaching assistant in 1911-12, Arnold Warburton Lahee. Turns out that Lahee switched careers at age fifty, becoming a landscape painter en plein air. His path to the completion of the requirements for the economics PhD at Harvard was long (about 22 years between his A.B. and PhD) due to work-(PhD) life balance issues.

Carver’s course content can be gleaned from the final examination questions at the end of the post. 

Links to previous Harvard exams on distribution
1904-05 to 1910-11.

____________________________

Meet the Course Teaching Assistant
Arnold Warburton Lahee (1888-1976)

Arnold Warburton Lahee.
General Examination Passed, February 1914

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, February 25, 1914.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Gay, Ripley, Anderson, and R. B. Perry.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1907-11; Harvard Graduate School, 1911-12, 1913—. A.B., Harvard, 1911; A.M. ibid., 1912. Assistant in Economics, Harvard, 1911-12; Professor of Economics, University of Vermont, 1912-13.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Sociology. 4. Statistics. 5. Public Finance. 6. Philosophy.
Special Subject: Public Finance.
Thesis Subject: “Municipal Expenditures in Massachusetts.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1913-14”

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

ARNOLD WARBURTON LAHEE
From the 10th year report Class of 1911.

Born at Hingham, Mass., May 7, 1888.
Parents: Henry Charles Lahee, Selina Ida Mary Long.
School: Cambridge Latin School, Cambridge, Mass.
Degrees: A.Β. 1911; Μ.Α. 1912.
Married: Gladys Hughes Livermore, Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 21, 1914.
Child: Katharine Livermore, Dec. 11, 1915.
Occupation: Economist.
Address: (Home) 28 Hamilton Road, Glen Ridge, N. J. (Bus.) Mechanics & Metals Nat’l Bank, 20 Nassau St., New York, N.Y.

THE first four years after graduation I spent in study and teaching: 1911-1912, I obtained my M.A. at Harvard; 1912-1913, I taught at the University of Vermont; 1912-1913, passed my general examinations for Ph.D. (February) and started to prepare for finals, specializing in public finance; and 1914-1915, taught at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh. I then turned to active economic investigation, spending two years in the New York Bureau of Municipal Research. During this time I was employed in connection with the New York City Central Purchasing Commission, the New York State Senate Committee investigation of the Civil Service, and a study of the New York City Budget system under the Mitchell administration.

When the United States entered the War, I found that, in spite of Plattsburgh training (summer of 1916), deficient eye-sight disqualified me for active service. After joining for a while in the promotion of the Patriotic Service League in New York and Boston, and spending three or four months with the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce, I seized the first opportunity to go to Washington, with the U.S. Tariff Commission. Shortly after my arrival, however, the War Trade Board requested my services and I entered the Bureau of Research as special economist on the Central Powers. After the Armistice, the State Department persuaded me to continue my work in the office of the Foreign Trade Advisor, but in June 1919 I accepted an attractive offer of the Mechanics and Metals National Bank, where I am now located in charge of its Department of Foreign Trade Extension.

Everyone has his pet regret. Mine is that in college I worked my way through on scholarship instead of being satisfied with Bs and Cs, spending more time in college activities, and earning my way through drudgery and hard knocks — but real experience (e.g., canvassing, etc.). Better to take more time, perhaps, but build up a broad foundation of practical experience and valuable friendships. Scholarship is only one factor out of several in the secret of success.

Source: Decennial Report of the Secretary of the Harvard Class of 1911 (1921), pp. 241-242.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Lahee’s Book

Arnold W. Lahee. Consultant on Foreign Markets; Former Head of the Department of Foreign Trade Extension of the Mechanics and Metals, National Bank of New York. Our Competitors and Markets: An Introduction to Foreign Trade. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1924.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

From Charles H. Haskins 1 Apr 1924 letter to Frank W. Taussig: “Lahee’s first thesis on the New York City Budget was turned down [by Bullock, Day and Munro] some years ago [1917], and this work [Note: his book Our Competitors and Markets (1924)] has been done more or less commercially without the supervision of any member of the Department.”

The thesis was approved by Young, Williams and Copeland in April 1924. He failed his Special Examination on June 4, 1924. He passed his second try on October 11, 1932 (Examined by Taussig, Williams and Harris). Frank W. Taussig was the committee chairman for both examinations.

Source: Harvard University Archives. PhD Candidates Receiving Degrees in 1933 A-Z. Box 13. Folder “A. W. Lahee”.

Lahee Submitted his Book for his PhD Thesis

ARNOLD WARBURTON LAHEE, A.B. 1911, A.M. 1912. Subject, Economics. Special Field, International Relations. Thesis, “Our Competitors and Markets.” 72 High Street, Glen Ridge, N.J. [Degree awarded in February 1933]

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1932-1933, p. 127.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Lahee Becomes a Painter

The Times-Argus. Barre-Montpelier, Vt. (July 23, 1969), p. 23.

Agile And Artistic At 81
Dr. Lahee Bound To Climb The Hump

By STEVE McLEOD

NORTHFIELD — Dr. Arnold Lahee of Winch View Road, Northfield, is 81 but he doesn’t believe it. He will admit that climbing Camel’s Hump with art equipment on his back is becoming difficult now, but in the same breath he vows “I’m going to get to the top of Camel’s Hump this year or bust.”

Dr. Lahee combines a knowledge and appreciation of the outdoors with considerable artistic talent and an unusual painting style to produce some excellent landscape paintings.

His paintings have been exhibited in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., in Europe and in several art museums around the United States. Currently he has a revolving exhibit at the Northfield Savings Bank and a thirty-six painting exhibit at the Chittenden Trust Co. in Burlington. The State Capitol dining room and Vermont Technical College are among other Vermont locations where his work has been exhibited.

Dr. Lahee, an economist by profession, has received several awards in connection with his artistic ventures, including most recently the Tercentennial Medallion from the A.A.P.L. when he retired as president “for the promotion of American Art during his administration.”

He did not begin painting until he was 50 and he began then only through “pure chance and three lucky circumstances.”

An underexposed picture provided the spark for his preliminary artistic ambition. His first paintings were on photos. This practice is frowned upon in artistic circles, but Dr. Lahee is glad he started in that fashion.

The second lucky circumstance occurred when he found some oil paints in the home of his deceased aunt.

After he produced a number of paintings with the oil paints, he became acquainted with an art photographer when — not saying that the photographer was an expert — he offered to show him how to take better pictures. The photographer belonged to an art club of some kind, and invited Dr. Lahee to display his paintings to the club where they were well-received.

Finally, the Wagner Act “threw me [Dr. Lahee] out of a job and I went to art class.” The class sealed the marriage between Dr. Lahee and painting. Once he had begun painting, Dr. Lahee wished that he had started years earlier.

He said that he did pretty well in grammar school art other than that; he had never noticed that he had any artistic talent until after he returned to painting.

The only other time Dr. Lahee thought of taking up painting before he was 50 was when he briefly considered entering the field of illustrated advertising.

“I started with the idea that portrait painting required more skill than landscape painting,” said Dr. Lahee, “and I was going into painting portraits but a few bad experiences switched me to landscape painting.”

The bad experiences involved people who requested portraits and later tried to keep them without paying Dr. Lahee.

“I still have those paintings in the cellar,” chuckled the hearty Northfield resident.

“Incidents like those sicken me so and I love nature and camping so I turned away from doing people,” explained Dr. Lahee.

Dr. Lahee still etches portraits occasionally, but the majority of his work is of the landscape variety.

He admires all aspects of nature. Recently, he has been fascinated by the beauty of clouds and is intent on capturing that beauty on his easel soon as possible.

“I’m frustrated up here because there are so many chores,” he says. “I keep vowing that I’m going to make a painting of the clouds but by the time I get my paints out the formations have moved.”

Dr. Lahee has rigged up a knapsack in such a way that his art equipment, easel and all fits in it.

Thus, he paints many of his landscapes from unusual vantage points from deep within nature’s kingdom, instead of painting them as a detached observer. His painting acquires a rugged naturalness through the use of these vantage points.

Would you believe Dr. Lahee is a radical? In the art world, he is anyway. Instead of using a brush for his landscapes, he uses a knife.

“With a brush you can paint every twig and leaf,” he explains. “With a pallet knife you just slap it on. It gives you a freedom and a thrill, I don’t know many who do that but that doesn’t matter.”

When asked if he considered himself a commercial painter, Dr. Lahee chuckled, “I paint mostly for my own pleasure. I’d starve if I had to rely on painting for my livelihood.”

He added that he also enjoys activities that complement painting, such as art demonstrations for ladies’ clubs and the like.

However, he has sold several paintings. Selling a painting which he deeply admires gives him mixed feelings.

“Sometimes it hurts me that they’re gone,” he says. “I painted one with a lot of memory and people wanted to purchase it so I let it go and have been kicking myself ever since. Later I had another that was saturated with memory and I turned down an offer for that one.

“At the same time it gives me a kick to get offers for my favorite paintings, though, because then I know people like what I like.”

Dr. Lahee can’t choose a standout painting from his collection.

“Oh I like some better than others,” he reminisced, “but I like several for different reasons. Almost every painting I make relates to an incident in my life and each evokes its own beautiful memories. And I don’t think I could judge the quality of my individual paintings any way.”

Dr. Lahee lives with his wife, Gladys, in a ranch home nestled among several trees high above the Northfield valley. Their only child, Katherine, lives next door.

“We’ve been married only about 51 years,” says Dr. Lahee, “or maybe it’s more, I don’t know. It could be 54 years.”

When you’re climbing mountains, camping and painting at age 81, a few years don’t make much difference.

 

____________________________

Course Description
1911-12

14a1hf. The Distribution of Wealth. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 1.30. Professor Carver. (XIV)

This course begins with an analysis of the theory of value. The attempt is then made to formulate a positive theory of distribution helpful in explaining the actual incomes of the various classes of producers. Finally the question of justice in distribution is considered. This course is open only to students who have passed in Economics 1.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 59.

____________________________

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 14a 1hf. Professor Carver, assisted by Mr. A. W. Lahee. — The Distribution of Wealth.

Total 94: 6 Graduates, 32 Seniors, 40 Juniors, 11 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 63.

____________________________

ECONOMICS 14a
Mid-year Final Examination
1911-12

Read all the questions carefully before beginning to answer any of them.

  1. Is there any reason to expect that the means of satisfying human desires should always exist in just the right proportions to satisfy those desires? What bearing does your answer to the above question have upon the problem of value?
  2. Is there any reason to expect that the supply of the various kinds of human talent should always be proportionate to the need for them? What bearing does your answer to this question have upon the problem of wages?
  3. Is there any reason to expect that the supply of other factors of production should always be proportionate to the need for them? What bearing does your answer to this question have upon the problem of rent and interest?
  4. Why does the value of a consumable article tend, other things equal, to fall as its supply increases?
  5. Why does the value of a productive agent tend, other things equal, to fall as its supply increases?
  6. What is the effect on the value of a given productive agent when the supply of other productive agents increases, other things equal? Why?
  7. Is there any connection between such terms as “non-competing groups” “supplementary goods,” and “wages fund”?
  8. How would you distinguish between diminishing returns from land and the economy of large scale production?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], p. 57.

__________________________

From earlier semesters

1904-05
1905-06
1907-08
1908-09
1909-10
1910-11

’The course content is undoubtedly captured in Carver’s 1904 book The Distribution of Wealth which was reprinted several times during his lifetime.

Image Source: 1964 painting by Arnold W. Lahee (Harvard PhD, 1933).

 

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Advanced modern European economic history. Description, Enrollment, Final Exam. Gay, 1911-1912

Vue d'un port avec le Capitole by Claude Lorrain (Gellée) (1636)

This is listed as a full-course (i.e. both semesters). However to date I have only been able to find a copy of the final exam from the end of the second semester.

__________________________

Earlier Harvard courses
on European economic history

Links to earlier course material for European Economic History from Harvard, 1883-84 through 1910-11.

__________________________

Course Description
1911-12

[Economics] 11. Modern Economic History of Europe. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 10. Professor Gay and Dr. [Howard Levi] Gray. [Note that Gray was not reported as co-teaching this course in the Harvard President’s Annual Report]

At the outset a survey will be made of economic and social conditions in the chief European countries at the close of the Middle Ages. The history of agriculture, industry, and commerce in the succeeding periods down to the beginning of the nineteenth century will then be treated in some detail. England will receive the emphasis due to its increasing importance during this period.

Course 11 is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Economics 1 or History 1.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911). p. 62.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 11. Professor Gay. — Modern Economic History of Europe.

Total 4: 3 Graduates, 1 Freshman.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 64.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Final Exam
1911-12

  1. State the chief provisions and significance of (a) the Statute of Artificers, (b) the Navigation Act, and (c) the Corn Law of 1688.
  2. Trace the development of banking in Europe before 1760.
  3. What were the chief forms of company organization? Give examples.
  4. Describe in general the price movement of the sixteenth century and indicate its causes and results.
  5. “With a country almost naturally defenceless, engaged by position and religion in conflicts far beyond their real national strength, the Dutch at length became exhausted by the pressure of the taxes they paid.” Does this explain the economic decline of Holland?
  6. Discuss taxation in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 56-57.

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Industrial Organization

Harvard. Economics of Corporations. Description, Enrollment, Final Exam. Ripley, 1911-1912

Harper's Weekly. October 20, 1888

The “so-called trust problem” was the principal topic for William Z. Ripley’s course on the Economics of Corporations. Big Business and Organized Labor were the objects of his research interests as well.

________________________

Earlier Harvard courses
on Corporations

Links to earlier course material for Economics of Corporations taught at Harvard, 1902-1903 through 1909-10.

__________________________

Course Description
1911-12

[Economics] 9b 2hf. Economics of Corporations. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 10. Professor Ripley, assisted by Dr. [Arthur Stone] Dewing.

This course will treat of the fiscal and industrial organization of capital, especially in the corporate form. The principal topic considered will be industrial combination and the so-called trust problem. This will be broadly discussed, with comparative study of conditions in the United States and Europe. The development of corporate enterprise, promotion, and financing, accounting, liability of directors and underwriters, will be described, not from their legal but from their purely economic aspects; and the effects of industrial combination upon efficiency, profits, wages, prices, the development of export trade, and international competition will be considered in turn.

The course is open to those students only who have passed in Economics 1. Systematic reading and report work will be assigned from time to time.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911). p. 65.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 9b 2hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Dr. [Arthur Stone] Dewing.— Economics of Corporations.

Total 140: 9 Graduates, 41 Seniors, 72 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 64.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 9b
Final Examination
Year-end, 1911-12

Answer in order.

  1. State in topical form, omitting everything except the briefest outline, all you can recall concerning preferred stocks of industrial corporations. Just such headings as would make paragraphs in an essay on the subject. Name examples under each where possible.
  2. What was the purpose of the valorization of coffee scheme? How has it worked?
  3. Two objections to the price policy of the “trusts” have been advanced. One is the special cutting of prices in local markets; the other is “dumping” abroad at reduced prices. Are the two really different in essence; and if so, in what respect? Discuss fully.
  4. Sketch the argument and conclusions in the recent Standard Oil case in the Supreme Court. What particular logical difficulty had to be overcome?
  5. What is meant by “over capitalization”? What its effect upon: (a) earning power; (b) the market price of securities?
  6. Compare the organization of the “Powder Trust,” with the Standard Oil Co. How does the dissolution of the two bring up different problems in each case?
  7. In what respect is English company law in advance of ours?
  8. Compare Federal incorporation and Federal licences as remedies for some of our industrial ills.
  9. What industrial factors favor the inauguration of a policy of integration in production? Illustrate.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], p. 56.

________________________

Other Corporations/Industrial Organization Related Posts
for William Z. Ripley

Problems of Labor and Industrial Organization, 1902-1903.

Economics of Corporations, 1903-1904.

Economics of Corporations, 1904-05 (with Vanderveer Custis)

Economics of Corporations, 1906-07 (with Stuart Daggett)

Economics of Corporations, 1907-08 (with Stuart Daggett)

Economics of Corporations, 1908-09 (with Edmund Thornton Miller)

Economics of Corporations, 1909-10 (with Goepper and Whipple)

Economics of Corporations, 1914-1915.

Image Source: “A Trustworthy Beast” by W. A. Rogers in Harper’s Weekly (October 20, 1888), p. 803.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Labor

Harvard. Problems of labor. Course description, enrollment, final examination. Ripley, 1911-1912

Cartoon by Arthur Young

 

William Z. Ripley’s course on problems of labor was an institutional survey of trade unionism and labor legislation. Economics 9a and 9b were dedicated to market power of organized labor and organized capital, respectively. 

His assistant was the magna cum laude, prize-winning undergraduate Roscoe Russell Hess who had a QJE publication before leaving for the Harvard Law School.

Links to previous Harvard labor exams 1892-93 to 1910-11.

________________________

Labor Bibliographies
Prepared by Ripley

Short Bibliography of Trade Unionism, 1910.

Short Bibliography of Strikes and Boycotts, 1910.

___________________________

Meet the Teaching Assistant:
Roscoe Russell Hess
(1887-1979)

Harvard Class of 1911, First Report  (April 1912)

1909-10. Bowdoin Prize. Second prize of $100 for the essay “A Short History and Analysis of the English Submarine Telegraph Company.”

1910-11. Bowdoin Prize. First prize of $250 for the essay “The Paper Industry in its Relation to Conservation and the Tariff.” [Published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1911.]

1911. A.B. magna cum laude

1912. Address:  1722 West 58th St., Seattle, Wash.; is tutoring; his present address is care of Mrs. Hugo R. Johnstone, ” Brackenide,” Hamilton.

Harvard Class of 1911 Decennial Report (1922),
pp. 193-194

Roscoe Russell Hess

Born at Plymouth, Ind., Oct. 17, 1887.
Parents: Joseph William Hess, Nellie Josephine Tibbets.
School: Seattle High School, Seattle, Wash.
Degrees: A. B. 1911; LL. B. 1916.
War Service: Enlisted Aug. 3, 1917, Pvt.; Discharged Jan. 15, 1919, 2nd Lt. F. A. 144th F. A. and others.
Occupation: Lawyer.
Address: ( Home ) Overland Club, Pasadena, Calif. ( Bus. ) 503 H. W. Hellman Bldg., Los Angeles, Calif.

 

For two years after graduation I was tutor for two sons of Hugo R. Johnstone, ’92, wintering in California. The next three years were in the Law School, wherein I received the ” gentleman’s mark, ” but I did an unbelievable amount of type- writing for other fellows in the Law School. The summer of 1916 I spent as secretary for Sir Edgar Speyer, London banker, and the next year was in California, getting admitted to the bar. Then came seventeen months in the Field Artillery and never got across, but landed as far as Camp Jackson, South Carolina, and was discharged Second Lieutenant, Field Artillery. The last two years I have spent in the office of F. G. Cruickshank, best probate lawyer in Pasadena, but at this present writing I am spending time in Los Angeles, preparing income tax returns for people who cannot understand the intricacies of the thing. After March 15 I hope to open an office of my own in Los Angeles.

As to the service, I can only speak of it with regret – a most poignant bitterness, because I enlisted in August 1917 with an outfit that I hoped had the pull to get overseas orders and I made the mistake of my life in not going back to Boston at that time and trying to tie up with an eastern outfit that would have had a better chance of seeing the real stuff.

Member: Overland Club, Pasadena; Sons of the Revolution, California Society, Los Angeles.

___________________________

Course Description
1911-12

[Economics] 9a1hf. Problems of Labor. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. ——

This course will deal mainly with the economic and social relations of employer and employed, with especial reference to legislation. Among the topics included will be: collective bargaining; labor organizations; factory legislation in the United States and Europe; strikes, strike legislation and legal decisions; conciliation and arbitration; employers’ liability and compulsory compensation; compulsory insurance with particular reference to European experience; the problem of the unemployed; apprenticeship, and trade and technical education.

Each student will make at least one report upon a labor union, from the original documents. Two lectures a week, with one recitation, will be the usual practice. This course is open to students who hare passed in Economics 1 and to Juniors and Seniors of good standing who are taking Economics 1 at the same time.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911). pp. 64-65.

___________________________

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 9a 1hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Hess. — Problems of Labor.

Total 70: 3 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 35 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 64.

___________________________

ECONOMICS 9a
Final Exam
Mid-year 1911-12

  1. Economically speaking, that is to say regardless of legal obstacles, why should not the state regulate conditions of labor for adult men, as well as for women and children? Would this accord with trade union ideals?
  2. What details in the Baldwin Locomotive Works’ plan of apprenticeship would insure or forfeit its approval by a thoroughgoing trades unionist?
  3. What are some of the defects, according to Webb, in the Victorian Minimum Wage legislation?
  4. State any economic differences between American and Australian conditions which might affect the success of such legislation in Massachusetts.
  5. Name, specifically, four labor and social laws in England, which are more advanced than most of our state regulation in America.
  6. Having regard to its original uses, to what occurrences might injunctions be applied in connection with labor disputes? To what others has it been applied in later usage?
  7. Cite as many instances as you can, of different labor laws, held to be unconstitutional by the Courts.
  8. Discuss the present longshoremen’s strike in Boston.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], p. 55.

__________________________

Previous Labor Courses at Harvard

1892-93. The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen in the U.S. and in Other Countries (E. Cummings)
1893-94. The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen in the U.S. and in Other Countries (E. Cummings)
1894-95. The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen in the U.S. and in Other Countries (E. Cummings)
1895-96. The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen in the U.S. and in Other Countries (E. Cummings)
1896-97. The Labor Question in Europe and the U.S. (J. and E. Cummings)
1897-98. The Labor Question in Europe and the U.S. (J. and E. Cummings)
1898-99. The Labor Question in Europe and the U.S. (E. Cummings)
1899-1900. The Labor Question in Europe and the U.S. (Omitted)
1900-01. The Labor Question in Europe and the U.S. (W.F. Willoughby)
1901-02. The Labor Question in Europe and the U.S. (E.D. Durand)
1902-03. Problems of Labor (W.Z. Ripley)
1903-04. Problems of Labor (W.Z. Ripley)
1904-05. Problems of Labor (W.Z. Ripley)
1905-06. Problems of Labor (W.Z. Ripley)
1906-07. Problems of Labor (W.Z. Ripley)
1907-08. Problems of Labor (W.Z. Ripley)
1908-09. Problems of Labor (W.Z. Ripley)
1909-10. Problems of Labor (W.Z. Ripley)
1910-11. Problems of Labor (W.Z. Ripley)

Image Source: Arthur Young cartoon illustration for “The Industrial Revolt at Lawrence” by Richard Washburn Child in Collier’s The National Weekly, Vol. 48, Issue 25 (March 9, 1912), p. 14.

Categories
Business Cycles Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Money, Banking, and Crises. Description, Enrollment, and Year-end Exam. Day, 1911-1912

I don’t know why the department of economics felt a need to merge two semester courses into a single two semester sequence,  but in 1911-12 Edmund Ezra Day’s two distinct courses were joined into a single sequence covering money, banking and crises. Maybe it was really a desire to reduce three semester courses (1) money (2) banking and foreign exchange (3) and commercial crises into two semesters.

The mid-year exam for the first term of the two-semester course on money, banking, and crises was not found with the other exams of the 1911-12 academic year in the Harvard archives. One has to make do with what one’s got.

Professor Edmund Ezra Day’s biographical timeline was posted earlier.

________________________

Banking, Foreign Exchange and Crises pre-1911/12

Links to earlier course material for Banking, Foreign Exchange, and Crises from Harvard, 1902-03 through 1910-11.

________________________

Meet the Course Teaching Assistant

Thomas York (1883–1941)

Dec. 22, 1883 — Born, Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, son of Walenty (“Valentine”) and Anna York, Polish immigrants.

1900 — Graduates Mount Carmel High School.

1903 — Enters Phillips Exeter Academy in preparation for Harvard; matriculates at Harvard College, 1903.

1903–06 — In residence at Harvard College.

1907 — Receives A.B., summa cum laude, with the Class of 1907 (having completed the course in three years).

1907–1910 (c.) — Teaches Latin and Greek at the Morristown School, a boys’ boarding school in Morristown, N.J.

1910 — Returns to Harvard, entering the Graduate School to study economics.

1911 — Receives A.M.

1911–1913 — Serves as Assistant in Economics, Harvard University, under Professor  Day, including work on Economics 8 (Money, Banking and Crises).

1913 (c.) — Leaves Harvard without pursuing the Ph.D.; joins the staff of the Wall Street Journal.

Sept. 4, 1918 — Marries Isabel Smith of Mount Carmel, in New York City (Mount Carmel Item, Sept. 6, 1918).

Sept. 12, 1918 — WWI draft registration; listed as reporter, Wall Street Journal; residence 609 West 127th Street, New York, with wife Isabel.

1920 — Publishes Foreign Exchange: Theory and Practice.

1920 (c.) — Leaves the Wall Street Journal after seven years on its staff (having risen to Foreign Exchange Editor); joins the Ronald Press Company, New York, publishers of business and financial books.

1920–1922 — Prepares an enlarged edition of his foreign-exchange book.

1923 — Publishes International Exchange, Normal and Abnormal; favorably reviewed in the New York Times (Apr. 8, 1923) and celebrated in his hometown paper, the Mount Carmel Item (Apr. 9, 1923).

1920–1941 — Serves twenty years on the editorial board of the Ronald Press Company, supervising numerous finance and business titles; contributes to financial periodicals and lectures at financial conventions; frequently consulted by banking and brokerage houses.

(undated, pre-1941) — Works on an unpublished manuscript on banking, accounting, and corporation law, left incomplete at his death.

Jan. 12, 1941 — Dies suddenly of a heart attack at his home, 5 West 65th Street, New York City, age 57.

Jan. 13–14, 1941 — Death reported in the Mount Carmel Item and the New York Times.

(after 1941) — Widow Isabel Smith York donates his unpublished manuscript to Baker Library Special Collections and Archives, Harvard Business School.

Sources: Harvard College Class of 1907, Secretary’s First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth (Quindecennial) Reports; Cambridge, Mass. city directories (1912–13); Mount Carmel Item (Sept. 6, 1918; Apr. 9, 1923; Jan. 13, 1941); New York Times (Apr. 8, 1923; Jan. 14, 1941); WWI draft registration card (Sept. 12, 1918); Baker Library Special Collections and Archives, Harvard Business School, finding aid (bak01111).

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

THOMAS YORK [as of 1922]

BORN at Mt. Carmel, Pa., Dec. 22, 1883.
SON OF: Walter, Anna York.
PREPARED AT: Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N.H.
YEARS IN COLLEGE: 1903-06.
DEGREES: A.B. 1907, Α.Μ. 1911.
MARRIED: Isabel Smith, September 1918, Mt. Carmel, Pa.
OCCUPATION: Publisher.
ADDRESS: c/o Ronald Press Co., 20 Vesey St., New York, N.Y.

                  I HAVE been engaged in sundry occupations since leaving College. For three years I taught Latin and Greek at the Morristown School, a private institution for boys at Morristown, N.J. The classics, however, offered little opportunity for my rising ambition, and I, therefore, decided to turn to matters of more up-to-date interest. So in the fourth year of graduation I came back to Harvard to enter the Graduate School, and there I spent three diligent years delving into the dismal science, otherwise known as economics. I still had teaching in view, but at the close of my graduate course I definitely abandoned the idea. I hasten to add, lest there be some misunderstanding, that I am not the possessor of the Ph.D. A constitutional dislike of the grind that is the condition precedent of obtaining that degree turned me away from pursuit of it.

                  Having accumulated a modicum of knowledge about banking and finance during my Graduate School days, I decided to try my fortune in financial journalism. So I am next found on the staff of the Wall Street Journal. Here I had a varied experience, marketwise and otherwise. I made valiant attempts during my first years in the Street to find the proverbial pot of gold. Not meeting with success I turned to less distracted, though more laborious, pursuits, visible evidence of which is furnished by a book on foreign exchange. Not satisfied with this maiden effort at authorship, I undertook to get out an enlarged edition of the book, and this has engaged my spare time for the last two years. I have in the meantime also been contributing to some financial periodicals.

                  I left the Wall Street Journal two years ago, after serving seven years on its staff. Since then I have been associated with the Ronald Press Company, 20 Vesey Street, New York, publishers of business and financial books.

                  In September of 1918 I joined the ranks of the benedicts. My wife was Miss Isabel Smith of my home town, Mt. Carmel, Pa.

Source: Secretary’s Fifth Report. Harvard College Class of 1907 (June, 1922), pp. 596-597.

________________________

Course Description
1911-12

[Economics] 8. Money, Banking, and Crises. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 1.30. Dr. Day.

This course aims to analyze the principal problems of money and credit. An examination is first made of the more important existing monetary systems. This is followed by a careful review of the more instructive chapters in the monetary history of England, Germany, France, the United States, Austria, British India, Mexico, and the Philippines.

The nature, origin, and early growth of commercial banking are considered. A thorough investigation of present banking practice in England, France, Germany, and Canada is followed by a study of banking history and present banking problems in the United States. In this connection foreign exchange and the money markets of London, Paris, Berlin, and New York are examined.

Finally attention is turned to those problems of money and credit which appear most prominently in connection with economic crises. Though emphasis is thrown upon the financial aspects of the trade cycle, the investigation covers the more fundamental factors causing commercial and industrial fluctuations.

Short papers upon assigned topics will be required of all students. The course is open to those only who have passed in Economics 1.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 64.

________________________

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 8. Dr. E. E. Day, assisted by Mr. York. — Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises.

Total 120: 7 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 70 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 1 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 64.

________________________

ECONOMICS 8
Year-end Final Examination
1911-12

  1. Give (in not more than 100 words, using tabular form if you wish) the history of the silver dollar in the United States. What is its present position? Is it a source of weakness in our monetary system? If so, why? If not, why not?
  2. Describe the monetary experience of India from 1893 to 1901. What were the immediate and ultimate standards of value in India in (1) 1895, (2) 1899, (3) 1901?
  3. Compare the bank note issues of Germany and Canada with reference to (1) elasticity; (2) limitations upon the aggregate circulation; (3) ultimate security. Which system seems to you preferable for the United States? Why?
  4. Define discount market. Describe the English discount market. How has the absence of such a market affected banking in the United States? What provisions of the Aldrich Bill are designed to establish a discount market in this country?
  5. To what degree does the rate of discount vary in different parts of (1) Canada, (2) the United States? How in each case is the absence of perfect uniformity to be accounted for? If the Aldrich Plan were adopted, could the Reserve Association probably control the rate of discount in the United States? If so, how? If not, why not?
  6. Describe briefly the following phenomena in the crisis of 1907: (a) currency premium; (b) hoarding; (c) the domestic exchanges; (d) substitutes for cash.
  7. State concisely the theory of crises advanced by Professor Fisher in “The Purchasing Power of Money.” Discuss the theory critically.
  8. Indicate fully the significance of the following “indices” in an analysis of general business conditions:

(1) Value of the corn crop;
(2) Railway net earnings;
(3) Business failures;
(4) Gold exports.

In each case explain why the “index” has or has not significance.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 54-55.

________________________

Exams from earlier years

1902/03-1907/08. Commercial Crises and Trade Cycles (A.P. Andrew)
1906/07. Banking and Foreign Exchange (A.P. Andrew)
1907/08. Banking and Foreign Exchange (A.P. Andrew)
1908/09. Commercial Crises and Trade Cycles (Wesley Clair Mitchell)
1908/09. Banking and Foreign Exchange (W.C. Mitchell)
1909/10. Commercial Crises and Trade Cycles [Not offered].
1909/10. Banking and Foreign Exchange (O.M.W. Sprague)
1910/11. Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade (E.E. Day)
1910/11. Banking and Foreign Exchange (E.E. Day)

Source: Edmund Ezra Day (colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror) in the Harvard Class Album 1915.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance

Harvard. Theory and Methods of Taxation. Description, Enrollment, Final Exam. Bullock, 1911-1912

"...tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes..."

Comparative national taxation systems gave this Harvard public finance course dedicated to the nuts and bolts of taxation an international flair.

Fun fact: While Benjamin Franklin did indeed write in a 1789 letter that “Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” The certainty of death and taxes was a notion that had been in the air (indeed in print) earlier, e.g. in Christopher Bullock’s farce, The Cobler of Preston.

________________________

Earlier Harvard courses
on Public Finance and Taxation

Links to earlier course material for Public Finance and Taxation 1883/4 through 1910/11.

________________________

Course Description
1911-12

[Economics] 7b 2hf. The Theory and Methods of Taxation. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor Bullock.

In this course the theory of taxation is first examined; then the tax systems of the United States and leading countries of Europe are studied. Finally proposals for reforming the methods employed in the United States are considered historically and critically.

The course will be conducted in the same manner as Economics 7a, and admission is subject to the same conditions. Students who do not elect this course at the beginning of the year will be admitted in February only with the consent of the instructor.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), pp.63-64.

________________________

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 7b 2hf. Professor Bullock. — The Theory and Methods of Taxation.

Total 37: 2 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 16 Juniors, 9 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 64.

________________________

ECONOMICS 7b
Year-end Examination
1911-12

  1. Discuss fully the doctrine that income is the normal source of taxation.
  2. Discuss the expediency of using taxation as a means of regulating the distribution of wealth.
  3. How should the burden of taxation be distributed?
  4. Discuss the incidence of the tax on mortgages in the American states.
  5. State and explain four criticisms urged by Seligman against the single tax. State and explain the replies Mr. Shearman has made to these criticisms.
  6. Discuss the taxation of personal property in the United States and in Switzerland.
  7. Compare the British and the Prussian income taxes.
  8. Compare the custom taxes of France, Great Britain, and Germany.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 53-54.

Image Source:  Origin of the observation of the the inevitability of death and taxes: “You lye, you are not sure; for I say, Woman, ’tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes — therefore hold your Tongue, or you shall both be soundly whipt—Sure I know my Office⁠⁠—Give me some Sack⁠—Lord, how I sweat!” from The Cobbler of Preston by Christopher Bullock, p. 21.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance

Harvard. Introduction to Public Finance. Description, Enrollment, Final Exam. Bullock, 1911-1912

 

For those trained to think of sovereign kings subject to a government budget constraint that boils down to the use of some combination of taxing the peasants, borrowing from the grand houses of international banking, debasing the currency, and rents paid for the use of royal land to finance any particular level of government spending, it seems odd to divide a two semester sequence into a semester devoted to taxation and another semester for all the other items in that government budget constraint. But that was the way the field was divided at Harvard under Charles Jesse Bullock in the first part of the 20th century. 

This post is for Economics 7a, the non-taxation parts of public finance.

________________________

Public Finance pre-1911/12

Links to earlier course material for Public Finance from Harvard, 1883-84 through 1910-11.

_______________________

Course Description
1911-12

[Economics] 7a 1hf. Introduction to Public Finance. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor Bullock.

This course covers the general field of public finance exclusive of taxation. After a brief survey of the history of public finance, the following subjects are studied: public expenditures, public revenues other than taxes, public debts, financial administration, and financial legislation. Attention is given both to the theory and to the practice of various countries.

A systematic course of readings is prescribed, and most of the exercises are conducted by the method of informal discussion. Candidates for honors will be given an opportunity to write theses. The course is open only to students who have passed in Economics 1. Graduate students are advised to take Economics 16. Course 7a is not open to students who in the year 1910-11 elected Economics 7, but such students may be admitted to Economics 1b with the consent of the instructor.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 63.

_______________________

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 7a 1hf. Professor Bullock. — Introduction to Public Finance.

Total 24: 3 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 1 Others

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 64.

_______________________

ECONOMICS 7a
Mid-year Final Exam
1911-12

Omit any question except the last.

  1. Discuss fully the proposition that increasing public expenditures are a sign of advancing civilization.
  2. Compare the policy of our federal government with regard to revenue from public domains with the policy of Prussia.
  3. To what extent in the United States and elsewhere has the weight of taxation been reduced by revenue from public industries?
  4. What light does the history of the United States Post Office throw upon the character and tendencies of public management of industries? Does the postal service of other countries reveal different or similiar tendencies?
  5. What policy would you advocate in fixing the prices charged by public industries? If your policy would not be the same under all circumstances, state what it would be under each of the different sets of circumstances that may be assumed to exist.
  6. Present what seems to you to be a satisfactory theory of the economic effects of public debts; then state and criticize four other theories which you have studied.
  7. “The truth is that all newly produced goods are at the outset disposable capital. All are created for the same purpose, the immediate or more remote satisfaction of needs; they are already destined to be capital, and must, therefore, be considered as capital. To take away any part of them is as truly a destruction of capital, as the destruction of capital previously accummulated would be.”
    What does this passage suggest to you? Criticise it.
  8. Of the writers upon public finance whose works you have read, which four impress you as the most important? State what each of these four writers contributed to the science, and explain why he deserves the rank you assign him.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 52-53.

________________________

Earlier public finance exams
at Harvard

1883-84. Political Economy 7. Comparison of the financial systems of France, England, Germany, and the U.S. Taught by Charles F. Dunbar

1884-85. Political Economy 7. Comparison of the Financial Systems of France, England, Germany, and the U.S. [Omitted 1884-85].

1884-85. Political Economy 8. History of financial legislation in the U.S. taught by Charles F. Dunbar

1885-86. Political Economy 8. Financial history of the U.S. taught by Charles F. Dunbar

1886-87. Political Economy 7. Public finance and banking taught by Charles F. Dunbar

1886-87. Political Economy 8. Financial history of the U.S. taught by Charles F. Dunbar [Exams not (yet) found]

1887-88. Political Economy 7. Taxation, public debts, and banking taught by Charles F. Dunbar

1887-88. Political Economy 8. History of financial legislation in the U.S. taught by Charles F. Dunbar

1888-89. Political Economy 7. Taxation, public debts, and banking taught by Charles F. Dunbar

1888-89. Political Economy 8. History of financial legislation in the U.S. taught by Charles F. Dunbar

1889-90. Political Economy 7. Public Finance and Banking. Omitted.

1889-90. Political Economy 8. History of financial legislation in the U.S. taught by Adolph Caspar Miller

1890-91. Political Economy 7. Public finance and taxation taught by Charles F. Dunbar.

1890-91. Political Economy 8. History of financial legislation in the U.S. taught by William Morse Cole.

1891-92. Political Economy 71. Theory and methods of taxation  taught by Charles F. Dunbar [Mid-year examination not found]

1891-92. Political Economy 8. History of fnancial legislation in the U.S. taught by Charles F. Dunbar.

1892-93. Economics 71. Theory and methods of txation taught by Charles F. Dunbar.

1892-93. Economics 72. Financial administration and public Debts taught by Charles F. Dunbar.

1893-94. Economics 8. History of financial legislation of the U.S. taught by Charles F. Dunbar.

1894-95. Economics 7. Theory and methods of taxation (first semester) and financial administration and public debts (second semester) taught by Charles F. Dunbar.

1895-96. Economics 7. Financial administration and public Debts taught by John Cummings.

1895-96. Economics 8. History of financial legislation of the U.S. taught by J. A. Hill.

1896-97. Economics 16. Topics in the financial legislation of the U.S. taught by Charles F. Dunbar.

1897-98. Economics 71. Theory and Methods of Taxation taught by Frank William Taussig, Readings, Exams.

1898-99. Economics 16. Topics in the financial legislation of the U.S. taught by Charles F. Dunbar.

1899-1900. Economics 7a. Financial administration and public Debts taught by Charles F. Dunbar.

1899-1900. Economics 7b. Theory and methods of taxation taught by Frank William Taussig.

1900-01. Economics 7a and 7b. Not offered.

1901-02. Economics 7a and 7b. Financial administration; taxation [undergraduate] taught by Charles Jesse Bullock

1902-03. Economics 7b. Theory and methods of taxation with reference to local taxation [undergraduate] taught by Edward Dana Durand, Readings, Exam and Durand biography.

1902-03. Economics 16. Financial history of the United States taught by Prof Henry Brayton Gardner of Brown University.

1903-04. Economics 7b. Theory and methods of taxation taught by Frank William Taussig.

1903-04. Economics 16.  Financial history of the United States taught by Charles Jesse Bullock

1904-05. Economics 7a. Introduction to public finance [undergraduate] taught by Charles Jesse Bullock

1904-05. Economics 7b. Theory and methods of taxation [undergraduate] taught by Charles Jesse Bullock

1904-05. Economics 16. Financial history of the United States taught by Charles Jesse Bullock

1905-06 Economics 7.  Public finance [undergraduate] taught by Charles Jesse Bullock

1905-06 Economics 16. Public finance [advanced] taught by Charles Jesse Bullock

1906-07 Economics 16. Public finance and taxation taught by Charles Jesse Bullock

1907-08 Economics 16. Public finance and taxation taught by Charles Jesse Bullock

1908-09 Economics 7. Public finance [undergraduate] taught by Charles Jesse Bullock

1908-09 Economics 16. Public finance [advanced course] taught by Charles Jesse Bullock

1909-10 Economics 7. Public finance and taxation taught by Charles Phillips Huse [biographical information included]

1909-10 Economics 16. American taxation [advanced course] taught by Charles Jesse Bullock and Charles Phillips Huse.

1910-11 Economics 7 2hf. Public finance considered with special reference to the theory and methods of taxation. taught by Charles Phillips Huse, assisted by Wilfred] Eldred and Roscoe Russell Hess.

1910-11 Economics 16 Public finance (advanced course) taught by Charles Jesse Bullock.

1910-11 Economics 17 2hf.  Municipal finance taught by Charles Phillips Huse

Image Source: The original Seal of the Department of the Treasury, designed in 1778. The Latin inscription is an abbreviation for the phrase Thesauri Americae Septentrionalis Sigillum, which means “The Seal of the Treasury of North America.” 

 

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. US Economic History. Course Description, Enrollment, Final Exam. Gay, 1911-1912

Waltham system, ca. 1870

Economic historians of the present day must look back to the relative importance of their field in the undergraduate and graduate training of economists back in the day with some envy. U.S. economic history was an constitutive part of the educational mission of the department in 1911-12.

________________________

Earlier Harvard courses
on U.S. economic history

Links to earlier course material for U.S. Economic History taught at Harvard, 1901-1902 through 1910-11.

_______________________

Course Description
1911-12

6b 2hf. Economic and Financial History of the United States. Halfcourse (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Professor [Edwin F.] Gay, assisted by Mr. [Julius] Klein.

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; banking and currency experiences; 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, and the effects of immigration.

It is open to students who have passed in Economics 1, and, with the consent of the instructor, to all students except Freshmen who are taking Economics 1.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 61.

_______________________

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 6b 2hf. Professor [Edwin F.] Gay, assisted by Mr. [Julius] Klein. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 94: 19 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 48 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 64.

_______________________

ECONOMICS 6b
Year-end Final Examination
1911-1912

  1. —
    1. Discuss this statement:

“Peel’s prophecy that the English policy of Free Trade would be followed by other nations was upset by the American Civil War . . . American protection, the mother of Trusts, is the daughter of war.” (MacGregor, Evolution of Industry).

    1. Give a survey of American tariff history during the period 1880–1910 with particular reference to its connection with agriculture, foreign commerce, labor problems, and finance.
  2. Analyze the causes, symptoms, and results of the periods of discontent in American agricultural history.
  3. Outline the labor history of the United States since 1870.
  4. Comment on the following passage from President Taft’s message to Congress, December 7, 1911: “I need hardly reiterate the conviction that there should speedily be built up an American merchant marine. This is necessary to assure favorable transportation facilities to our great ocean-borne commerce as well as to supplement the navy with an adequate reserve of ships and men. It would have the economic advantage of keeping at home part of the vast sums now paid foreign shipping for carrying American goods. All the great commercial nations pay heavy subsidies to their merchant marine, so that it is obvious that without some wise aid from Congress, the United States must lag behind in the matter of merchant marine.”
  5. Criticise the following statement from Callender: “Perhaps the most striking peculiarity of American expansion is the insignificance of government intervention.”
  6. —
    1. Outline the important points of difference between the woollen and cotton industries. Is there any explanation for this difference in the economic history of the two industries in the United States?
    2. It is asserted that the jobber of American cotton goods is disappearing. Is this true, and, if so, why? How far do you think the tendencies in this staple industry are found in the distribution of other commodities?

Questions seven and eight are for graduate students who have not taken the half-hour tests.

  1. Sherman’s place in the economic history of the United States.
  2. Give a list of books with brief critical estimates on two of the following topics in this course: agriculture, banking, transportation, labor.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 51-52.

________________________

Economic History Materials
Posted Earlier

Economic History of the United States

1901-02. Economics 6. Economic History of the United States. [O.M.W. Sprague and J.H. Patten]

1902-03. Economics 6. Economic History of the United States. [O.M.W. Sprague]

1903-04. Economics 6. Economic History of the United States. [O.M.W. Sprague]

1904-05. Economics 6. Economic and Financial History of the United States. [O.M.W. Sprague]

1905-06. Economics 6. Economic and Financial History of the United States [with Frank W. Taussig]

1906-07. Economics 6b. Economic and Financial History of the United States. [E.F. Gay]

1907-08. Economics 6b. Economic and Financial History of the United States. [E.F. Gay]

1908-09. European and U.S. Economic History. Reading Lists and Exams. [E.F. Gay]

1909-10. European and U.S. Economic History. Reading Lists and Exams. [E.F. Gay and H.L. Gray]

1910-11. Economic and Financial History of the U.S. [Gay and Klein]. Including reading list.

Image Source: Harvard Business School, Baker Library, Special Collections & Archives webpage “Boston Manufacturing Company”.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. European Economic History. Description, enrollment, final exam. Gay, 1911-1912

Borsig's Maschinenbau-Anstalt zu Berlin in der Chausseestraße

A clue that your economic history course description wasn’t written by a.i.: it includes the words “recrudescence of protectionism”. Anyone? Anyone?

Biographical notes for can be found for Edwin F. Gay and Julisus Klein in this earlier post.

________________________

Earlier Harvard courses
on European economic history

Links to earlier course material for European Economic History from Harvard, 1883-84 through 1910-11.

________________________

Course Description
1911-12

6a 1hf. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein.

Course 6a undertakes to present the general outlines of the economic history of western Europe since the Industrial Revolution. Such topics as the following will be discussed: the economic aspects of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic regime, the Stein-Hardenberg reforms, the Zoll-Verein, Cobden and free trade in England, labor legislation and social reform, nationalism and the recrudescence of protectionism, railways and waterways, the effects of transoceanic competition, the rise of industrial Germany.

Since attention will be directed in this course to those phases of the subject which are related to the economic history of the United States, it may be taken usefully before Economics 6b. It is open to students who have passed in Economics 1, and, with the consent of the instructor, to students who have taken or are taking Economics 1.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 61.

________________________

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 6a 1hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 65: 22 Graduates 5 Seniors, 28 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 64.

________________________

ECONOMICS 6a
Final Examination
Mid-year 1911-12

  1. “Trade bursts local barriers because industry is the history of invention responding to the pressure of wants.”
    Discuss this statement with special reference to the Industrial Revolution.
  2. “The years from 1800 to 1825 were suited to almost any doctrine of despair. No economic problem was generally understood; it was the age of everything done wrong.”
    Do you agree? Substantiate your answer with detailed examples.
  3. Compare the agricultural history of England during the periods 1825–1850 and 1875–1900. Describe the condition of the agricultural laborer during the two periods.
  4. —
    1. Comment upon the following statistics (compiled from the British Board of Trade “Memoranda,” 1903): —
Average ad valorem import duties. Number of inhabitants per ton of steam shipping.
Russia 131% 330
United States 73 116
Austria-Hungary 35 110
France 34 71
Italy 27 72
Germany 25 34
Denmark 18 9
Norway 12 4
Holland 3 15
United Kingdom 0 4.6
    1. Outline the development of the English merchant marine during the nineteenth century.

5.  Discuss: —

    1. The regulation of prices by English industrial combinations.
    2. “Protective tariffs do not seem to have been of special significance in the formation of industrial combinations in Europe, although in many cases the combination has been enabled to take advantage of the protective tariff.”
      — U. S. Industrial Commission Report, v. 18.
  1. Enumerate and comment upon those features of England’s cotton industry which contribute to her superiority in that field.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 50-51.

________________________

Links to earlier course material for
European Economic History.
Harvard 1883-84 through 1910-11

1883-84. Economics 4. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. [C.F. Dunbar]
1884-85. Economics 4. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. [C.F. Dunbar]
1885-86. Economics 4. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. [C.F. Dunbar]
1886-87. Economics 4. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. [C.F. Dunbar]
1887-88. Economics 4. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. [C.F. Dunbar]
1888-89. Economics 4. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. [Gray]
1889-90. Economics 4. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. [A.C. Miller]
1890-91. Economics 4. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. [C.F. Dunbar]
1891-92. Economics 4. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. [W.M. Cole]
1892-93. Economics 4. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. [W.M. Cole]
1892-93. Economics 10. Economic History of Europe and America, to 1763. [W.J. Ashley]
1893-94. Economics 10. Elements of Economic History from the Middle Ages to Modern Times. [W.J. Ashley]
1893-94. Economics 13. Development of Land Tenures and of Agrarian Conditions in Europe. [W.J. Ashley]
1894-95. Economics 10. Elements of Economic History from the Middle Ages to Modern Times. [W.J. Ashley]
1895-96. Economics 10. Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. [W.J. Ashley]
1896-97. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe and America [W.J. Ashley]
1897-98. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe and America [W.J. Ashley]
1898-99. Economics 8. Western Civilization, mediaeval and modern, in its Economic Aspects [W. Cunningham, Reading List]
1898-99. Economics 11. Industrial Revolution in England. [W. Cunningham]
1899-1900. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe [W.J. Ashley, Reading List]
1900-01. Economics 10. Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. [W.J. Ashley]
1901-02. No course in European economic history offered.
1902-03. Economics 10. Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. [E.F. Gay]
1902-03. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe [E.F. Gay]
1903-04. Economics 10. Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. [not offered]
1903-04. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe [E.F. Gay]
1903-04. Economics 24. General Outlines of Agrarian History [E.F. Gay]
1904-05. Economics 10. Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. [E.F. Gay, only one student enrolled, no printed exam available]
1904-05. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe [E.F. Gay]
1905-06. Economics 10. Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. [E.F. Gay]
1905-06. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe [E.F. Gay]
1906-07. Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. [E.F. Gay]
1906-07. Economics 10. Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. [not offered]
1906-07. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe [E.F. Gay]
1907-08. Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. [E.F. Gay]
1907-08. Economics 10. Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. [not offered]
1907-08. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe. [E.F. Gay]
1908-09. Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. [E.F. Gay with M.T. Copeland]
1908-09. Economics 10. Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. [not offered]
1908-09. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe. [not offered]
1909-10. Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. [E.F. Gay with H. L. Gray]
1909-10. Economics 10. Mediaeval Economic History of Europe [H.L. Gray]
1909-10. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe [E.F. Gay]
1910-11. Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. [E.F. Gay with J. Klein]. Reading list included.
1910-11. Economics 11. Modern Economic History of Europe [E.F. Gay]

Image Source: Borsig’s Maschinenbau-Anstalt zu Berlin in der Chausseestraße (1847) at the Märkisches Museum in Berlin. Image at Wikimedia commons.