Category: Exam Questions

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Principles of Accounting. Exam questions. W. M. Cole, 1901-1902

Harvard. Life of accounting professor William Morse Cole, A.M. 1896

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Course Description
ECONOMICS 181
1901-1902

For upperclass undergraduates and graduates to prepare for a business career

The Principles of Accounting. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 3.30. Mr. W. M. Cole.

This course is designed primarily for students who expect to enter a business career, and wish to understand the processes by which the earnings and values of industrial properties are computed. It is not intended to afford practice in book-keeping, but to give students a grasp of principles which shall enable them to comprehend the significance of accounts.

In order that students may become familiar with book-keeping terms and methods, a few exercises will be devoted to a brief study of the common systems of recording simple mercantile transactions. The chief work of the course, however, will be a study of the methods of determining profit, loss, and valuation. This will include an analysis of receipts, disbursements, assets, and liabilities, in various kinds of industry, and a consideration of cost of manufacture; cost of service, depreciation and appreciation of stock and of equipment, interest, sinking funds, dividends, and the like. Published accounts of corporations will be studied, and practice in interpretation will be afforded. Attention will also be given to the functions and methods of auditors.

The instruction will be given by lectures, discussions, reading, and written work.

Course 18 is open to Seniors and Graduates who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science (June 21, 1901), University Publications, New Series, No. 16, pp. 46-47.

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Course Enrollment
ECONOMICS 181
1901-02

Economics 181hf. Mr. W. M. Cole. — The Principles of Accounting.

Total 36: 1 Graduate, 24 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 78.

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Semester Final Examination
ECONOMICS 18
First Half-year 1901-1902

  1. What is the profit and loss account?
    Are charges or credits made direct to this account? If so, under what circumstances?
    How is this account closed?
  2. Formulate journal entries to express each of the following transactions :—
    1. a sale of goods for a note bearing interest;
    2. discounting the above note at a bank;
    3. annulling a personal account as uncollectible;
    4. interest charged, but not paid, on a long-standing account.
  3. What is indicated by each of the following ledger accounts when
    1. the account shows a debit balance, and
    2. the account shows a credit balance: loss and gain, merchandise, rent, commission, purchase ledger, stores?
  4. Illustrate roughly a columnar cash book and a columnar journal. Comment on the columnar system.
  5. Which of the following should be charged to capital account and which to revenue account: The purchase of a patent right; legal fees for organizing a corporation; the purchase of a lease; repairs of machinery; replacement of machinery; the purchase of additional machinery; the loss by fire of uninsured property?
    Explain in each case why you decide as you do.
  6. You contemplate purchasing an interest in a business that has run five years, and agree to pay one third the valuation of its net assets. The following statement is given you by the partners:—

Dr.
Buildings, machinery, etc., at cost $50,000
Expended for repairs and renewals $8,000
Patent rights purchased $14,000
Balance of sales ledger $26,000
Inventory, as per stores and stock books $19,000
$117,000

Cr.
Bills payable $48,000
Balance of purchase ledger $47,000
Partners’ capital $22,000
$117,000
    1. Assuming that this statement gives all that you need to know, how much must you pay for your interest in the business?
    2. Does this statement give all necessary information about the assets? If not, what is lacking?

7.  The chief items on the balance sheet of a firm may be summarized as follows :—

Assets.
Cash, stock, and accts. receivable $48,000
Buildings and machinery $37,000
$85,000
Liabilities.
Notes and accts. payable $33,000
Capital of the partners $62,000
$95,000

Is the firm solvent or insolvent? Why do you think so?

  1. The books of a firm have been kept by the ordinary methods and all transactions prior to the close of business on December 31 have been carried through the books. You are asked to determine profit or loss for the year just closed. Describe carefully the steps that you would take.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-Year Examination Papers, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume, Mid-year Examination Papers, 1901-02. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (January 1902). Also included in Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1902-03. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (June 1902).

Image Source: Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Vol. XIX, No. 16, p. 308. Portrait of William Morse Cole colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam questions for European countries’ resources and economies. Ripley and Meyer, 1901-02

This post adds to the expanding collection of Harvard economics examinations. European economic geography was the subject of a year-long course co-taught in 1901-1902 by William Zebina Ripley and Hugo Richard Meyer.

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Last minute staff replacements for 1901-1902

It will be recalled that the Harvard economics department was faced with enormous staffing problems for the 1901-1902 academic year. Frank Taussig was on sick-leave and Edward Cummings and William Ashley had left the department for other pastures.

In an earlier post we saw that Charles W. Mixter substituted for William Ashley in a history of economic thought course.

Thomas Nixon Carver had to fill-in for Frank Taussig for the advanced theory course.  He also took over Taussig’s methods course.

Thomas Nixon Carver and Frederick Bush were needed to cover the “Socialism and Communism” course previously taught by Edward Cummings.

In this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror adds the transcriptions of exams for a course on European resources and organization that had been previously taught by William Ashley but was taught by William Z. Ripley and Hugo R. Meyer in 1901-1902.

Examinations for Professor William J. Ashley’s course in 1900-01  posted earlier.

Biographical information for Professor William Z. Ripley also posted earlier.

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has also posted some life and career information for Hugo Richard Meyer.

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ECONOMICS 17
Course Description
1901-1902

For Undergraduates and Graduates

[Economics] 17. The Economic Organization and Resources of European Countries. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Professor Ashley.

This course will begin with a survey of the physical geography and of the distribution of population and wealth in Europe as a whole, in order to explain (1) the relative position at present of agriculture in its various forms on the one side and mining and manufacture on the other, and (2) the presence in their several localities of the chief industries. The great countries — Great Britain and Ireland, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Italy — will then be taken in order; and a statement will be made (1) of their natural resources, and (2) of the manner in which these are utilized. Under the latter head will be considered such topics as the following: the investment of capital, the forms of business organization, the means of transportation, the relations between private enterprise and governmental stimulus and control, and the character and supply of labor. Returning, then, to Europe as a whole, attention will be directed to the points at which the interests of the several countries appear to conflict, and to the attempts to remove or mitigate the antagonism by international agreements — as, for instance, in the matters of customs tariffs, bounties, and labor legislation. Finally, a survey will be made of the main lines of transportation for commodities between one country and another and between Europe and the rest of the world, and of the economic effects of recent changes in this regard.

Course 17 is open to those who have passed satisfactorily either in History 1 or in Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science (June 21, 1901), University Publications, New Series, No. 16, p. 39.

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Enrollment
1901-02
ECONOMICS 17

Economics 17. Professor Ripley and Mr. Meyer. — The Economic Organization and Resources of European Countries.

Total 24: 2 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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ECONOMICS 17
Mid-year Examination
1901-1902

  1. English farming and German farming from 1879 to 1900: a study of the respective effects of the policy of free-trade in grains and meats and the policy of protection to agriculture.
    Alternative:—
    The arguments for and against the small farm and the peasant farm. Take your facts from the history of England; Belgium or France; and Germany.
  2. The German customs duties on grains and meats, and Germany’s position in the “struggle for the export markets.”
    Alternative:—
    Give an account, descriptive and critical, of the beet-sugar policy of the countries of continental Europe from 1870 to 1900
  3. What facts and what kinds of statistics were used in the discussion of the failure of the Prussian (German) State Railways to contribute materially to the industrial development effected in Germany in the years 1880 to 1900?
  4. What kinds of statistics were used in discussing the mineral resources of England, Germany, France, and the United States?
  5. The birth-rate in France in the last twenty-five years.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-Year Examination Papers, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume, Mid-year Examination Papers, 1901-02. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (January 1902).

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ECONOMICS 17
Year-end Examination
1901-1902

  1. State four economic reasons for the imperial federation movement in Great Britain.
  2. Analyze the principal characteristics of British foreign trade, comparing it with Germany.
  3. When and why did Germany change from a free trade to a protectionist country, and what had Prince Bismarck to do with the movement?
  4. How do the Agrarian demands in the present tariff discussion in Germany compare with those of a generation ago?
  5. Outline the present status of France, in respect of population, industry, and foreign trade.
  6. What are some of the international industrial combinations?
  7. What are the main features of the E. J. Smith type of industrial combinations in Great Britain?
  8. Compare Germany and Austro-Hungary in respect of the industrial combination movement.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1902-03. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (June 1902).

Image Source: Political Map of Europe, ca. 1890 in Wikimedia Commons.

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Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Final exams for history of economics up through Ricardo. Mixter, 1901-1902

 

With Edward Cummings and William J. Ashley gone and Frank W. Taussig on a medical leave-of-absence, the Harvard economics department had to scramble to cover its course offerings in 1901-02. The course on the history of economics up through the early nineteenth century was then taught by Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus, Charles W. Mixter. His semester final examinations questions have been transcribed below.

In an earlier post we find the exams from 1900-01 when William J. Ashley last taught the course at Harvard.

The immediately preceding post provides us with a student’s POV of University of Vermont Professor Charles W. Mixter in the classroom. 

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Charles Whitney Mixter
(b. Sept. 23, 1869 in Chelsea, MA;
d. Oct. 21, 1936 in Washington, D.C.)

A.B. Johns Hopkins University (Md.), 1892; A.M. Harvard University, 1893; 1897 Harvard Ph.D.

Thesis title: Overproduction and overaccumulation: a study in the history of economic theory.

Edited Work

John Rae. The Sociological Theory of Capital, being a complete reprint of the New Principles of Political Economy, 1834. Edited with biographical sketch and notes by Charles Whitney Mixter, Ph.D., Professor of Political Economy in the University of Vermont. New York: Macmillan, 1905.

OBITUARY
The Burlington Free Press (Oct. 22, 1936), p. 14

Charles Whitney Mixter, for nine years a member of the University of Vermont faculty, died at a hospital in Washington, D. C., on Tuesday evening. [October 20]

Dr. Mixter was born in Chelsea, Mass., in 1867. He received his early education at Thayer Academy and Williston Seminary, and received his A.B. degree from John Hopkins University in 1892.

This was followed by graduate studies at Berlin, Goettingen and Harvard, from which he received his doctorate in 1897. Then followed a series of teaching positions: Assistant in economics at Harvard, 1897-98; Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., 1899-1900; instructor in economics, Harvard, 1901-1903; professor of economics, University of Vermont, 1903-1912.

Then Dr. Mixter served as efficiency expert for Towne and Yale at New Haven, Conn., and later for several manufacturing concerns in New Hampshire. For a year he was professor of economics at Clark University, and for a brief period he was an investigator in the service of the United States Chamber of Commerce.

For the last 13 years he had been connected with the tariff commission in Washington.

Professor Mixter had an unusually fertile mind, was an accomplished scholar in his special field, and widely read in related subjects. he became an enthusiastic student of scientific management introduced by the late Frederick W. Taylor and an active exponent of the system. He was a member of the leading economic organizations and a frequent contributor to economic journals.

He was a strong advocate of free trade. Interment was made in Plymouth, Mass.

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ECONOMICS 15
Course Description
1901-02

Primarily for Graduates

[Economics] 15. The History and Literature of Economics, to the opening of the Nineteenth Century.
Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12. Professor Ashley.

The course of economic speculation will here be followed, in its relation alike to the general movement of contemporary thought and to contemporary social conditions. The lectures will consider the economic theories of Plato and Aristotle; the economic ideas underlying Roman law; the medieval church and the canonist doctrine; mercantilism in its diverse forms; “political arithmetic”; the origin of the belief in natural rights and its influence on economic thought; the Physiocratic doctrine; the beginnings of academic instruction in economics; the work and influence of Adam Smith; the doctrine of population as presented by Malthus; and the Ricardian doctrine of distribution.

The lectures will be interrupted from time to time for the examination of selected portions of particular authors; and careful study will be given to portions of Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Politics (in translation), to Mun’s England’s Treasure, Locke’s Consideration of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, certain Essays of Hume, Turgot’s Réflexions, and specified chapters of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Malthus’ Essay, and Ricardo’s Principles. Students taking the course are expected to procure the texts of the chief authors considered, and to consult the following critical works: Ingram, History of Political Economy; Cossa, Introduction to the Study of Political Economy; Cannan, History of the Theories of Production and Distribution; Bonar, Philosophy and Political Economy; Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest; Taussig, Wages and Capital.

Course 15 is open to those who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1. It is taken to advantage after Course 2, or contemporaneously with that Course.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science (June 21, 1901), University Publications, New Series, No. 16, p. 45.

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ECONOMICS 15
Enrollment
1901-02

Economics 15. Dr. Mixter. — The History and Literature of Economics to the opening of the Nineteenth Century.

Total 5: 3 Graduates, 2 Seniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 78.

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ECONOMICS 15
Mid-year Examination
1901-02

  1. Give an account of Aristotle on “the art of money-making”(χρηματιστική) as contrasted with “household management” (οἰκονομική); on the institution of private property.
  2. Why was economics little cultivated in classical times: in Ingram’s opinion; in your opinion?
  3. Where, in economic literature, do the following expressions occur, and what was meant by them: “City of pigs”; “Private Vices, Public Benefits”; “led by an invisible hand”?
  4. The chief distinction between man and the inferior animals consists in this: They are moved only by the immediate impressions of sense, and, as its impulses prompt, seek to gratify them from the objects before them, scarce regarding the future, or endeavoring from the experience of the past to provide against what is to come. Man, as he is endowed with reason,…” Who first expressed this thought? What use was made of it by a later writer?
  5. What passage in the Wealth of Nations has frequently been quoted as giving a concise statement of the author’s theory of the law of profits? What is the usual criticism of this passage? What your own criticism?
  6. Many writers have held that the increase of capital lessens at the same time the demand for the products of capital, since savings are made by curtailing one’s consumption. Show the fallacy of this contention?
  7. State the doctrine of wages in the Wealth of Nations, bringing out the contrast with the pre-Smithian doctrine.
  8. What are Adam Smith’s four “maxims” or canons of taxation, and what his position on “Taxes upon Profit, or upon the Revenue arising from Stock”?
  9. Comment on the leading arguments of the chapter, “Of Restraints upon the Importation from foreign Countries of such Goods as can be produced at Home.”
  10. What are the “Effects of the Progress of Improvement upon the real Price of Manufactures”? What is the significance of this doctrine in the history of economic opinion?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-Year Examination Papers, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume, Mid-year Examination Papers, 1901-02. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (January 1902).

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ECONOMICS 15
Year-end Examination
1901-02

  1. Who were they and what do they stand for: Nicholas Oresme, Acquinas, Thomas Mun, Boisguillebert, Turgot, Gournay?
  2. What was the general advance in economic thought during the century preceding the publication of the Wealth of Nations?
  3. Comment upon Jones’ „Primitive Political Economy in England” and Schmoller’s Mercantile System.
  4. Give a critical account of the history of opinion on the subjet of lending money at interest.
  5. Sketch in outline the history of the theory of “natural law” and indicate the way in which it came in contact with economics.
  6. What part of the teaching of the Physiocrats do you consider to have helped forward economic science, and what part to have been of little or no use?
  7. What was “Political Arithmetic”?
  8. Give a brief account of :–
    1. Speculation on the subject of population before Malthus.
    2. The Malthusian doctrine, its purpose, its content, the argument put forward in its support.
    3. The bearing of Rae’s principle of “the effective desire of offspring” upon the Malthusian doctrine.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1902-03. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (June 1902).

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. Hollis Images. College Yard, ca. 1900.

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Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Final exam questions for Socialism and Communism. Carver and Bushée, 1901-1902

Thomas Nixon Carver was originally hired to beef up the economic theory side of the Harvard curriculum but soon found himself holding an instructional portfolio that included sociology, schemes of social reform (i.e. socialism and communism), and agricultural economics. The fields of sociology and socialism were briefly left fallow when Edward Cummings resigned to become the minister at Boston’s South Congregational Church before Carver joined the faculty in 1900.

Artifacts included below are a thick course description, enrollment figures, and the final exam questions for the half-year course “Socialism and Communism” that was co-taught by assistant professor Thomas Nixon Carver and Frederick Bushée during the Fall term of 1901-02.

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Material from earlier years: Exams and enrollment figures for economics of socialism and communism taught by Edward Cummings, 1893-1900.

Material from later years: Thomas Nixon Carver (1920), Edward S. Mason (1929), Paul Sweezy (1940), Wassily Leontief  (1942-43), Joseph Schumpeter (1943-44), and Overton Hume Taylor (1955).

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Socialism and Communism
1901-02

ECONOMICS 141
For Undergraduates and Graduates

Socialism and Communism. Half course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 1.30. Asst. Professor Carver.

Course 14 begins with an historical study of socialistic and communistic writing and agitation. This is followed by a critical examination of socialistic theories as presented in the works of representative socialists. The purpose is to get a clear understanding of the economic reasoning that lies at the base of socialistic contentions and of the economic and social conditions which make such reasoning acceptable to socialists. Attention will be given largely to the reading of Marx’s Capital, but parts of the writings of other expounders of socialism will also be read.

Course 14 is open to those who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1; but it is to the advantage of students to take or to have taken either Course 2 or Course 3.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science (June 21, 1901), University Publications, New Series, No. 16, p. 37.

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Economics 14
(Carver and Bushée)
1901-1902 Syllabus

Previously posted: https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-socialism-communism-carver-bushee-1901/

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Enrollment 1901-02
Economics 141

Economics 141 hf. Asst. Professor Carver and Mr. Bushée. — Socialism and Communism.

Total 27: 5 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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Semester Final Examination
1901-02

ECONOMICS 14

Write on the following topics.

  1. The definition of Socialism and its relation to competition
  2. Fourier’s plan of social organization.
  3. Lassalle’s place in the socialistic movement.
  4. Marx’s theory of the evolution of society.
  5. Marx’s theory of value.
  6. Marx’s theory of interest.
  7. How does Bernstein’s theory differ from that of Marx?
  8. The problem which George set out to solve and his solution of it.
  9. George’s theory of interest.
  10. The origin and early development of the German Social Democratic Labor Party.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-Year Examination Papers, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume, Mid-year Examination Papers, 1901-02. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (January 1902). Also included in Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1902-03. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (June 1902).

Image Sources:

Thomas Nixon Carver (left). The World’s Work. Vol. XXVI (May-October 1913) p. 127.

Frederick Alexander Bushée (right). Detail from portrait in the University of Colorado Archives. Charles Snow photograph of Professor Bushee (March 30 1921). Detail reproduced in the 1924 University of Colorado Yearbook.

Both portraits colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exam for graduate economics course on methods. Carver, 1902

 

This post resumes the systematic transcribing of Harvard economics exam questions year-by-year and course-by-course. Today we visit young Thomas Nixon Carver‘s graduate methods course (incidentally attended by zero graduate students during the second semester of the 1901-02 academic year). The recently hired assistant professor found Frank Taussig’s methods course dropped into his lap when the latter went on a two year leave for personal health reasons (Schumpeter called it recovery from a “nervous breakdown”, i.e., Taussig almost certainly suffered from clinical depression).

Carver’s exam questions from 1900-01 for the course have been previously posted.

Fun fact with supporting image: While a graduate student at Cornell, Thomas Nixon Carver rowed on the varsity crew. He is seen sitting on the far left in the yearbook image posted above.

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Methods of Economic Investigation
[2nd half-year, 1901-1902]

Primarily for Graduates

[Economics] 13. Methods of Economic Investigation. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 1.30. Asst. Professor Carver.

Course 13 will examine the methods by which the important writers of modern times have approached economic questions, and the range which they have given their inquiries; and will consider the advantage of different methods, and the expediency of a wider or narrower scope of investigation. These inquiries will necessarily include a consideration of the logic of the social sciences. Cairnes’ Logical Method of Political Economy and Keynes’ Scope and Method of Political Economy will be carefully examined. At the same time selected passages from the writings of Mill, Jevons, Marshall, and the Austrian writers will be studied, with a view to analyzing the nature and scope of the reasoning.

Course 13 is designed mainly for students who take or have taken Course 2 or Course 15; but it is open to mature students having a general acquaintance with economic theory.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science (June 21, 1901), University Publications, New Series, No. 16, pp. 45-46.

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Enrollment 1901-02

ECONOMICS 132

Economics 132 hf. Asst. Professor Carver. — Methods of Economic Investigation.

Total 5: 1 Senior, 1 Junior, 1 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 78.

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Semester Final Examination

ECONOMICS 13

Discuss the following topics.

  1. The relation of economics to history, to ethics, and to sociology.
  2. The division of economics into departments.
  3. Methods of reasoning, methods of investigation, and methods of exposition as distinguished from one another.
  4. The nature of an economic law.
  5. The methods of investigating the causes of poverty.
  6. The use of hypotheses in economic investigation.
  7. The application of mathematics to economics.
  8. The meaning of an economic quantity.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1902-03. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (June 1902).

Image Source: The Cornell varsity crew of 1894. Thomas Nixon Carver standing on the far left. The Cornellian 1895, p. 197.

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Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Undergraduate courses taken by John F. Kennedy, Class of 1940

 

In an earlier post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror presented James Laurence Laughlin’s recollection of Theodore Roosevelt’s economics education at Harvard.

This post moves us forward to the graduate of the Class of 1940, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who it took the standard two term principles of economics followed by three semester courses in economics at Harvard. The future president was a concentrator in the government department which accounted for much more of his studies.

We begin with a complete list of the courses taken by Kennedy that is probably not untypical for your average government major except for maybe the junior semester abroad to England where his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., happened to be serving as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

As it turns out, material for three of the courses taken by Kennedy have already been transcribed and posted.

Economics A. Principles of Economics (1936-37).
Economics 11b. Economics of Socialism (2nd term, 1940).
Economics 62b. Industrial Organization and Control (2nd term, 1940).

To help complete the picture this post adds the final examination for Kennedy’s junior year course Economics 61a, The Corporation and its Regulation. The reading list for this course used in the following year (Kennedy’s senior year, 1939-40) has been transcribed and posted earlier.

Fun fact: Nobel prize economist and economic adviser to JFK, Professor James Tobin of Yale was a fellow student in the Principles of Economics course taken by Kennedy. Plot spoiler: Tobin got an A in Economics A.

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Undergraduate Courses Taken by John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Class of 1940

Note: Second term senior year courses are listed without a final grade because final examination were waived for the history, government, and economics division honors examination

JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY
S.B. cum laude June 20, 1940
Field of Concentration Government

Freshman year (1936-37)

English A. Rhetoric and English Composition, Oral and Written. (Not Required)

English 1. History and Development of English Literature in Outline. Professor Munn. (C)

Economics A. Principles of Economics. Professor Burbank. (B)

History 1. European History from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Present Time. Professor Merriman. (C)

French F. Introduction to France. Professor Morize. (C)

Sophomore year (1937-38)

English F1. Public Speaking. Asst. Professor Packard. (C)

Fine Arts 1e. Interpretation of Selected Works of Art: an Introduction to Art History. Professor Koehler. (C)

Government 1. Modern Government. Professors Holcombe and Elliott. (C)

History 32a1. Continental Europe; 1815-1871. Professor Langer. (D)

History 32b2. Continental Europe; 1871-1914. Professor Langer. (C)

Government 302. New Factors in International Relations: Asia. Asst. Professor Hopper. (B)

Junior year (1938-39)

Economics 61a1. The Corporation and its Regulation. Professor Mason. (C)

English A-11. English Composition. Messrs. Davis, Gordan, Bailey and McCreary. (B)

Government 7a1. The National Government of the United States: Politics. Professor Holcombe. (B)

Government 9a1. State Government in the United States. Professor Hanford. (B)

Government 181. New Factors in International Relations: Europe. Associate Professor Hopper. (B)

History 551. History of Russia. Asst. Professor Karpovich. (B)

Second Term Leave of absence (England)

Senior year (1939-40)

Economics 11b2. Economics of Socialism. Dr. P. M. Sweezy.

Economics 62b2. Industrial Organization and Control. Professor Mason.

Government 3a1. Principles of Politics. Professor Elliott. (B)

Government 4. Elements of International Law. Associate Professor P. S. Wild. (B)

Government 22. Theses for Honors. Members of the Department. (B)

Government 8a1. Comparative Politics: Bureaucracy, Constitutional Government and Dictatorship. Professor Friedrich. (B)

Government 10a2. Government of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Professor Elliott.

Government 281. Modern Imperialism. Associate Professor Emerson. (B)

Source: John F. Kennedy Academic Record at Harvard.  John F. Kennedy Personal Papers, 1917-1963, Harvard University Files, 1917-1963/Academic Records 1939-1940; John F. Kennedy Harvard Course Transcript. John F. Kennedy Personal Papers, 1917-1963, Harvard University Files, 1917-1963/Course listing.

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The Corporation and its Regulation
First Semester 1938-39

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 61a 1hf. Professor Mason and Dr. P. M. Sweezy. — The Corporation and its Regulation.

Total 209: 2 Graduates, 57 Seniors, 110 Juniors, 29 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 10 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1938-39, p. 98.

Reading Period Assignment
January 5-18, 1939

Economics 61a: Read one of the following

  1. Larcom, R. C., The Delaware Corporation.
  2. Flynn, Security Speculation.
  3. Lowenthal, The Investor Pays.
  4. Gordon, Lincoln, The Public Corporation in Great Britain, omit pp. 156-244.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics,1938-1939”, Reading Period, p.3.

Final Examination (Mid-Year)

1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 61a1

PART I

Write a critical review of your reading period work (about one hour).

PART II
Answer two questions.

  1. Discuss the influence of depreciation policies in the determination of net income.
  2. In corporate reorganizations what considerations determine the priority of claims on the assets of the reorganized company?
  3. “The large corporation is a bureaucracy of much the same type as a government agency. As such it faces all the management problems faced by bureaucracy.” Discuss.

PART III
Answer two questions.

  1. “The only people who gain from the stock market are brokers and speculators. Corporations, investors and underwriters would be better off if there were no stock market.” Analyse this statement with respect to each class of person or institution named.
  2. Discuss the direction and significance of present trends in the ownership of securities in the United States.
  3. Write on either the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Describe the main problems with which the act in question is intended to deal, any previous efforts to solve these problems, and how the act proposes to solve them.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-Year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 13. Bound volume “Mid-Year Examinations 1939”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1940.

Categories
Cornell Exam Questions Harvard Industrial Organization Labor

Harvard. Exams for labor economics and industrial organization. Durand, 1902

This post adds to the growing collection of transcribed course examinations from the Harvard economics department. The “labor question” and “problems of industrial organization” courses were taught during the second semester of 1901-1902 by a visiting instructor hired by the department, E. Dana Durand. In the Harvard Archive’s collection of course syllabi and reading lists I found a four page printed leaflet, “Systems of Agreements and Arbitration”, from Durand’s labor course. It is added to this post.

Archival Tip: 5 manuscript boxes for Edward Dana Durand (1885-1959) are found at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa.

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Backstory

Following the resignation of Edward Cummings in the summer of 1900, William Franklin Willoughby was hired for the year (1900-1901). The exams for Willoughby’s Economics 9 courses for 1900-01 have been transcribed earlier. 

William Franklin Willoughby, Instructor in Economics, resigned, effective September 1, 1901.

Source. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1900-1901, p. 290.

Temporarily taking the Cummings/Willoughby courses next was Edward Dana Durand who was appointed Instructor in Economics, December 2, 1901.

Source. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 319.

Durand was also appointed for the first term of 1902-1903.

Source. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 321.

Along with material for his first semester course taught 1902-03 on taxation, you will find some additional information about Durand’s life and career in this earlier post. 

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Short Biography
from U.S. Census Bureau

Edward Dana Durand (Director, 1909-1913): Durand was born, in 1871, in Romeo, Michigan. When he was still a child, however, his parents moved to a homestead in South Dakota. Durand attended Yankton College for one year before transferring to Oberlin College. He received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1896. After receiving his doctorate, Durand moved between several government and academic positions until 1909, when he became deputy commissioner of corporations. Later that year, President Taft appointed him the new director of the census. He replaced Samuel North, who had left after repeated clashes with the secretary of commerce and labor, and took over the Census Bureau well into the planning process for the 1910 census.

Durand concentrated much of his energy on improving the preparation of census reports. He pioneered several lasting innovations in the presentation of data at the Census Bureau. For example, Durand introduced the publication of state-level reports and the early release in press releases of statistics for which there was the greatest demand (such as the total population of individual cities, states, and the United States population). These releases were be followed by bulletins, abstracts, and final reports with greater detail.

After leaving the Census Bureau in 1913, Durand eventually took a place on the U.S. Tariff Commission, where he served from 1935 until his retirement in 1952. He died in 1960.

Source: United States Census Bureau website. Webpage Directors 1909-1921.

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Course Enrollment
for Economics 9

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 9 2hf. Dr. Durand. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States.

Total 116: 5 Graduates, 20 Seniors, 46 Juniors, 32 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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Course Description
Economics 9

[Economics] 92 hf. The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Mr. [William Franklin] Willoughby.

Course 9 is chiefly concerned with problems growing out of the relations of labor and capital in the United States and European countries. There is careful study of the methods of industrial remuneration — the wages system, profit sharing, sliding scales and collective bargaining; of the various forms of coöperation; of labor organizations; of factory legislation and the legal status of laborers and labor organizations; of state and private efforts for the prevention and adjustment of industrial disputes; of employer’s liability and compulsory compensation acts; of the insurance of workingmen against accidents, sickness, old age, and invalidity; of provident institutions, such as savings banks, friendly societies and fraternal benefit orders; of the problem of the unemployed.

While the treatment will necessarily be descriptive to a considerable extent, the emphasis will be laid on the interpretation of the movements considered with a view to determining their causes and consequences, and the merits, defects, and possibilities of existing reform movements.

A systematic course of reading will be required, and topics will be assigned for special investigation.

The course is open not only to students who have taken Course 1, but to Juniors and Seniors who are taking Course 1

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902, Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901), p. 40.

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ECONOMICS 9
SYSTEMS OF AGREEMENTS AND ARBITRATION.

Agreements at present existing between the Stove Founders’ National Defense Association and the Iron Moulders’ Union of North America.

Conference, 1891. — Whereas there has heretofore existed a sentiment that the members of the Stove Founders’ National Defense Association and the members of the Iron Moulders’ Union of North America were necessary enemies, and in consequence a mutual dislike and distrust of each other and of their respective organizations has arisen, provoking and stimulating strife and ill-will, resulting in severe pecuniary loss to both parties; now this conference is held for the purpose of cultivating a more intimate knowledge of each other’s persons, methods, aims, and objects, believing that thereby friendly regard and respect may be engendered, and such agreements reached as will dispel all inimical sentiments, prevent further strife, and promote the material and moral interests of all parties concerned.

Clause 1, conference 1891. — Resolved, That this meeting adopt the principle of arbitration in the settlement of any dispute between the members of the I. M. U. of N. A. and the members of the S. F. N. D. A.

Clause 2, conference 1891. — That a conference committee be formed, consisting of six members, three of whom shall be stove moulders appointed by the Iron Moulders’ Union of North America and three persons appointed by the S. F. N. D. A., all to hold their offices from May 1 to April 30 of each year.

Clause 3, conference 1891. — Whenever there is a dispute between a member of the S. F. N. D. A. and the moulders in his employ (when a majority of the latter are members of the I. M. U.), and it can not be settled amicably between them, it shall be referred to the presidents of the two associations before named, who shall themselves or by delegates give it due consideration. If they can not decide it satisfactorily to themselves, they may, by mutual agreement, summon the conference committee, to whom the dispute shall be referred, and whose decision by a majority vote shall be final and binding upon each party for the term of twelve months.

Pending adjudication by the presidents and conference committee, neither party to the dispute shall discontinue operations, but shall proceed with business in the ordinary manner. In case of a vacancy in the committee of conference it shall be filled by the association originally nominating. No vote shall be taken except by a full committee or by an even number of each party.

Clause 4, conference 1892. — Apprentices should be given every opportunity to learn all the details in the trade thoroughly, and should be required to serve four years. Any apprentice leaving his employer before the termination of his apprenticeship should not be permitted to work in any foundry under the jurisdiction of the I. M. U. of N. A., but should be required to return to his employer. An apprentice should not be admitted to membership in the I. M. U. of N. A until he has served his apprenticeship and is competent to command the average wages. Each apprentice in the last year of his apprenticeship should be given a floor between two journeymen moulders, and they, with the foreman, should pay special attention to his mechanical education in all classes of work.

Clause 5, conference 1892. — The general rate of moulders’ wages should be established for each year without change.

Clause 6, conference 1892. — When the members of the Defense Association shall desire a general reduction in the rate of wages or the Iron Moulders’ Union an advance, they shall each give the other notice at least thirty days before the end of each year, which shall commence on the first day of April. If no such notice be given, the rate of wages current during the year shall be the rate in force for the succeeding year.

Clause 7, conference 1892. — The present established price of work in any shop should be the basis for the determination of the price of new work of similar character and grade.

Clause 8, conference 1892. — Any existing inequality in present prices of molding in a foundry or between two or more foundries should be adjusted as soon as practicable upon the basis set forth in the foregoing paragraphs, by mutual agreement or by the decision of the adjustment committee provided by the conference of March, 1891.

Clause 9, conference 1896. — Firms composing the membership of the S. F. N. D. A. should furnish in their respective foundries a book containing the piece prices for moulding, the same to be placed in the hands of a responsible person.

Clause 10, conference 1896. — New work should always be priced within a reasonable time, and under ordinary circumstances two weeks is considered a reasonable time, and such prices, when decided upon, should be paid from the date the work was put in the sand.

Clause 11, conference 1896. — The members of the S. F. N. D. A. shall furnish to their molders: Shovels, riddles, rammers, brushes, facing bags, and strike-off; provided, however, that they charge actual cost of tools so furnished, and collect for the same, adopting some method of identification; and when a moulder abandons the shop, or requires a new tool in place of one so furnished, he shall, upon the return of the old tools, be allowed the full price charged, without deducting for ordinary wear; any damage beyond ordinary wear to be deducted from amount to be refunded.

Clause 12, conference 1896. — When there is a bad heat, causing dull iron, the foreman’s attention shall be called to it, and payment shall be made for work that is lost from this cause only when poured by foreman’s order, or person next in authority.

If sufficient iron is not furnished the moulder to pour off his work, and such work has to remain over, he shall be paid for such work remaining over at one half the regular price.

These rules shall apply excepting in case of break down of machinery or other unavoidable accident, when no allowance shall be made.

Clause 13, conference 1898. — Whenever a difficulty arises between a member of the S. F. N. D. A. (whose foundry does not come under the provisions of clause 3, 1891 conference) and the moulders employed by him, and said difficulty can not be amicably settled between the member and his employees, it shall be submitted for adjudication to the presidents of the two organizations, or their representatives, without prejudice to the employees presenting said grievance.

Clause 14, conference 1898. — In pricing moulding on new stoves, when there are no comparative stoves made in the shop, the prices shall be based upon competitive stores made in the district, thorough comparison and proper consideration being given to the merits of the work according to labor involved.

Form of agreement adopted and recommended by the National Association of Builders to secure the establishment of arbitration committees, with plan of organization of the same, for the use of associations of employers and associations of workmen in all branches of the building trade.

Agreement.

For the purpose of establishing a method of peacefully settling all questions of mutual concern [name of organization of employers] and [name of organization of employees] severally and jointly agree that no such question shall be conclusively acted upon by either body independently, but shall be referred for settlement to a joint committee, which committee shall consist of an equal number of representatives from each association; and also agree that all such questions shall be settled by our own trade, without intervention of any other trade whatsoever.

The parties hereto agree to abide by the findings of this committee on all matters of mutual concern referred to it by either party. It is understood and agreed by both parties that in no event shall strikes and lockouts be permitted, but all differences shall be submitted to the joint committee, and work shall proceed without stoppage or embarrassment.

The parties hereto also agree that they will incorporate with their respective constitutions and by-laws such clauses as will make recognition of this joint agreement a part of the organic law of their respective associations. The joint committee above referred to is hereby created and established, and the following rules adopted for its guidance:—

Organization or joint and rules for its government.

  1. This committee shall consist of not less than six members, equally divided between the associations represented, and an umpire, to be chosen by the committee at their annual meeting, and as the first item of their business after organization. This umpire must be neither a journeyman craftsman nor an employer of journey-men. He shall preside at meetings of the committee when necessary.
  2. The members of this committee shall be elected annually by their respective associations at their regular meetings for the election of officers.
  3. The duty of this committee shall be to consider such matters of mutual interest and concern to the employers and the workmen as may be regularly referred to it by either of the parties to this agreement, transmitting its conclusions thereon to each association for its government.
  4. A regular annual meeting of the committee shall be held during the month of January, at which meeting the special business shall be the establishment of “working rules” for the ensuing year; these rules to guide and govern employers and workmen, and to comprehend such particulars as rate or wages per hour, number of hours to he worked, payment for overtime, payment for Sunday work, government of apprentices, and similar questions of joint concern.
  5. Special meetings shall be held when either of the parties hereto desire to submit any question to the committee for settlement.
  6. For the proper conduct of business, a chairman shall be chosen at each meeting, but he shall preside only for the meeting at which he is so chosen. The duty of the chairman shall be that usually incumbent on a presiding officer.
  7. A clerk shall be chosen at the annual meeting to serve during the year. His duty shall be to call all regular meetings, and to call special meetings when officially requested so to do by either body party hereto. He shall keep true and accurate record of the meetings, transmit all findings to the association interested, and attend to the usual duties of the office.
  8. A majority vote shall decide all questions. In case of the absence of any member, the president of the association by which he was appointed shall have the right to vote for him. The umpire shall have casting vote in case of tie.

Clauses to be incorporated with by-laws of parties to joint agreement.

A. All members of this association do by virtue of their membership recognize and assent to the establishment of a joint committee of arbitration (under a regular form of agreement and governing rules), by and between this body and the ______, for the peaceful settlement of all matters of mutual concern to the two bodies and the members thereof.

B. This organization shall elect at its annual meeting ______ delegates to the said joint committee, of which the president of this association shall be one, officially notifying within three days thereafter the said ______ of the said action and of the names of the delegates elected.

C. The duty of the delegates thus elected shall be to attend all meetings the said joint committee, and they must be governed in this action by the rules jointly adopted by this association and the said ______.

D. No amendments shall be made to these special claims, A, B, C, and D, of these by-laws, except by concurrent vote of this association with the said ______, and only atter six months’ notice of proposal to so amend.

Rules for the Year 1900

Boston, February 8, 1900.

The Mason Builders’ Association of Boston and vicinity has, through the joint committee on arbitration, made the following agreement with Bricklayers’ Unions Nos. 3 and 27 of Boston and vicinity, as follows:—

  1. Hours of labor. — During the year not more than eight (8) hours’ labor shall be required in the limits of the day, except it be as overtime, with payment of same as provided for.
  2. Working hours. — The working hours shall be from 8 A.M. to 12 M. (one hour for dinner during February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, and October). During November, December, and January it shall be optional with the men on jobs whether they work half hour at noon and quit at 4.30 p.m.
  3. Night gangs. — Eight hours shall constitute a night’s labor. When two gangs are employed, working hours to be from 8 p.m. to 12 m. and from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Where regular night gangs are employed, from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday morning, the minimum rate shall be paid.
  4. Overtime. — Except in cases of emergency no work shall be done between the hours of 5 and 8 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m. Overtime to be paid for as time and one half, except the hour between 5 and 6 p.m. which shall be paid for as double time, but this section as to double time is not to be taken advantage of to secure a practical operation of a 9-hour day.
  5. Holiday time. — Sundays, Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Christmas Day are to be considered as holidays, and work done on either of these days is to be paid for as double time.
  6. Wages. — The minimum rate of wages shall be forty-five (45) cents per hour.
  7. That the bricklayers shall be paid their wages on or before 5 p.m. on the regular pay day.
  8. If an employee is laid off on account of a lack of material, or for other causes, or is discharged, and if said employee demands his wages, intending to seek other employment, he shall receive his money.
  9. The business agent of the Bricklayers’ Union shall be allowed to visit all jobs during working hours to interview the steward of the job.
  10. In the opinion of the joint committee the best interests of the employing masons demand that all journeymen bricklayers shall belong to the Bricklayers’ Union. Therefore preference of employment shall be given to union bricklayers by the members of the Mason Builders’ Association.

Issued by order of the joint committee on arbitration.

John T. Healy, Secretary of Committee.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1. Folder “Economics, 1901-1902”.

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ECONOMICS 9
Final Examination
(1902)

  1. Discuss the charge that labor organizations, by fixing a standard rate of wages, injure both the most efficient and the least efficient workmen.
  2. How far do labor organizations enforce restrictions upon the number of apprentices? Give fully one reason for and one against the justice of this policy of restriction.
  3. Describe fully but in general terms the more systematic process of collective bargaining, as practiced, for example, by the coal miners or the glass workers.
  4. Distinguish the two chief classes of boycotts. What do you think of their justice and legality, and why?
  5. What in a broad war has been the movement of nominal and real wages in the United States since 1870, and since 1890? Name three leading sources of information as to wage statistics.
  6. State briefly four causes which contribute to the evils of the “sweating system.” Discuss one thoroughly.
  7. Give briefly three arguments in favor of the eight hour day, and criticise one fully.
  8. Describe the existing legislation regarding child labor, in the United States and England.
  9. Has the employment of women in gainful occupations increased in the United States, or not, and why? Give three reasons why the wages of women average less than those of men.
  10. What is the doctrine of the common law in the United States regarding the liability of employers for injuries to employees by their fellow servants? What do you think of this doctrine, and why?
  11. Distinguish three main forms of coöperation. What degree of success has each attained in the United States, and England (statistics unnecessary)?
  12. State the leading arguments in favor of further restriction of immigration.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), pp. 28-29.

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Course Enrollment
for Economics 9a

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 9a 2hf. Dr. Durand. — Problems of Industrial Organization

Total 45: 5 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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Course Description
Economics 9a

9a2 hf. Problems of Industrial Organization. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Mr. [William Franklin] Willoughby.

This course will give a critical study of modern industry with special reference to the efficiency of production and the relations existing between employers and employees. The actual organization of industrial enterprises will first be considered. Under this head will be treated such subjects as corporations, the factory system, the concentration and integration of industry, and the trust problem in all its phases. Following this, or in connection with it, will be studied the effect of the modern organization of industry, and changes now taking place, upon efficiency of production, stability of employment, and industrial depressions. Careful attention will be given to the relations existing between employers and employees, and the functions of organizations of both classes. Finally will be considered the position of the individual under the present system, – his preparation for a trade through apprenticeship, technical education, or otherwise; his opportunities for advancement: his economic independence. Conditions in Europe as well as in the United States will be shown.

Topics will be assigned for special investigation, and the results of such inquiries will be considered in class.

This course is open to students who have taken Course 1, and it is desirable that they shall have taken Course 9 as well.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902, Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901), pp. 40-41.

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ECONOMICS 9a
Final Examination
(1902)

  1. Discuss methods by which corporation stockholders may be defrauded by officers, directors, and other stockholders.
  2. What form and degree of publicity would you think desirable to require from great corporations, and why?
  3. Describe a typical case of the methods of promoting, capitalizing, and floating the securities of a modern industrial combination.
  4. Describe the trust form of combination and contrast it with two leading forms of combination in single corporations.
  5. Discuss the relation of the principle of increasing returns to monopoly, distinguishing between possible meanings of the phrase.
  6. Discuss economies from the integration of plants performing different processes into a single corporation. How far do such economies tend toward monopoly?
  7. Define four unfair advantages or unfair methods of competition which may strengthen a combination, and discuss one fully.
  8. What do you think of reduction of the tariff as a remedy for abuses by industrial combinations, and why?
  9. and 10. Discuss fully the character and scope of such Federal legislation regarding corporations and combinations as seems to you desirable.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), p. 29.

Image Source: E. Dana Durand. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Washington, D.C. 20540.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Money, Banking, and International Payments. Exams. Andrew, Sprague, Meyer 1901-1902

 

 

The reading list for the first semester (4 pages) of the money, banking, and international payments course taught at Harvard in 1901-02 along with some biographical information for one of the instructors, Abram Piatt Andrew, has been posted earlier.

While I have not found a reading list for the second semester of the course, it is safe to assume that the enlarged second edition of  Dunbar’s Chapters on the Theory and History of Banking, edited by O.M.W. Sprague (1901) was assigned as the primary text. 

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Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 8. Drs. [Abram Piatt] Andrew [Jr.] and [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague, and Mr. [Hugo Richard] Meyer. — Money, Banking and International Payments.

Total 78: 5 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 30 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 78.

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Course Description

  1. Money, Banking, and International Payments. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Drs. Andrew and Sprague, and Mr. Meyer.

The first part of the year will be devoted to a general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory. The course will begin with a history of the precious metals, which will be connected, in so far as possible, with the history of prices, and with the historical development of theories as to the causes underlying the value of money. The course of monetary legislation in the principal countries will be followed, with especial attention to its relation to the bimetallic controversy; but the experiences of various countries with paper money will also be reviewed, and the influence of such issues upon wages, prices, and trade examined. Some attention, moreover, will be given in this connection to the non-monetary means of payment and to the large questions of monetary theory arising from their use.

The second part of the course will begin with an historical account of the development of banking. Existing legislation and practice in various countries will be analyzed and compared. The course of the money markets of New York, London, Paris, and Berlin will be followed during a series of months, and the various factors, such as stock exchange operations and foreign exchange payments, which bring about fluctuations in the demand for loans and the rate of discount upon them, will be considered. The relations of banks to commercial crises will also be analyzed, the crises of 1857 and 1893 being taken for detailed study.

The course will conclude with a discussion of the movement of goods, securities, and money, in the exchanges between nations and in the settlement of international demands. After a preliminary study of the general doctrine of international trade, it is proposed to make a close examination of some cases of payments on a great scale, and to trace the adjustments of imports and exports under temporary or abnormal financial conditions. Such examples as the payment of the indemnity by France to Germany after the war of 1870-71, the distribution of gold by the mining countries, and the movements of the foreign trade of the United States since 1879, will be used for the illustration of the general principles regulating exchanges and the distribution of money between nations.

Course 8 is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1. With the consent of the instructors, it may be taken by Seniors and Graduates as a half-course in either half-year.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902, Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901), pp. 42-43.

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Mid-year Examination, 1901-02
ECONOMICS 8

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

  1. Describe and illustrate with two examples (giving approximate dates): (a) the double standard, (b) the limping standard, (c) the parallel standard, (d) the single standard.
  2. Explain some of the different motives which in earlier centuries led to the debasement of the coins, and show the measure of their justification.
  3. Show how the levying of a seignorage will affect the value of money (a) if the owner of bullion is given back the same number of coins but of lighter weight, (b) if he receives fewer coins but of the same weight.
  4. During the entire century which preceded England’s adoption of gold as her single standard, less than one million pounds sterling of silver were issued from her mints, while in a period of less than a hundred years since then the silver coinage has amounted to fifty millions.
    How do you explain (a) the small amount of silver coined before its “demonetization”? (b) the larger amount coined subsequently?
  5. Before 1873 the United States had coined only about eight million silver dollars ($8,031,238) but since that year, which is often assumed to mark the beginning of demonetization, we have coined over five hundred millions ($522,795,065).
    Explain these two facts.
  6. “No experiment of bimetallism has ever been inaugurated under circumstances more favorable for its success… No fairer field for its trial could have been found.” Describe the conditions under which bimetallism was tried in the United States, and give your opinion of the passage quoted as a characterization of American monetary history.
  7. “Inasmuch as gold [before 1848] was more valuable in the market than at the French mint, relatively to silver, it was impossible that gold should circulate in France.”
    Is this a necessary conclusion?
  8. What does Darwin mean by the labor standard? By the commodity standard? Explain the merits claimed for each, and show the exemplification of the two standards in the history of the precious metals between 1873 and 1896.
  9. What were the reasons which induced Europe to abandon the free coinage of silver during the seventies (a) according to Laughlin? (b) according to Walker? (c) in your own opinion?
  10. State the factors that increased India’s power to purchase in the international markets in the period from 1850 to 1870, and explain what use India made of that increased power, together with the reasons for the use made.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-years 1901-1902.

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Year-end Examination, 1901-02
ECONOMICS 8

  1. The strength or weakness of the United States in the so-called struggle for the world’s stock of gold.
  2. Applying Mill’s reasoning upon international trade to the situation in the United States, state what you would expect to be the course of prices of imports and exports in the years immediately following.
  3. Why is long exchange quoted at lower rates than sight exchange? If sight is $4.84 and long $4.80, what will be the effect (1) of a reduction of 1% in English rates for money? (2) of the increase of the price of eagles at the Bank of England?
  4. New York Bank Statement, May 31, 1902:—
Loans

$855.60

Increase

15.1
Deposits

$948.30

Increase

16.6
Reserve

$249.00

Increase

1.8

Complete the statement and explain the probable reasons for the increase of deposits and reserve.

  1. Comment on the following: —
    1. 3 per Mills against us.
    2. Bank statement based on falling averages.
    3. U.S. Bond account.
    4. National gold banks.
    5. Recepisse.
  2. Discuss the following:—
    1. The limitation of note issue to capital.
    2. The retirement of the legal tender notes as an essential part of any plan for an asset currency.
  3. Compare the safety fund and the free banking systems of New York.
  4. Regulations of the national banking system other than those of note issue.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), p. 28.

Image Sources:
Left to right: Andrew (Harvard Classbook 1906, p. 6), Sprague (Harvard Classbook 1912), Meyer, The Minneapolis Messenger, October 12, 1905, Page 4, from Wikipedia.

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Cornell Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance Williams Wisconsin

Harvard. Public Finance Exams. Charles Jesse Bullock visiting from Williams College, 1901-02

Courses in public finance were not offered in the academic year 1900-01 at Harvard. Those courses had last been taught by Charles F. Dunbar and Frank W. Taussig in 1899-1900. Following Dunbar’s death (January, 29 1900) and Taussig’s leave to recover from a nervous breakdown (1901-03), it was necessary to bring in an outsider to cover the public finance offerings. Charles Jesse Bullock was first appointed as an instructor in economics for the 1901-1902 academic year to fill that gap. He was later to return at the rank of assistant professor beginning with the 1903-04 academic year.

_____________________

From the Williams College Yearbook

CHARLES JESSE BULLOCK, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor of Political Science.

Graduated from Boston University, 1889, with Commencement appointment, and received the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, in 1895. He taught in high schools from 1889 to 1893 and was traveling fellow in Boston University in 1891. In 1895 he was fellow and assistant at the University of Wisconsin and from 1895 to 1899 was instructor in Economics at Cornell University. Dr. Bullock has written: “The Finance of the United States, 1775-1789,” (1895), “Introduction to the Study of Economics,” (1897), and “Essays on the Monetary History of the United States” (in press [1900]). He also edited William Douglass’s “Discourse Concerning the Currencies of the British Plantations in America,” and has contributed various articles to the economic and statistical magazines. He is a member of the American Economic Association and of the American Statistical Association, an associate member of the National Institute of Art, Science and Letters, and a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Dr. Bullock is a member of the ΦΔΧ Fraternity.

Source: Williams College, The Gulielmensian MCMI, Vol 44 (Williamstown, MA: 1900), p. 23.

_____________________

Course Announcements

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

[open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1. Outlines of Economics]

7a1 hf. Financial Administration and Public Debts. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. at 9. Professor Bullock (Williams College).

7b1 hf. The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation in the United States. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat. at 10. Professor Bullock (Williams College).

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year, 1901-02 (Second ed., 25 June 1901), p.44.

_____________________

Course Enrollments

7a 1hf. Professor Bullock (Williams College). — Financial Administration and Public Debts.

Total 26: 2 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

7b 1hf. Professor Bullock (Williams College). — The Theory and Methods of Taxation with special reference to local taxation, in the United States.

Total 26: 2 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 78.

_____________________

Course Descriptions

7a1 hf. Financial Administration. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. at 9. Professor Bullock (Williams College).

This course will deal with the methods by which governments have attempted to adjust expenditures to revenue, and will study the problems arising from the effort to secure popular control over this process. The budget systems of England, France, and Germany will first receive attention; and study will then be concentrated upon the budgetary methods of our federal government. So far as practicable, also, some consideration will be given to State and local budgets in the United States. The history and present form of our federal budget will offer a large field for investigation, and supply subjects for written reports. Students will be encouraged, furthermore, to gather information concerning the methods followed by State and local governments with which they may happen to be familiar. Candidates for Honors in Political Science or for the higher degrees may advantageously use reports thus prepared by them as material for theses.

Course 7a is open to students who have taken Economics 1

7b1 hf. The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation in the United States. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat. at 10. Professor Bullock (Williams College).

In this course both the theory and practice of taxation will be studied. Attention will be given at the outset to the tax systems of England, France, and Germany; and the so-called direct taxes employed in those countries will receive special consideration. After this, the principles of taxation will be examined. This will lead to a study of the position of taxation in the system of economic science, and of such subjects as the classification, the just distribution, and the incidence of taxes. Finally, the existing methods of taxation in the United States will be studied, each tax being treated with reference to its proper place in a rational system of federal, state, and local revenues.

Written work will be required of all students, as well as a systematic course of prescribed reading. Candidates for Honors in Political Science and for the higher degrees will be given the opportunity of preparing theses in substitution for the required written work.

Course 7b is open to students who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902, Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901), pp. 43-44.

_____________________

Final Examinations

ECONOMICS 7a
FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION

  1. How is budgetary legislation prepared in France, in England and in the United States? In which country are the best results attained?
  2. At what time of the year is the budget prepared and enacted in France, England, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Prussia, and the United States? Why is the time of preparation and adoption an important consideration?
  3. Compare methods of budgetary legislation in England with those prevailing in France.
  4. Describe and criticize federal budgetary procedure in the United States?
  5. What part do supplementary, or deficiency, appropriations play in France, in England, and in the United States?
  6. Compare the English and French methods of accounting. What method is followed in the United States?
  7. What are the methods of collecting and issuing public money in England?
  8. What methods of collection and issue are followed in the United States?
  9. Compare the auditing methods of England, France, and the United States?
  10. Why are unity and universality important elements in any good budget system?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-years 1901-1902.
Also included in: Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume Examination Papers, 1902-03.  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy,… in Harvard College(June, 1902), pp. 26-27.

ECONOMICS 7b
TAXATION

  1. Describe the land taxes of France, Prussia, and Great Britain.
  2. Compare the French and the Prussian business taxes.
  3. Discuss the British income tax, giving special consideration to methods of administration and to financial results.
  4. In a similar manner discuss the Prussian income tax.
  5. Discuss briefly the customs taxes of Great Britain, France, and Germany.
  6. Describe the excise taxes of the same countries.
  7. What reasons are there for thinking that a tax on rent can not be shifted? Discuss the incidence of an excise tax on each unit of the product of an industry.
  8. What arguments are advanced for and against progressive taxation?
  9. Discuss the shortcomings of the property tax in the United States: (a) with reference to the taxation of realty; (b) with reference to the taxation of personalty.
  10. Describe the corporation taxes of Massachusetts.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-years 1901-1902.
Also included in: Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume Examination Papers, 1902-03.  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy,… in Harvard College(June, 1902), pp. 26-27.

Image Source: Williams College, The Gulielmensian 1902, Vol. 45, p. 26. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. US Economic History. Readings and Exams. Sprague and Patten, 1901-1902

In addition to a course announcement with description, enrollment figures, and the mid-term and/or year-end examination questions, we have a reading list for “reports”, presumably to be written or presented by students, for a course in U.S. economic history jointly taught by O.M.W. Sprague and James Horace Patten (see below) at Harvard during the 1901-1902 academic year.

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JAMES HORACE PATTEN

Born at Spring Hill, Kan., Dec. 23, 1877. Son of Henry Harrison and Gertrude (Pratt) Patten.

School: Paola and Olathe High School; Wentworth Military Academy.

Year in College: 1896-97. A.B.; AM. 1899; LL.B. 1905; A.B. 1896 (Kansas State University).

Married: Olive Young Latimer, Oct. 12, 1909, Belton, S.C.

Occupation: Lawyer.

Address: (business) 204 Second Street, S.E., Washington, D.C.; (home) 1918 S. Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

Was Instructor of Economics, Harvard College, 1900-02; Austin Teaching Fellow, Harvard, 1902-03; appointed Professor of Political Science, University of New Brunswick, in May, 1902; resigned in August, 1902, to enter Harvard Law School; admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in June, 1905; South Carolina Bar in 1909; District of Columbia in 1906; resided in Washington, D.C., since 1905, office 204 Second Street, S.E.; residence 1918 S Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. I was general counsel, Farmers’ educational Co-operative Socitey, 1909-16; assistant secretary, Farmers’ National Congress, 1914-18; and secretary, 1918-20; secretary, Immigration Restriction League since 1912; member, Phi Beta Kappa, Beta Theta Pi, Mason, University Club, Washington, D.C.; national vice-president, Patriotic Order Sons of America.

Source: Harvard Class of 1897. Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Report 1897-1922, pp. 421-422.

James Horace Patten. “The Immigration Problem and the South” from The American (Raleigh, N.C.: April 1, 1906).

His death

[Died Apr. 25, 1940 (AP) Washington, April 26: “James H. Patten, 62, attorney and publicist, died yesterday from effects of illunitating gas a short time after his wife found him in the kitchen of their home”. 

A certificate of suicide was issued. “Mrs. Patten told police her husband had been in ill health and suffering from a nervous disorder for some time.” The Greenville News, S.C. April 27, 1940, p. 10]

______________________________

Course Announcement,
1901-1902.
Economics 6

For Undergraduates and Graduates

  1. The Economic History of the United States. Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague and Mr. [Austin Teaching Fellow, James Horace] Patten.

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; the development of corporations and the formation of industrial combinations; 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, the effects of immigration. Finally, the more important features of our currency and financial history are reviewed. Comparisons will be made from time to time with the contemporary economic history of Europe.

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

Source: Harvard University Archives. Annual Announcement of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901).  Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. p. 42.

______________________________

Course Enrollment, 1901-02
Economics 6.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 6. Dr. Sprague and Mr. Patten. — The Economic History of the United States.

Total 125: 7 Graduates, 33 Seniors, 53 Juniors, 19 Sophomores, 13 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

______________________________

REPORTS IN ECONOMICS 6.

[In pencil: “1901-02 ?”]

COLONIAL TOPICS.

  1. ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. — WAS IT BENEFICIAL TO THE COLONIES OR THE MOTHER COUNTRY?

Beer: Commercial Policy of England toward her Colonies, chs. iv-viii.

Rogers: Economical Interpretation of History, 318-340.

Rabbeno: American Commercial Policy, 48-91.

Smith: Wealth of Nations, Bk. IV, ch. vii.

Ricardo: Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, ch. xxv.

Bernard: Select Letters on the Trade Government of America.

  1. SPANISH COLONIES AND COLONIAL POLICY.

Burke: European Settlements in America, Part III, chs. iii-v, viii, ix, xi, xvi.

Robertson: History of America, Bk. VIII.

Lewis: Government of Dependencies, 134-165, 351-9.

Merivale: Colonization and Colonies, I, 1-44.

Moses: The Casa de Contratacion of Seville. — Annual Report of the American Historical Assn., 1894, pp. 93-123.

Winterbotham: History of America, IV, 176-202.

Reynal: History of the Indies, III, 336-426, IV, 275-345.

Humbolt: Political Essays on the Kingdom of New Spain, I, 230-257, III, 231-251, 283-294, 324-3336, 394-418, 490, IV, 27, 55, 92-127.

  1. THE COLONIAL LABOR PROBLEM. — DIFFICULTY OF SECURING A SUPPLY OF LABOR AND THE MEANS USED TO OVERCOME IT.

(a) Transportation of Criminals, and Indentured Servants.

Merivale: Colonization and Colonies, Part III, Lecture ix, xii, xiii.

Brownlow: Slavery and Serfdom in Europe, Lecture v.

Fisk: Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, II, 174-189.

Bruce: Economic History of Virginia, chs. ix, x.

Weeden: Economic and Social History of New England, 83-87, 520-522.

American Husbandry, I, 169-70. (Lib. No. 47.42.)

Lucas: Historical Geography of the British Colonies, II, 47.

(b) The African Slave Trade.

Weston: Progress of Slavery, 153-163, (ch. xi).

Merivale: Colonization and Colonies, Lecture ix-xi.

Lucas: Historical Geography of the British Colonies, III, chs. ii, iii.

DuBois: Suppression of the African Slave Trade, 1-6.

Cobb: Historical Sketch of Slavery, ch. IX.
Bandinel: Some Account of the Trade in Slaves, etc., Part I.
Edwards: History of the West Indies, Bk. IV, chs. ii-v.

Dean: Connection of Massachusetts with Slavery.

Weeden: Economic and Social History of New England, ch. xii.

Bruce: Economic History of Virginia, ch. xi.

  1. COLONIAL CURRENCY. — SCARCITY OF SPECIE CURRENCY AND SOME OF THE SUBSTITUTES FOR IT.

White: Money and Banking, 120-134, 248-258.

Weeden: Economic and Social History of New England, pp. 32-45, 314-336, 473-491, 674-678.

Macfarlane: Pennsylvania Paper Currency. — Publications of American Academy of Pol. and Soc. Science, Vol. VIII, 50.

Bruce: Economic History of Virginia, ch. xix.

Ripley: Financial History of Virginia, ch. xix.

Davis: Currency Discussions in Mass. in the 18th Century. — Quarterly Journal of Economics, XI, 70, 136.

Douglass: A Discourse Concerning the Currencies of the British Plantations in America. — Economic Studies, II, No. 5.

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY.

  1. COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH GREAT BRITAIN 1783-1830. — NAVIGATION ACTS AND THE WEST INDIA TRADE.

Lyman: The Diplomacy of United States, II, chs. ii, iii, xii.

Edwards: History of the West Indies, Bk. VI, ch. iv.

Lindsay: History of Merchant Shipping, II, 250-256, 345-407, III, 53-65.

Jay: Life and Writings of John Jay, I, 330-334.

Sumner: Life of Jackson, 164-170.

Rand: Economic History since 1763. (2d Ed.), 515-517.

Adams: Works, VIII, 241, 241 (sic), 310, 327, 350, (273-466).

Madison: Writings, II, 158, 170, 173, 197, 233. 480-483.

  1. SOME REPRESENTATIVE VIEWS OF TARIFF POLICY.

(a) Webster and the Position of New England.

Webster: Works, III, 94 (1824), 224 (1828), V, 161 (1846).

Taussig: State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, 317-385.

For the votes of each state on each Tariff Act, see Sen. Rept. No. 2130, 2d Sess. 51st Congress, pp. 118-120.

(b) Calhoun and McDuffie. — Opposition of the South. — . Had South Carolina just cause for complaint?

Houston: A [Critical] Study of Nullification in South Carolina, chs. iii, iv.

Calhoun: Works, II, 163-173, VI, 2-34.

McDuffie: In Annals of Congress, 18th Cong., I, 1552, 1677, II, 2402-2425; in Congressional Debates, III, 1003, 1006, 2400-2404, VI, 843-847, VIII, Part III, 3142.

(c) Hamilton and Gallatin.

Gallatin: Report on Manufactures, 26-29 (Lib. No. 7372, 25).

Taussig: State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, 1-62, 109-213.

Rabbeno: American Commercial Policy, 287-324.

(d) List and Carey.

Rabbeno: American Commercial Policy, 325-383.

List: National System of Political Economy, 189-352.

Carey: Principles of Social Science: I, chs. iv, §§1-3, viii, x, xiv, xv, xix, xx. xxvi-xxix.

  1. THE TARIFF POLICY AND THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRY 1846-1860. — HOW DID THE LOW DUTIES AFFECT MANUFACTORIES AND WAGES?

Webster: Works, V, 225-235.

Winthrop: Cong. Globe, 1845-46. Appendix, 972-973.

Taussig: Tariff’ History of the U.S., 109-154.

Bolles; Financial History of the U. S., 449-466

Grosvenor: Does Protection Protect, chs. ix, xi, xvi, xix-xxii, xxiv.

Bishop: History of American Manufactures, II, 505 (483-505).

Wright: Comparative Wages, 23-38, 191-199.

Aldrich: Report on Wholesale Prices, Wages, and Transportation, Part I, 11-16. (Sen. Report, No. 1394, 52d Cong. 2d Sess.)

Compendium of the 7th Census, 178-184.

Compendium of 8th Census, 59-75.

  1. GROWTH AND DECAY OF AMERICAN SHIPPING.

Shaler: The United States of American, I, 518-624.

Kelley: The Question of Ships, ch. i-v, xi.

Bates: American Marine, chs. ii, viii-xii, xxii.

Wells: Decay of Our Ocean Mercantile Marine. (Lib. No. v. 6034).

Lindsay: History of Merchant Shipping, IV, chs. iii, iv.

Lynch: Causes of the Reduction of American Tonnage.

SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST.

  1. SPREAD OF COTTON CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT ON SLAVERY. — HAD SLAVERY A PERMANENT ECONOMIC BASIS IN THE SOUTH?

Hammond: The Cotton Industry, chs. ii, iii.

Merivale: Colonization and Colonies. I, 295-302.

Wakefield: The Public Lands a Mine of Wealth, 44-46.

_________: England and America, ii, 1-17.

Sterling: Letters from the Slave States, 302-322.

Hildreth: Despotism in American, ch. iii.

Weston: Progress of Slavery, chs. i-iv, xii, xiv-xvi.

Cairnes: The Slave Power, chs. ii-v, especially 83-92.

Olmsted: The Cotton Kingdom, I, ch. 1; II, 361-398; or

_________: A Journey in the Back Country, ch. viii.

_________: Seaboard Slave States, chs. iii. iv, viii.

Russell: North America, its Agriculture and Climate, chs. viii-x, (xv-xvi).

  1. IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSPORTATION, AND GROWTH OF INTERNAL COMMERCE AS INDICATED BY LAKE, RIVER, AND CANAL TRAFFIC, 1813-1860.

McMaster: History of United States, III, 459-496, 1V, 381-424.

Million: State Aid to Railways in Missouri, 7-29, 196-229.

Adams: Public Debt, 317-342.

Flagg: Internal Improvements in New York. — Hunt’s Merchants’ Magazine, XXIII-XXV. (See also, VI, 439, XVIII, 488.)

Poor: Manual of the Railroads of the U. S., 1868-9, pp. 9-19.

Kettell: In Eighty Years’ Progress, 165-167, 178-190.

U.S. Treas. Dept.: Report on the Internal Commerce of the United States, 178-233.

Andrews: Report on Colonial and Lake Trade.

De Bow: Industrial Resources of the South and West, I, 444-453.

  1. SALE AND SETTLEMENT OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. — PUBLIC LAND POLICY

McMaster: History of U.S., II, 476-482, III, 89-146.

Hart: Practical Essays on American Government, 233-258.

Donaldson: The Public Domain, chs. vii, viii, x, xiii, xx, xxvii.

Gallatin: Writings, III, 209-229.

Colton: Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Henry Clay. I. ch. xx, VI. 56-85.

American Annual Register, 1829-30, p. 67.

Sato: History of the Land Question in the U.S. — Johns Hopkins University Studies in Hist. and Pol. Sci., IV, Nos. vii-ix.

CURRENCY AND FINANCE

  1. THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM ESTABLISHED BY HAMILTON AND GALLATIN.

Hildreth: History of U.S., IV, 152-176; 206-220; 252-256; 536-538.

Dunbar: Some Precedents followed by Hamilton, Q.J.E., III, 32-59.

Hamilton: Reports on Public Credit; Works, III, 1-45, 457-529. (Lodge Ed., ii, 97-108; 475-529.)

Adams: Life of Gallatin, 267-274; 292-297

______: History of U.S., I, ch. x.

Howe: Taxation in the U.S. under the Internal Revenue System. chs. i, ii.

  1. BANK NOTES AS DEPRECIATED CURRENCY AND THE HISTORY OF THE SECOND UNITED STATES BANK, 1814-1846.

Hildreth: History of U.S., IV, 256-262.

Bancroft: A Plea for the Constitution, etc., Part iii.

White: Money and Banking, 271-313.

Gallatin: Considerations on the Currency and Banking System of the U.S., 5-6, 19-84. (See also Writings, 235-6; 253-336.)

Sumner: History of American Currency, 59-169; or

______: Life of Jackson, 236-276; 291-342.

McMaster: With the Fathers, 237-252.

  1. THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY AND EFFORTS TO SECURE A SPECIE CURRENCY, 1836-1860.

Bolles: Financial History of the U.S., II, 351-358.

Hildreth: Banks and Banking, 109-113; 170-177.

Gouge: A Short History of Paper Money and Banking in the U.S., 103-106: 111-116.

Van Buren: Special Message of 1837, Statesman’s Manual, 1051.

Webster: Works, IV, 312, 324.

Benton: Thirty Years’ View, II, 124, 164.

Kinley: The Independent Treasury of U.S., chs, i-iii, vii.

Sumner: History of American Currency, 161-189.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003.Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1901-1902”.

______________________________

Mid-Year Examination 1901-02
ECONOMICS 6

  1. Define or explain:
    1. Enumerated Commodities.
    2. The Molasses Act.
    3. Specie Circular.
    4. Independent Treasury.
    5. The “National Pike.”
    6. Pre-emption.
    7. The tariff of abominations.
  2. The iron industry in the United States to 1860 and the influence of the tariff upon its development.
  3. Why was protection favorably regarded in the West and South after the War of 1812?
  4. The relation of the public lands to the tariff after 1825.
  5. What economic reasons were advanced against the renewal of the charter of the second bank of the United States? Were they well-founded?
  6. The history of internal improvements in Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, distinguishing carefully important differences.
  7. The connection of the settlement of the Mississippi valley, improvements in transportation facilities, and changes in the nature and relative importance of occupations in different sections of the country. What statistics show the connection?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1901-02.

______________________________

Year-End Examination 1901-02
ECONOMICS 6

  1. Trace with specific illustrations the steps taken for the elimination of railroad competition between 1868 and 1878.
  2. Conditions leading to the greater diversification of agriculture in the United States. What peculiar obstacles present themselves in the South?
  3. Why are duties on raw materials less defensible than those on manufactures? Give specific illustrations.
  4. Why have the silk duties been more successful than the linen duties?
  5. The value of the inductive method in studying the effects of protective duties.
  6. What kinds of money might have increased in quantity under U.S. laws in 1874, in 1885 and in 1901?
  7. Why is the United States acquiring a larger proportion of the current production of gold now than ten or fifteen years ago?
  8. Defects in the fiscal system of the United States. Illustrate from experience during the war of 1812 and the Civil War

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), p. 25.

Image Source: Wikimedia. Muse Clio from the illustrations to Ovid by Virgil Solis (1562).