Category: Exam Questions

Harvard. Final exams in political economy and ethics of social reform, 1888-1889

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-04-12

J. Laurence Laughlin left the Harvard faculty in 1888. The hole he left in the department of political economy’s teaching program was filled by two junior hires whose names were noted in the enrollment statistics published in the annual report of the president of Harvard College for 1888-89: Francis Cleaveland Huntington (A.B. 1887, LL.B. 1891) and John Henry Gray (A.B., 1887).

Huntington ultimately went on to become a New York City lawyer. Judging from the reports of his 1904 marriage, he must have been fairly successful (and/or married into a very well-to-do family). His high-water market in political economy was achieved with this short stint as an instructor, one could say he was Frank Taussig’s wingman for the principles course.

John Henry Gray was another matter altogether, having left Harvard to do graduate work in Europe as a Rogers fellow that culminated in his 1892 doctorate under Johannes Conrad at the University of Halle. His thesis was published in German, Die Stellung der privaten Beleuchtungsgesellschaften zu Stadt und Staat. Die Erfahrungen in Wien, Paris und Massachusetts. Jena, 1893. A fuller c.v. will be the subject of a later post (Besides professorships at Northwestern, Minnesota and Carleton College, Gray served as the AEA president in 1914).

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Philosophy 11. The Ethics of Social Reform.

Enrollment 1888-89.
Philosophy 11.

Prof. Peabody. 11. The Ethics of Social Reform. — The questions of Charity, Divorce, the Indians, Labor, Prisons, Temperance, etc., as problems of practical Ethics. — Lectures, essays, and practical observations. Hours per week: 2.

Total 84: 3 Graduates, 51 Seniors, 23 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1888-1889, p. 71.

1888-89.
PHILOSOPHY 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
[Mid-year Examination, 1889]

[Omit one question].

“Estimating life by multiplying its length into its breadth, we must say that the augmentation of it results from increase of both factors.” — (Spencer, Data of Ethics, p. 14.)
Explain and criticise.
“I am one of those who believe that the Real will never find an irremovable basis till it rests on the Idea.” — (J. R. Lowell, Address on Democracy.)
Illustrate this in the conduct of Charity.
“To lift one man up we push another down” … ”A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be. If a policeman picks him up, the industrious and sober workman bears the penalty.” — (Sumner, Social Classes, pp. 128, 131.)
Comment on the ethics of this view.
Plato’s view of the duty of the State to the diseased and helpless (Republic, III., 407), compared with the view of Christian civilization. What is the philosophical basis of each view?
What do you regard as the most immediately practicable remedy for existing evils in the divorce question? And why?
The practical significance of a study of the evolution of the family as a contribution to the divorce question.
Explain the reaction of “marriage by capture” into polyandry, in primitive society.
“Only the group could weather the first ages.” What picture does this give of primitive society, and what transition has ethnology seen in this respect?
The natural status of woman as suggested by biology.
The place of the family in the Socialist programme. Criticise this view of the end of social evolution.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound Volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1888-89.

1888-89.
PHILOSOPHY 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
[Final Examination, 1889]

Describe the present system of administering Indian Affairs, including education; its machinery, its relation to religious bodies, and the changes now proposed.
In dealing with the Indian Question, by what other social questions of our time are you confronted and what answers to them are suggested to you?
Ruskin’s doctrine of: (a) Exchange, (b) Value, with your own comments and criticisms.
The attitude of the Anarchist toward the social institutions of the United States.
The Socialist’s criticism of the Anarchist, and the Anarchist’s criticism of the Socialist.
“It is right and necessary that all men should have work to do:
“First, Work worth doing;
“Second, Work of itself pleasant to do;
“Third, Work done under such conditions as would make it neither over wearisome nor over anxious.” W. Morris, Art and Socialism, p. 45. — Under what social conditions does the author suppose that work will be thus done? Describe and criticize these conditions.
Why have the attempts to “Christianize” Socialism so often begun with hope and ended in failure?
Consider the objection to Profit-Sharing, that the Employed cannot share losses.
The conditions of success in Productive Coöperation.
How far does a judicious self-interest carry one towards abstinence from intoxicating drink?

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 1, First half-year.

Prof. Taussig and Mr. Huntington. 1. First half-year: Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on Social Questions. Hours per week: 3.

Total 232 (Four sections): 1 Graduate, 19 Seniors, 83 Juniors, 95 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 30 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1888-1889, p. 72.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Mid-year Examination, 1889]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

How is the rapid recovery of countries devastated by war to be explained?
Is it for the advantage of the laborers that the rich should spend largely for unproductive consumption?
Is it desirable that a large proportion of the annual produce of a country should be consumed unproductively?
If all land were of equal fertility, equally distant from the market, and all were required for cultivation, would it pay rent?
Explain under which head, — wages, profit, rents, — you would classify the gains of (1) a shop-keeper; (2) a farmer tilling his own land; (3) a manufacturer; (4) a stock-holder; (5) a bond-holder; (6) a house-owner receiving rent for houses.
Can capitalists recoup themselves for a general rise in the cost of labor by raising the prices of their goods?
“Since cost of production fails us in explaining the value of commodities having a joint cost, we must revert to a law of value anterior to cost of production, and more fundamental.” What is this more fundamental law, and what is its application in the case referred to by Mill?
Suppose that
in England one day’s labor produces 25 yards of linens,
in England one day’s labor produces 30 yards of cottons,
in Germany one day’s labor produces 15 yards of linens,
in Germany one day’s labor produces 20 yards of cottons.
Would international trade arise between Germany and England?
If a day’s labor in Germany produced 25 yards of linens, would trade arise?
Suppose a new article of export to appear in the international trade of the United States; what would be the effect on the price in New York of sight bills on London? How long would that effect continue?
What causes the tendency of profits to a minimum (1) in a country whose population is stationary; (2) in a country whose population is advancing? What forces counteract the tendency, and how do they act in each of these cases?
If productive cooperation were universally adopted, how would rent, interest, wages, and “profits” (i.e. wages of superintendence) be affected? How, if socialism were adopted?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound Volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1888-89.

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 1, Second half-year, Division A.

Prof. Taussig and Mr. Huntington. 1. Division A (theoretical). Second half-year: Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on Banking and Finance. Hours per week: 3.

Total 127 (Two sections): 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 39 Juniors, 60 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 15 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1888-1889, p. 72.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Final Examination, 1889]
Division A.

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

“The price of mutton on an average exceeds that of beef in the ratio of 9 to 8; we must conclude that people generally esteem mutton more than beef in this proportion, otherwise they would not buy the dearer meat.”
(a) Give your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the above conclusion.
(b) On Jevons’s theory of value, what conclusion should you draw from the given hypothesis?
If you suppose free competition, does Cairnes’s theory of normal value differ essentially from that of Mill? If so, wherein? If not, why not?
Longe “puts the case of a capitalist who, by taking advantage of the necessities of his workmen, effects a reduction in their wages, and succeeds in withdrawing so much, call it £1000, from the wages fund; and asks, how is the sum thus withdrawn to be restored to the fund? On Mr. Longe’s principles the answer is simple — ‘by being spent on commodities’; for it may be assumed that the sum so withdrawn will in any case not be hoarded….The answer, therefore, to the case put by Mr. Longe is easy on his own principles; and I am disposed to flatter myself that the reader who has gone with me in the foregoing discussion will not have much difficulty in replying to it upon mine.”
What is the answer, on Cairnes’s principles, to the case put by Mr. Longe?
What bearing, if any, has the wages-fund theory as expounded by Cairnes upon the question of the ability of trades unions to raise permanently (a) general wages, (b) wages in particular occupations?
“If labor will only be employed where work is to be done, and will be employed more largely in any given work in proportion as there is more of that work to do; and if, again, as the work becomes more urgent the laborer is more sought; why is it wrong to say that it is the interest of the laborer that the quantity of work to be done should be as large and the need for it as urgent as possible?”
Would a general fall of wages in the United States cause an expansion of the country’s international trade? Would a fall of wages in a particular industry?
Did Mill think there were grounds for a separate theory of international trade? Did Cairnes?
How much truth is there in the common opinion that the value of gold is the same the world over?
Mill lays down certain propositions as to the connection between the quantity of money and the general range of prices. How are they modified by what you have learned of deposit banking?
What general causes affected the market price of gold, or in other words the premium on gold, during the civil war? How far did the premium at a given moment indicate depreciation of the paper currency, and what would be a more exact test of such depreciation?

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 1, Second half-year, Division B.

Prof. Taussig and Mr. Huntington. 1. Division B (descriptive). Second half-year: Hadley’s Railroad Transportation. — Laughlin’s History of Bimetallism in the United States. — Lectures on Banking and Finance. Hours per week: 3.

Total 105 (Two sections): 11 Seniors, 44 Juniors, 35 Sophomores, 15 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1888-1889, p. 72.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Division B.
[Final Examination, 1889]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

State the principles upon which the system of subsidiary coinage rests. When were these principles first applied by the United States?
State the causes assigned by Mr. Laughlin for the fall in the gold price of silver since 1873.
In what way, if any, was the change which took place in the value of gold after the gold discoveries in Australia and California different from what it would have been if, at the time, the mint of France had not been open for the free coinage of gold and silver into full legal tender money at a fixed ratio?
In the United States also there was at the same time free coinage of gold and silver into full legal tender money at a fixed ratio. Was the influence exerted by bi-metallism on the value of gold different in these two cases? If so, why?
How did the trade dollar differ in value from the standard dollar (a) in the United States, (b) in foreign countries?
Mill lays down certain propositions as to the effect of an increase or decrease in the quantity of money on general prices. How far are they modified by what you have learned of deposit banking?
Mill divides commodities into three classes, and lays down certain principles of value applying to the three classes, respectively.
In which class would you put the commodity of transportation by railroad, and by what principle is its value determined?
What is meant when it is said that “an effective pooling of through business leaves the hands of railroads free to serve local interests”?
What is meant by “charging repairs to construction”? Why should it ever be done?
In what countries does government ownership of railroads now exist, and how long has it existed in them?
Explain briefly the following terms: differential; long and short haul principle; “dollar of our fathers”; demonetization of silver.
What descriptions of paper, intended to serve as currency, did the United States issue during the civil war?

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 2

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 2.

Prof. Taussig. 2. — Examination of selections from leading writers. — Lectures and discussions; one extended thesis from each student. Hours per week: 3. *Consent of instructor required.

Total 24: 13 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1888-1889, p. 72.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Mid-year and Final Examination, 1889]

Point out wherein the teachings of the mercantile writers on population and on the balance of trade were connected with the political and economic history of their time.
Under what conditions did Adam Smith believe that wages could long remain high? What reasoning led him to his conclusion? Do you think the reasoning sound?
Wherein did Adam Smith’s doctrines as to foreign trade differ from those of Hume and of the Physiocrats?
Ricardo’s chapter on value has been criticized on the following grounds: —
(1) Ricardo asserts, but in no way proves, that value depends on quantity of labor.
(2) He does not state whether he means labor expended on the production of goods, or labor needed for their reproduction.
(3) His principle holds good only of goods of which the production can be increased indefinitely, and as to which competition is free.
(4) The principle is at once modified by the statement that the general rate of profits affects values.
Discuss briefly each objection.
Malthus laid it down that (1) marriages and deaths bear a constant proportion in an old country; (2) with a rise in the standard of living, marriages become less in proportion to population; (3) births, like marriages, bear a constant proportion to deaths, in an old country.
What led Malthus to these conclusions? Does experience bear him out?
By what mode of proof did Malthus show that the wars of the French Revolution had not diminished the population of France? Point out wherein his discussion of this subject is characteristic of the Essay on Population.
Malthus, Ricardo, J. S. Mill, Cairnes, — note briefly how they are related in the history of economic theory.
What would be the movement of wages and prices in case of a general improvement in industrial processes?
What does Cairnes conclude as to the results which Trade Unions can permanently bring about (1) in England; (2) in the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound Volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1888-89.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Final Examination, 1889]

On what grounds can you reason that the stock of consumable commodities is likely to be sufficient, or more than sufficient, to last, at the present rate of consumption, till a new stock can be produced? What bearing has the answer on the wages-fund controversy?
Discuss President F. A. Walker’s explanation of business profits in its bearing on the general theory of distribution.
By what reasoning does Cairnes reach the conclusion that, in the present state of society, “the rich will be growing richer, and the poor, at least relatively, poorer.”
Could Cairnes, consistently with his conclusions as to coöperation, oppose measures such as were urged by Lasalle?
Point out wherein Sidgwick’s exposition of the causes determining the rate of interest differs from Mill’s.
What was the attitude toward laissez-faire of Adam Smith? Of Ricardo? Of Cairnes?
What reasons are there why the term “socialist” should or should not be applied to (1) the Christian socialists; (2) advocates of German legislation on workmen’s insurance; (3) followers of Mr. Henry George.
Point out wherein Marx’s discussion of wages is similar to that of Rodbertus.
“From the history of the double standard we reach Gresham’s law, that where two currencies exist side by side the baser will drive the good out; from the prosperity of England we can reason to the principle of free trade, at least for industrially developed nations.” — R. M. Smith. What would Cairnes say to this mode of investigation for the specific questions mentioned?
Comment on the following extracts, separately or in connection with each other:—

“The value of most of the theorems of the classic economists is a good deal attenuated by the habitual assumption…that there is a definite universal rate of profits and wages in a community; this last postulate implying (1) that the capital embarked in any undertaking will pass at once to another in which larger profits are for the time to be made; (2) that a laborer, whatever his ties and feelings, family, habit, or other engagements, will transfer himself immediately to any place where, or employment in which, larger wages are to be earned; (3) that both capitalists and laborers have a perfect knowledge of the condition and prospects of industry throughout the country, both in their own and in other occupations.” — J. K. Ingram.

“In proof of the equalization of profits, Mr. Cairnes urges that capital deserts or avoids occupations which are known to be comparatively unremunerative; while if large profits are known to be realized in any investment there is a flow of capital toward it. Hence it is inferred that capital finds its level like water. But surely the movement of capital from losing to highly profitable trades proves only a great inequality of profits.” — Cliffe Leslie.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 3

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 3.
Omitted in 1888-89.

[3. Investigation and Discussion of Practical Economic Questions. *Consent of instructor required.]

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1888-1889, p. 72.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 4

Enrollment 1888-89.
Political Economy 4.

Mr. Gray. 4. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. — Lectures and written work. Hours per week: 3.

Total 95: 1 Graduate, 16 Seniors, 46 Juniors, 27 Sophomores, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1888-1889, p. 72.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
[Mid-year Examination, 1889]

[Give one hour to A. Under B omit any two questions except number 5.]

A.

Make a concise statement of the English Navigation and Colonial system.
Give a careful sketch of the English Corn Laws. Discuss the wisdom of these laws and their relation to the general question of Protection.
The Emancipating Edict of Stein. Give the provisions in it; the reasons for it, and the results of it.

B.

“It has been a generally received notion among political arithmeticians that we (the English nation) may increase our debt to £100,000,000, but they acknowledge that it must then close by the debtor becoming bankrupt” [Samuel Hannay, 1756].
Compare the English and Belgian Railway System in their origin, methods, and results.
Give a sketch of the introduction of Steam Navigation. What country felt the beneficial effects first? Why?
Say what you can about the geographical distribution of the Iron, Cotton, and Woolen industries of to-day, both as regards the different countries and also within each country. How did the new inventions and discoveries affect the location of these industries respectively?
Make a clear statement of our Commercial Relations with the West Indies since the independence of the United States. Pay particular attention to the laws under which that trade has been carried on, and the character and importance of that trade to the United States.
What was the attitude of the United States towards a Protective tariff in 1816? How do you account for that attitude?
Say what you can of the Economic effects of Slavery on the South.
The chief arguments used against the abolition of the Slave Trade in England. Were they sound? Why was the abolition postponed to so late a day?
Looking at the history of England since the adoption of Free Trade, what fact can you cite to show that Free Trade has been the best policy for her?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound Volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1888-89.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
[Final Examination, 1889]

[Take all of A, all of B, and two questions from C.]

A.

Pitt’s “perfectly new and solid system of finance,” 1797.
At what actual rate could England borrow in 1797? What methods were used? What provision made for repayment? — [“The Finances of England, 1793-1815.” — Selections.]
Say what you can of the extent, the methods, the importance, and the prospects of the cotton manufacture in the United States. The possibility of successful competition with England in this industry. — [“The Cotton Manufacture.” — — Selections.]
What would have been the effect upon the United States, Australia, and India, respectively, of introducing a gold currency into India when the “new gold” came in? — [“The New Gold.” — — International Results. — Selections.]

B.

The history, present extent, character, benefits, evils, and prospects of immigration to the United States.
At what general periods in this century have the exports largely exceeded the imports of the United States? The imports the exports? The medium by which balances were settled for the time being in each case. The chief commodities exported or imported by the United States in each period.
Describe the plans of Napoleon III. for aiding industry.
Sketch the English factory and workshop legislation. Its economic and political significance. Which political party has been most prominent in securing this legislation?
The coal supply as the basis of England’s industrial and commercial supremacy. The possibility of England’s decline because of the exhaustion of her coal supply.
State the chief provisions of the Resumption Act of 1875. How much cash did the Treasury collect for the purposes of this act before 1879? How was the cash obtained? How much of it was used? What was done with the balance?

C.

The demands for gold, 1871-1883? How was it possible to meet them?
Explain the causes of the variation in the number of failures, and the peculiar local distribution of the failures in the United States, 1873-1879.
T-he causes of the fall in the price of silver in 1876.
The causes of the decline of American navigation since 1860.
What were the internal revenue taxes laid during the civil war, 1861-1865? The relation of those taxes to our customs revenue.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 5

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 5.
Omitted in 1888-89.

[5. Economic Effects of Land Tenures in England, Ireland, France, and the United States. *Consent of instructor required.]

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1888-1889, p. 72.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 6

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 6, Second half-year.

Prof. Taussig. 6. History of Tariff Legislation in the United States.—Lectures and reports on special topics. Hours per week: 2, 2^ndhalf-year. *Consent of instructor required.

Total 34: 18 Seniors, 14 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1888-1889, p. 72.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6
[End-Year]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

State the duties on cotton cloths, woolen cloths, pig iron, and coffee, in 1790, 1840, 1850, 1885, noting whether the duties were specific or ad valorem, and what tariff acts were in force at these dates, respectively [Use tabular form if you wish.]
“Beside the protection thrown over the manufacturing interest by Congress during this period (1789-1812), the war which raged in Europe produced a favorable effect. As the United States was a neutral nation, she fattened on the miseries of the European nations, and her commerce increased with astonishing rapidity. Our manufactures flourished from the same cause, though not to a corresponding degree with our commerce”
Did Congress protect manufactures during this period? Did the wars in Europe have the effect described on our commerce and manufactures?
Wherein were the duties on rolled iron in France, in the first half of this century, similar to those in the United States at the same period? How do you account for the similarity, and what was the effect of the duties in either country?
Why was a compound duty imposed on wool in 1828? Why in 1867? Is such a duty now imposed on wool?
Wherein does the present duty on worsted goods differ from that imposed on woolen goods in 1828? wherein from the present duty on woolens? What has been the effect of the difference between the present rates on woolens and worsteds?
Point out some general features in the tariff act of 1846 which were recommended in Secretary Walker’s Report of the year preceding.
What would be the effect of a treaty with Spain admitting free of duty sugar from Cuba?
Wherein has the effect of the duties of the last twenty-five years been different as to cottons, linens, woolens? Why the differences?
[Omit one of the following:—]
Mill says that certain conclusions which he reaches as to the effect on foreign countries of import duties, do not hold good as to protective duties. Is there good ground for distinguishing as he does between revenue and protective duties.
“The only case indeed in which personal aptitudes go for much in the commerce of nations is where the nations concerned occupy different grades in the scale of civilization…In the main it would seem that this cause does not go for very much in international commerce. The principal condition, to which all others are subordinate, must be looked for in that other form of adaptation founded on the special advantages, positive or comparative, offered by particular localities for the prosecution of particular industries.”—Cairnes, Leading Principles.
Discuss, with reference to the general line of reasoning in this passage, the international trade of the United States in (1) glassware, (2) hardware and cutlery, (3) hemp and flax [take any two].
Comment on the following:—
“The manufacture of silk goods in the United States at the present time [1882] probably supplies an example of an industry which, though comparatively new, can hardly be said to deserve protection as a young industry. The methods and machinery in use are not essentially different from those of other branches of textile manufactures. No great departure from the usual track of production is necessary in order to make silks….Those artificial obstacles which might temporarily prevent the rise of the industry do not exist; and it may be inferred that, if there are no permanent causes which prevent silks from being made as cheaply in the United States as in foreign countries, the manufacture will be undertaken and carried on without needing any stimulus from protecting duties.”— Taussig, Protection to Young Industries.

Political Economy 6. Grade Distribution 1888-89, 2d half-year.

Total (32)	Senior (16)	Junior (14)	Other (2)
A	2	2
A-	1
B+	3	2
B	4	4
B-	1	1
C	1	3	2
D	4
E		2

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June, 1889. Grade distribution source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers in economics, 1882-1935. Prof. F. W. Taussig.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 7

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 7.

Prof. Dunbar. 7. Taxation, Public Debts, and Banking. Hours per week: 3. *Consent of instructor required.

Total 7: 3 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 1 Junior.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1888-1889, p. 72.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
[Mid-year Examination, 1889]

Commenting upon taxes on commodities, Mill remarks that “the necessity of advancing the tax obliges producers and dealers to carry on their business with larger capitals than would otherwise be necessary,” the excess being “employed in advances to the state, repaid in the price of the goods,” for which “the consumers must give an indemnity to the sellers.”
Compare in this respect the several methods of taxing tobacco.
Everything considered, which method appears to you the best, and why?
How much difference is there in theory between a tax of repartition like the French land tax and tax levied by a general rate, or tax of quotité?
Discuss the importance of the familiar proposition that taxation should not encroach upon capital or hinder its increase, with special reference to these three cases: —
(a) The taxation of business profits at the same rate as incomes from invested property, as g. in the English Schedules D and A;
(b) Succession duties, which Ricardo regards as in practice a deduction from capital;
(c) Graduated taxation, which lays a heavier percentage on the larger properties or incomes than on the smaller.
Supposing all difficulty in the way of obtaining a full disclosure to be removed and the returns to be complete, would it be better to tax the assessed value of property or the actual income derived from it?
In the following cases, which may serve for illustration, the assessment is supposed to fairly represent the selling value: —

	Assessed.	Income.
Improved real estate	$20,000	$1,200
Vacant land	$10,000	nil
Railroad stock, 50 sh.	$10,000	$400
Railroad stock, 50 sh.	$5,500	$200
Railroad stock, 50 sh.	$4,500	nil
Railroad bonds, $5,000	$3,000	nil
Railroad bonds, $5,000	$3,500	$200

Cossa, discussing the taxation of public debts, (1) favors it “on principles of justice and equity, which are opposed to fiscal privileges in favor of the creditors of the state, who should not be released from the fulfilment of the duties of citizens”; and (2) suggests in answer to the argument that public credit would be thereby injured, “that a moderate impost does not produce the anticipated evils, because the tendency towards a decline of the public credit may be balanced by a tendency to rise owing to financial improvement, partly due to the impost itself.”
Examine these two points.
In answering the proposition that

Every man ought to be taxed [solely] on all that property which he consumes or appropriates to his exclusive use,

President Walker says among other things that,

If wealth not devoted to personal expenditure is to be exempt from taxation on the ground that it is to be used for the public good, it unmistakably is the right, and it might even become the duty of the state, to see to it that such wealth is, in fact, in all respects and at all times put to the best possible use. Indeed, if any citizen protests against taxation on the ground that his tools “are working the business of the state,” — how can the state, without injustice to all other citizens, excuse him from contribution without requiring that he shall exhibit satisfactory evidence, not only that his tools are really working its business, but that they are doing this in the most thorough, efficient and economical manner? If this is not socialism of the rankest sort, I should be troubled to define socialism.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound Volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1888-89.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
[Final Examination, 1889]

State the conditions under which loans will sell higher or lower by reason of
(a) annual drawings by lot for payment;
(b) reserved right to pay at pleasure;
(c) agreement to pay at or after some distant date;
(d) arrangement like that of the “Five-twenties.”
When the United States issued the 5-20 bonds (principal and interest payable in gold) they had the choice between three courses, viz.:—
(a) to sell the bonds for par in gold and make the rate of interest high enough to attract buyers;
(b) to sell the bonds for gold at such discount as might be necessary, their interest being at six per cent.;
(c) to sell the bonds at their nominal par in depreciated paper.
Which course now seems to you the best of the three, and why?
In discussing the Aldrich plan for converting the 4 per cents. into 2½ per cents. by paying the creditors the present worth of 1½ per cent. interest for the period 1889-1907, Mr. Adams says:—

“It will be noticed that there is one essential difference between the anticipation of interest-payments, and the anticipation of the payment of the principal of a debt by purchases on the market. This latter procedure, as has been shown, is expensive, because it requires a larger sum of money to extinguish a given debt than will be required after the debt comes to be redeemable; but no such result follows the anticipation of interest-payments. These are determined by the terms of the contract, and may be calculated with accuracy. The interest does not, like the market value of a debt, fall as the bonds approach the period of their redemption, and it is but the application of sound business rules to use any surplus moneys on hand in making advanced payments of interest.”— Public Debts, p. 278.
What do you say to this reasoning?

Explain the English method of using terminable annuities as a sinking fund, and its advantages or disadvantages.
As an ultimate arrangement of the right of issuing bank notes, should you give your preference (a) to a system which gives the right to a single bank or to few banks, as in the English and Continental practice, or (b) to a system of free banking like that contemplated by the law of the United States; and why?
Bonamy Price says “the Bank of England has become a non-issuing bank.”
How is this remark to be justified and yet reconciled with the course of events on those occasions when, as in November, 1857, it has been necessary to suspend the provisions of the act of 1844?
Give an outline of the German system of banks of issue.
Considering deposits as a part of the currency, how do you extend to them the usual reasoning as to the dependence of the value of currency on (a) its quantity, rapidity of circulation, and the quantity of transactions to be effected, and (b) the cost of the precious metals?

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 8

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 8, First half-year.

Prof. Dunbar. 8. History of Financial Legislation in the United States. Hours per week: 2. 1^sthalf-year. *Consent of instructor required.

Total 44: 28 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1888-1889, p. 72.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
[Final Examination, Mid-year, 1889]

In what manner is it probable that the first Bank of the United States effected what Hamilton declared to be one of the principal objects of a bank, viz. “the augmentation of the active or productive capital of a country”?
The act of 1790, providing for the assumption of State debts, fixed the maximum which could be assumed for every State, as e.g. for Connecticut $1,600,000. What effect would it have on the fairness of the settlement of accounts with any State, if its outstanding revolutionary debt were found to be more or less than the amount thus to be assumed for it?
Comment on the following extract:—
“It is sometimes said that Mr. Hamilton believed in a perpetual debt, and when one notices the form into which he threw the obligations of the United States, the only escape from this conclusion is to say that he was ignorant of the true meaning of the contracts which he created.” — [H.C. Adams, Public Debts, p. 161]
How did Hamilton’s financial system tend to increase the political strength of the Government, and in what features of the system is this tendency most marked?
Describe the general condition of the public finances just before the news of peace arrived in 1815.
Inasmuch as Jackson’s general prepossessions were unfavorable to all banks, how are we to explain his resort to the plan of depositing Government funds in State banks after the removal of the deposits in 1833?
How did the specie circular of 1836 and the deposit of surplus revenue with the States affect the banks and help to produce the revulsion of May, 1837?
What law, if any, regulated the deposit of public funds by the Treasury in 1837, and what changes of system were made down to the passage of the Independent Treasury act of 1846?
What is to be inferred from the provisions of the Legal Tender act of February, 1862, as to the intention of Congress with respect to the payment of the principal of the five-twenty bonds in paper?
Several rulings made in the Treasury Department [House Exec. Doc. 1885-86, No. 158, p. 15] have declared a State’s unpaid quota of the direct tax of 1861 to be a debt due by the State as a body corporate, and so to be properly chargeable against any money which the General Government may chance to owe the State. What is to be inferred on this point from the provisions made for the collection of previous direct taxes?
What were the circumstances which gave such peculiar importance to Grant’s veto of the inflation bill of 1874?
What were the forms in which the question as to the power of Congress to make a paper legal tender presented itself, in the three cases,

Hepburn v. Griswold (1869),
Knox v. Lee (1872), and
Juillard v. Greenman (1884),

respectively?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound Volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1888-89. Also, Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June, 1889.

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Political Economy 9

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 9, Second half-year.

Mr. Gray. 9. Management and Ownership of Railways. — Lectures and written work. Hours per week: 2. 2^ndhalf-year. *Consent of instructor required.

Total 13: 5 Seniors, 8 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1888-1889, p. 72.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9.
[Final Examination, 1889]

Take all in Group A; two in Group B.

A.

Explain briefly any five:
1. Cost of Service.
2. Value of Service.
3. Differential rate.
4. Grouping (of rates).
5. Pooling.
6. Fixed Charges.
7. Operating Expenses.
8. Common Carrier.
9. Cumulative Voting.
10. “Railroad” (as used in the Act to Regulate Commerce).
State clearly under what conditions Competition “may make out the dissimilar circumstances entitling the carrier to charge less for the longer than for the shorter haul, etc.”, under the Interstate Commerce Act.
Discuss one of the following cases decided by the Interstate Commerce Commission:
(1) Boston Export Rates. Boston Chamb. Com. v. Lake Shore, etc., R.R. Co. — I.I.C.C.R. 436.
(2) Providence Coal Co. v. Providence & Worcester R.R. Co. — I.I.C.C.R. 107.
(3) Boards of Trade Union of Farmington, etc. v Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul R’y. Co. — I.I.C.C.R. 215.
State the principles which, in your opinion, ought to govern railroad rates.
Take either (a) or (b).
(a) The benefits and the evils of general railroad incorporation laws. The extent to which special charters can be obtained in the United States.
(b) Compare the security of railway investments in France, England and the United States.
Take either (a) or (b).
(a) Give a careful account of the powers and the work of the Massachusetts Railroad Commission.
(b) Compare the English Railway Commission of 1873-88 with the Interstate Commerce Commission.
History of the English Railway Clearing House. The Desirability and the possibility of such an organization in the United States.

B.

Competition as a regulator of rates. Particulars in which Competition among railroads differs from ordinary business Competition.
Relation of the French Government to the Railroads compared with the Relation of the German Government to the Railroads.
What do you consider the “Railroad Problem” of to-day? What indications do you see of a reasonable solution of that problem?
Discuss the statement that whatever partakes of the nature of a monopoly can be better managed by the Government than by a private Corporation.

Image Source: Harvard University, Memorial Hall, 1923. Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

Tags Dunbar, GrayJH, Huntington, Peabody, Taussig

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Semester examinations in all political economy courses, 1887-1888

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-02-14

In this post we have a complete collection of the semester examinations for the eight courses in political economy taught at Harvard during the 1887-88 academic year. As an extra bonus we have the examinations for the Philosophy course “Ethics of Social Reform” that clearly included a good chunk of the normative political economy of its time.

Fun facts: Mr. Gray, who taught the less theoretical sections of the second half of the principles course, was John Henry Gray (1859-1946) who had received his A.B. from Harvard in 1887 and who went on to receive a Ph.D. in 1892 at the University of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany under Johannes Conrad. In addition to having professorships at Northwestern, Carleton College and the University of Minnesota, Gray was president of the AEA in 1914.

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Political Economy 1.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 1. First half-year: Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures on Banking. Profs. Laughlin and Taussig.

Total 210: 2 Graduates, 29 Seniors, 83 Juniors, 69 Sophomores, 5 Freshmen, 22 Others. (Four sections).

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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Political Economy 1
1887-1888.

[Mid-year examination]

Is productive consumption necessarily consumption of capital? Can there be unproductive consumption of capital?
Distinguish which of the following commodities are capital, and, as to those that are capital, distinguish which you would call fixed capital and which circulating.
A ton of pig iron; a plough; a package of tobacco; a loaf of bread; a dwelling-house.
Can you reconcile the statement that one or other of these commodities is or is not capital with the proposition that the intention of the owner determines whether an article shall or shall not be capital?
Suppose an inconvertible paper money to be issued, of half the amount of specie previously in circulation. Trace the effects (1) in a country carrying on trade with other countries, (2) in a country shut off from trade with other countries.
Explain in what manner the proposition that the value of commodities is governed by their cost of production applies to wheat, to iron nails, and to gold bullion.
Explain the proposition that rent does not enter into the cost of production. Does it hold good of the rent paid for a factory building? Of the rent paid for agricultural land?
It has been said that wages depend (a) on the price of food, (b) on the standard of living of the laborers, (c) on the ratio between capital and population. Are these propositions consistent with each other? Are they sound?
Suppose that
One day’s labor in the United States produces 10 pounds of copper,
One day’s labor England produces 8 pounds of copper,
One day’s labor in the United States produces 5 pounds of tin,
One day’s labor England produces 5 pounds of tin,
Would trade arise between England and the United States, and if so, how?
Suppose that, other things remaining as above, one day’s labor in England produced 12 pounds of copper, would trade arise, and if so, how?
Explain what is meant when it is said that “there are two senses in which a country obtains commodities more cheaply by foreign trade: in the sense of value, and in the sense of cost.”
Arrange in proper order the following items of a bank account: Capital, $300,00; Bonds and Stocks, $35,000; Real estate and fixtures, $20,000; Other assets, $20,000; Surplus, $80,000; Undivided Profits, $10,500; Notes, $90,000; Cash, $110,000; Cash items, $90,000; Deposits, $850,000; Loans, $1,050,000; Expenses, $5,500. ,
Suppose loans are repaid to this bank to the amount of $100,000. One half by cancelling deposits, one quarter in its own notes, and one quarter in cash; how will the account then stand?
What is the effect of the use of credit on the value of money? Wherein does credit in the form of bank deposits exercise an effect on the value of money different from that of credit in the form of bank notes?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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Political Economy 1A.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 1. Second half-year: Division A. Mill’s Principles.—Cairnes’s Leading Principles.—Bagehot’s Postulates of Political Economy.—Lectures on Financial Legislation. Mr. [John Henry] Gray.

Total 90: 4 Seniors, 33 Juniors, 44 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 8 Others. (Two sections).

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
DIVISION A.

[Year-end examination, 1888]

From the causes now enumerated, unless counteracted by others, the progress of things (society) enables a country to obtain at less and less of real cost, not only its own productions, but those of foreign countries.”—Mill, Bk. IV, c.1.
Explain what is meant by the “causes now enumerated,” and also what the counteracting influences are. Do the counteracting influences affect all commodities equally and at the same time?
Mill says, “…if there are human beings capable of work and food to feed them they may always be employed in producing something.” Wakefield says, “Production is limited not solely by the quantity of capital and labor, but also by the extent of the field of employment.”
Explain what is meant by the “field of employment,” and reconcile the two statements, if possible.
One of the objects of the Land Tenure Association, of which Mill was President, was “To claim for the benefit of the State the interception by Taxation of the Future Unearned increase of the Rent of Land.”
Discuss the justice of such a plan, compare it with Henry George’s proposal on the same subject, and show the difficulties in administering it.
Characterize each of Adam Smith’s Canons of Taxation by a word or phrase. Explain the meaning of each, and discuss them briefly in relation to our present system of national taxation.
Discuss the justice and desirability of an Income Tax. Should there be any exemptions from such a tax? If so, why? If not, why not? Are the practical difficulties in the way of an Income Tax greater now than they would have been a century ago?
On what circumstances does industrial competition depend? Does the development of Industry increase or does it decrease the extent of the field over which such competition is effective?
Point out any mistakes of the English School of Political Economy as to the importance and extent of competition.
(a) “Let the price of labor in Victoria only fall to the same level as in the countries from which it imports its wheat…and it will at once become profitable to raise wheat in Victoria from soils from which it cannot now be raised with profit.”
What would be Ricardo’s reply to this proposition? Would it be adequate?
(b) Suppose that England could by some mechanical intervention, unknown to the rest of the world, reduce by three fourths the present cost of producing woollens, what would be the effect on her foreign trade, and on the remuneration of her labor?
Suppose the United States and Great Britain in Commercial Equilibrium. Then a very large number of American citizens go to Great Britain to reside. What effect does this have on the equilibrium? How does it affect International Values as between the United States and Great Britain?
How did depreciation of the currency facilitate the sale of five-twenty bonds in 1863-64?
State the provisions of the Resumption Act.
By what reasoning was Cairnes led to predict the occurrence of the conditions which favored resumption?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1887-89. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1888.

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Political Economy 1B.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 1. Second half-year: Division B. Mill’s Principles (selections).—Jevons’s The State in Relation to Labor.—Taussig’s Present Tariff.—Hadley’s Railroad Transportation.—Lectures on Social Questions and on Financial Legislation. Prof. Taussig.

Total 117: 2 Graduates, 25 Seniors, 49 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 12 Others. (Two sections).

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
DIVISION B.

[Year-end examination, 1888]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

Explain what was Mill’s proposal in regard to a tax on rents, and state the reasons urged by him in its support. Point out wherein the tax proposed by him differs from a special tax on all rents from real estate.
Wherein is the effect of an import duty on coffee different from that of an import duty on woolen goods? Would your conclusion be different if coffee were a monopolized article abroad? If woollen goods were a monopolized article at home?
What are the present duties on these articles?
It is said that if present duties on manufactured articles were repealed, the labor and capital engaged in producing them would turn to agriculture, and that more agricultural commodities would then be produced than there was a market for. What should you say?
Give the main provisions of present English legislation on factories.
A certain cooperative society in England pays (1) interest on loans, (2) a dividend to share holders, (3) a dividend to purchasers and (4) a bonus to workmen. What kind of coöperation is typified by its operations?
At [sic, “As”?] common law combinations to raise or maintain prices are invalid. Explain wherein the Interstate Commerce Act makes a similar provision as to pooling by railroads, and wherein a different provision. What reasons are there why the law in regard to railroads should be different from the law in regard to other industries?
Why are cheap bulky goods charged with lower freight rates on railroads than compact expensive goods? Mention an analogous case in another industry.
It is said that the large fixed capital invested in railroads makes it possible for railroad charges to be so low as not to repay cost. Is this possible? Suppose it to be so; would such a state of things be inconsistent with the principle that the value of commodities is fixed by their cost of production?
State the causes which affected the gold premium in 1863-64, and explain how the depreciation of the currency facilitated the sale of the five-twenty bonds in those years.
State the provisions of the Resumption Act, and the circumstances which made it easy to resume specie payments at the date fixed upon.

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Political Economy 2.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 2. History of Economic Theory.—Distribution.—The Scope and Method of Political Economy.—Socialism. Lectures, preparation of theses, and discussion of selections from leading writers. Prof. Taussig.

Total 29: 4 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2

[Mid-year examination. 1888.]

Compare the treatment of the theory of money by Boisguillebert, Law, and Hume.
What was Adam Smith’s doctrine as to rent, and wherein does it differ from that of the Physiocrats, and from that of Ricardo?
Make a brief comparison between the general characteristics of the economic writings of Adam Smith and of J. S. Mill.
Explain how Malthus illustrated and applied his general principles in his discussion of the movement of population in (a) Sweden and Norway, (b) Switzerland, (c) France during the Revolutionary wars. [Take one of these three.)
“Mr. Malthus thinks that a low money price of corn would not be favourable to the lower classes of society, because the real exchangeable value of labour, that is, its power of commanding the necessaries, conveniencies, and luxuries of life, would not be augmented, but diminished, by a low money price. Some of his observations on this subject are certainly of great weight, but he does not sufficiently allow for the effect of a better distribution of the national capital on the situation of the lower classes. It would be beneficial to them, because the same capital would employ more hands; besides, the greater profits would lead to more accumulation; and thus a stimulus would be given to population by really high wages, which could not fail for a long time to ameliorate the condition of the laboring classes.”— Ricardo, Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn.
Explain (a) whether this states fairly Malthus’s opinion as to the effect of cheap food; (b) what Ricardo meant by “a better distribution of the national capital”; (c) what light the concluding sentence throws on Ricardo’s view of the effect on wages and profits of cheap food.
“The notion that any portion of the wealth of the country should be ‘determined’ to the payment of wages seems to shock Mr. Longe’s sense of economic propriety; which is strange, seeing that his own doctrine — that it is ‘the demand for commodities which determines the quantity of wealth spent in the payment of wages’ — plainly involves this consequence. He puts the case of a capitalist who, taking advantage of the necessities of his workmen, effects a reduction of wages and succeeds in withdrawing so much, say £1000, from the Wages-Fund; and asks how is the sum thus withdrawn to be restored to the fund? On Mr. Longe’s principles the answer is simple,—‘by being spent in commodities’; for it may be assumed that the sum so withdrawn will, in any case, not be hoarded. * * * The answer, therefore, to the case put by Mr. Longe is easy on his own principles; and I am disposed to flatter myself that the reader who has gone with me in the foregoing discussion will not have much difficulty in replying to it on my own.”— Cairnes, Leading Principles.
What is the answer on Cairnes’s principles?
Would the explanation which the Wages-Fund theory gives of the causes regulating the rate of wages apply to a society in which a system of profit-sharing had been universally adopted?
Wherein does Ricardo’s treatment of the manner in which profits affect value differ from Cairnes’s treatment of the same subject?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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1887-88
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2

[Year-end examination. 1888.]

“Cairnes, who earnestly maintained that capital is divided into wages, raw material, and fixed capital, argued that trades-unions could not increase wages in the several trades, because, if they did so, they would reduce profits below the rate which would make investment worth while. On his own doctrine, increased wages could not trench on profits. He should have argued that wages, if increased by a trades-union, could only be increased at the expense of raw material and fixed capital, which would be far more difficult than to increase them at the expense of profits. Indeed, if the trades-union movement did not coincide with a new distribution of capital into its three parts (a new distribution which would produce a rise in wages), the trades-union could not possibly force an advance at the expense of raw materials or fixed capital.” — W. G. Sumner, Collected Essays.
Can you reconcile Cairnes’s reasoning on trades-unions with his doctrine as to the wages fund?
“The railroads of the United States receive annually two hundred and ten millions of dollars for transporting passengers. Those receipts came in day by day, yet the railroad company habitually pays its employees at the close of the week or at the close of the month. Here we have a very large class of services where the employer receives the price of his product before he pays for the labor concerned in its production. The railroads of the United States also receive annually for freights five hundred and fifty millions. The greater portion of this amount is collected before the track hands and the station hands have received the remuneration for their share of the service. . . . To descend to the other end of the scale of dignity, hotel keepers and, in less degrees, boarding-house keepers collect their bills before they pay their cooks, chambermaids, and scullions. Nearly all receipts of theatre, opera, and concert companies are obtained day by day, although their staffs and troupes are borne on monthly or weekly pay-rolls.” — F. A. Walker, in the Journal of Economics, April, 1888.
Are these facts inconsistent with the proposition that wages are paid out of capital?
What should you say to the doctrine that the real source of wages is in the incomes of the consumers of the articles made by the laborers?
It has been said that “Mr. Walker’s theory is, in reality, not a theory of manager’s earnings at all, but a theory of difference in manager’s earnings.” Do you think this is a sound criticism?
Explain what was Bastiat’s doctrine as to value; point out wherein it was like or unlike Carey’s doctrine on the same subject; and state briefly Cairnes’s criticism on Bastiat.
“There are two kinds of sociological inquiry. In the first kind, the question proposed is, what effect will follow from a given cause, a certain general condition of social circumstances being presupposed. As, for example, what would be the effect of abolishing or repealing corn laws in the present conditions of society or civilization in any European country, or under any other given supposition with regard to the circumstances of society in general; without reference to the changes which might take place, or which may be already in progress, in those circumstances. But there is also a second inquiry, namely, what are the laws which determine those general circumstances themselves. In this last the question is, not what will be the effect of a given cause in a certain state of society, but what are the causes which produce, and the phenomena which characterize, states of society generally.” — Mill’s Logic.
What reasons are there for saying that different methods should be applied to these two kinds of inquiry? and what are the differences in method?
Can the legislation of Germany on workmen’s insurance be said to be socialistic in a sense in which (a) the Christian socialist movement in England, and (b) the regulation or ownership by the state, are not socialistic?
Suppose production coöperation were universally adopted; wherein would the organization of society differ from that which socialism proposes?

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Political Economy 3.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 3. First half-year. Investigation and Discussion of Practical Economic Questions.—Short theses. Prof. Laughlin.

Total 23: 1 Graduate, 12 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3

[Mid-year examination]

In what way, in your opinion, is the discussion of a “standard of value” related to the questions involved in Bimetallism?
How far can the figures of coinage be used to show the operation of Gresham’s Law? Illustrate by reference to the history of our coinage. Are all coins intended for circulation?
Compare the production of silver in 1780-1820 with that for the period since 1872. Were the results of production the same?
Distinguish between “Free coinage” and gratuitous coinage. What is “seigniorage”? Has the theory of seigniorage any connection with the circulation of our subsidiary coinage, or the silver dollar?
Discuss the results of the recent legislation permitting the issue of small silver certificates.
How far can legislation regulate the value of metallic money?
Compare the impelling causes for the passage of the English Navigation Laws in 1651 and the American Navigation Laws of 1789 and 1817.
Enumerate briefly any provisions of existing laws which operate to prevent the increase of our ocean tonnage.
Distinguish between the conditions affecting our shipping before 1856, and since. If our shipping flourished in the former period, are there the same reasons to suppose it should be as prosperous in the later period?
How far have the customs-duties imposed during the Civil War affected ship-building? Have they influenced ship-sailing?
In what way may foreigners procure a ship built in the United States cheaper than citizens of this country can procure them? Does this affect our tonnage?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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Political Economy 4.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 4. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War.—Selections for required reading. Prof. Dunbar.

Total 102: 3 Graduates, 38 Seniors, 29 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4

[Mid-year examination]

[Answer all of A, and eight questions from B]

A.

Why did the period of the wars 1793-1815, when England was making enormous unproductive expenditures and subjecting herself to severe taxation, nevertheless present many of the appearances of high prosperity? [See the extract from Porter, 113-115.]
What was Napoleon’s Milan decree, and the occasion for its issue? [See the extract from Levi.]
“The general feeling in Germany towards the Zoll-Verein is, that it is the first step towards what is called the Germanization of the people.”—[Extract from Bowring, 138.]
Why was the Zoll-Verein more effective for this purpose than the Confederation?

B.

In what way was the English colonial system less injurious to the colonies than that of any other important power of the time?
English legislation on Indian cotton goods: dates, purpose, and effects, good or bad.
The school of writers known as the French Economistes.
How did the American Revolution tend to prepare the way for that in France?
The date and cause of the English Bank Restriction and its duration.
What was the pressure which compelled Prussia to adopt the emancipating edict of 1807?
American manufactures before 1808 and after.
Why were the years 1815-30 a period of general commercial embarrassment and irregularity?
What special advantages for the cotton, woolen, and iron manufactures respectively did England exhibit prior to the great inventions?
How did free trade become a commercial necessity for England?
The system on which railway building was undertaken in the United States, England, Belgium, France, and Prussia respectively.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4

[Year-end examination]

[Answer all of A, and ten questions from B]

A.

The writer in Blackwood’s [Selections, p. 248], speaking of the use of bills of exchange in the payment of the French Indemnity, says: “How came it that £170,000,000 of bills could be got at all’ [e. in what transactions were bills created so much in excess of the usual supply]?
Cairnes [Selections, p. 218], says that “as the final result of the above movement [of the new gold] we find that while the metallic systems of England and the United States are receiving but small permanent accessions, those of India and China are absorbing enormous supplies.” Why?
Of the two pairs of countries above named which pair gained most from the movement, and why?

B.

Is it probable that England would have adopted Free Trade, if the refusal of other countries to follow her example had been foreseen?
What caused the rapid growth of American navigation down to 1857-60?
How are the prices, usually taken as measuring the value of gold, affected by quick transportation and telegraphs?
England and the Suez Canal.
Banking in France and Germany is said to be in an undeveloped condition. Illustrate this by comparison with the development of banking methods in England and the United States.
Is England a gainer or a loser by the extension of our wheat area and the consequent cheapness of supply from this country?
How did the payment of the French Indemnity contribute to the financial crisis of 1873 in the United States?
How did the crisis of 1873 help to bring about the resumption of specie payment in this country?
Compare the three cases of resumption,— the United States, France, and Italy,–as regards the kinds of currency in use and the general method adopted.
Fawcett [God and Debt, p. 122] says of the public debts of the world, that “the actual liquidation of this vast sum, amounting to just about eight times the total of all the gold and silver used as money in Europe and America, is, of course, not to be contemplated — it is impossible.”
How does the revived colonial enterprise of our day differ from that of the last century as regards the purposes and expectations of the colonizing nations?
The great political consolidations in Europe have brought with them enormous military burdens. How should you say that this loss has been offset?

_______________________

1887-88
POLITICAL ECONOMY 5

Economic Effects of Land Tenures in England, Ireland, France, and Germany

[ Course Omitted in 1887-88]

_______________________

Political Economy 6.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 6. Second Half-year. History of Tariff Legislation in the United States.—Lectures, required reading, and investigation of special topics. Prof. Taussig.

Total 58: 5 Graduates, 31 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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

Topics and References in Political Economy VI.

Harvard College. Tariff Legislation in the United States. Cambridge, Mass., 1888.

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

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6

[Year-end examination]

“I will not argue the question whether, looking to the policy indicated by the laws of 1789, 1817, 1824, 1828, 1832, and 1842, there has been ground for the industrious and enterprising people of the United States, engaged in home pursuits, to expect government protection for internal industry. The question is, do these laws, or do they not, from 1789 to the present time, constantly show and maintain a purpose, a policy, which might naturally induce men to invest property in manufactures, and to commit themselves to those pursuits in life? Without lengthened argument, I shall take this for granted.”—Webster, Speech of 1846.
Was Webster justified in taking so much for granted?
Compare the treatment of the bearing of protective duties on wages in Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures with the treatment of the same topic in Walker’s Report of 1846, and give an opinion on the value of the discussion at the hands of both statesmen.
What connection has been alleged to exist, and what connection in fact existed, between tariff legislation and general prosperity in 1837-39, in 1843, and in 1857?
Point out wherein the duties on wool and woolens under the act of 1828 resembled, and wherein they differed from, the duties on the same articles under the act of 1867.
Compare the effect of the duties on cotton goods between 1816 and 1824, with the effect of the duties on the same goods between 1864 and 1883.
Point out wherein Mill’s reasoning as to the effect of an import duty on the terms of an international exchange is different from the export tax theory of 1832.
Explain what conclusions you can draw as to the economic effect of the duties on pig iron between 1870 and 1888, from your knowledge of foreign and domestic prices, duties, domestic production, and imports.
Explain why the duty on imported sugar has not stimulated the production of beet sugar in the United States. Apply a similar explanation to some other industry, not connected with agriculture, in which high duties have had less effect than might have been expected.
Point out wherein the course of the tariff legislation of the United States between 1864 and 1883 was similar to the course of legislation in France between 1815 and 1860, and wherein it was not similar.
“First, there is no sufficient market for our surplus agricultural products except a foreign market, and, in default of this, such surplus will either not be raised, or, if raised, will rot on the ground. Second, the domestic demand for the products of existing furnaces and factories is very far short of the capacity of such furnaces and factories to supply; and, until larger and more extended markets are obtainable, domestic competition will inevitably continue, as now, to reduce profits to a minimum and greatly restrict the extension of the so-called manufacturing industries….Industrial depression, business stagnation, and social discontent in the United States, as a rule, are going to continue and increase until the nation adopts a fiscal and commercial policy more liberal and better suited to the new condition of affairs.”— D.A. Wells, in the North American Review.
Do you think the remedy of lower import duties will remove the difficulties said to arise from excessive production?

_______________________

Political Economy 7.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 7. Taxation, Public Debts, and Banking.—Lectures. Prof. Dunbar.

Total 15: 1 Graduate, 11 Seniors, 3 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7

[Mid-year examination]

[Discuss three of the following topics.]

What are the conditions necessary for the complete development and efficient working of a budget system?
Accepting Mill’s reasoning that a tax under some circumstances, by diminishing the income from property, diminishes its selling value, and so ceases to be felt by subsequent purchasers, should you say,—
1. That the French impôt foncier is a tax on present landholders?
2. That the English income-tax under Schedule A, is a tax on present landholders?
  The reason for the difference, if any exists.
Comparative advantages of the methods of local taxation used in the four leading countries.
“It is an error, to assume that [1] all descriptions of property should be subjected to taxation in order to insure equality and uniformity. On the contrary, all experience has shown—none better than that of the United States—that the more ‘concrete’ and the less diffused a system of taxation can be made, the better for the people and the better for the State; for, with the exception of direct taxes on income, and upon those articles, like spirits and tobacco, which are consumed solely for personal gratification, taxation distributes itself with a wonderful degree of uniformity. If placed upon land, it will constitute an element of the cost of that which the land produces; if upon manufacturing industry, then of the cost of the products of such industry; upon shipping, of the cost of that which the ship transports; upon capital, of the cost, price, or interest, which is paid for the use of such capital; and if upon buildings, it will be reflected upon the income of the occupier, or upon the cost of the goods, wares and merchandise stored, exchanged or produced therein….And so [2] a tax imposed upon an article or service of prime necessity to a community, like land or buildings, for example, becomes, in effect, a tax upon all, without the vexations of infinitesimal application.”
The same author has expressed this idea elsewhere by saying,—
“Proportional taxes on all things of any given class will be diffused and equalized on all other property.”
Discuss the two general principles of taxation, [1], [2], contrasted with each other in the above extracts.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7

[Year-end examination]

A.

A careful examination and discussion of these two topics is desired. Not less than one half of your time should be given to this division of the paper.

“In so far as bondholders live from the proceeds of their bonds, they form a class not immediately interested in current industries. At some time in the past they may have furnished the government with large sums of capital, thus averting the inconvenience of excessive taxation or of a sudden change in rates; and, in return for this service, they receive from the government the promise of an annuity until an equivalent of the original capital should be returned. Such persons are guaranteed a living without labor.
“There is but one way in which the government may escape the necessity of supporting in idleness this class, and that is by paying its members their respective claims. The bondholders would in this manner be deprived of their secured annuity, but they would in its stead hold a sum of free capital; and if they wish to continue in the enjoyment of an income from their property they must apply their funds to some productive purpose. In this manner the country gains by bringing to bear upon industrial affairs the interested attention of those who formerly were secured a living from the proceeds of public taxes. For another reason also is the payment of a debt advantageous. No people can long retain that hopefulness so essential to the vigorous prosecution of industries if the past lays heavy claims upon the present. As a rule, they only should partake of current product who are in some way connected with present production. Carelessness and jealousy are not characteristics of efficient labor, but they are sometimes naturally engendered by the payment of taxes for the support of a favored class. It is the permanency of this payment, rather than its amount, which exerts a depressing influence upon labor, and its extinction is a first step toward the establishment of confidence and contentment.”
“As the circulation of a bank is a source of profit, and as the managers are usually disposed to oblige their patrons by loans and accommodations, it can never be wise to allow banks or parties who have pecuniary interests at stake to increase or diminish the volume of currency in the country at their pleasure. Nor do I find in the condition of things a law or rule on which we can safely rely. Upon these views I form the conclusion that the circulation of the banks should be fixed and limited, and that the power to change the volume of paper in circulation, within limits established by law, should remain in the Treasury Department.
“A degree of flexibility in the volume of currency is essential for two reasons:
“First. The business of the Department cannot be transacted properly if a limit is fixed, and the power to raise the circulation above or reduce it below that limit is denied.
“A rule of this nature would compel the Secretary to accumulate a large currency balance and to hold it; as, otherwise, the credit of the government, in meeting the ordinary daily claims upon it, would be at the mercy of every serious business and political revulsion in the United States or Europe….
“Secondly. There is a necessity every autumn for moving the crops without delay from the South and West to the seaboard that they may be in hand for export and consumption as wanted. This work should be done in the main before the lakes, rivers, and canals are closed, and yet it cannot be done without the use of large amounts of currency.
“In the summer months funds accumulate at the centres, but the renewal of business in August and September gives employment for large sums, and leaves little or nothing for forwarding the crops in October and November….
“The crops cannot be moved generally by the aid of bank balances, checks, and letters of credit, but only by bank notes and United States notes paid at once to the producers…
“The problem is to find a way of increasing the currency for moving the crops and diminishing it at once when that work is done. This is a necessary work, and, inasmuch as it cannot be confined to the banks, where, but in the Treasury Department, can the power be reposed?”—[Finance Report, by Secretary Boutwell, 1872.]

B.

In the loan act of August 5, 1861, Congress, having previously authorized the issue of seven per cent twenty-year bonds at par, authorized the Secretary, if he thought best, to sell six per cent twenty-year bonds, “at any rate not less that the equivalent of par, for the bonds bearing seven per centum interest, authorized by said [previous] act.” What considerations should determine the choice of the Secretary in using this discretion?
What is your own estimate of the merits of the English system of operating on the national debt by means of terminable annuities, as proposed by Mr. Gladstone and extended by Mr. Childers?
Shadwell [System of Political Economy, 371] says:—
“The tendency of all legislation on the subject of notes is to sacrifice the interests of the depositors to those of the note-holders, and there are some people to whom such a course appears justifiable. Banks, it is said, are imprudently managed; therefore, when one fails, its notes should be paid in full before the claims of its depositors are dealt with. It would not be more arbitrary to say that because banks are imprudently managed, therefore the depositors should be paid in full before the claims of the note-holders are dealt with.”
What is your own conclusion of this question?
Which of the three great banks, the Bank of England, the Bank of France, and the Reichsbank, appears to you to present the best model for a great national bank,— and why?
It has been remarked that the expedient by which the New York banks associated themselves against a common danger, in 1860, 1873, and 1884, finds its nearest analogy in the occasional suspension of the limit which the act of 1844 places on the Bank of England. How close and real is the analogy?

_______________________

Political Economy 8.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 8. First half-year. Financial history of the United States.—Lectures. Prof. Dunbar.

Total 39: 3 Graduates, 26 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8

[Mid-year examination]

[Take one question from A and nine from B, or both from A and seven from B.]

The questions under A are supposed to require half an hour each for careful treatment, and those under B fifteen minutes each.

A.

There is disclosed in the administration of Mr. Gallatin the true policy of debt-payment. It consists in the establishment of a permanent appropriation for the service of the debt which shall be in excess of the demands of current interest. But such appropriation need not be “inviolable.” It need form no part of a “private contract,” nor be regarded as constituting “private property.” A government should always be at liberty in time of emergency to divert money held for the payment of debt to the support of new loans…The United States is indebted to Mr. Gallatin more than to any other man for the establishment of this policy. Under the guidance of his clear insight this country departed from the pernicious methods of English financiering.—H.C. Adams, Public Debts, 268.
Discuss the above with particular reference to the suggested difference of principle between Hamilton’s sinking-fund policy and Gallatin’s.
What does the experience of the United States government show as to the policy of relying upon duties on imports as the sole means of supplying the Treasury?

B.

How is the fact to be explained that the Bank of the United States was so much less able to resist attack than it appeared to be in 1829?
What kind of currency did the government use and where were its money kept, and under what authority of law, after the closing of the first Bank of the United States, 1811-17, and after the removal of the deposits from the second, 1833-36?
In what way would the renewal of the charter of the first Bank of the United States probably have affected the finances during the war, 1812-15?
What was the reason for the difference between Mr. Dallas’s proposition for a bank in 1814 and that which he made in 1815?
How did the second Bank of the United States aid in the resumption of specie payment in 1817?
What was the specie circular of 1836, and how was it financially important?
How would it have eased the finances of 1861, if the Secretary of the Treasury had made more free use of the Act of August 5, suspending for some purposes the provisions of the Independent Treasury Act?
What were the nearest approaches made to a government legal-tender paper before 1862?
Why was 1865 a favorable occasion for returning to specie payment, and what then prevented the return?
As a general question, apart from any special provision of law, who has authority to tax United States bonds or the income derived from them, and under what limitations, if any?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

_______________________

Political Economy 9.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 9. First half-year. Management and Ownership of Railways. Prof. Laughlin.

Total 19: 1 Graduate, 14 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 62.

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

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9

[Mid-year examination]

In what way is railway transportation related to the general principles of economic theory?
Wherein is there any opposition between the interests of the shareholders and the directors of railways?
How far are railway rates regulated by the competition of railways with each other?
Discuss the reasons for and against equal mileage rates.
What gave rise to pooling in the United States? What have been the practical effects of pooling on railway rates in this country?
Explain: Cost of service, differential rates, a “differential,” the evening system, preferred stock, the Joint Executive Committee, the Petroleum Pool.
Is classification the necessary consequence of any one theory of rates? How does classification in the United States compare with that of European railways?
Compare the Railway Commissions of Georgia and Massachusetts.
Do you regard the Granger legislation as having accomplished any permanent results?
Discuss the interpretation of the Fourth Section of the Inter-State Commerce Act by the National Commission.
What arguments in favor of State ownership of railways by the United States can be drawn from the experience of Germany and Italy?
Do you find any part of the railway system of England which would be worthy of adoption by the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

_______________________

Philosophy 11.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Philosophy 11. The Ethics of Social Reform. The questions of Charity, Divorce, the Indians, Labor, Prisons, temperance, etc., as problems of practical ethics.—Lectures, essays, and practical observations. Prof. Peabody.

Total 84: 3 Graduates, 51 Seniors, 23 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1887-1888, p. 71.

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

1887-88
PHILOSOPHY 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM.

[Mid-year examination]

[Omit one question]

Inductive ethics. Explain and illustrate this phrase, as applied to the study of the social questions.
The various possible relations between one’s own life and the life of society. Illustrate by the history of ethical theory.
“The whole question of the relation of ethics to political economy resolves itself into a bare question of classification. Shall our nomenclature be such as to make the term political economy include the ethical sphere or not?”—(C.F. Dunbar, Quarterly Journal of Economics, October, 1886, p. 25.)
What is your answer to this question of classification?
“No one doubts that a man who improves the current morality of his time must be something of an Idealist. He must have an idea which moves him to seek its realization. That idea cannot represent any experienced reality.”.-(T.H. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, p. 325.)
Illustrate this in the conduct of a social reform.
“I fully believe that to-day the next most pernicious thing to vice is charity in its broad and popular sense.”—(W.G. Sumner, What Social Classes owe to each other, p. 157.)
What is there in modern charity which tends to justify this view and in what way can such a danger be met?
“Among the means toward a higher civilization I unhesitatingly assert that the deliberate cultivation of public amusement is a principal one.”—(W.S. Jevons, Methods of Social Reform, p. 7.) Why?
Consider the advantages and disadvantages of a Constitutional Amendment as a remedy for existing evils in the divorce question.
“Without the circumstances of infancy…the phenomena of social life would have been omitted from the history of the world and with them the phenomena of ethics.”—(John Fiske, Cosmic Philosophy, II. 363) Why?
“The most ancient system”—of family life—“was a system of kinship through females only.”—(McLennan,Studies in Ancient History, p. 85.)
What was the origin of this matriarchal type and why is it supposed to have preceded the patriarchal family?
“The movement of progressive societies has been uniform in one respect. Through all its course it has been distinguished by the gradual dissolution of family dependency and the growth of individual obligation. The individual is steadily substituted for the family as the unit of which civil laws take account.”—(Sir Henry Maine, Ancient Law, p. 163.)
Consider the history, the tendencies, and the risks of this evolution of the individual.
Illustrate the interdependence of the question of Marriage and Divorce with other social questions.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1887-88.

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

Philosophy 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM.

[Year-end examination]

[Omit two questions.]

Have you discovered any philosophical principles underlying this course of study, and can you suggest any change of method in the course which will make these underlying principles more clear?
Why has the Indian been hitherto so impervious to civilization?
Explain the “Dawes Bills.” What supplementary legislation is needed for their successful administration?
Contrast the economic doctrines of Carlyle and of Ruskin and consider modern illustrations of each.
Enumerate some of the ways in which an employer seems to have a natural advantage in a conflict with his employed.
On what principle would wages be paid if the “Democratic Federation” should carry out its programme?
“Socialists regard colossal corporations and the wealthy bosses that direct them as the greatest pioneers of their cause.”-Kirkup, An Inquiry into Socialism, p. 169.—Why?
“There are certain establishments nominally coöperative, which have little significance as bearing on the Labor Question. The chief of these is the Rochdale form of the cooperative store.”—J.B. Clark, The Philosophy of Wealth, p. 190.—Why is this, and what are some of the obstacles to more complete coöperation?
Illustrate by several instances the tendency of the State to infringe upon the liberty of the individual. How far do you think that this tendency can be wisely encouraged?
On what principle would you distinguish the various forms of liquor legislation, and what considerations would determine your vote in your own state or town?
“Society is not an aggregate of independent units, not a mechanical whole, but, in the true sense of the word, an organism.”—Prof. Edward Caird, The Moral Aspect of the Economical Problem, p. 16.—If this is true, how does it affect your duty as to temperance, and your understanding of the argument from “example”?

Image Source: John Harvard Statue (1904). Library of Congress. Photos, Prints and Drawings.

Tags Dunbar, GrayJH, Laughlin, Taussig

Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Readings and Exam for Business Cycles. Schumpeter 1949-50

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-02-03

Joseph Schumpeter died January 8, 1950. The final examination questions transcribed in this post come from an official printed collection of final examinations, so that it seems likely and certainly possible, given required lead times for printing, that these were among Schumpeter’s last questions for his students.

______________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 245a (formerly Economics 145a). Business Cycles and Economic Forecasting.
(F) Professor Schumpeter.

Total 31: 26 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 1 Public Administration, 1 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1949-1950, p. 75.

______________________

Course Reading List

Economics 245a
Fall Term, 1949-50

This course will divide up into two parts: The first and smaller part will serve as a general introduction to the history, techniques, and bearings of business-cycle analysis and will be made longer or shorter according to the needs (or previous selected topics and give as much opportunity as possible for discussions and essays. Some knowledge of advanced theory and some training in statistics are necessary in order to reap full benefit from this course. Individual requirements will be taken care of in consultation.

Books:

G. v. Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, 1941.

J. M. Clark, Strategic Factors in Business Cycles (National Bureau of Economic Research, 1934)

Readings in Business-Cycle Theory (Vol. II of the American Economic Association series of republished articles, Blakiston, 1944.

E.C. Bratt, Business-Cycle Forecasting (3^rd ed., 1948; a textbook that may help less advanced students).

A.C. Pigou, Industrial Fluctuations, 1929.

E. Frickey, Economic Fluctuations in the U.S. (Harvard Economic Studies No. 73)

A.H. Hansen, Fiscal Policy and the Business Cycle, 1941.

Burns and Mitchell, Measuring Business Cycles (1946) (National Bureau).

F. C. Mills, Price-Quantity Interactions in Business Cycles, 1946 (Nat’l. Bureau).

Articles:
1. (a) H.L. Beales, “The Great Depression,” Economic History Review, October, 1934.
  (b) W.W. Rostow, “Explanations of the Great Depression,” Economic History Supplement to Economic Journal, February, 1940.
2. (a) J. Tinbergen: “Suggestions on Quantitative Business-Cycle Theory,” Econometrica, 1935.
  (b) J. Tinbergen: Econometric Business-Cycle Research,” Review of Economic Studies, February, 1940.
3. R. F. Harrod, “Imperfect Competition and the Trade Cycle,” Review of Economic Statistics, May, 1936.
4. N. Kaldor, “A Model of the Trade Cycle, Economic Journal, March, 1940.
5. (a) L.A. Metzler, “Business Cycles and the Modern Theory of Employment,” American Economic Review, June, 1946.
  (b) L.A. Metzler, “Nature and Stability of Inventory Cycles,” Review of Economic Statistics, 1941.
  (c) L. A. Metzler, “Factors Governing the Length of Inventory Cycles,” Review of Economic Statistics, February, 1947.
  (d) M. Abramowitz, “The Role of Inventories in Business Cycles,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Occasional Paper No. 26, May, 1948.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reding lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1949-1950 (3 of 3)”.

______________________

1949-40
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 245a
[Final Examination. January, 1950]

One question may be omitted. Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.

Discuss briefly the National Bureau method of measuring business cycles.
Many authors have asserted that economic progress is “unstabilizing.” What does this mean precisely?
Discuss briefly the main “price-quantity interactions in business cycles.”
State, and give your opinion about the explanatory value of, the acceleration principle.
“In a progressive economy, the rate of interest which stabilizes the price level is below the rate which keeps the flow of money incomes constant.” Explain and criticize.
It is often asserted that agriculture is not an active element in business cycles. It is “the football of business.” Do you agree?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science, February 1950 in Final Exams—Social Sciences, etc. Feb. 1940 (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 81).

Image Source: Harvard Classbook 1947.

Tags Schumpeter

Exam Questions Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Midyear and Final Exams for Five Economics Courses, 1932-1933

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-01-29

While on the whole I find these examination questions uninspired, I do wonder how one would have answered the last of the mid-year examination in economic history “Why is it that England had a socialist prime minister while the United States has an individualist president?”

_________________________

1C. Elements of Economics.

Three hours weekly through the year. Section 1: Dr. [George H.] Evans [Jr.], Thurs., Fri., Sat., 8.30, Maryland Hall 110; Section 2: Associate Professor [Broadus] Mitchell, Mon., Tues., Wed., 8.30, Gilman Hall 313; Section 3: Associate Professor [William O.] Weyforth, Mon., Tues., Wed., 11.30, Gilman Hall 314.

Particular attention is given to the theory of distribution and its application to leading economic problems.

Required of all students before graduation.

* * * * * * * * * *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 1C
Mid-year Examination
Dr. Evans
February 1, 1933

Under what conditions do lower prices mean higher profits?
How do overhead costs affect the nature of competition?
A country innkeeper hires a man to cripple the automobiles of passers-by. Is this man a producer? Explain.
If each of our states were a separate nation, would we have less specialization than we have today? Explain.
“The marginal utility of a ton of coal to a householder is $7.20.”
1. Explain just what is meant by this statement.
2. Why is the marginal utility of coal different now from what it was during the war? Explain carefully.
Trace the history of bimetallism in the United States. What classes would be benefited if bimetallism were adopted in the United States in the near future?
“The price of each good is determined by the willingness of buyers to purchase the last unit of the supply that is sold.” Discuss.
A manufacturer buys out all his competitors. Assuming demand to be unchanged, can he now sell the former aggregate output at an advanced price? Explain.
From the following figures for three firms which constitute the only producers or possible producers in the field, construct the combined long run supply curve and also the combined average cost curve which would prevail in the long run

	Average Costs of Production for Each Firm
No. of Units	X	Y	Z
1	5	7	9
2	4.5	6	7.5
3	4.67	6	7.33
4	5	6.25	7.5
5	5.4	6.6	7.8
6	5.83	7	8.17

If the price in the market remains at $8 for a long period of time, how many articles will be supplied; what quantity will be produced by each firm? Suppose the price dropped to $7 and remained there.

* * * * * * * * * *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 1C
Mid-year Examination
Dr. Mitchell
February 6, 1933

Give a definition of Political Economy.
What are the relative importances today of Production, Exchange, Distribution, and Consumption of wealth?
Is the enterpriser gaining or losing in importance as an economic agent?
Define capital and discuss the capitalistic method of production and exchange of wealth.
Explain the marginal utility concept of value.
Explain how market price is determined under conditions of competition.
Discuss (a) monopoly price; (b) class price.
What would be your definition of money?
What is the argument of the inflationists at the present time?
Give the organization and functions of the Federal Reserve System.
Tell what you know of Technocracy, with your comment upon it.
What are the main indictments which the present depression brings against the capitalist economic system?
What are some reasons for believing that there is a decided drift toward collectivism in the United States now?
* * * * * * * * * *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 1C
Mid-year Examination
Dr. Weyforth
February 2, 1933

Describe the more important changes that came about in the economic life of England as a result of the industrial revolution.
How under a system of free enterprise is the overproduction of any article remedied? How is underproduction remedied?
“Free enterprise is a self-regulating device for producing maximum satisfaction with a minimum of sacrifice.” Explain and criticize this statement.
What is meant when it is said that modern industry is a capitalistic organization?
A municipality which owned a street railway might find it desirable to give service at less than cost. Why? Could a capitalistically controlled company do this? Explain.
“The use of machinery is limited by the extent of the market.” Why? In what sense is it equally true that the extending of markets has depended upon the development of the machine technique?
Explain the nature of a corporation. How does it come into existence? Who owns it? How is it controlled and managed? What are some of its advantages and disadvantages?
What functions do trade unions perform in our present economic system? Why did they not exist during the middle ages? What is meant by the “closed shop”? What justification is there for unions employing this device?
In what way do commercial banks provide a medium of exchange? Why may it be said that banks create deposits? The national banking laws require that national banks maintain a certain reserve against deposits How does this limit the ability of banks to make loans?
* * * * * * * * * *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 1C
Final Examination
Dr. Mitchell
June 5, 1933

Explain and discuss the underlying economic theory and the proposals of the Single tax. Tell something of the life of Henry George.
State and discuss three theories of wages.
Distinguish between “pure profits” and “wages of superintendence”. In what ways do pure profits arise?
Explain the time discount theory of interest.
“The business cycle is inherent in the capitalist economic system.” Discuss this statement.
What are the main arguments for and against fiat money inflation?
Explain the difficulties in combining economic planning with the price-and-profit system.
What developments in American economic life appear to recommend socialism today?
Enumerate and discuss the conditions under which trade and labor unions may raise the wages of their members without being injured by the boomerang of unemployment due to decreased demand for their products.
Identify: Nassau Senior, John Stuart Mill, Charles Kingsley, Robert Owen, Friedrich Engels, Richard Arkwright, Charles Fourier, Samuel Gompers, David Ricardo, Mathew Carey.
Discuss economic nationalism as applicable to the present day.

* * * * * * * * * *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 1C
Final Examination
Dr. Evans
May 31, 1933

What is meant by monetary inflation in the United States?
How is it to be effected; what are its advantages and disadvantages?
To raise revenue to pay the interest on a three billion dollar loan for the purpose of carrying out a public works program, it has been proposed that the federal government increase the income and gasoline taxes. A general manufacturer’s sales tax has apparently been rejected. Criticize the plan.
The wages of federal employes were recently cut by approximately the same per cent that the Bureau of Labor Statistics index of the cost of living has fallen. What theory of wage determination was involved in this action? What theory of wages seems to you to explain wages most completely?
What is meant by the incidents of ownership? Discuss them in connection with the various legal forms under which business units operate.
If the prices of commodities rise in the near future, what will probably happen to rates of interest? Why? What is your prediction concerning the future of pure interest?
Criticize some of the arguments for the tariff.
Do the credit structure and the type of organization under which business units operate have anything to do with determining the recipient of profits?
Is it necessary to give special assistance to the agriculturists in order to pull this country out of the depression? What characteristics of agriculture make it so difficult to do much for the farmers? What program should the government follow in its efforts?

_________________________

2C. Statistics. Dr. Evans.

Three hours weekly through the year. Th., Fri., Sat., 10.30, Gilman Hall 314.

In the first half-year attention is directed to the value and place of statistics as an instrument of investigation, and study is made of the chief methods used in statistical inquiry. In the second half-year the application of statistics to business and economic problems, such as price levels, cost of living, wage adjustments, business cycles, and business forecasting, are considered.

Prerequisite: Mathematics 1 C or 2 C.

* * * * * * * * * *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 2C
Mid-year Examination
February 3, 1933

The average deposit per individual depositor in savings banks in the United States was $437.89 in 1913. By 1926 this figure had risen to $633.10 per depositor, indicating that savings bank depositors were noticeably more thrifty than at the earlier date. Is the conclusion a sound one?
Upon the following data construct price indices of the simple geometric type for 1901 and 1902, using 1900 as the base.

Commodity	1900 Price	1901 Price	1902 Price
A	1	2	3
B	3	3	3
C	1	1.5	2

In which year is the dispersion of the price relatives the larger? What is the significance of your observations upon the dispersions.

A Japanese speaker argued recently that the apparently high birth rate of the Japanese in California was due to the fact that an unusually large proportion of the Japanese population was between the ages of 15 and 45, and that later this high birth rate would be reduced as the age distribution of the population became more normal. Discuss the validity of this argument.
How would you verify the law of statistical regularity and the principle of inertia of large numbers?
Without constructing what is technically called a ratio chart, plot the following figures so as to give the same effect as that produced by the ratio chart.

1900	2.4
1903	5.8
1904	7.3

How could your chart be converted into a ratio chart?

Draw up in the rough a table with title, captions, stubs, etc., to provide for a complete cross-classification of the population of a city according to color, sex, marital status and age. (Note: emphasize the characteristics in the order named.)
* * * * * * * * * *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 2C
Final Examination
June 2, 1933

Discuss the limitations upon the use of statistical method.
Describe how and when the estimation of the value of one variable can be made from a known value of another variable by the use of the scatter diagram.
How can the period of lag of one series in relation to another be determined.
What is meant by “normal” business conditions and how may mathematical measurements of normal be made?
In obtaining a seasonal index, can cyclical and erratic influences be largely eliminated? How? Describe two methods of eliminating the effects of seasonal variation from time-series data.
Explain “mathematical methods of trend fitting are not fool-proof”. What are the various methods of determining a line of trend?
What kinds of situations make necessary the use of index numbers? Give the methods of constructing index numbers.

_________________________

3B. Money and Banking.
Associate Professor Weyforth.

Three hours weekly through the year. Mon., Tues., Wed., 9.30, Gilman Hall 311.

In this course an analysis of the functions of money, credit and banking in our modern economic life will be made. There will be a description of various types of monetary systems, of the forms of credit and of banking and financial institutions. Particular attention will be given to the relationship between money, bank credit and prices; to the effects of price fluctuations upon individuals and upon general business conditions; to the problems of stabilizing prices and controlling business fluctuations by means of a deliberately directed monetary and credit policy. The Federal Reserve System will be studied with special emphasis upon its problem of credit control. Some time will also be devoted to the relationship between the money market and the stock market, to the problem of brokers’ loans, and to the financial operations involved in our international trade.

Prerequisite: Political Economy 1 C.

* * * * * * * * * *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 3B
Mid-year Examination
January 31, 1933

Describe the functions performed by money and explain its importance in our present economic system.
What is meant by “standard” money? Describe as many types of standard money as you can. Explain the difference between standard money and legal tender money. Illustrate the latter by examples from the United States currency.
What factors were responsible for the rapid depreciation of German currency after the war? Why did prices rise more rapidly than the volume of currency? Can this be reconciled with the quantity theory of money? Explain.
Explain the difference between fixed and circulating capital. What problems does this distinction create in regard to the financing of business enterprises? Explain fully.
What is meant by the value of money? How do we measure changes in it? Explain the economic consequences of changes in the value of money.
Distinguish between the functions of an investment banker and of a commercial bank. Explain how the commercial banks create deposits and show the limitations upon their powers in this respect.
Describe the history of the monetary standard in the United States.

* * * * * * * * * *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 3B
Final Examination
May 30, 1933

Describe the more important types of loans and investments made by commercial banks. Describe the changes in the nature of their business since the war and the reasons for these changes.
Explain the defects in our banking system prior to the establishment of the Federal reserve system and give a brief description of the steps toward reform.
Explain the circumstances under which shipments of gold occur between two countries both of which are on a gold standard.
Is there any limit to the extent to which the market rate of exchange may fluctuate between two countries when one or both of them does not provide for redemption of its currency in gold? Explain the operation of the factors involved.
What is the importance of an elastic currency? What provision was made in the Federal Reserve Act for such a currency? What are the provisions of the laws passed during the present depression enlarging the note issues of national banks and Federal reserve banks?
Explain the various methods which Federal reserve banks may employ to control credit and show how they operate.
Explain and criticize the various principles that may be employed by Federal reserve banks as guides to their credit policy.
What do you think of inflation as a means of promoting recovery from the depression?

_________________________

4B. Labor Problems. Professor [George E.] Barnett.

Three hours weekly through the year. Mon., Tues., Wed., 10.30, Gilman Hall 314.

In the first part of this course the problems growing out of modern industrial employment will be studied, e.g., child labor, industrial accidents, unemployment. It includes a critical discussion of the ameliorative measures which have been adopted in the leading industrial countries. Special attention will be given to an analysis of the principles underlying the schemes of social insurance against sickness, old age, and unemployment, so generally put into effect in recent years in European countries. In the second part of the course the history, structure and functions of American trade unionism are considered. Particular attention will be given to the working of representative systems of collective bargaining and an analysis of the conditions under which these systems have attained their greatest strength. An appraisal of rival forms of wage fixation, such as individual bargaining governmental intervention and shop committees will conclude the course.

Prerequisites: Political Economy 1 C and 12 B.

* * * * * * * * * *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 4B
Mid-year Examination
January 30, 1933

On what principles, should an economic man divide his income between expenditure and saving?
On what principles, should he divide his expenditure among different objects of expenditure?
How and why should he divide his savings between investment and insurance?
Describe briefly the various causes of unemployment.
Discuss the effects of shortening the hours of labor.
Why are the risks of unemployment, old age, etc. a part of the labor problem?
* * * * * * * * * *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 4B
Final Examination
May 29, 1933

Define “trade union” and distinguish trade unions from such associations as medical societies, bar associations.
Describe the relations among the various units (local union, national unions, etc.) making up the structure of American trade unionism.
Classify and discuss the methods of enforcement used by trade unions against employers.
Discuss “picketing”.
What is the object of trade unions to the injunction?
What is “scientific management” and how has it influenced the employer in his attitude toward labor?
Outline the chief lines of approach to the governmental adjustment of industrial disputes.
Is the labor market a good market?

_________________________

12B. Economic History. Associate Professor Mitchell.

Three hours weekly through the year. Mon., Tues., Wed., 1 p.m., Gilman Hall 314.

In the first part of this course a study is made of English economic history, the purpose being to show not only the industrial development of the English people as such but the way in which the economic motive has influenced the whole of social life. Particular attention is given to the characteristic forms of economic organization—the manorial system, the guild system, the entrance of capitalism and the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution. Special reference is made to those features of English economic history which have influence industrial life in the United States. The second part of the course is a survey of the economic history of our own country. Here the same effort is made, as in the case of England, to show the bearing of economic considerations on political evolution, especially in the direction of the growing importance of the Federal Government.

* * * * * * * * * *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 12B
Mid-year Examination
Dr. Mitchell
February 3, 1933

What is meant by the economic interpretation of history?
Describe the manor and the main steps in its disappearance.
Contrast Wat Tyler and George Washington.
How did the medieval city under the craft gilds differ from Baltimore today, economically, socially, and politically?
What was Mercantilism? Are there tendencies toward a return to Mercantilism now? If so, is this movement wise or unwise, and why?
What developments preceded the Industrial Revolution?
Describe the Industrial Revolution.
Make an argument that mankind would be better off had the inventors of the eighteenth century never lived.
Why is it that England had a socialist prime minister while the United States has an individualist president?
* * * * * * * * * *

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 12B
Final Examination
June 2, 1933

State and discuss what you consider to have been the main tendencies in American economic life.
Give an outline history of the tariff until the time of the Civil War.
Sketch the history of banking in the United States from 1791 to 1863.
“The essential cause of the Civil War was the difference in economic pursuits of North and South.” Explain this statement.
Describe the causes of the panics of 1837 and 1873.
In what respects have Hamilton’s policies been borne out by American economic and political development?
What considerations have turned the American people from approval of Theodore Roosevelt’s policy of “trust busting” to Franklin Roosevelt’s policy of relaxing the anti-trust acts?
Give the main developments in “internal improvements” to the present time.
State briefly what you think you will recall from this course twenty-five years from now.

Sources:

Course announcements from The College of Arts and Sciences, 1932-33 (February, 1932). The Johns Hopkins University Circular, New Series 1932, No. 2, Whole Number 434, pp. 38-39.
Course examinations from Johns Hopkins University, Eisenhower Library, Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy. Series 6, Curricular materials. Box 2, Folder “Exams 1930-1935.”

Image Source: Photo of Gilman Hall from the 1924 Johns Hopkins yearbook, Hullabaloo.

Tags Barnett, EvansGH, MitchellB, Weyforth

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Examinations for Political Economy courses, Dunbar, Laughlin, and Taussig, 1886-87.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-01-24

On January 5th, 2021 my 94 year old father passed away following a Covid-19 infection. On January 6th, 2021 a pro-Trump mob breached the United States Capitol, leading to the impeachment of President Donald Trump exactly one week later. With the exception of a single post that had been nearly completed before those two days, Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has had no new content added. With today’s post (January 24, 2021) your curator resumes his work of collecting, transcribing and presenting artifacts to provide a documentary record of the evolution of the economics curriculum.

This post adds to our collection brief course descriptions, enrollment figures and examinations from Harvard for the academic year 1886-87 when Charles Dunbar, J. Laurence Laughlin, and Frank W. Taussig constituted the entire department of political economy.

_______________________

Political Economy 1 (1886-87).

Class Enrollment.

Political Economy 1. First half year: Laughlin’s Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. —Dunbar’s Chapters on Banking. Profs. Laughlin and Taussig.

Total 207: 1 Graduates, 33 Seniors, 100 Juniors, 47 Sophomores, 7 Freshmen, 19 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1886-87, p. 58.

1886-87.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[One-hour Examination. Nov. 17, 1886]

Point out, as to the following articles, whether they are or are not capital; and, as to those which you consider capital, whether they are fixed or circulating capital: a dwelling-house; a bale of cotton goods; a government bond; hewn granite; a plow; a stock of tobacco.
A keeps twenty saddle horses in Boston for hire. B keeps twenty horses which he uses in cultivating a farm in the country. Trace the respective economic effects of their expenditure in maintaining the horses.
State concisely the laws of production and distribution as to land, and explain the connexion between them.
Comment on the following proposition: “There should be annually appropriated by every city or town of 5000 or more inhabitants a sum of money sufficient to pay wages at the rate of one dollar a day for 300 days in the year to as many as 10 percent of the actual population. … Any person finding himself out of employment should have the privilege of making application to the Department of Labor, and should be given some useful work to do at the wages of one dollar per day of eight hours, so long as he might choose to work for that pay.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Scrapbook of Professor Frank W. Taussig, p. 10.

1886-87.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Mid-Year Examination. 1887]

Compare the economic effects of defraying war expenditure by loans and by taxation.
Does the rent of a factory building affect the value of the goods made in it? Does the rent of a farm affect the value of the grain grown on it? Does the rent paid for a lot near a great city, from which gravel is taken, affect the value of the gravel?
It has been said that “the laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths. There is nothing optional or arbitrary in them.” State briefly the laws of the production of wealth here referred to, and whether the statement in regard to them is true.
It has been said that the law of population and the law of diminishing returns from land point inevitably to misery and want as the destiny of the mass of mankind. What influences affecting the operation of these laws are to be taken into account; and if they are taken into account, are the laws of population and diminishing returns from land thereby shown to be invalid?
Explain briefly the nature of the remuneration received by the following persons: a farmer tilling his own land; a merchant carrying on business with his own capital; a manufacturer carrying on business with borrowed capital; a holder of railway stocks; a holder of government bonds; a patentee.
Wherein is the value of metallic money governed by different principles from those that regulate the value of commodities in general? And wherein is the value of inconvertible paper money governed by different principles from those that regulate the value of coin?
Credit is said to be purchasing power. Explain what is meant by this proposition, and in what manner it bears on the theory of the value of money. Point out in what form credit, as purchasing power, is most likely to affect prices in the United States and in France.
(a) Suppose that:
In the U.S. one day’s labor produces 2 bushels of corn;
“ “       “     “      “         “            “          10 yards of cotton cloth;
“ England “ “ “ “          1 bushel of corn;
“      “ “      “         “            “          5 yards of cotton cloth.
Would trade arise between England and the United States? If so how?
(b) Suppose that in England one day’s labor produced 8 yards of cotton cloth, other conditions remaining the same as in (a). Would trade arise? If so, how?
(c) Suppose that in England one day’s labor produced 2 yards of cotton cloth, other conditions remaining the same as in (a) Would trade arise? If so, how?
Suppose a new article to appear among the exports of a given country. Trace the effects in that country on the course of the foreign exchanges; on the flow of specie; on the value of money; on the terms of international exchange. Would the results be the same if, instead of a new article of export, some article previously exported were to be sold abroad in larger quantity because of a lowering of its cost and price?
(a) Arrange in proper order the following items of a bank account: Loans, $538,000; Bonds and Stocks, $40,000; Capital, $200,000; Real Estate, $26,000; other assets, $26,000; Surplus, $65,100; Deposits, $440,000; Notes, $101,550; Cash, $124,000; Cash Items, $52,650.
(b) Suppose the bank to discount four months paper (at 6 per cent) to the amount of $10,000, of which it purchases one-half by promises to pay (the bearer) on demand, and one-half by cash. How would the account then stand?
(c) Suppose a borrower to have repaid a loan of $2000 by giving $1000 in cash, and $1000 in a cheque on the bank. How would the account then stand?
(d) Suppose the bank to be confronted, in a time of general embarrassment, with demands from depositors for cash, and from borrowers for discounts. What policy would be adopted if it were the Bank of England? If it were a United States national bank?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Scrapbook of Professor Frank W. Taussig, pp. 10-11.

Class Enrollment.

Political Economy 1. Second half year: Division A (Theoretical, introductory to Courses 2 and 3). Mill’s Principles (Books IV, and V.). — Cairnes’s Leading Principles (Part I., chaps. Iii. and v.; part III., chaps. i.-v.). — Thompson’s Lectures on Protection. — Sumner’s Protectionism. — Bimetallism. Prof. Laughlin.

Total 101: 6 Seniors, 44 Juniors, 38 Sophomores, 5 Freshmen, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1886-87, p. 58.

1886-87.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Division A.
[Year-end Examination. 1887]

If taxes levied on the rich cause a diminution in their unproductive expenditure, would that in any way affect the employment offered for labor? Discuss fully.
What principle does Mr. Mill furnish by which the respective shares of labor and capital are determined? Has his Wages-Fund Theory any connection with his exposition of the dependence of “profits” on Cost of Labor?
In discussing the distribution of the product, why is it that the relative shares of labor and capital can be discussed independently of rent? Would an increase of rent affect the share of labor or of capital?
Why is it that city banks make a greater use of the deposit liability than of the note liability? Why is the fact just the reverse with country banks?
State fully the difference between Cost of Labor and Cost of Production. Would a decrease in Cost of Production affect Cost of Labor in any way?
If the returns, and consequently wages, in our extractive industries were to decline, how would the course of our foreign trade probably be affected?
Explain carefully how, and under what conditions, Reciprocal Demand regulates Normal Value.
How do you reconcile the doctrine of comparative cost in international trade with the fact that a merchant regulates his conduct by a comparison of prices at home with prices abroad?
Explain how a tax on “profits” may fall either (1) on the laborer, or (2) on the landlord.
Discuss the argument that protection raises wages.
Is the customs-duty on sugar economically justifiable?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1887), pp. 5-6, in bound volume Examination Papers, 1887-89.

Class Enrollment.

Political Economy 1. Second half year: Division B (Descriptive). Mill’s Principles (selections). — Upton’s Money in Politics. —Jevons’s The State in Relation to Labor. — Lectures on Money, Bimetallism, Cooperation, and Trade-Unions. Prof. Taussig.

Total 106: 1 Graduate, 27 Seniors, 56 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1886-87, p. 58.

1886-87.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Division B.
[One-hour Examination. April. 4, 1887]

As society advances, what changes would you expect in the relative values of wheat of coal, of cotton cloth, and of watch-springs?
Suppose the coinage of silver under the act of 1878 had been 20 millions of dollars a month, what would now be the money in use in the country? Explain briefly what has been the actual coinage, and what effect it has had on our monetary system.
Make a comparison between the issues of paper money by the Continental Congress during the war of the Revolution, and by Congress during the civil war.
Explain briefly what is meant by the following phrases: five-twenties; ten-forties; seven-thirties; continued 3 ½ per cents.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Scrapbook of Professor Frank W. Taussig, p. 12.

1886-87.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Division B.
[Year-end Examination. 1887]

Suppose the price of silver to rise to such a point that the ratio of silver to gold would be 15 to 1, what change would take place in the money at present in use in the United States?
Is such a change probable? If so, why? If not, why not?
State the essential differences between the coinage acts of 1792, 1834, and 1878.
“All experience has shown that there are periods when, under any system of paper money, however carefully guarded, it is impracticable to maintain actual coin redemption. Usually contracts will be based on current paper money, and it is just that, during a sudden panic or an unreasonable demand for coin, the creditor should not be allowed to demand payment in other than the currency in which the debt was contracted. To meet this contingency, it would seem to be right to maintain the legal tender quality of United States notes. If they are not at par with coin, it is the fault of the Government and not of the debtor, or rather it is the result of an unforeseen stringency not contemplated by the contracting parties.” From the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, dated December, 1877.
Under what circumstances was this passage written? Is the recommendation made by it a wise one? Has it been acted on?
Ten men club together to buy flour at wholesale, each taking a part and paying his share of the price. Ten others club together, borrow money jointly, and lend it out to themselves for aid in carrying on their trades. A third ten club together, set up a workshop on joint account and work in it, and periodically divide the net proceeds.
What kinds of cooperation are typified, respectively, by these proceedings? In what countries has each kind been most widely applied? Which seems to you to be of greatest intrinsic interest for the social question?
What is meant by the eight-hour law? Wherein does it resemble, and wherein differ from, factory legislation in England?
Compare the regulations of the Knights of Labor in regard to strikes with those of an English Trades-Union.
“The present doctrine is that the workmen’s interests are linked to those of other workmen, and the employer’s interests to those of other employers. Eventually it will be seen that industrial divisions should be perpendicular, not horizontal.” Explain what is meant by this passage; state by what devices it is endeavored to promote the “horizontal” and the “perpendicular” divisions, respectively; and given an opinion as to which line of division is likely to endure.
The declaration of principles of the Knights of Labor demand “the enactment of laws providing for arbitration between employer and employed, and to enforce the decision of the arbitrators.” Is it desirable to comply with that demand in whole, in part, or not at all?
Suppose a tax were levied of ten percent on the house-rent paid by every person, those who occupied their own houses being assessed for the letting value of their dwellings. Would such a tax be direct or indirect? Would it conform to the principle of equality of taxation? Give your reasons.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Scrapbook of Professor Frank W. Taussig, p. 12. Also, Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1887), pp. 5-6, in bound volume Examination Papers, 1887-89.

_______________________

Political Economy 2 (1886-87).

Class Enrollment.

Political Economy 2. Economic Theory; its history and present stage. — Lectures, preparation of papers, and discussion of selections from leading writers. Prof. Taussig.

Total 49: 2 Graduates, 33 Seniors, 14 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1886-87, p. 58.

1886-87.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Mid-year Examination, 1887]

It has been said that the Mercantile writers built up the first system of political economy; again, that a system is first found in the writings of the Physiocrats; and again, that Ricardo created political economy as a science. What should you say as to these statements?
Say something as to the connection that may be traced between the personal history of Adam Smith and of Ricardo, and the characteristics of their writings.
Sketch the history of the doctrines as to the productiveness of different kinds of labor from the time of the Mercantile writers to that of J. S. Mill.
Comment on the following:—
“It remains a matter of some difficulty to discover what solid contribution Malthus has made to our knowledge, nor is it easy to ascertain precisely what practical precepts, not already familiar, he founded on his theoretic principles…. ‘Much,’ he thought, ‘remained to be done. The comparison between the increase of population and of food had not, perhaps, been stated with sufficient force and precision’ and ‘few inquiries had been made into the various modes by which the level’ between population and the means of subsistence ‘is effected.’ The first desideratum here mentioned—the want, namely, of an accurate statement of the relation between the population and the supply of food—Malthus doubtless supposed to have been supplied by the celebrated proposition that ‘population increases in a geometrical, food in an arithmetical, ratio.’ This proposition has been conclusively shown to be erroneous, there being no such difference of law between the increase of man and of the organic beings who form his food. When this formula is not used, other somewhat nebulous expressions are sometimes employed, as, for example, that ‘population has a tendency to increase faster than food’ a sentence in which both are treated as if they were spontaneous growths…It must always have been perfectly well known that population will probably (though not necessarily) increase with every augmentation of the supply of subsistence, and may, in some instances, inconveniently press upon or even for a certain time exceed the number properly corresponding to that supply. Nor could it have ever been doubted that war, disease, poverty — the last two often the consequences of vice — are causes which keep population down. Again, it is surely plain enough that the apprehension by individuals of the evils of poverty, or a sense of duty to their possible offspring, may retard the increase of population, and has in all civilized communities operated to a certain extent in that way. It is only when such obvious truths are clothed in the technical terminology of ‘positive’ and ‘preventive’ checks that they appear novel and profound; and yet they appear to contain the whole message of Malthus to mankind.”
State carefully Cairnes’s theory of value, and show wherein it differs from Ricardo’s exposition of that subject.
Explain the conclusions which George draws as to wages from an analysis of the simplest stage of society, and those which Ricardo draws as to values from a similar analysis. State whether the reasoning in the two cases differs and if so, wherein; and give an opinion as to the soundness of the conclusions reached.
State carefully the wage-fund doctrine as expounded by Cairnes, and show wherein his exposition is an advance on the previous treatment of the subject.
In a collection of examination questions, the following was asked:—
“Cairnes argues that we cannot apply the law of supply and demand to labor, because the supply of labor is produced by biological forces and not as commodities are produced.— What is the fallacy of this argument?
Comment on the question, and answer it; and refer briefly to the history of the line of argument that draws and analogy between the value of labor and of commodities.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 1, Folder “Mid-year Examinations, 1886-1887”.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Year-end examination]

Comment, separately or in a connected essay, on the following extracts:—
(a) “The first of these theories is known as the wage-fund theory of the books on Political Economy. It represents the rate of wages as depending on the amount of capital which employers think proper to disburse as wages. The wage rate was regarded as the dividend, found by dividing the wages-fund by the number of labourers. But though this division doubtless takes place, there is nothing in the theory to determine either the whole amount which is to be divided, or the proportional share which any particular labourer may obtain. Nobody can possibly suppose that workmen in different branches of production, or in different ranks in the same branch, receive the same wages. Nor can anybody imagine that the capitalist distributes his capital simply because it is capital, irrespective of the produce which he expects from the labour bought.” — W. S. Jevons.
(b) “Ricardo held that profits and wages are the leavings of each other. Later economists have generally rejected this doctrine; but even those of them who maintain that wages are paid out of capital, fall back on arguments which imply its truth. For instance, Cairnes, who earnestly maintained that capital is divided into wages, rent, material, and wage-fund, argued that trades-unions could not increase the rate of wages because, if they did so, they would reduce profits below the rate which would make investment worth while. On his own doctrine, increased wages could not trench on profits. … We shall see further on that wages and profits are not the leavings of each other, because they are not parts of the same whole.”
(c) “If we assume that upon a cultivated island are tools and carts and animals for draught, and other forms of capital, adequate for a thousand laborers, the production will vary within a very wide range according to the industrial quality of the laborers using that capital. If we suppose them to be East Indians, we shall have a certain annual product; if we suppose Russian peasants to be substituted for East Indians, we shall have twice or three times that product; if we suppose Englishmen to be substituted for Russians, we shall have the product again multiplied two or three fold. By the wage-fund theory, the rate of wages would remain the same through these changes, inasmuch as the aggregate capital of the island would remain the same through these changes and the number of laborers in the market would be unchanged, the only difference being found in the substitution of more efficient for less efficient laborers. According to the view here advanced, on the contrary, the amount to be paid in wages should and would rise with the increased production due to the higher industrial quality of the laboring population.”
(d) “The capital of the employer is by no means the real source of the wages even of the workmen employed by him. It is only the immediate reservoir through which wages are paid out, until the purchasers of the commodities produced by that labor make good the advance and thereby encourage the undertaker to purchase additional labor.” — W. Roscher.
Whom do you judge to be the writers of the extracts (b) and (c)?
State carefully Walker’s theory of business profits. Give an opinion as to its value (1) in explaining differences between the returns of different managers, and (2) in eliminating such returns, like rent, from the problem of distribution.
Compare Carey and Bastiat, and say something as to the manner and extent of their influence on the course of economic speculation.
Explain wherein the attitude of Wagner to economic study differs from that of Mill and Cairnes.
“Mr. Cairnes asks, ‘how far should religious and moral considerations be admitted as coming within the province of political economy?’ His answer is that ‘they are to be taken account of precisely in so far as they are found to affect the conduct of men in the pursuit of wealth;’ and one needs only to allude to the influence of mediaeval religion both on the forms and the distribution of the wealth of the community, the changes in both with the change in religion after the Reformation, in proof of the impotence of the a priori method in relation to this class of agencies. Yet a few pages after recognizing their title to investigation, Mr. Cairnes argues that induction, though indispensable in physical, is needless in economic science, on the ground that the economist starts with a knowledge of ultimate causes’ and ‘is already at the outset of his enterprise in the position which the physicist only attains after ages of laborious research.’ The followers of the deduction method are in fact on the horns of a dilemma. They must either follow Mr. Lowe’s narrow path, and reason strictly from the assumption that men are actuated by no motive save the desire of pecuniary gain, or they must contend that they have an intuitive knowledge of all the moral, religious, political, and other motives influencing human conduct, and of the changes they undergo in different countries and periods.”
Was Cairnes inconsistent in the manner here stated? Does his reasoning lead to the alleged dilemma?
Should you agree with the following:—
“If economic phenomena were the results of a single force or combination of forces, standing alone, then only would the assumption hold good that there is an identity of effects on the appearance of the same causes. But economic facts are so closely connected with the whole of life, the element of personal freedom comes in so constantly, that a causal connection like that of a law of nature cannot be shown. This is at bottom the sound point in the criticisms of Ricardo’s keen logic. Ricardo often begins with facts, carefully and nicely observed in real life, and makes them the first premises of his reasoning. Then he uses a method of reasoning which is common in philosophy, but inadmissible in political economy. By logical sequence of thought he leads the reader, who can see no flaw in the chain of conclusions, to a result which, notwithstanding the solidity of the premises and the steadfast reasoning, is yet by no means unquestionable. For in the end we are not concerned with the elaboration of a truthful train of thought, but with a truth of real life; hence the test of truth lies in the connection of cause and effect that exists in real life; and as to that, with its manifold and varied possibilities, no human insight can make the true combinations in advance by abstract reasoning. There may be an artistic truth, which yet, when compared with reality, is not a truth. Even if one sees no inconsistency with the facts of experience up to the very last step in the reasoning, yet that reasoning gets its final stamp of truth only from experience. Our thoughts on the facts of the world are often true only so long as we shape them according to those facts that we know; a new experience comes in to better this approximate truth.” — Knies, Die Politische Oekonomie vom Historischen Standpunkte.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1887), pp. 7-9, in bound volume Examination Papers, 1887-89.

Note: Political Economy 2. Has been posted earlier.

_______________________

Political Economy 3 (1886-87).

Class Enrollment.

Political Economy 3. Investigation and Discussion of Practical Economic Questions (Bimetallism, Gold and Prices, American Shipping, Canadian Reciprocity, and Railway Transportation. — Each student presented ten theses, which were read and discussed in the class. Prof. Laughlin.

Total 35: 3 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 19 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1886-87, p. 58.

1886-87.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Mid-year Examination, 1887]

Discuss the following statement: “I would venture to assert that the influence of gold in raising or reducing prices depends not so much on the quantity of it available for use, as on the circumstances attending its production, and the facilities offered for its employment. … The sudden acquisition of money by those who rushed into gold mining … could not do otherwise than raise the demand for the necessaries and luxuries of life beyond the supply, and thus enhance their cost.”
In considering the serious fall of prices since 1873 and its effects on existing contracts, compare the relative advantages to be derived from (1) a system of international Bimetallism, and (2) the Multiple Standard. What difficulties stand in the way of using the multiple standard?
Give the facts in regard to the Free Coinage of gold, or silver, to-day in England, France, Germany, and the United States.
Discuss the provisions of the U.S. Coinage Act of 1853, and its bearing on the success of the double standard in this country.
Could an agreement of the chief commercial countries of the world to coin gold and silver at a fixed ratio keep the value of silver from falling under all circumstances?
Name any Navigation Laws of the United States now in force, which had their origin in the retaliatory legislation of our early history.
What effect has the policy of reciprocity, taken together with the high cost of building iron ships in the United States, had upon the foreign carrying trade of the country?
Does the existing tariff work to diminish the United States foreign tonnage? How does the provision as to a drawback on articles manufactured wholly or in part of imported materials affect our foreign tonnage?
What remedies should you propose for the decline of American shipping?
Was the first experiment of issuing notes by a Bank, chartered by the United States, a successful one? Why?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 1, Folder “Mid-year Examinations, 1886-1887”.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Year-end examination]

How do you account for the additional fall in the value of silver since the close of 1885?
Are there sufficient grounds for believing that gold is scarce? What is the measure of scarcity? Is it the “needs of trade”?
Discuss the causes of the growth of American shipping to 1856. Why have these causes not produced the same results since 1856 as before?
Why were the issues of the Second United States Bank superior to those of the State banks of the same period?
Ought the United States notes to be retired?
In what way was the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 between Canada and the United States connected with the fishery question? Why was the Treaty given up?
What were the economic results of the Treaty? Do they furnish evidence as to the wisdom of reciprocity in the future?
Are there any reasons to suppose that competition operates to modify rates on the railways of the United States?
What are the objections against “pools”? Are these objections well founded?
Compare the railway systems of England and France. How are discriminations regarded in these countries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1887), pp. 9-10, in the bound volume Examination Papers, 1887-89.

_______________________

Political Economy 4 (1886-87).

Class Enrollment.

Political Economy 4. Financial history of England and America since the Seven Years’ War. — Lectures. Prof. Dunbar.

Total 157: 1 Graduate, 44 Seniors, 44 Juniors, 53 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 13 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1886-87, p. 58.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
[Mid-year examination, 1887]

[Copy not (yet) located]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
[Year-end examination, 1887]

Omit two questions

Why did the repeal of the corn laws settle the question as to the adoption of free trade by England?
Describe the leading measures by which Napoleon III. sought to stimulate the material prosperity of France.
What were the reasons for granting public lands in aid of railway companies, as exhibited in the cases of the Illinois Central and the Pacific Railroads?
The effects of the civil war on the system of landholding in the South and its probable influence on the general industry of that section.
In what respects do quick transportation and telegraphs tend to produce analogous effects, and how are prices, as a measure of the value of gold, thereby affected?
Among the causes for the decline of American shipping, how important was the civil war?
What are the causes which make England the convenient centre for the “triangular” trade between nations?
Describe the effects of the civil war on the tariff system of the United States.
What form of wealth did France pay out in settlement of the indemnity of 1871, and what form did Germany actually receive?
The causes which prevented the disastrous fall of gold predicted by some writers after 1850.
The absorption of silver by India and reasons for its recent irregularity.
The heavy demands for gold, 1871-83, and the reasons why they failed to produce any financial disturbance.
The circumstances which enabled the United States to accumulate gold with special ease after the passage of the Resumption Act.
If the working of the English coal mines should tend to become more expensive, could England protect her industrial supremacy by the importation of cheap coal? Give the reasons carefully.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1887), pp. 10-11, in the bound volume Examination Papers, 1887-89.

_______________________

Political Economy 6 (1886-87).

Class Enrollment.

Political Economy 6. History of Tariff Legislation in the United States, and consideration of its economic effects. — Lectures, written exercises, and oral discussion. Prof. Taussig.
Second half-year.

Total 38: 2 Graduates, 28 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1886-87, p. 59.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
[Year-end examination, 1887]

Comment on the historical statements, and on the reasoning from them, in the following extracts:—
“Such was the state of things [bankruptcy and ruin the most complete] at the date of the passage of the tariff act of 1842. Scarcely had it become a law, when confidence began to reappear and commerce to revive—the first steps toward the restoration of the whole country, in the briefest period, to a state of prosperity the like of which had never before been known. Seeing that these remarkable facts were totally opposed to the free-trade theory, the author was led to study the phenomena presented in the free-trade period from 1817 to 1824, and in the protective one which commenced in 1825 and ended in 1834, — the one terminating in bankruptcy and ruin similar to that which exhibited itself in 1842, and the other giving to the country a state of prosperity such as had again been realized in 1846. … The more he studied these facts, the more did he become satisfied that the free-trade theory embodied some great error.” H. C. Carey, Preface to the Principles of Social Science.
It has been said that protective duties cause the price of the protected articles to fall; and such an effect is said to have been produced on the prices of cotton cloth after 1816, of copper after 1869, and of steel rails after 1870. Comment on the principle, and on its application in these three cases.
“This ill-understood and much reviled principle [the minimum principle] appears to me to be a just, proper, effective, and strictly philosophical mode of laying protective duties. It is exactly conformable, as I think, to the soundest and most accurate principles of political economy. It is, in the most rigid sense, what all such enactments so far as practicable ought to be: that is to say, a mode of laying a specific duty. It lays the import exactly where it will do good and leaves the rest free. It is an intelligent, discerning, discriminating principle, not a blind, headlong, generalizing, uncalculating operation. … The minimum principle, however, was overthrown by the law of 1832, and that law, as it came from the House, and as it finally passed, substituted a general and universal ad valorem duty of fifty per cent.” Webster, Speech in the Senate, 1836.
What were the duties to which Webster refers in this passage? And what should you say to his comments on them?
Explain carefully what is the fundamental proposition in Walker’s Treasury Report of 1845, and discuss its soundness as a principle of tariff reform.
Explain the present system of duties on woollen cloths, stating briefly its history; and say something as to its effects.
It has been said that high duties should be levied on manufactured articles and low duties on raw materials, because raw materials, being more bulky, require much shipping to transport them, and their free admission would give increased employment to American vessels. Assuming that the materials would in fact be carried in American vessels, should you say the argument was a sound one?
How can you explain the fact that, while the manufacture of cotton cloths has been little, if at all, dependent on protection, the heavy duties on silk piece-goods have not prevented a continuous large importation?
It has been proposed to admit sugar from Cuba duty free, by a reciprocity treaty. Should you be in favor of such a measure?
Discuss one of the following subjects. (Those who have prepared special reports on any one of these subjects are not to select that one for discussion.)
1. The financial working of the tariff act of 1846.
2. Proposed tariff legislation since 1883.
3. The circumstances under which the tariff act of 1833 was passed.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1887), pp. 11-12, in the bound volume Examination Papers, 1887-89.

_______________________

Political Economy 7 (1886-87).

Class Enrollment.

Political Economy 7. Public Finance and Banking. — Leroy-Beaulieu’s Science des Finances. Prof. Dunbar.

Total 12: 3 Graduates, 6 Seniors, 3 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1886-87, p. 59.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
[Mid-year examination, 1887]

[Copy not (yet) located]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
[Year-end examination]

Divide your time equally between A and B.

A.

[Two questions may be omitted.]

Discuss the suggestion, which has been made, that among the French taxes upon real estate we ought to reckon,—
1. The impôt des portes et fenêtres;
2. Of the contribution des patentes, the droit proportionnel [à la valeur locative des locaux occupés].
Weight the following reasons given by Leroy-Beaulieu for approving lottery loans:—
“Les emprunts à loterie peuvent être regardés comme une combinaison ingénieuse et inoffensive dans les cas suivants: quand le prêteur est toujours certain de retrouver un jour, même en ayant la chance la plus mauvaise, au moins le capital qu’il a versé; quand, en outre, un intérêt rémunérateur, quoique inférieur à celui qu’autoriserait le marché des capitaux, est accordé à toutes les obligations, sans exception, même à celles qui ne sortent pas au tirages (3 ou 4 p. 100 par exemple, au lieu de 5 ou 6 p. 100 qui seraient peut-être le taux habituel du marché); quand, en dernier lieu, les lots n’ont qu’une importance modique, 20,000, 30,000, 50,000, 100,000 ou 150,000 francs au plus, et qu’ils ne peuvent pas donner lieu à des fortunes énormes. Dans tous ces cas les emprunts à loterie sont inoffensifs: le prêteur est sûr de ne pas perdre son capital, ni la totalité de l’intérêt dû pour ce capital: il sacrifie seulement une faible portion de cet intérêt pour courir la chance d’un gain considérable, mais pas assez toutefois pour procurer d’énormes fortunes. Dans ces conditions on peut soutenir que l’emprunt à loterie provoque l’épargne, surtout dans les basses classes.”
Explain and discuss the system of reducing debt by means of terminable annuities, introduced by Mr. Gladstone.
Discuss the following summary of conclusions, arrived at by Leroy-Beaulieu:—
“Pour résumer cette épineuse matière, nous dirons que la partie de la dette d’un pays qui est entre les mains des nationaux peut légitimement être assujettie à tous les impôts généraux grevant dans le pays les valeurs analogues. Au contraire la partie de cette dette qui est entre les mains d’étrangers doit en être exempte. Mais jamais l’État ne peut s’arroger le droit de mettre un impôt spécial sur sa rente. Voilà ce que disent le bons sens et l’équité.”
Compare the experience of England and France in the conversion of their national debts, and give the reasons for the marked difference.
Discuss the propositions, laid down by Mr. Buckner, in his speech of April, 1882, in opposition to the Bank Charters Extension Bill,—
1. That the currency ought to be issued by the government;
2. That an elastic currency is mischievous, as introducing an element of uncertainty, and that the government should therefore issue a fixed amount of convertible notes.

B.

Mr. Goschen’s Budget for 1887 rests upon the estimate that income and outlay, if existing arrangements should not be changed, would be as follows (000’s omitted):—

Revenue.			Expenditure.
Customs		£20,200	Consolidated Fund	£30,592
Excise		25,292	Army	18,394
Stamps		11,658	Navy	12,477
Land Tax		1,065	Civil Service	17,932
House Duty		1,920	Customs, Post, Teleg., &c.	10,786
Property and Income Tax		15,900
Post, Telegraph, &c.		15,120		______
		£91,155		£90,786
Surplus	974

Mr. Goschen then proposes, inter alia,—

To diminish sinking-fund payments by £2,000,000;
To take a penny off the income-tax, reducing it by £1,560,000;
To lower the duty on tobacco, and thus give up £600,000 more.

Discuss these propositions, giving all explanation needed for a clear understanding of the subject by an uninformed reader.

Mr. Goschen says of the sinking-fund payments, “I lay great stress upon the fact that unless we put the matter into an endurable form, you will risk far larger inroads upon the sinking-fund than I here propose;” and further that “practically the whole burden of paying off debt has to be borne by the payers of income-tax.” In confirmation of these views it is pointed out that when the fixed charge for public debt was settled the income-tax was only 2d., that it is now 8d., and that other branches of revenue have not been “elastic.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1887), pp. 13-14, in the bound volume Examination Papers, 1887-89.

_______________________

Political Economy 8 (1886-87).

Class Enrollment.

Political Economy 8. Financial history of the United States. — Lectures. Prof. Dunbar.
First half-year

Total 32: 1 Graduate, 25 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1886-87, p. 59.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
[Mid-year and year-end examinations]

[Copies not (yet) located]

Image Source: Harvard Library, Hollis Images. Charles F. Dunbar (left) and James Laurence Laughlin (middle) and Frank W. Taussig (right).

Tags Dunbar, Laughlin, Taussig

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Year-end Examinations in Political Economy, 1885-1886

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-01-02

Seven of nine courses listed in Political Economy were taught during the 1885-86 year at Harvard. This post provides the enrollment information as well as the June final examinations for six of those political economy courses. Mid-year examinations are not included with one exception.

In addition the final course examination for Philosophy 11 (The Practical Ethics of Modern Society) has been included since that course deals with social and economic reform.

Note to self: only the mid-year examination for Taussig’s Political Economy 6 is included below, the others still need to be located.

____________________

Enrollment 1885-86

[Philosophy] 11. The Practical Ethics of Modern Society.—Studies of the principles of Social Reform.—The subjects dealt with were: problems of charity, divorce, the Indians, the labor question, and temperance. Practical study of institutions and methods of philanthropy and benevolence. Prof. Peabody

Total 35: 1 Graduate, 1 Law, 12 Divinity, 12 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1885-1886, p. 50.

PHILOSOPHY 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
[Year-end Examination]

[Omit one question]

The inductive method as applied to ethical questions.
The relation of Political Economy to the ethics of social reform.
“Estimating life by multiplying its length into its breadth, we must say that the augmentation of it results from increase of both factors.” (Spencer.)
Explain and criticize.
“Suppose that a man going through a wood should be struck by a falling tree and pinned down beneath it, &c.” (Sumner, Social Classes, p. 153.) Why should we help him?
Contrast the Roman “Liberalitas” and the Christian “Caritas.”
“Marriage appears to me more than a mere contract. It has an extent of obligation different from what belongs to ordinary contracts.” (Story.) Why?
New methods in Indian legislation.
The programme of the Socialists and its difficulties.
“Eventually it will be seen that industrial divisions should be vertical, not horizontal.” (Jevons.) Explain and illustrate.
Illustrate the interdependence of various social reforms.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College(Cambridge, Mass., 1886) in Examination Papers 1883-86 (Bound Volume), pp. 6-7.

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Enrollment 1885-86

[Political Economy] 1. J. S. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy (Laughlin’s edition).—Dunbar’s Chapters on Banking.—Lectures on the financial legislation of the United States. Profs. Dunbar and Laughlin.

Total 176: 2 Graduates, 27 Seniors, 75 Juniors, 53 Sophomores, 19 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1885-1886, p. 50.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Year-end examination]

Explain what is meant by the “standard of living” of the laboring class. In a densely populated country would the standard of living have any influence on the general rate of wages?
Show clearly why there must be land in cultivation which pays no rent.
Explain carefully the relation between Cost of Labor and Real Wages. How can an increase of population affect Cost of Labor?
Under what conditions can it be said that normal value depends on the “expenses of production”? State the law of market and normal value for commodities affected by the law of diminishing returns.
Explain the reason for the existence of foreign trade. Is there any different reason for the exchange of goods in domestic trade?
What is inconvertible paper money? From the history of the United States notes state the main events showing the attitude of Congress towards their issue, while the notes were inconvertible.
Why is a bank obliged to limit its loans when its cash reserve is seriously impaired?
Why is it that the products of extractive industries are liable to great variations of market value?
Upon whom would a tax on Rent fall? Would such a tax be a discriminating tax on the agricultural interests?
What are the advantages of direct taxation? State by what kinds of taxation, direct or indirect, the United States gets its revenue.
Is it correct to say that high wages alone prevent us from selling manufactured goods in foreign markets?

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Enrollment 1885-86

[Political Economy] 2. History of Economic Theory.—Examination of selections from leading writers. Prof. Dunbar.

Total 18: 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 9 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1885-1886, p. 50.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Year-end Examination]

A.

Discuss, either separately or in connection with each other, and as fully as your time will allow, the four extracts which follow, viz.:—

I.

“[The historical method] would have been scarcely intelligible to some of the old economists; economic research was to men like Ricardo a superfluous work. What use had they for facts? The one central fact of human selfishness was enough; out of that they could deduce all the principles of their science…. The method of the old school required the invention of an ‘economic man.’ who is supposed to have none other than economic desires or purposes; and its speculations are concerned with his possible and probable behavior. The new school insists that this is a clear case of ‘lunar politics’; that such men do not exist, and that it is of small consequence, therefore, to determine what they would do if they did exist.”—[Rev. W. Gladden in The Independent, Oct. 8, 1885.]

II.

“The theory of natural laws has had two bad consequences; it has taken away all notion of an ideal to be sought, and it has singularly narrowed the conclusions of political economy. In the writings of the orthodox economists, they never speak of the final object which we should seek to reach, nor of the reforms which justice might direct. Is distribution effected in the manner most favorable to human progress and happiness? Does consumption conform to the moral laws?
…Have we no economic duties to perform?…The rigorous science does not occupy itself with what ought to be, but only with what is; it cannot then propose or seek for an ideal. It merely describes how wealth is produced, distributed, and consumed; and hence the poverty of its practical conclusions. In fact, if liberty alone is enough to cause everything to arrange itself in the best way and to establish harmony, the programme of political economy must be nearly exhausted in countries which, like England, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, have admitted free trade and free competition.”—[M. Laveleye in the Revue des Deux Mondes, July, 1875, p. 464.]

III.

“Political economy…insists that all trade, whether in tangible commodities, in personal services, or in commercial credits, is of one and the same nature; that trade is buying and selling, which is naturally profitable and ought to be free;…that every seller has the right to get the most he can for his service under all circumstances—that is to say, to render the least of his own service needful at the time to get the service of the other man; that God ordained to be proper and profitable this mutual exchange of services among men; that no persons in the world except the parties themselves, man to man, have the wisdom to dictate its terms.”—[Professor Perry in the Nation, June 10, 1886.]

IV.

“But economic science is wholly practical; it has no raison d’être except as directing conduct towards a given end; it studies the means leading towards that end, not merely for the sake of knowledge, but in the hope of guiding men so that they may pursue that end in the most appropriate way; it is not content to describe the principles that have actuated human conduct, but desires to look at these principles in the light of after events, and thus to put forward the means that are best adapted for attaining the end in view.”—[Cunningham’s Politics and Economics, p. 12.]

B.
One question may be omitted.

State and discuss Walker’s theory by which labor is represented as having the residual share of all product, after the payment of rent and profits.
“But the fundamental truth, that in all economic reasoning must be firmly grasped and never let go, is that society in its most highly developed form is but an elaboration of society in its modest beginnings, and that principles obvious in the simpler relations of men are merely disguised and not abrogated or reversed by the more intricate relations that result from the division of labor and the use of complex tools and methods.”
What limits, if any, should you set to the validity of arguments thus drawn from the case of primitive society?
Examine the following proposition stated by Mr. George:—
“Capital has never to be set aside for the payment of wages when the produce of the labor for which the wages are paid is exchanged as soon as produced; it is only required when this produce is stored up, or what is to the individual the same thing, placed in the general current of exchange, without being at once drawn against—that is, sold on credit. [When an employer needs capital] it is because he is not only an employer of labor, but a merchant or operator in, or an accumulator of, the products of labor.”
State and discuss the reasoning by which Mr. George supports the following proposition:—
“Without any increase in population, the progress of invention constantly tends to give a larger and larger proportion of the produce to the owners of land, and a smaller and smaller proportion to labor and capital. And as we can assign no limits to the progress of invention, [if labor-saving invention were ever to reach perfection] wages would be nothing, and interest would be nothing, while rent would take everything.”
State (a) Mr. George’s theory of the causes of commercial depressions;
(b) Mr. Crocker’s theory of the same, as explained by excessive saving and investment in productive forms.
Discuss either (a) or (b).

____________________

Enrollment 1885-86

[Political Economy] 3. Investigation and discussion of practical economic questions of the day: bimetallism; appreciation of gold; American shipping; government issues and national bank notes; Canadian reciprocity.—Short theses criticized by the Instructor and discussed by the class. Prof. Dunbar Laughlin.

Total 17: 1 Graduate, 5 Seniors, 11 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1885-1886, p. 50.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Year-end Examination]

Compare the difficulties with our coinage in 1834 with those of to-day. Would the remedy which was applied in 1834 be a correct one to-day?
What is the present condition of the Latin Union?
Have you any reasons to offer for the recent additional decline in the value of silver since September, 1885?
Discuss the influence on American tonnage of existing laws in regard to the importation of materials for the construction in the United States of (1) ships to be sailed under our own flag in the foreign trade, and of (2) ships to be sailed under a foreign flag.
How do you account for the increasing tonnage of foreign wooden sailing-vessels in our ports?
If we have little steam tonnage in the foreign trade, why is it that builders of iron and steam ships can exist in the United States? How does your conclusion on this question affect the argument for free ships?
On reasons connected with the quantity of notes issued, would you advocate the use of United States notes, or National Bank notes?
Discuss the plans which propose the continuance of the national bank system by substituting other bonds for United States securities.
Is the national bank note immediately convertible under the present system?
What advantages were expected by American manufacturers from the Reciprocity Treaty with Canada? Were these expectations realized?
How were our agricultural interests actually affected during the continuance of the Treaty (1854-1866)?

____________________

Enrollment 1885-86

[Political Economy] 4. Economic history of America and Europe since the Seven Years’ War.—Lectures. Prof. Dunbar.

Total 184: 1 Graduate, 74 Seniors, 57 Juniors, 41 Sophomores, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1885-1886, p. 51.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
[Year-end Examination]

Three questions to be omitted.

What was the plan of the Zollverein, and what was its influence on the political unity of Germany?
What were the leading measures by which Napoleon III. stimulated the material development of France?
History of the Suez canal.
Why can India no longer be depended upon to absorb surplus silver from Europe as formerly?
How far is the decline of American shipping traceable to the civil war?
Reasons for the increased financial importance of the United States Treasury since 1861.
The industrial effects of steam transportation and the telegraph.
Why did the French indemnity of 1871 seriously affect England, the United States, and Austria?
The suspension and resumption of specie payments by France in the decade, 1870-80.
The financial effect of the concentration of bank reserves in New York.
The difference in the development of city and of country banks (in the United States and in England), and the inference to be drawn as to the future development of banking.
Jevons’s sunspot theory of crises, and the reasons for and against it.
The English coal supply and the national debt.

____________________

Enrollment 1885-86

[Political Economy] 6. History of Tariff Legislation in the United States.— Discussion of principles. Consent of instructor required. Dr. Taussig.

Total 35: 2 Graduates, 4 Law, 17 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1885-1886, p. 51.

1885-86.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6
[Mid-Year Examination]

Comment on the following:—
“Beside the protection thrown over the manufacturing interest by Congress during this period (1789-1812), the war which raged in Europe produced a favorable effect. As the United States was a neutral nation, she fattened on the miseries of the European nations, and her commerce increased with astonishing rapidity. Our manufactures flourished from the same cause, though not to a corresponding degree with our commerce.”
Take two of the following:—
(a) Give some account of the sources from which we learn the character of the act of 1828, and the circumstances under which it was passed.
(b) What was Webster’s position on the tariff question, in 1824, in 1828, and in 1833?
(c) What was Clay’s position on the tariff question in 1820, in 1828, and in 1832?
Under (b) and (c) discuss briefly the reasons why Clay and Webster acted as they did at the dates mentioned.
Comment on the following:—
“Whenever we diminish importation by a protective tariff, we must at the same time diminish the production of those goods which, were trade free, we should given in exchange for the goods imported…..It would, however, be a mistake in the other direction to assume that all the industry set in operation by the tariff is withdrawn from other employments, and that there is no increase whatever. The very fact that, under free trade, goods are imported instead of being made at home shows that we find it easier to make the goods which we send abroad than to make those which we receive in exchange for them. Hence when we are forced to make them for ourselves, there must be an increase in the sum total of our industry.”
Comment on the following, and state when and by whom you think it was written:—
“The principal argument for the superior productiveness of agricultural labor turns on the allegation that the labor employed on manufactures yields nothing equivalent to the rent of the land, or to that net surplus, as it is called, which accrues to the proprietor of the soil….It seems to have been overlooked that the land itself is a stock or capital, advanced or lent by its owner to the occupier or tenant, and that the rent he receives is only the ordinary profit of a certain stock in land, not managed by the proprietor himself, but by another, to whom he lends or lets it, and who, on his part, advances a second capital, to stock and improve the land, upon which he also receives the usual profit. The rent of the landlord and the profit of the farmer are, therefore, nothing more than the ordinary profit of two capitals belonging to two different persons, and united in the cultivation of the farm.”
State as nearly as you can what were the duties on cotton goods, woolen goods, bar iron, hemp, and articles not specifically provided for, in the years 1800, 1814, 1820, 1830, and 1837. Mention what tariff act was in force at each date, and whether the duty was specific or ad valorem. Use tabular form if you wish.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers in economics, 1882-1935. Prof. F. W. Taussig, p. 7.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
[Year-End Examination]

[Omit one question.]

Does a tax on imports operate as a tax on exports? Apply your reasoning to the exports of Southern cotton in 1830, and to those of Western grain in 1880.
Assuming that you were called on to reduce duties, state the order of preference in which you would effect reductions in the present duties on iron, sugar, silks. Give your reasons.
Make a comparison between the general course of tariff legislation in the United States and on the continent of Europe, from 1860 to the present time.
Make a comparison between the tariff legislation of the United States in 1833 and in 1846.
Comment on the reasoning and the statements of fact in the following:—
“The duty of 1867 on wool, which gave to wool-growing its greatest encouragement, has added nothing to the cost of wool to the manufacturer or the consumer. On the contrary, the price has been greatly cheapened. In 1867 the price was 51 cents, in 1870 it was 46 cents, in 1875 it was 43 cents. There has been a steady reduction, with occasional fluctuations, since 1867. Free wool will be of no permanent benefit to manufacturer or consumer, but a positive loss to both. On the other hand, the wool-growing interest will be ruined by the competition of Australia, New Zealand, and the South American States.”
Would you impose specific or ad-valorem duties on steel rails, wool, woolen cloths? Give your reasons. What has been the practice in imposing duties on these articles since 1860?

____________________

Enrollment 1885-86

[Political Economy] 8. Financial history of the United States.—Bolles’s Financial History— Lectures. Prof. Dunbar.

Total 31: 1 Graduate, 4 Law, 15 Seniors, 11 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1885-1886, p. 51.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
[Year-end Examination]

What grounds are there for doubting the necessity of the first legal tender act?
Explain the steps by which the legal tender paper, at first regarded as a temporary issue, became a permanent currency.
What were the arguments for and against the asserted right of the government to pay the five-twenties in paper?
In what respects did the resumption act when passed appear to be insufficient for its purposes?
What was the argument for the proposition that contraction in some form was necessary for a return to specie payments; and how was contraction practically avoided?

Images Source: Harvard Library, Hollis Images. Charles F. Dunbar (left) and James Laurence Laughlin (middle) and Frank W. Taussig (right).

Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Graduate Mathematical Economics. Syllabus and Final Exam. Chipman, 1952

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-12-17

John S. Chipman was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1926. He received his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in 1951, and taught at the University of Minnesota from 1955 to his retirement as Regents’ Professor in 2007.

Before going to Minnesota Chipman was assistant professor of economics at Harvard from 1951-55. This post provides a transcription of the course syllabus and final examination for Chipman’s “General Interdependence Systems”, a name he chose for the course he inherited bearing the nominal title of “mathematical economics”.

____________________

Course Announcement

Economics 214b (formerly Economics 204b). Mathematical Economics

Half-course (spring term). Tu., Th., 2:30-4. Assistant Professor Chipman.

General interdependence systems; in particular, Leontief linear systems. Properly qualified undergraduates will be admitted to the course.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Courses of Instruction, Box 6. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1951-52 published in Official Register of Harvard University Vol. XLVIII, No. 21 (September 10, 1951), pp. 80-81 .

____________________

Economics 214b
General Interdependence Systems

Second Semester, 1951-52
Syllabus

*Texts

I STATIC LEONTIEF MODEL

*Wassily W. Leontief: The Structure of American Economy, 1919-1939, New York, Oxford University Press, 1951.

II DYNAMIC MODELS

*John S. Chipman: The Theory of Inter-Sectoral Money Flows and Income Formation, Baltimore, The John Hopkins Press, 1951

Richard M. Goodwin: “The Multiplier as Matrix,” Economic Journal, December 1949

________________: “Does the Matrix Multiplier Oscillate?” December 1950

________________: “Static and Dynamic Linear General Equilibrium Models,” (mimeographed, Littauer Library)

David Hawkins and Herbert A. Simon, “Note: Some Conditions of Macroeconomic Stability,” Econometrica, July-October 1949

Oscar Lange, Price Flexibility and Employment, Bloomington, Indiana, Principia Press, 1944, Appendix.

Lloyd A. Metzler: “Stability of Multiple Markets: The Hicks Conditions,” Econometrica, October 1945

________________: “A Multiple Region Theory of Income and Trade,” Econometrica, October 1950

________________: “A Multiple-Country Theory of Income Transfers,” Journal of Political Economy, February 1951.

Paul A. Samuelson: Foundations of Economic Analysis, Ch. IX and Appendix B

________________: “A Fundamental Multiplier Identity,” Econometrica, July-October 1943

Arthur Smithies: “The Stability of Competitive Equilibrium,” Econometrica, July-October 1942

Robert Solow: “On the Structure of Linear Models,” Econometrica, January 1952

Frederick V. Waugh: “Inversion of the Leontief Matrix by Power Series,” Econometrica, April 1950

III ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES (“LINEAR PROGRAMMING”)

*Tjalling C. Koopmans (ed.): Activity Analysis of Production and Allocation, New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1951.

________________: “Efficient Allocation of Resources,” Econometrica, October 1951.

Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen: “Leontief’s System in the Light of Recent Result,” Review of Economics and Statistics, August 1950

John von Neumann: “A Model of General Economic Equilibrium,” Review of Economic Studies, October 1945.

MATHEMATICAL REFERENCES

(1) Matrices

R. A. Frazer, W. J. Duncan and A. R. Collar, Elementary Matrices, New York, Macmillan, 1947

C. C. MacDuffee, Vectors and Matrices, Menasha, Wisconsin, 1943

A. C. Aitken, Determinants and Matrices, Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1948

(2) Difference and Differential Equations

P. A. Samuelson, “Dynamic Process Analysis,” in A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Philadelphia, Blakiston, 1948

R. G. D. Allen, “Mathematical Foundations of Economic Theory,” Q.J.E. February 1949

F. R. Moulton, Differential Equations, New York, Macmillan, 1930, Ch. XV

W. J. Baumol, Economic Dynamics, New York, Macmillan, 1951.

(3) Set Theory and Abstract Algebra

F. P. Northrup and Associates, Fundamental Mathematics, Vol. I, Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1948

Richard Courant and Herbert Robbins, What is Mathematics?, New York, Oxford University Press, 1941

Garrett Birkhoff and Saunders MacLane, A Survey of Modern Algebra, New York, Macmillan, 1950

Paul Halmos, Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1948

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 5. Folder: “Economics, 1951-1952 (2 of 2)”.

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1951-52
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 214b
[Final examination]

Answer both questions

Consider an economy composed of n sectors (say industries and households) and described by the model

where y_i(t) is the output of sector i at time t, of which b_i is the exogenous component, and where the input-output coefficients a_ij are all taken to be non-negative. Assuming the economy to be initially in a state of equilibrium, show under what conditions an autonomous rise in all the b_i
1. implies an increase in the equilibrium values of all the sector outputs;
2. causes all sector outputs to approach, with time, new equilibrium values.
  Compare and interpret these conditions.
“A possible activity is efficient if and only if there exists a set of positive prices for all commodities, which give rise to zero profits on this activity and non-positive profits on all other possible activities.”
1. Prove this theorem, keeping in mind the following two properties of convex polyhedral cones:
  1. The negative polar of the intersection of two cones is equal to the sum of their negative polars;
  2. The sum of two cones is equal to the sum of their dimensionality spaces if and only if the relative interior of the one cone intersects the negative of the relative interior of the other.
2. Indicate a modification of the theorem, with the appropriate modification of the definition of efficiency, when availability limitations are specified on certain primary commodities, which are no longer regarded as “undesirable.”
3. Outline the properties of the efficient set in (b) when there is only one primary commodity and there is no joint production.
4. Discuss the usefulness, significance, and validity of the notion of an efficient set of activities as employed in (a), (b), and (c).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 27, Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions,…Economics,…, Air Sciences, Naval Science, June 1952.

Image Source: September 1961 entry card for John Somerset Chipman (b. 28 June 1926 in Montreal). Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, immigration Cards, 1900-1965 at ancestry.com.

Tags Chipman

Economics Programs Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Political Economy course enrollments and final exams, 1884-1885

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-12-11

Six of eight courses listed in Political Economy were taught during the 1884-85 year at Harvard. This post provides the enrollment information as well as the June final examinations for all of those courses. Mid-year examinations are not included with one exception.

Note to self: only the mid-year examination for Taussig’s Political Economy 6 is included below, the others still need to be located.

_______________________

Political Economy 1.
Profs. Dunbar and Laughlin.

3 hours per week.

Laughlin’s Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on the Financial Legislation of the United States

Total: 166: 18 Seniors, 75 Juniors, 61 Sophomores, 4 Law, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Final Examination, June 1885]

If a farmer had the alternative of spending a sum of money either for manures, or for the services of useless servants, in which way would he give the greater employment to the laboring class by his expenditure? Explain your answer.
(a) Discuss the causes affecting the efficiency of production; and (b) point out the relation of an increase in production to cost of labor.
Is it strictly true that high wages do not make high prices? What would be the effect on real wages of a considerable increase of money in the community?
Make it clear that, even if the state should take possession of all the land and charge no rent, bread would not be cheapened.
What is the usual relation of a low cost of production in the manufacturing industry to prices? What is the relation of a low cost of production to wages in the same industry? From your two conclusions what inference would you draw as to the effect of high wages in the United States on the ability of Americans to compete with foreigners in a common market?
Give an example illustrating the working of reciprocal demand and supply, and point out its relations to cost of production.
What made the coinage act of 1834 necessary?
On whom does a house-tax fall?
Explain the refunding operations in 1881, and state what has since been done with the bonds in question.
Give the reasons which obliged the banks to suspend specie payments in 1861. In doing so, point out the necessary relation between the items in their accounts which led them to this step.
Describe the two great financial successes of the war period, explain the character of the obligations offered by the Treasury, and state why success was gained.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1885. In bound volume: Examination Papers, 1883-86, pp. 9-10.

_______________________

Political Economy 2.
Prof. Dunbar.

3 hours per week.

History of Economic Theory. — Selections from Leading Writers

Total: 21: 10 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Final Examination, June 1885]

Comment on the following:—

“Do the facts of history bear out the theory [of Ricardo]? If they do we shall find (1) that in any given area the amount of the produce of the land obtained in earlier times is greater in proportion to the number of laborers; (2) that of two countries, or two districts in the same country, if other things be equal, the one that is poorest in people is the one in which the average degree of personal wealth and comfort is the highest; (3) that the share that falls to the landlord increases, and that which falls to the laborer diminishes, as more land is brought under cultivation.” (Thompson’s Social Science, p. 93.)

George says:—

“It is not necessary to the production [even] of things that cannot be used as subsistence, or cannot be immediately utilized, that there should have been a previous production of the wealth required for the maintenance of the laborers while the production is going on. It is only necessary that there should be, somewhere within the circle of exchange, a contemporaneous production of sufficient subsistence for the laborers, and a willingness to exchange this subsistence for the thing on which the labor is being bestowed.”
Is the necessity of previously produced subsistence avoided by the fact of “contemporaneous production,” etc.?

George presents the current statement of the laws of distribution in this form:—

“Rent depends on the margin of cultivation, rising as it falls and falling as it rises.
“Wages depend upon the ratio between the number of laborers and the amount of capital devoted to their employment.
“Interest depends upon the equation between the supply of and demand for capital; or, as is stated of profits, upon wages (or the cost of labor), rising as wages fall, and falling as wages rise.

“In the current statement the laws of distribution have no common centre, no mutual relation; they are not correlating divisions of a whole, but measures of different qualities.”
Can you rewrite this “current statement” so as to present the correlation which Mr. George misses?

Is there in rent any force of its own, enabling it to encroach upon wages and profits, or does it merely fill the space opened before it by other forces? What limit is there to this encroachment or expansion?
Criticise the following as a statement of the Wages Fund theory:—
“The means of purchase and the motives acting upon the minds of employers jointly determine the effective demand for labor, as the means of purchase and the play of motives determine the effective demand for a commodity.”
Crocker says, p. 7:—
“Our wealthy classes, wishing to accumulate still greater wealth, sought to use a large portion of their control or power over labor in creating profitable investments for themselves….Comparatively little harm would have been done if the new investments had simply turned out to be unprofitable, and the old ones had continued to supply the rich their accustomed dividends, and to the poor their accustomed wages. The mischief has been that the new investments have, by competition, ruined for the time being the old ones; dividends and wages have stopped, and the income of all, both rich and poor, being cut down, their demands upon labor have been greatly diminished, and the laborer has been left in idleness and without the means of procuring the necessaries of life.”
Aside from all questions of fact,— what is the flaw in the above if the reasoning is bad, and what is the remedy for the evil if the reasoning is good?
What is Mr. Carey’s theory as to the tendency (1) to decline in the value of commodities, and (2) to rise in the value of land; and how is this reconciled with his principle that the law of value is universal, embracing everything, “whether land, labor, or their products”?
“With every increase in the facility of reproduction, there is a decline in the value of all existing things of a similar kind, attended by a diminution in the price paid for their use. The charge for the use of the existing money tends, therefore, to decline as man acquires control over the great forces provided by the Creator for his service; as is shown by the gradual diminution of the rate of interest in every advancing country.”
What is the difficulty in this reasoning as to the rate of interest, and how would the reasoning apply in the case of a currency of inconvertible paper?
How far can apparent resulting harmonies in the general working of society (as g. in Carey’s and Bastiat’s law of distribution between capital and labor) be accepted as a test of the truth of an economic proposition?

_______________________

Political Economy 3.
Prof. Laughlin.

2 hours per week.
[Consent of instructor required]

Lectures and Discussion [of Practical Economic Questions]. Subjects: Money, Precious Metals, Bimetallism, American Shipping, History of Note-issues by Government and Banks. — One Thesis by each student on some practical question of the day, intended as an exercise in investigation

Total: 18: 10 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Final Examination, June 1885]

Explain the proper theory of a subsidiary coinage. How far was this followed by Congress in first establishing our coinage?
Discuss the bearing which by its advocates bimetallism is supposed to have on the stability of a standard of payments. What connection has the theory of a Multiple Standard to this discussion?
How far can you safely reason from comparative tables of prices as to changes in the value of gold or silver?
Discuss the efficacy of a bimetallic league of states in regulating the value of silver relatively to that of gold.
Explain the causes which led to the remarkable fall of silver in 1876.
State the causes which, in your opinion, led to the growth of American shipping to 1856.
How far do you regard it true that the decline in American shipping was due to the consequences arising from the use of steam and iron in ships engaged in the foreign trade?
What measures, if any, would you propose in order to reestablish our shipping?
What is meant by an “elastic currency”? Compare, in this respect, the notes of the National Banks with the legal tender notes of the United States.
Give (a) the reasons for the general adoption of the features of the New York Banking Act of 1838; and (b) the reasons which actually led to the establishment of the National Banking System in 1864.
Discuss carefully some measure for giving security to National Bank notes when United States bonds shall be no longer obtainable for that purpose.

_______________________

Political Economy 4.
Prof. Dunbar.

3 hours per week.

Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. — Lectures

Total: 152: 61 Seniors, 43 Juniors, 37 Sophomores, 5 Freshmen, 2 Law, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
[Final Examination, June 1885]

Omit two questions

Why was the repeal of the corn laws decisive as to the adoption of free trade by England?
How did the French and Indian currencies tend to prevent the fall of gold after 1850 from being still heavier?
How important a place among the causes of the decline of American shipping belongs to the civil war?
The effects of the civil war on the system of landholding in the South and its probable ultimate effects on Southern industry.
The steps by which the war determined the subsequent tariff policy of the United States.
The causes of the suddenly increased importance of our trade in breadstuffs in the last ten years.
Why did the payment of the French indemnity of 1871 seriously affect England, Austria and the United States?
The real loss or gain of France and Germany respectively by the payment of the indemnity.
What were the heavy demands for gold from 1871 to 1883, and why did they fail to produce serious financial disturbance?
The difference in the development of city and of country banks respectively, in the United States and in England, and the inference to be drawn as to the future development of the banking systems.
Why is a “triangular trade” between nations convenient and why is England the great centre for such trade?
As the English government does not own nor tax the coal mines, why should fear of increasing cost of extracting coal lead Mr. Gladstone to favor an energetic reduction of the national debt.

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Political Economy 5.
Prof. Laughlin.

1 hour per week.
[Consent of instructor required]

Economic Effects of Land Tenures in England, Ireland, France, and Germany

Omitted in 1884-85.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

_______________________

Political Economy 6.
Dr. Taussig.

1 hour per week.
[Consent of instructor required]

History of Tariff Legislation in the United States, with discussion of principles. — Lectures

Total: 40: 1 Graduate, 26 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 6
[Mid-Year Examination, 1885]

(Omit either question 3 or question 4.)

Comment briefly on the following:—
“There is not a single great branch of domestic manufactures which had not been established in some form in this country long before a protective tariff had been or could have been imposed. The manufacture of iron is nearly as old as the history of every colony or territory in which there is any iron ore. The manufacture of woolens is as old as the country itself, and was more truly a domestic manufacture when our ancestors were clothed with homespun than now. The manufacture of cotton is almost as old as the production of the fibre on our territory.”
Compare the tariff act of 1816 with that of 1824, noting difference in (1) the general range of duties, (2) the circumstances under which they were passed, (3) the action taken in regard to them by the representatives of New England, the Middle States, and the South. It has been said that “the tariff of 1816 marks the beginning of protection in this country,” and that “the tariff of 1824 was our first tariff worthy of the name of protection.” Which of these statements is true, if either?
Comment on the following:—
“No protective duty was ever levied on a single article, the home manufacture of which grew to large proportions under that duty, without the price to the consumer growing cheaper, the duty thus being a boon instead of a tax.”
“A duty on an imported article is invariably added to its price, at the cost of the buyer, and added also to the price of like articles made here.”
State carefully the argument for the protection of young industries and mention the conditions, if any, which might justify the application of such protection.
Give a brief critical statement of the views expressed by Hamilton, Gallatin, Clay, and Webster on the protective controversy.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers in economics, 1882-1935. [Scrapbook of] Prof F. W. Taussig (HUC 7882).

POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
[Final Examination, June 1885]

State as nearly as you can the duties on the following articles from 1846 to 1884: pig-iron, steel-rails, wool, woollen cloths, silks, coffee, copper.
Take any one of the following articles: pig-iron, wool, woollen cloths, silks, copper; and say something as to the economic effect of the duties on that one between 1860 and 1884.
Give an account of the tariff act of 1864. Compare the tariff policy adopted in the United States after the close of the civil war, and with the policy of France after 1815.
What has been the practice in our tariff acts since 1842 as regards the imposition of specific and ad valorem duties? Comment on the following: “It is an economic truth that the ad valorem system is the only equitable rule for assessing duties. With the whole power of a great government behind, there is no reason why the laws of the country should not be enforced. The outcry of undervaluation is simply a trick to blind the people, as it would be impossible to enact a law imposing duties of 80, 100, even 200 per cent. in the plain unvarnished form of ad valorem duties.”
Comment briefly on two of the following:—
(1)”The fairest and most satisfactory test of the effect of the tariff on prices is to compare prices of the same article under high and low tariffs. The average gold price of pig-iron before 1860 was $28.50 per ton; in recent years it has been $33.70. The average is higher by $5.20 under a high tariff than during the period of low duties.”
(2) “Nothing can be more false than the claim of free trade advocates than that a duty is a tax that comes out of the farmers and artisans of this country. By far the greater part of the revenue collected on importations is the toll paid by people of other countries for the admission of their goods…I was assured by a score of manufacturers in England that the recent increase in the French tariff came out of their pockets, and not from the consumers in France; that they were compelled to sell their goods in France at the same price as before the increase of duty.”
(3) “A conclusive answer to the assertion that the protective policy secures high wages to the laborers of this country, is found in the fact that wages are higher in the United States—absolutely and in comparison with the old world rates—in those industries which do not have, or confessedly do not need, protection.”
Compare the grounds on which a policy of protection has been advocated in recent years with the grounds put forward in 1820-30, and give any reasons that may occur to you for changes in the arguments.

_______________________

Political Economy 7.
Prof. Dunbar.

1 hour per week.
[Consent of instructor required]

Comparison of the Financial Systems of France, England, Germany, and the United States

Omitted in 1884-85.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

_______________________

Political Economy 8.
Prof. Dunbar.

1 hour per week.
[Consent of instructor required]

History of Financial Legislation in the United States.

Total: 39: 1 Graduate, 28 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 8
[Final Examination, June 1885]

[Omit two questions.]

State the circumstances which led to the adoption of the Independent Treasury and hard money as the policy of the Democratic party.
How close an approach had been made to the issue of a government currency, prior to the Act of July 17, 1861?
What has been the legislation since 1861 on the taxation of United States bonds,
(1) by national authority,
(2) by State authority,
and the reasons therefor?
The causes of the failure of the movements for resumption from 1865-70.
The reasons for and against the claim of authority, under which Mr. Richardson increased the outstanding legal tender notes from $356,000,000 to $382,000,000.
Trace the origin of the present three percents of the United States.
Criticise the following extract from Mr Boutwell’s Finance Report of 1872:—
“As the circulation of a bank is a source of profit, and as the managers are usually disposed to oblige their patrons by loans and accommodations, it can never be wise to allow banks or parties who have pecuniary interests at stake to increase or diminish the volume of currency in the country at their pleasure. Nor do I find in the condition of things a law or rule on which we can safely rely. Upon these views I form the conclusion that the circulation of the banks should be fixed and limited, and that the power to change the volume of paper in circulation, within limits established by law, should remain in the Treasury Department….
“The problem is to find a way of increasing the currency for moving the crops and diminishing it at once when that work is done. This is a necessary work, and, inasmuch as it cannot be confided to the banks, where, but in the Treasury Department, can the power be reposed?”

Images Source: Harvard Library, Hollis Images. Charles F. Dunbar (left) and James Laurence Laughlin (middle) and Frank W. Taussig (right).

Tags Dunbar, Laughlin, Taussig

Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Readings and Exams. Public Utilities and Transportation. 1935-37.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-12-09

This post has been assembled around a list of books used in courses on transportation that were taught at Harvard in the mid-1930s. While the courses covered public utility regulation for the most part, I have not yet found complete course outlines or syllabi for the two courses considered. So paired with the final examinations for the course, the partial reading lists are all we can go on for now regarding the course content.

In the following post we meet the economics Ph.D. alumnus (Harvard, 1931), Donald Holmes Wallace who assisted Edward H. Chamberlin in teaching these courses at the time. Wallace put the lists together in response to an inquiry from a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission (see below).

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Course Announcements

1935-36

Economics 4c ²hf. Public Utilities (including Transportation)

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace and Abbott.

Economics 4a [The Corporation and its Regulation] is a prerequisite for this course.

[Economics 48. Economics of Public Utilities]

Wed., 4 to 6 (and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor). Professor Crum and Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin.

Omitted in 1935-36.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1935-36, in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 32, No. 7 (March 4, 1935), pp. 135, 139.

* * * * * * * * * * *

1936-37

Economics 63b ²hf. (formerly 4c). Public Utilities (including Transportation)

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace and Abbott.

Economics 61a [The Corporation and its Regulation] is a prerequisite for this course.

Economics 163. (formerly 48). Economics of Public Utilities

Wed., 4 to 6 (and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor). Professor Crum and Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1936-37, in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 33, No. 5 (March 2, 1936), pp. 141,145.

_____________________________

Course Enrollments

[Economics] 4c ²hf. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace, Abbott and Baker. — Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 74: 2 Graduates, 30 Seniors, 40 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1935-36, p. 82.

* * * * * * * * * * *

[Economics] 63b ²hf. (formerly 4c) Associate Professor Chamberlin and Dr. Wallace. — Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 43: 1 Graduate, 25 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 1 Other.

[Economics] 163. (formerly 48). Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin and Dr. Wallace.—Economics of Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 10: 4 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 2 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1936-37, pp. 92, 94.

_____________________________

Harvard University
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Department of Government

Cambridge, Massachusetts
October 19, 1936

Miss C. C. Tatnall
Department of Economics
41 Holyoke House
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Dear Miss Tatnall:

Professor [William Y.] Elliott has had an inquiry from a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission about the books which are being used in the courses on transportation in the University. Have you a bibliography, or could a bibliography be prepared, of the material in use in the courses Economics 63b and 163? We shall appreciate any material you are able to collect.

Do you know if there are any other courses in the College which deal with transportation?

Thanks so much for your trouble.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
[first name?] Dolan

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

List of Books used in Economics of Transportation
October, 1936
D. H. Wallace

Undergraduate course entitled Public Utilities including Transportation:

Locklin: Economics of Transportation

Mosher and Crawford: Public Utility Regulation

Daggett: Principles of Inland Transportation

Owen: Highway Economics

Bauer and Gold: Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control

Bonbright and Means: The Holding Company

Reports of the Federal Coordinator.

Graduate course students make use of the following

Cunningham: American Railroads

Grodinsky: Railroad Consolidation

Jones: Principles of Railway Transportation

Miller: Inland Transportation

Ripley: Railroads

Ripley: Report on Consolidation for I.C.C.

Sharfman: American Railway Problem

Sharfman: Interstate Commerce Commission

Simnett: Railway Amalgamation in Great Britain

Vanderblue and Burgess: Railroads

I.C.C.: Annual Reports

I.C.C.: Decisions

Clark: Economics of Overhead Costs

Chamberlin: Theory of Monopolistic Competition (Duopoly and oligopoly)

Pigou: Economics of Welfare (Discrimination)

Robinson: Economics of Imperfect Competition (Discrimination)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950. Box 25. Folder “Suggested Readings”.

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Reading Period Assignment
May 4-26, 1936

Economics 4c: Read one of the following:

First Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 1-37.
Third Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 3-129.
Stuart Daggett, Principles of Inland Transportation (revised edition), Chs. 36-38
and H.E. Dugall, two articles on French railways, Journal of Political Economy, June, 1933, pp. 289-333 and June, 1934, pp. 385-392.
Bauer, J. and Gold, N., Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control, pp. 155-362.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1935-36”.

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1935-36
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4c²
[Final Examination]

Answer questions 1 and 5 and TWO others. All questions are of equal weight.

Answer the question appropriate to your Reading Period choice.
1. Discuss the alternatives for a national policy toward the transportation problem in this country and explain which measures should in your opinion be included in such a program.
2. Compare the chief developments in railway regulation in France and the United States during the past fifteen years.
3. “The concept of ‘present value’ represents an unreal combination of judicial prejudice and economic abstraction.” Discuss.
The economic surgery required by the provisions of the Public Utility Holding Company Act compelling realignment of companies into integrated regional systems is no less deplorable than an appendicitis operation upon a boy who has eaten too many green apples. A much more sensible policy was adopted in the consolidation provisions of the Transportation Act of 1920 which enabled a judicious mixture of private and public planning of combination.” Discuss.
“The original cost method of valuation cannot provide a satisfactory way of determining rate bases in the case of competing railroads built at different times over different terrains. Under such circumstances the use of original cost will result either in robbing the stockholders of one road of the advantages of perspicacious management, or in forcing shippers to reward the stockholders of the other for building an expensive road.” Discuss.
You are asked by one of the political parties to prepare a memorandum to serve as a basis for a plank concerning public utilities. It is requested that you explain specifically: (1) the economic criteria which seem to be the most useful for distinguishing industries which should be subjected to public ownership and operation or public regulation of investment, prices, and earnings; and (2) the legal principles used by the courts in recent cases involving the rights of Federal or state governments to regulate investment, prices, or earnings.
Discuss two of the following quotations.
1. “The ordinary consumer of utility services is interested only in price and quality of service. His disposition to leave to investors all concern over security structures, holding companies, and service charges finds a sound basis in the fact that these things affect only the division of the profits.”
2. “Whatever may be urged to the contrary, regulation of transportation agencies in the United States has been imposed as a result of unfair treatment of the shipping public.”
3. “Personal discrimination is bad enough in that it confers an unwarranted favor upon one of two producers located in the same place; long and short haul discrimination is worse because it gives an undue advantage to the producer who is located farther away from raw materials or markets.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1936. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 78).

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Reading Period Assignment
May 10-June 2, 1937

Economics 63b: Read one of the following:

First Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 1-37,
and
Third Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 3-129.
Stuart Daggett, Principles of Inland Transportation (revised edition), Chs. 36-38
and H.E. Dugall, two articles on French railways, Journal of Political Economy, June, 1933, pp. 289-333 and June, 1934, pp. 385-392.
Bauer, J. and Gold, N., Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control, pp. 155-362.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.

_____________________________

1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 63b²
[Final Examination]

Write on four questions, including the first and the last. Divide your time about equally between them.

Choose either (a) or (b):
1. “The fact that ‘charging what the traffic will bear’ develops under unregulated competition is no excuse for permitting the practice when rates are regulated by public authority. It is simply another form of discrimination which it is the duty of the I.C.C. to put down.” Discuss.
2. Comment on the following figures for the electrical industry for 1935:

	Customers Per cent	Consumption Per cent	Revenue Per cent
Domestic:	82.6	18.0	36.6
Commercial:
Retail	14.9	18.3	28.0
Wholesale	2.0	53.1	27.5
Municipal, Street railways and miscellaneous	0.5	10.6	7.0
	100.0	100.0	100.0

“With the Act of 1920 the policy of regulation of railroads reached its highest development. If that policy fails, the only alternative is public ownership.” Discuss.
Discuss the merits and defects of the policies adopted in in this country for public planning of operating systems either in electricity supply or in railroad transportation.
“In the last analysis, it has been the presence or absence of monopoly which determined whether or not an industry was held to be a public utility. Actually, there are several other elements which ought to be given important consideration.” Discuss.
Answer the question appropriate to your reading period choice:
1. (Eastman report.) Do you think that all agencies of transport should be subjected to the same or to different sorts of regulation? Explain.
2. (Bauer and Gold.) Explain briefly what you understand by “fair value” according to the law of the land and discuss its significance for the regulation of earnings of public utilities.
3. (Foreign railways.) What significant comparisons may be made between the post-war railroad problems of France, Germany and England? What light has your reading here thrown upon the problems of this country?

Source: Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1937. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 79).

_____________________________

Reading Period Assignment
January 4-20, 1937

Economics 163: Read the following:

Bonbright and Means, The Holding Company.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.

_____________________________

1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 163
[Mid-Year Examination]

All six questions are of equal weight. Answer the first question, the last question, and any two among questions 2 to 5.

The Public Utility Act of 1935 authorizes an examination of holding company systems with a view to determining “the extent to which such holding company systems and the companies therein may be simplified, unnecessary complexities therein eliminated, voting power fairly and equitably distributed among the holders of securities thereof, and the properties and business thereof confined to those necessary or appropriate to the operations of integrated public utility systems.” What facts with respect to these questions would you expect such an examination to disclose?
Discuss either of the following statements by Burns:
(a) “Vertical integration thus dictated by the opportunity to secure technical economies of production is not directly caused by the decline of price competition although it may contribute to that decline.”
(b) “In common with all forms of integration, however, this type (of the production of commodities requiring similar selling organizations) hinders the comparison of costs and prices for each separate branch of production.”
Discuss either of the following statements:
(a) “Closely related and also a chief point of controversy, was the effect of limitation of liability upon the position of the creditor.” Hunt (commenting upon the Royal Commission Report of 1854).
(b) “It is to be noted that hardly anywhere in these reports (those of 1837, 1850, 1851, and 1854) was a pure measure of limited liability discussed. What was discussed at great length was this mixed form (of the en commandite type) with unlimited and limited partners.” Shannon.
(a) Discuss the significance and usefulness of either ratio analysis, with illustrative comment upon important types of ratios, or analysis by use of so-called statements of source and disposition of funds.
(b) Outline the major arguments against enforced publicity of corporate accounts.
(a) Discuss the effect of each of the following devices in bringing about separation of control from ownership in corporations: (i) the stockholder’s proxy, (ii) classification of stock.
(b) Outline the main considerations determining a corporation’s dividend policy.
Write on either (a) or (b):
(a) What difficulties, if any, are created by the corporate form of organization for the theory of profits?
(b) What effect do you think a sizeable tax on the transfer of securities (say 1 or 2 per cent of the market price) would have on the behavior of security prices?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 13, Folder “Mid-year examinations, 1936-1937”.

_____________________________

Reading Period Assignment
May 10—June 2, 1937

Economics 163: No additional assignment.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.

_____________________________

1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 163
[Final Examination]

Write on four questions, including number 6. Divide your time about equally between them.

“To justify the principle of discrimination is not to justify either particular instances or particular types of discrimination.” Discuss.
Discuss the possibilities for regulating the earnings of public utilities either (a) with, or (b) without, valuation.
Discuss the possible effects of regulation upon efficiency. What suggestions as to public policy can you make for strengthening the incentives towards efficient operation?
“The arguments for and against public ownership are the same as the arguments for and against regulation.” Discuss.
Discuss the problems of public planning for the size and structure of operating units and the relations between them, with reference to either (a) railroad transport, or (b) electricity supply.
Write on transport coordination: its meaning, significance and possibilities.

Source: Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1937. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 79).

Image Source: Cover of the 1946 Harvard Album.

Tags Abbott, Baker, Chamberlin, Crum, Mason, WallaceDH

Chicago Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Monetary International Economics, readings and exam. Metzler, 1967

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-11-27

Lloyd Metzler provided a token Keynesian voice with a Harvard accent at post-WWII Chicago. Once the Cowles Commission moved to Yale, Metzler found himself vastly outnumbered. And yet he persisted.

__________________________

Syllabus and readings for Economics 370 in 1950.

Exam for Economics 370 in 1953.

All Economics in the Rear-view Mirror blog-posts with Lloyd Metzler content.

__________________________

Biographical Note

Lloyd Appleton Metzler was born on April 3, 1913 in Lost Springs, Kansas. He attended the University of Kansas, where he studied economics under John Ise and earned a Bachelor’s degree in 1935 and an MBA in 1938. Metzler then entered Harvard University. He served as an instructor and tutor at Harvard and completed a Ph.D. in economics in 1942. His dissertation, “Interregional Income Generation,” earned him the Wells Prize. That same year, Metzler was the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship.

From Harvard, Metzler went on to Washington, D.C., where worked for the Office of Strategic Services and several economic policy and planning commissions between 1943 and 1946. Metzler joined the research staff of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 1944. In 1946 he returned to academia when he accepted a teaching position at Yale University. He soon left Yale for the University of Chicago in 1947, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Dr. Metzler survived surgery for a brain tumor in 1952, and with the help of his wife Edith, managed to continue teaching and writing for the next twenty years. He served as Editor of the Journal of Political Economy from 1966 until his retirement in 1971. Metzler made numerous contributions to business cycle literature, macro-monetary theory, tariff theory, mathematical economics, and the field of international trade. The Metzler paradox, Laursen-Metzler effect, and Metzler matrix, all bear his name. He died on October 26, 1980.

Source: University of Chicago Library. Guide to the Lloyd A. Metzler Papers 1941-48. Note: the interesting archival papers containing the following material are found in the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 370
MONETARY ASPECTS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Major Topics and Reading List

Winter 1967
Lloyd A. Metzler

Mechanism of the Foreign Exchange Market
1. P. T. Ellsworth, The International Economy, third edition, New York: Macmillan Company, 1964, Chapter 17.
2. Alan R. Holmes and Francis Schott, The New York Foreign Exchange Market, New York: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 1965, Chapters 1-6.
3. Frank A. Southard, Jr., Foreign Exchange Practice and Policy, New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1940.
4. N. Crump, The ABC of the Foreign Exchanges, London: Macmillan and Company, Ltd., 1951.
5. James E. Meade, Studies in the Theory of International Economic Policy, Vol. I, The Balance of Payments, London: Oxford University Press, 1951, Chapter 1.
The Quantity of Money, the Rate of Interest, and the Price Level
1. Sub-Committee on General Credit Control and Debt Management of the Joint Committee on the Economic Report, Hearings on the Question, What Should our Monetary and Debt Management Policy Be? 82^ndCongress of the United States, 1952, pp. 688-7111, 691-698. (These pages include the testimony of Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson.)
2. James Tobin, “Monetary Policy and the Management of the Public Debt. The Patman Inquiry,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. XXXV, No. 2, May 1953, pp. 118-127.
3. Robert V. Roosa, “Interest Rates and the Central Bank” in Money, Trade and Economic Growth, in honor of John Henry Williams, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1951.
4. Lloyd A. Metzler, “Wealth, Saving, and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LIX, No. 2, April, 1951, pp. 93-116.
5. Robert A. Mundell, “The Public Debt, Corporate Income Taxes, and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LXVIII, No. 6, December 1960, pp. 622-626.
6. George Horwich, “Real Assets and the Theory of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LXX, No. 2, April 1962, pp. 158-169.
7. Don Patinkin, Money, Interest, and Prices, first edition, Evanston: Row, Peterson and Co., 1956, Part. II.
The Role of Money in International Adjustment: Full Employment and Under-Employment
1. J. M. Keynes, Treatise on Money, Vol. I, The Pure Theory of Money, London: Macmillan and Company, 1935, Chapter 21.
2. Lloyd A. Metzler, “The Theory of International Trade,” From A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Howard S. Ellis, editor Homewood, Illinois: R. D. Irwin, Inc., 1948.
Free Market Exchange Rates
1. A. J. Brown, “The Foreign Exchanges” in Oxford Studies in the Price Mechanism, Edited by T. Wilson and P.W. S. Andrews, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1951, Chapters I (i) and II (ii).
2. S. Alexander, “Effects of A Devaluation on a Trade Balance,” International Monetary Fund Staff Papers, Vol. II, No. 2, April 1952.
3. Milton Friedman, “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates,” in Essays in Positive Economics, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1953, pp. 157-203.
4. Joan Robinson, Essays in the Theory of Employment, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1947, Part III, “The Foreign Exchanges.”
5. Lloyd A. Metzler, “Exchange Rates and the International Monetary Fund,” in International Monetary Policies, Postwar Economic Studies No. 7, Washington, D.C.: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, September, 1947.
6. Rudolph R. Rhomberg, “A Model of the Canadian Economy under Fixed and Fluctuating Exchange Rates,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LXXII, No. 1, February 1964, pp. 1-31.
Forward Exchange Rates
1. Paul Einzig, The Theory of Forward Exchange, London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1937.
2. Paul Einzig, A Dynamic Theory of Forward Exchange, London, Macmillan and Co., New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1961.
3. Alan R. Holmes and Francis Schott, The New York Foreign Exchange Market, New York: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 1965, Chapters 7-8.
4. Paul Einzig, “Some Recent Development in Official Forward Exchange Operations,” Economic Journal, Vol. LXXIII, No. 290, June 1963, pp. 241-53.
5. Paul Einzig, “Some Recent Changes in Forward Exchange Practices,” Economic Journal, Vol. LXX, No. 279, September, 1960, pp. 485-95.
The Balance of Payments and the Concepts of Income
1. R. F. Bennett, “Significance of International Transactions in National Income”, in Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. VI, New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1943.
2. U. S. Department of Commerce, Income and Output, 1958 supplement to the Survey of Current Business.
The Theory of Income Transfers
1. J. M. Keynes, “The Transfer Problem,” Economic Journal, XXXIX, No. 153, March 1929, pp. 1-7.
2. B. Ohlin, “The Reparation Problem: A Discussion, I. Transfer Difficulties, Real and Imagined,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 154, June 1929, pp. 172-78.
3. J. M. Keynes, “The Reparation Problem: A Discussion. II. A Rejoinder” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, no. 154, June 1929, pp. 179-82.
4. J. Rueff, “Mr. Keynes’ Views on the Transfer Problem, Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 155, September 1929, pp. 388-99.
5. B. Ohlin, “Rejoinder to J. Rueff,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 155, September 1929, pp. 400-4.
6. J. M. Keynes, “Reply to J. Rueff,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 155, September 1929, pp. 404-8.
7. L. A. Metzler, “The Transfer Problem Re-considered,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. L, No. 2, June 1942.
8. H. G. Johnson, “The Transfer Problem and Exchange Stability,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LXIV, No. 3, June 1956, pp. 212-25.
Postwar Monetary Conditions and the Position of the U.S. Dollar
1. R. Hinshaw, Toward Currency Convertibility, Princeton University, Essays in International Finance, No. 31, 1958.
2. R. Triffin, Europe and the Money Muddle, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957.
3. C. P. Kindleberger, The Dollar Shortage, Cambridge: Massachusetts [Institute of ] Technology Press, New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1950.
4. R. Triffin, “The International Monetary Position of the United States,” in The Dollar in Crisis, S.E. Harris, editor, New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1961.
5. P. T. Ellsworth, The International Economy, third edition, New York: The Macmillan Company, Part VI.
6. H. B. Lary, Problems of the United States as World Trader and Banker, Princeton University Press for the National Bureau of Economic Research, 1963.
7. Triffin, The Evolution of the International Monetary System: Historical Reappraisal and Future Perspectives, Princeton Studies in International Finance, No. 12, International Finance Section, Princeton University, 1964.
8. International Financial Arrangements: The Problem of Choice, Report on the deliberations of an international study group of 32 economists, International Finance Section, Department of Economics, Princeton University 1964.
9. New Approach to United States International Economic Policy. Hearing before the subcommittee on international exchange and payments of the joint economic committee, Eighty-ninth Congress of the United States, second session, September 9, 1966.
10. Ministerial Statement of the Group of Ten and Annex Prepared by Deputies, Statement of M. Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Chairman of the group, August 10, 1964.
11. American Enterprise Institute, International Payments Problems, a symposium sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C. 1966.

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

Lloyd A. Metzler

ECONOMICS 370
Course Examination
Winter, 1967

Answer all questions.

Define two concepts of income which arise when one country (A) makes an annual income transfer to another country (B) and indicate the significance of each concept.
Use the concepts above to show why, in a two-country economy, a presumption exists that the transfer will be more difficult if both countries require imported raw materials to produce than if both are self-sufficient in production. Without going into technical details, indicate why the theory for self-sufficient economies is correct despite this presumption.
(a) Derive the conditions of balance in a full-employment open economy for the following markets: (i) the market for goods and services; (ii) the market for newly-issued securities (iii) the market for foreign exchange.
(b) Show that if the first two markets are in balance, the country has neither a surplus nor a deficit in its balance of payments.
(c) Show that if there is an excess supply (or deflationary gap) in both new securities and goods and services the country necessarily has a deficit in its balance of payments. Discuss the market mechanism which may eliminate this deficit, assuming full employment and flexible prices.
The table below gives interest rates for 3-months U.S. treasury bills adjusted to an annual basis, as well as the spot rate and the 3-month forward rate on Canadian currency, each rate being defined as the U.S. dollar price of the Canadian dollar:

Period	3-month U.S. bills	3-month forward rate	Spot Rate
(1)	.05	$1.0025	$1.0000
(2)	.04	$0.9975	$1.0000
(3)	.03	$0.9950	$1.0000
(4)	.04	$0.9900	$1.0000
(5)	.07	$2.0050	$2.0000

On the basis of this information you are asked to compute, for all periods, the interest rate for Canadian 3-months bills on the assumption that all data lie on the Interest Rate Parity line. Show your computations.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 3, Folder “Econ 370- Course Exams”.

Source Image: Posting by Margie Metzler on the Metzler Family Tree at the genealogical website, ancestry.com.

Tags Ise, Metzler

Philosophy 11. The Ethics of Social Reform.

Enrollment 1888-89. Philosophy 11.

1888-89. PHILOSOPHY 11. THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM. [Mid-year Examination, 1889]

[Omit one question].

1888-89. PHILOSOPHY 11. THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM. [Final Examination, 1889]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.

Enrollment 1888-89 Political Economy 1, First half-year.

1888-89. POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. [Mid-year Examination, 1889]

Enrollment 1888-89 Political Economy 1, Second half-year, Division A.

1888-89. POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. [Final Examination, 1889] Division A.

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Enrollment 1888-89 Political Economy 1, Second half-year, Division B.

1888-89. POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. Division B. [Final Examination, 1889]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2

Enrollment 1888-89 Political Economy 2.

1888-89. POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. [Mid-year and Final Examination, 1889]

1888-89. POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. [Final Examination, 1889]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3

Enrollment 1888-89 Political Economy 3. Omitted in 1888-89.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 4

Enrollment 1888-89. Political Economy 4.

1888-89. POLITICAL ECONOMY 4. [Mid-year Examination, 1889]

[Give one hour to A. Under B omit any two questions except number 5.]

A.

B.

1888-89. POLITICAL ECONOMY 4. [Final Examination, 1889]

[Take all of A, all of B, and two questions from C.]

A.

B.

C.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 5

Enrollment 1888-89 Political Economy 5. Omitted in 1888-89.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 6

Enrollment 1888-89 Political Economy 6, Second half-year.

1888-89. POLITICAL ECONOMY 6 [End-Year]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Political Economy 6. Grade Distribution 1888-89, 2d half-year.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 7

Enrollment 1888-89 Political Economy 7.

1888-89. POLITICAL ECONOMY 7. [Mid-year Examination, 1889]

1888-89. POLITICAL ECONOMY 7. [Final Examination, 1889]

POLITICAL ECONOMY 8

Enrollment 1888-89 Political Economy 8, First half-year.

1888-89. POLITICAL ECONOMY 8. [Final Examination, Mid-year, 1889]

Political Economy 9

Enrollment 1888-89 Political Economy 9, Second half-year.

1888-89. POLITICAL ECONOMY 9. [Final Examination, 1889]

Take all in Group A; two in Group B.

A.

B.

Political Economy 1.

Course Description and Enrollment 1887-88

Political Economy 1 1887-1888.

[Mid-year examination]

Political Economy 1A.

Course Description and Enrollment 1887-88

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. DIVISION A.

[Year-end examination, 1888]

Political Economy 1B.

Course Description and Enrollment 1887-88

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. DIVISION B.

[Year-end examination, 1888]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

Political Economy 2.

Course Description and Enrollment 1887-88

1887-88. POLITICAL ECONOMY 2

[Mid-year examination. 1888.]

1887-88 POLITICAL ECONOMY 2

[Year-end examination. 1888.]

Political Economy 3.

Course Description and Enrollment 1887-88

1887-88. POLITICAL ECONOMY 3

[Mid-year examination]

Political Economy 4.

Course Description and Enrollment 1887-88

1887-88. POLITICAL ECONOMY 4

[Mid-year examination]

[Answer all of A, and eight questions from B]

A.

Enrollment 1888-89.
Philosophy 11.

1888-89.
PHILOSOPHY 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
[Mid-year Examination, 1889]

1888-89.
PHILOSOPHY 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
[Final Examination, 1889]

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 1, First half-year.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Mid-year Examination, 1889]

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 1, Second half-year, Division A.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Final Examination, 1889]
Division A.

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 1, Second half-year, Division B.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Division B.
[Final Examination, 1889]

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 2.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Mid-year and Final Examination, 1889]

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Final Examination, 1889]

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 3.
Omitted in 1888-89.

Enrollment 1888-89.
Political Economy 4.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
[Mid-year Examination, 1889]

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
[Final Examination, 1889]

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 5.
Omitted in 1888-89.

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 6, Second half-year.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6
[End-Year]

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 7.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
[Mid-year Examination, 1889]

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
[Final Examination, 1889]

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 8, First half-year.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
[Final Examination, Mid-year, 1889]

Enrollment 1888-89
Political Economy 9, Second half-year.

1888-89.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9.
[Final Examination, 1889]

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

Political Economy 1
1887-1888.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
DIVISION A.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
DIVISION B.

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2

1887-88
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4

1887-88
POLITICAL ECONOMY 5

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

1887-88.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9

Course Description and Enrollment
1887-88

1887-88
PHILOSOPHY 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM.

Philosophy 11.
THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL REFORM.

Economics 245a
Fall Term, 1949-50

1949-40
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 245a
[Final Examination. January, 1950]

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 1C
Mid-year Examination
Dr. Evans
February 1, 1933

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 1C
Mid-year Examination
Dr. Mitchell
February 6, 1933

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 1C
Mid-year Examination
Dr. Weyforth
February 2, 1933

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 1C
Final Examination
Dr. Mitchell
June 5, 1933

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 1C
Final Examination
Dr. Evans
May 31, 1933

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 2C
Mid-year Examination
February 3, 1933

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 2C
Final Examination
June 2, 1933

3B. Money and Banking.
Associate Professor Weyforth.

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 3B
Mid-year Examination
January 31, 1933

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 3B
Final Examination
May 30, 1933

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 4B
Mid-year Examination
January 30, 1933

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 4B
Final Examination
May 29, 1933

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 12B
Mid-year Examination
Dr. Mitchell
February 3, 1933

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy 12B
Final Examination
June 2, 1933