Category: Exam Questions

While Economics in the Rear-view Mirror’s ambition is to be the boutique blog of economics education  in the United States up through the 1960s, from time to time I’ll venture off the North American continent to explore English and German departments, seminars etc.  Earlier I have transcribed and posted the 1891 guide to the Cambridge Moral Tripos that preceded the Economics Tripos but did have a Political Economy component. Also I have transcribed and posted the exams from Oxford’s Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) program for 1931 that I found in Wesley Clair Mitchell’s papers. As serendipity would have it, my trip last year to the Library of Congress yielded several years’ worth of exams from the Cambridge Economics Tripos. Below you will find the examination papers for 1931 that conveniently coincide with the PPE papers from Oxford. 

I recently found that a copy of the 1931-1933 Cambridge Economics Tripos is available at hathitrust.org.

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ECONOMICS TRIPOS
PART I.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES I.
(NEW REGULATIONS.)

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 1931. 9—12.

1. Explain clearly the meaning of the term Marginal Utility and its relation to the conception of Consumer’s Surplus.
2. How far can a theoretical distinction be drawn between the rent of a house and the rent of a field? Is the distinction in all cases valid?
3. “There is no real connection between price and cost of production throughout an industry as a whole.” Discuss.
4. In what conditions would competition be said to be perfect? How far and for what reasons is competition in practice often imperfect?
5. Explain in what circumstances it is possible that a commodity will be produced under conditions of Diminishing Returns. Is it conceivable that the same commodity should be produced at one time under Diminishing, at another under Increasing Returns?
6. “Russia can grow wheat more cheaply than England because all rents have been abolished in Russia, while rents must still be paid in England.” Examine the validity of this argument.
7. In what sense can it be said that labour has (a) a demand price, (b) a supply price, (c) a cost of production?
8. What is likely to be the influence upon the rate of interest of improvements of industrial technique?
9. Explain, if possible with diagrams, what considerations will influence a monopolist in determining the price that he should charge for his product. In what circumstances will the price be considerably higher than the competitive price?
10. How would you explain the differences (a) between the wages of coal miners and agricultural workers in this country, (b) between the wages of coal miners in this country and coal miners in Poland?

ECONOMIC STRUCTURE.
(NEW REGULATIONS.)

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 1931. 1.30—4.30.

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of limited liability?
2. Explain the factors which determine the size of the productive unit in different industries, giving examples.
3. What are the functions of a merchant, particularly in the export trades? When is it likely to be to the advantage of a British manufacturer to become his own merchant?
4. “Left to himself, the consumer would never welcome mass production.” Comment.
5. Classify the relative importance of the different industries in any neighbourhood with which you are acquainted, explaining how they came there and why they stay there.
6. In what ways do the problems of management set a limit to the size of the unit of control in industry?
7. Critically examine the argument for and against vertical combination.
8. Outline proposals for the reorganization in this country of either shipbuilding or cotton manufacture.
9. Describe the economic functions of the London Stock Exchange.
10. Figures published by the Ministry of Labour suggest that industrial employment in Great Britain is moving south-eastwards. Can you account for this?
11. Under what conditions is an industry likely to become a monopoly? Describe briefly methods for the State control of industrial monopoly.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES II.
(NEW REGULATIONS.)

TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1931. 9—12.

A.

1. “If an increase in cost of production causes the price of a commodity to rise, the resulting fall in demand will lower its price again and cause it to return eventually to its former level.” Point out the confusion involved in this statement, and illustrate your answer if possible by a diagram.
2. Consider the nature and importance of the distinction between real wages and nominal wages, and between wage rates and total earnings.
3. What is likely to be the effect of an increased demand for mutton on the prices of (a) mutton, (b) beef, (c) wool, (d) the wages of woolen workers? Give reasons in each case for your views.
4. What are the chief characteristics of the English system of land tenure? What do you consider to be the main advantages and disadvantages of this form of tenure?
5. What causes determine the normal rate of interest in England? What would be the effects of a fall in this rate of interest on the price of (a) War Loan, (b) land, (c) houses, (d) vintage port?
6. Under what conditions will a check to the supply of a factor of production cause a large increase in its price?

B.

7. Give a brief account of the modern English banking system, explaining the conditions under which the joint-stock banks can increase their funds in emergency.
8. What do you understand by the purchasing power of money?
9. What is meant by the balance of trade? Under what conditions is it possible for a country’s trade returns to show a continuous excess of exports over imports?
10. What is the difference between a gold standard and a gold-exchange standard? Give examples.
11. What determines the rate of exchange between the pound sterling and the American dollar?
12. Is it possible for a country to be undersold all round by its competitors?

ESSAY.
(NEW REGULATIONS.)

TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1931. 1.30—4.30.

Write an essay on one of the following subjects:

1. “It is a kind of Proverb attending the Character of English Men, that they are better to improve than to invent” (Defoe).
2. Soviet Farming.
3. “That outpost of economic empire—the Argentine Republic.”
4. The United States of Europe.
5. “Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates and men decay.”
6. England’s Decline and Fall.

ENGLISH ECONOMIC HISTORY.
(NEW REGULATIONS.)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1931. 9—12.

1. Give some examples of the way in which economic events have left their impress on economic doctrine.
2. Contrast the fiscal policy of Gladstone with that of Joseph Chamberlain.
3. Examine the reasons which led to the localization of the major portion of the woolen industry in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
4. Estimate the importance of the Chartered Companies for the expansion of England’s foreign trade after 1600.
5. Illustrate the attitude of Parliament during the nineteenth century towards
   (a) Monopolies, (b) Joint-stock enterprise.
6. Estimate the services rendered to England by Lord Shaftesbury.
7. “The industrial revolution was the precursor of a commercial revolution, which was just as important.” Comment.
8. Illustrate from English history the qualities required from a great inventor.
9. “War always brings prosperity to agriculture, and Peace, when it comes, depression.” Comment.
10. Account for the rise of the domestic system in England.
11. “The repeal of the Corn Laws was the most important political event between the first and second Reform Bills.” Discuss.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS.
(NEW REGULATIONS.)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1931. 1.30—4.30.

1. Explain the difficulties involved in any attempt to measure exactly the National Dividend of Great Britain, and to compare it at two dates.
2. Describe briefly the results of any one investigation into the extent and causes of poverty.
3. Give some account of the changes in the level of real wages in this country since 1800, with particular attention to changes since 1914.
4. Consider the importance of the following as causes of unemployment: (1) labour turnover, (2) the need for a reserve of labour, (3) immobility of labour. In what ways can their effects be diminished?
5. Compare the efficacy of different methods of wage payment as incentives to increase output.
6. In what conditions do your think it desirable that a government should intervene to fix minimum wages in a trade? What powers of intervention does the Minister of Labour at present possess?
7. Examine briefly the following methods of dealing with the present unemployment problem: (1) public works, (2) emigration, (3) leaving it to private enterprise.
8. What means have been suggested for making industry more democratic? How far have they been successful?
9. Do you consider that the real incomes of workers can be increased more effectively by a rise of wages or by an increased expenditure upon social services?
10. “The strength of Trade Unionism has been the greatest obstacle to improvements of industrial methods.”
    “The most powerful incentive to improvement has been the encroachment of wages upon the profits of employers.”
    Where does the truth lie?
11. Give some account of the system of Unemployment Insurance in this country. Subject to what conditions may a man or woman draw benefit? What changes would you suggest in the present regulations?

PART II.

ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES.
(OLD AND NEW REGULATIONS.)

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 1931. 9—12.

1. How far do you consider the theory of Economics still to depend upon the hypothesis of an economic man?
2. “The theory of rent is nowadays not even of academic interest.” Discuss.
3. “The mechanism of increasing returns is not to be discerned adequately by observing the effects of variations in the size of an individual firm or of a particular industry, for the progressive division and specialization of industries is an essential part of the process by which increasing returns are realized.” Discuss the truth and significance of this conclusion of Professor Allyn Young.
4. If an employer finds it necessary to reduce output temporarily, what are the factors he should take into account when deciding whether
   1. to dismiss some of his employees,
   2. to maintain the working-force on short time?
5. “The doctrine that the earnings of a worker tend to be equal to the net product of his work has by itself no real meaning; since in order to estimate net product we have to take for granted all the expenses of production of the commodity on which he works, other than his own wages.” Comment.
6. Examine the argument that reductions in wage-rates, since they diminish the purchasing power of important bodies of consumers, can only aggravate a trade depression.
7. “A wise national policy would seek to maintain an economic return on the vast capital invested in the English railways by attracting back to them a large part of the traffic which in recent years has been diverted to the roads.” Discuss this contention, making plain the economic principles involved.
8. Examine the arguments for a monetary policy which permits the commodity price-level to fall in proportion to increases in general productivity.
9. In a world in which no net annual addition is being made to the stock of capital, would you expect the rate of interest to fall to zero?
10. “The emphasis laid in modern economic treatises on the theory of exchange value is misplaced. The true subject of economics is not the terms on which goods exchange for one another, but the forces which determine the magnitude of a country’s productive resources and the uses to which they are put.” Discuss.
11. How much truth, if any, is there in the statement that “exports pay for imports”?

STRUCTURE AND PROBLEMS OF INDUSTRY.
(OLD REGULATIONS.)

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 1931. 1½ —4½.

1. What are the main changes in the localisation of manufacturing industry in Great Britain since the War? To what influences do you attribute them?
2. What difficulties would you meet in attempting to compare costs of production in the same industry in different countries?
3. In the English cotton industry the typical firm is specialised either to spinning or to weaving; in other countries the typical firm combines spinning and weaving. How do you account for this difference? and do you expect it to persist?
4. “Rationalisation is merely a new name for monopoly.” “Rationalisation is merely a euphemism for company-promoting.” Criticise these statements, and explain, with reference to some one industry, what you understand by Rationalisation.
5. British exports to the East of tobacco, oil and fertilisers are distributed by subsidiaries of the producing companies; most other exports are sold by export merchants to merchants at the ports, who in turn leave the internal distribution to native dealers. What are the reasons for this difference of practice? Could the former method be applied with advantage to other exports?
6. If you were engaged by an American investment trust to advise them on the investment of a portion of their funds in ordinary shares in this country, in what industries, and for what reasons, would you recommend investment?
7. “Wage-rates in 1929 were approximately at the same level as in 1924, while the cost of living had fallen 5 per cent.; real wages had, therefore, risen about 5 per cent. But the Board of Trade index of industrial production showed an increase in 1929 of 11 per cent. over 1924; therefore there was a case for raising money wages.” Examine this argument.
8. Explain the operation of either the Federal Farm Board or the Canadian Wheat Pool or the San Paulo Coffee Institute or the British Australian Wool Realisation Association. To what do you attribute its failure or success?
9. Compare broadly the English and the German attitudes to Restraint of Trade… Explain the functions of the German Kartels Court, and discuss the suitability of such a Court to English conditions.
10. In what sense, if at all, is there a Science of Management? Can Industrial Administration be taught?
11. In England Local Authorities are obliged to arrange for the amortization within a definite period of all loans raised for the purpose of financing productive undertakings. Do you regard this as an undesirable handicap on public as compared with private enterprise?

STRUCTURE AND METHODS OF GOVERNMENT IN THE MODERN WORLD.
(OLD REGULATIONS.)

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 1931. 1½ —4½.

1. Describe some of the methods by which central control of local government is provided for in modern States, and discuss their success.
2. Discuss the view that the Referendum and the Initiative, whatever may be their merits under other systems, are incompatible with Cabinet government.
3. Compare the means for securing that effective government shall be carried on in an emergency in the United Kingdom and the German Reich respectively.
4. Compare the system of relationships between politicians and civil servants in England with that in France or any other country.
5. Explain the unique strength of the United States Senate among contemporary Second Chambers, and discuss the part it plays in American government.
6. Discuss whether the German Reich should more correctly be described as a federal or a unitary State.
7. Compare the parts played by parties in the systems of government of the United Kingdom and the United States respectively.
8. How far may Great Britain be said to fall behind continental countries in providing the individual with legal remedies against State action?
9. “The constitutional position of the President in the post-war European republics follows the French rather than the American model.” How far is this true, and how do you account for what has occurred?
10. Illustrate by reference to the respective constitutional positions of the Governor of a Crown Colony, the Viceroy of India, the Governor of an Indian Province, the Governor of an Australian State, and the Governor-General of a Dominion, the development in the office of the “royal governor.”
11. Illustrate from the constitutions of the British Empire possible methods of safe-guarding the interests of racial or religious minorities (or majorities) where the population is not homogeneous.

MONEY, CREDIT AND PRICES.
(OLD REGULATIONS.)

TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1931. 9—12.

1. “I am never wary of preaching in the wilderness ‘the only very important thing to be said about currency is that it is not nearly as important as it looks.’” (Marshall.) Do you agree?
2. Indicate the circumstances in which a Central Bank can most effectively enforce its policy by (a) changes in the bank-rate, (b) open-market operations, (c) rationing of credit.
3. Has the recent growth of the hire-purchase system for consumption-goods either precipitated or aggravated the slump in the U.S.A.?
4. “It is even conceivable that the cash-deposits may remain the same, the savings-deposits may remains the same, the volume of monetary transactions may remain the same, and the volume of output may remain the same; and yet the fundamental price-levels may change.” (Keynes.) Is this conceivable? And if so, does it mean that the traditional version of the quantity theory of money is not merely a truism but an error?
5. In what circumstances would the successful stabilization of the purchasing power of money in terms of an index-number of prices tend to increase or to diminish the fluctuations in the prices of individual commodities?
6. Factors affecting the general price-level have been distinguished as acting “on the side of money” and “on the side of goods.” Criticize this distinction, or define it so as to avoid ambiguities.
7. “The belief that the elasticity of demand for currency can ever be different from unity is based on a misunderstanding of what elasticity of demand is.” Discuss.
8. During 1930 the imports of gold into France have exceeded the world output of gold. What were the causes of this influx?
9. If central banks fixed their buying and selling prices of gold wider apart, would the diffusion of trade fluctuations from country to country be checked?
10. How would the internal price-level of this country be affected by a special tax on incomes from foreign investments?
11. “The joint-stock banks have attracted to their custody a larger volume of the country’s savings than can be economically employed in short-term commercial credits. Some modification in the traditional practice of English deposit banking is therefore required.” Discuss.

INTERNATIONAL LAW.
(OLD REGULATIONS.)

TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1931. 9—12.

1. Estimate the present international status (if any) of
   1. Canada;
   2. Bavaria;
   3. the State of Virginia;
   4. the Vatican City;
   5. the Territory of the Saar Basin.
2. Describe the present state of the movement for the codification of International Law (a) as to Peace, (b) as to War and Neutrality. What are in your opinion the chief obstacles in each case?
3. You are private secretary to a member of Parliament who sits for a fishing constituency bordering on the Moray Firth and who is requested by his constituents to address them upon what they describe as “the invasion of our waters” by Dutch fishing trawlers. He asks you to coach him upon the law (apart from any statutes) relating to fishing by foreign trawlers (a) in territorial waters and (b) in bays, and also (c) upon a proposal to fix by international convention the breadth of all territorial waters at twelve miles. Advise him.
4. Explain the expression occurring in Article 15 of the Covenant of the League: “a matter which by International Law is solely within the domestic jurisdiction” of one party to the dispute. Give some illustrations of such matters and refer to any judicial discussion of the expression. Is the category of such matters a fixed one?
5. Discuss the assertion that “the mandate system adopted at the end of the Great War differs in name only from the old-fashioned system of annexation by the victor of the colonies of his defeated enemy.”
6. Explain the operation of, and the difference between, “national treatment” and “most-favoured nation treatment” stipulated for in commercial treaties. What are the two principal interpretations of the usual “most-favoured-nation treatment” clause?
7. Discuss the rules of International Law which are relevant to the growth of trading by Governments, including the rules governing the status of State-owned merchant ships in foreign ports.
8. Describe, with illustrations, the different ways in which the Permanent Court of International Justice may acquire jurisdiction in respect of a dispute. What do you understand by “non-justiciable disputes”?
9. Discuss the extent to which the conception of Contraband has changed since the beginning of the Great War, and the effect of that change upon the Declaration of Paris of 1856.
10. A Government White paper published in 1929 concludes an argument with the sentence: “In other words, as between Members of the League, there can be no neutral rights because there can be no neutrals.” Discuss the accuracy of this statement, having regard both to the Covenant and to the Peace Pact of Paris.

SUBJECTS FOR AN ESSAY.
(OLD AND NEW REGULATIONS.)

TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1931. 1½ —4½.

1. Business Forecasting.
2. The Decline and Fall of the British Empire.
3. The Rights of Shareholders.
4. “Buy British.”
5. Republicanism.
6. Arnold Bennett, the interpreter of industrialism.

POLITICAL THEORY.
(OLD REGULATIONS.)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1931. 9—12.

1. In what sense, and to what extent, do you regard it as the place of the State to allot their provinces to other associations?
2. In what circumstances, if any, would you justify the refusal by the individual of a demand on the part of the State for his military service, and on what grounds?
3. “La liberté est le droit de faire tout ce que les lois permettent.” Montesquieu.
   “By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes his duty against the influence of authority and majorities, custom and opinion.” Acton.
   Discuss the adequacy of these definitions.
4. Wherein do you consider the originality and importance of Rousseau as a political theorist to lie?
5. Compare and contrast Mazzini’s doctrine of nationality with those of present-day Italian nationalists.
6. “The citizen should be moulded to suit the form of government under which he lives.” To what extent do you accept this principle of Aristotle’s?
7. Examine the implications and discuss the validity of the theory of a “right to work or maintenance.”
8. What circumstances are required, in your opinion, to justify a demand for “national self-determination” on the part of a community?
9. Consider the arguments for increased public control of the Press in England.
10. How far, in your opinion, does (a) illiteracy, (b) failure to vote, (c) ecclesiastical influence justify the withholding or withdrawal of the political franchise?

DISTRIBUTION AND LABOUR.
(OLD REGULATIONS.)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1931. 9—12.

1. Examine critically the policy of reducing unemployment by settling new industries in districts where older industries appear to be permanently depressed.
2. Contrast conventional and “scientific” methods of determining “fair” piece-rates. What are the reasons for varying the rate degressively or progressively according to the total output produced?
3. Discuss the difficulties of demonstrating statistically that wages tend to equality in trades “which are of equal difficulty and disagreeableness, which require equal natural abilities and an equally expensive training.”
4. “In the past he had often had occasion to speak of ‘insurance popularly miscalled the dole.’ To-day he was afraid that it might be truer to speak of ‘the dole officially miscalled insurance.’” Discuss this view of Sir William Beveridge expressed in his evidence before the Royal Commission on Unemployment Insurance.
5. Show by reference to specific trades the reasons for which (a) Trade Boards, (b) Joint Industrial (“Whitley”) Councils have been established in some trades and not in others. Can you suggest possible extensions of either to any further trades?
6. What effect would (a) the growth of trade unionism among women, (b) the repeal of legal restrictions upon women’s employment, be likely to have upon the wages and employment of men?
7. What measures may any one employer take to reduce labour costs besides reducing wage-rates or substituting machines for men? Is there any statistical evidence of the exact effect of such measures?
8. What considerations would you take into account in adjudicating on a claim for reduction of wages in an industry in which no return is being earned on ordinary capital and there is over 15 per cent. unemployment?
9. How far do you consider the marginal theory of distribution a full and adequate explanation of the actual distribution of incomes among persons?
10. Analyse the problem of regulating wages and hours in the coal-mining industry as illustrated by events since the war.

PUBLIC FINANCE.
(OLD AND NEW REGULATIONS.)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1931. 1½ —4½.

1. Examine the view that the budgetary problems of the creditor countries concerned would be lightened rather than aggravated by a general remission of reparations and war-debts.
2. The Royal Commission on Transport, reporting at the end of 1930, proposed that the present proportion in which the cost of the roads is shared between Local Authorities and the users of mechanical transport should be reversed, the share of the latter being brought up to two-thirds by the payment into the Road fund of the then existing duty on petrol and of that part of the licence duties on motor vehicles which is at present diverted to the Exchequer. Discuss this proposal.
3. If you were in charge of the finances of the U.S.S.R., on what part, if any, of the capital employed in the various nationalized industries would you require the payment of interest?
4. Is there any ground for the opinion that taxation imposed for the purpose of paying interest on internal debt is less onerous to the nation than taxation imposed for the purpose of paying the salaries of Government officials?
5. Examine the view that improvements in the means of transport, such as suburban Tube extensions, should be financed out of confiscatory taxes on the resultant increments in the site value of surrounding land.
6. If, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, you had £10 millions a year to dispose of, what considerations would you take into account in deciding between the claims for a further subsidy to working-class housing and those of a subsidy to domestic wheat-growing?
7. “The arguments again the taxation of imported food which were valid in the early years of the twentieth century have one and all ceased to be valid today.” Comment.
8. “As soon as the services financed by Government come to exceed the minimum requirements of security and order, the whole notion of equity in taxation becomes unreal and meaningless.” Discuss.
9. How should the maintenance of those unemployed persons who cannot be brought within the framework of a self-supporting insurance scheme be financed?
10. “The annual repayment of a substantial block of the National Debt is a fetish to which successive Chancellors of the Exchequer pay lip service, but which no sensible person either expects or desires to see carried out.” Comment.
11. Discuss broadly the special problems of Public Finance which arise in countries with a Federal form of Government, illustrating your answer by reference to any one of the following countries: The United States, Germany, Australia, India.

STATISTICS.
(OLD AND NEW REGULATIONS.)

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1931. 9—12.

1. Define the terms median and quartiles, and discuss the uses, advantages and disadvantages of the median as an average and of the semi-interquartile range as a measure of dispersion.
   Find the medians and quartiles of the two series of index-numbers for prices of twenty foodstuffs below, and use the work to illustrate your comments.

2. Sketch the forms of frequency distributions most commonly met with in practice, and name sources from which examples of each can be drawn.
   Find the mean and standare deviation of the distribution below. Earnings were given to a penny.

3. State the formula for the correlation coefficient and deduce its principal properties.
   The correlation coefficient between the two series of index-numbers given in Question 1 was calculated, and the following figures obtained:

Find the coefficient, and the regression equations.

4. Give any deduction you prefer of the normal curve of errors, and prove its principal properties. Describe the tables of functions of the normal curve that are available in such a volume as Tables for Statisticians and Biometricians, and their uses in solving problems in sampling.
5. Show that if random samples of n observations are drawn from an indefinitely large record in which the proportion of A’s is p and of not-A’s is q, the standard deviation of the numbers of A’s in the samples is .
   You are given the following data:
   Father skilled worker:—36 boys: 24 classed as intelligent.
   Father unskilled: —64 boys: 32 classed as intelligent.
   Would you say that the difference was significant?
6. Give a description and critical discussion of the methods available for investigating the relations between two quantities varying with the time.
7. Argue the case for the use of the geometric mean in connection with index-numbers of wholesale prices, comparing the advantages and disadvantages against other methods. Name any existing index-number for which it is used, and describe the detailed method of construction.
8. Indicate the difficulties that are met with in obtaining from Census and Registration data reasonably accurate measures of the mortalities of men engaged in different occupations, and describe the technical methods that are used for indicating relative mortalities.
9. The following are the ages returned at the Census of 1921 by a sample of male Hindus in Madras. By some process of graduation, make an estimate of the true numbers at 30 and 31 years of age.

INDUSTRY.
(NEW REGULATIONS.)

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 1931. 1½ —4½.

1. What difficulties would you meet in attempting to compare costs of production in the same industry in different countries?
2. In the English cotton industry the typical firm is specialised either to spinning or to weaving; in other countries the typical firm combines spinning and weaving. How do you account for this difference? and do you expect it to persist?
3. British exports to the East of tobacco, oil and fertilisers are distributed by subsidiaries of the producing companies; most other exports are sold by export merchants to merchants at the ports, who in turn leave the internal distribution to native dealers. What are the reasons for this difference of practice? Could the former method be applied with advantage to other exports?
4. “Wage-rates in 1929 were approximately at the same level as in 1924, while the cost of living had fallen 5 per cent.; real wages had, therefore, risen about 5 per cent. But the Board of Trade index of industrial production showed an increase in 1929 of 11 per cent. over 1924; therefore there was a case for raising money wages.” Examine this argument.
5. Explain the operation of either the Federal Farm Board or the Canadian Wheat Pool or the San Paulo Coffee Institute or the British Australian Wool Realisation Association. To what do you attribute its failure or success?
6. Compare broadly the English and the German attitudes to Restraint of Trade. Explain the functions of the German Kartels Court, and discuss the suitability of such a Court to English conditions.
7. In what sense, if at all, is there a Science of Management? Can Industrial Administration be taught?
8. “The only trades which it seems possible for a joint-stock company to carry on successfully, without an exclusive privilege, are those, of which all the operations are capable of being reduced to what is called a routine, or to such a uniformity of method as admits of little or no variation” (Adam Smith).
   Examine this statement in the light of the subsequent development of the joint-stock company.
9. What features has the present depression in British industry in common with those of the nineteenth century?
10. In what directions, and with what results, did England export capital in the half-century before the War?
11. In England Local Authorities are obliged to arrange for the amortization within a definite period of all loans raised for the purpose of financing productive undertakings. Do you regard this as an undesirable handicap on public as compared with private enterprise?

MONEY.
(NEW REGULATIONS.)

TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1931. 9—12.

1. “I am never wary of preaching in the wilderness ‘the only very important thing to be said about currency is that it is not nearly as important as it looks.’” (Marshall.) Do you agree?
2. Indicate the circumstances in which a Central Bank can most effectively enforce its policy by (a) changes in the bank-rate, (b) open-market operations, (c) rationing of credit.
3. “It is even conceivable that the cash-deposits may remain the same, the savings-deposits may remains the same, the volume of monetary transactions may remain the same, and the volume of output may remain the same; and yet the fundamental price-levels may change.” (Keynes.) Is this conceivable? And if so, does it mean that the traditional version of the quantity theory of money is not merely a truism but an error?
4. Factors affecting the general price-level have been distinguished as acting “on the side of money” and “on the side of goods.” Criticize this distinction, or define it so as to avoid ambiguities.
5. “The adoption of Ricardo’s currency plan in 1925, as well as its rejection a hundred years before, point to the same conclusion: the economic ideas of legislators are always a century out of date.” Comment.
6. Describe the main fluctuations in the value of silver during the last sixty years, and state their causes.
7. What are the chief changes in the organization of the London money market since the publication of Bagehot’s Lombard Street?
8. During 1930 the imports of gold into France have exceeded the world output of gold. What were the causes of this influx?
9. If central banks fixed their buying and selling prices of gold wider apart, would the diffusion of trade fluctuations from country to country be checked?
10. How would the internal price-level of this country be affected by a special tax on incomes from foreign investments?
11. “The joint-stock banks have attracted to their custody a larger volume of the country’s savings than can be economically employed in short-term commercial credits. Some modification in the traditional practice of English deposit banking is therefore required.” Discuss.

LABOUR.
(NEW REGULATIONS.)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1931. 9—12.

1. Examine critically the policy of reducing unemployment by settling new industries in districts where older industries appear to be permanently depressed.
2. Contrast conventional and “scientific” methods of determining “fair” piece-rates. What are the reasons for varying the rate degressively or progressively according to the total output produced?
3. What effect would (a) the growth of trade unionism among women, (b) the repeal of legal restrictions upon women’s employment, be likely to have upon the wages and employment of men?
4. What measures may any one employer take to reduce labour costs besides reducing wage-rates or substituting machines for men? Is there any statistical evidence of the exact effect of such measures?
5. What considerations would you take into account in adjudicating on a claim for reduction of wages in an industry in which no return is being earned on ordinary capital and there is over 15 per cent. unemployment?
6. How far do you consider the marginal theory of distribution a full and adequate explanation of the actual distribution of incomes among persons?
7. What is the statistical evidence as to changes in the real earnings of the wage-earning classes and their living conditions during the last hundred years? How far do you think this evidence conclusive?
8. Compare the post-war attitude of governments and governing classes to the relief of poverty with the attitude prevailing in the Victorian era.
9. Analyse the problem of regulating wages and hours in the coal-mining industry as illustrated by events since the war.
10. Account for the fluctuations in the emphasis placed by Trade Unions upon the policies of mutual insurance, political action and the strike, respectively, during the last hundred years.

Source: Cambridge University. Economics Tripos Papers 1931-1933. Cambridge: 1933, pp. 5-27.

Image Source: King’s College dining hall, Cambridge, from Wikipedia Commons.