Edwin Francis Gay (1867-1946) came to Harvard in 1902 as an instructor of economic history taking over William Ashley’s courses after having spent a dozen years of training and advanced historical study in Europe (Berlin, Ph.D. in 1902 under Gustav Schmoller, also he was in Leipzig, Zurich and Florence). He was given a five-year contract as assistant professor of economics in 1903, but in just four years he actually advanced to the rank of professor. He served as a principal advisor to Harvard President Charles Eliot in establishing the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1908. After the favored candidate to be the founding dean of the business school, William Lyon Mackenzie King (Ph.D., Harvard 1909) turned down the offer, instead continuing as deputy minister of labor in Canada then later becoming prime minister of Canada, President Eliot turned to Gay. In nine years Gay put his stamp on the Harvard Business School, apparently playing an instrumental role in the use of the case method (pedagogic transfer from the law school) with a strong emphasis on obtaining hands-on experience through practical assignments with actual businesses. He is credited with establishing the academic degree of the M.B.A. (Master of Business Administration), the credential of managers.
During WW I Gay worked as adviser to the U.S. Shipping Board and then went on to become editor of the New York Evening Post that would soon go under, giving Gay “an opportunity” to return to Harvard where he could teach economic history up through his retirement in 1936. Gay was among the co-founders of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Council of Foreign Relations. He and his wife moved to California where he worked at the Huntington library where his bulk of his papers are to be found today.
A reading list for his course Recent Economic History (1934-35) has been posted on Economics in the Rear-View Mirror earlier.
Assisting Gay in the 1910 course on European Economic History of the Nineteenth century was the history department instructor, Mr. Julius Klein (1886-1957).
Litt.B. (Univ. of California) 1907, Litt. M (ibid.) 1908, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1913, Ph.D. (Harvard Univ.) 1915.
Subject of Ph.D. History.
Special Field: Spanish History
Thesis: The Mesta; A Study in Spanish Economic History, 1273-1836.
Instructor in History, later assistant professor.
In 1932 he was Assistant Secretary, United States Department of Commerce.
While tracking down Julius Klein I came up with the following link to an artifact of the Harvard History Department:
“[Julius Klein] made this portrayal of departmental bigwigs, in ink with black and brown washes, in a style evocative of the Bayeux Tapestry, which chronicles the Norman conquest of England.”
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Course Announcement and Description
1910-11
6a 1hf. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein.
Course 6a undertakes to present the general outlines of the economic history of western Europe since the Industrial Revolution. Such topics as the following will be discussed: the economic aspects of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic regime, the Stein-Hardenberg reforms, the Zoll-Verein, Cobden and free-trade in England, labor legislation and social reform, nationalism and the recrudescence of protectionism, railways and waterways, the effects of transoceanic competition, the rise of industrial Germany.
Since attention will be directed in this course to those phases of the subject which are related to the economic history of the United States, it may be taken usefully before Economics 6b. It is open to students who have taken or are taking Economics 1.
Source: History and Political Science, Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1910-11. Published in the Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. VI,I No. 23 (June 21, 1910), pp. 55.
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[Enrollment: Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. 1910]
[Economics] 6a 1hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein.—European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.
12 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 3 Other:
Total 61.
Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 49.
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ECONOMICS 6a (1910)
Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)
1. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.
*Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Vol. III, pp. 609-669.
*Hobson, Evolution of Modern Capitalism, pp. 10-82.
*Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, pp. 32-93.
Woollen Report of 1806; reprinted in Bullock, Selected Readings in Economics, pp. 114-124.
Walpole, The Great Inventions, in History of England, Vol. I, pp. 50-76; reprinted in Bullock, pp. 125-145, and Rand, Selections illustrating Economic History, chapter ii.
Chapman, The Lancashire Cotton Industry, pp. 1-112.
Webb, History of Trade Unionism, pp. 1-101.
Hutchins and Harrison, History of Factory Legislation, pp. 14-42.
Wallas, Life of Francis Place, pp. 197-240.
Mantoux, La Révolution Industrielle, pp. 179-502.
Cooke Taylor, The Modern Factory System, pp. 44-225.
2. AGRARIAN MOVEMENT. – CONTINENT.
*Von Sybel, French Revolution, in Rand, Selections, pp. 55-85.
*Seeley, Life and Times of Stein, Vol. I, pp. 287-297, in Rand, pp. 86-98.
*Morier, Agrarian Legislation of Prussia, in “Systems of Land Tenure,” pp. 267-275, in Rand, pp. 98-108.
*Brentano, Agrarian Reform in Prussia, Econ. Jour., Vol. VII, pp. 1-20.
Flour de St. Genis, La Propriété Rurale, pp. 80-164.
De Foville, Le Morcellement, pp. 52-89.
Von Goltz, Agrarwesen und Agrarpolitik, pp. 40-50.
Colman, European Agriculture (2d ed.), Vol. II, pp. 371-394.
Schulze-Gävernitz, Volkswirtschaftliche Studien aus Russland, pp. 308-383.
Dawson, W.H., Evolution of Modern Germany, pp. 255-294.
3. AGRARIAN MOVEMENT. – ENGLAND.
*Johnson, A.H., Disappearance of the Small Landholder in England, pp. 7-17, 107-164.
*Curtler, W.H.R., Short History of English Agriculture, pp. 190-271.
Hasbach, History of the English Agricultural Labourer, pp. 71-116.
Taylor, Decline of Land-Owning Farmers in England, pp. 1-61.
Prothero, Pioneers and Progress of English Farming, pp. 64-103.
Brodrick, English Land and English Landlords, pp. 65-240.
Caird, English Agriculture in 1850, pp. 473-528.
Colman, European Agriculture (2d ed.), Vol. I, pp. 10-109, 133-174.
Levy, Entstehung und Rückgang des landwirtschaftlichen Grossbetriebs in England.
4. THE FREE TRADE MOVEMENT. – ENGLAND.
*Armitage-Smith, G., Free Trade and its Results, pp. 39-94, 130-144.
*Morley, Life of Cobden, chapters vi, vii, xvi.
Levi, History of British Commerce, pp. 218-227, 261-272, 292-303; in Rand, pp. 207-241.
Ashworth, Recollections of Cobden and the League, pp. 32-64, 296-392.
Prentice, History of the Anti-Corn Law League, Vol. I, pp. 49-77.
Parker, Sir Robert Peel from his Private Letters, Vol. II, pp. 522-559; Vol. III, pp. 220-252.
Cunningham, Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement, pp. 27-99.
Tooke, History of Prices, Vol. V, pp. 391-457.
Curtler, Short History of English Agriculture, pp. 271-293.
Schulze-Gaevernitz, Britischer Imperialismus, pp. 243-375.
5. THE TARIFF. – CONTINENT.
*Ashley, Modern Tariff History, pp. 3-62, 301-312.
Worms, L’Allemagne Économique, pp. 57-393.
Amé, Les Tarifs de Douanes, Vol. I, pp. 21-34, 219-316.
Perigot, Histoire de Commerce Français, pp. 77-185.
Lang, Hundert Jahre Zollpolitik, pp. 168-230.
6. BANKING AND FINANCE.
*Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Vol. III, pp. 689-703, 822-829, 833-840.
*Andréadès, History of the Bank of England, pp. 284-294, 331-369, 381-388.
Tugan-Baranowsky, Studien zur Theorie und Geschichte der Handelskrisen in England, pp. 38-54, 62-121.
Giffen, Growth of Capital, pp. 115-134.
Macleod, Theory and Practice of Banking (4th ed.), Vol. I, pp. 433-540; Vol. II, pp. 1-197.
Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. V, chaps. 3 and 4 (3d ed.), pp. 629-657.
7. THE NEW GOLD.
*Cairnes, Essays, pp. 53-108; in Rand, pp. 242-284.
*Jevons, Investigations in Currency and Finance, pp. 34-92.
Leroy-Beaulieu, Traité d’Economie Politique, Vol. III, pp. 192-238.
Giffen, Economic Inquiries and Studies, Vol. I, pp. 75-97, 121-228.
Hooper, Recent Gold Production of the World, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1901, pp. 415-433.
8. TRANSPORTATION. – PRIVATE OWNERSHIP.
*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 146-202.
*Acworth, Elements of Railway Economics, pp. 61-75, 99-159.
McLean, English Railway and Canal Commission of 1888, in Q.J.E., 1905, Vol. XX, pp. 1-55, or in Ripley, Railway Problems, pp. 603-649.
Acworth, Railways of England, pp. 1-56.
McDermott, Railways, pp. 1-149.
Porter, Progress of the Nation, pp. 287-339.
Edwards, Railways and the Trade of Great Britain, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1908, pp. 102-131.
Pratt, Railways and their Rates, pp. 1-184.
Colson, Legislation des Chemins de Fer, pp. 3-20, 133-182.
Kaufmann, Die Eisenbahnpolitik Frankreichs, Vol. II, pp. 178-284.
Guillamot, L’Organisation des Chemins de Fer, pp. 82-120.
Forbes and Ashford, Our Waterways, pp. 107-137.
Léon, Fleuves, Canaux, Chemins de Fer, pp. 1-156.
Evans, A.D., British Railways and Goods Traffic, Econ. Jour., 1905, pp. 37-46.
Thompson, H.G., Canal System of England, pp. 1-73.
9. TRANSPORTATION. – STATE OWNERSHIP.
*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 236-258, [203-235].
*Meyer, Governmental Regulation of Railway Rates, pp. 92-188.
Acworth, Relation of Railways to the State, Econ. Jour., 1908, pp. 501-519.
Mayer, Geschichte und Geographie des Deutschen Eisenbahnen, pp. 3-14.
Lotz, Verkehrsentwicklung in Deutschland, pp. 2-47, 96-142.
Leuschau, Deutsche Wasserstrassen, pp. 9-56, 95-161.
Peschaud, Belgian State Railways, translated in Pratt, State Railways, pp. 57-107.
Tajani, The Railway Situation in Italy, Q.J.E., Vol. XXIII, pp. 618-653.
Pratt, Railways and their Rates, pp. 185-326.
Pratt, Railways and Nationalization, pp. 1-120, 253-293.
10. COMMERCE AND SHIPPING.
*Bowley, England’s Foreign Trade in the Nineteenth Century (ed. 1905), pp. 55-107.
*Meeker, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 1-95.
Cornewall-Jones, British Merchant Service, pp. 252-260, 306-317.
Glover, Tonnage Statistics of the Decade 1891-1900. Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1902, pp. 1-41.
Ginsburg, British Shipping, in Ashley, British Industries, pp. 173-195.
LeRoux de Bretagne, Les Primes à la Marine Marchande, pp. 93-224.
Charles-Roux, L’Isthme et le Canal de Suez, Vol. II, pp. 287-339.
Von Halle, Volks- und Seewirtschaft, pp. 136-219.
11. AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION.
*Report on Agricultural Depression, 1897, pp. 6-10, 21-40, 43-53, 85-87.
*Haggard, Rural England, Vol. II, pp. 536-576.
The Tariff Commission, Vol. III, Report of the Agricultural Committee, 1906.
Thompson, Rent of Agricultural Land in England and Wales during the Nineteenth Century. Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1907, pp. 587-611.
Hasbach, History of the English Agricultural Labourer, pp. 274-364.
Arch, Autobiography, pp. 65-144, 300-345.
Little, The Agricultural Labourer, Report to the Royal Commission on Labour, 1894, Vol. I, pp. 195-253.
Adams, Position of the Small Holding in the United Kingdom. Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1907, pp. 412-437.
Plunkett, Ireland in the New Century (ed. 1905), pp. 175-209.
Bastable, Some Features of the Economic Movement in Ireland, Econ. Jour., Vol. XI, pp. 31-42.
J. Méline, The Return to the Land, pp. 83-144, 185-240.
Imbart de la Tour, Le Crise Agricole, pp. 24-34, 127-223.
Simkhovitch, The Agrarian Movement in Russia, Yale Review, Vol. XVI, pp. 9-38.
King and Okey, Italy Today, pp. 156-192.
12. RECENT TARIFF HISTORY.
*Smart, Return to Protection, pp. 7-44, 136-185, 234-259.
*Balfour, Economic Notes on Insular Free Trade, pp. 1-32. (Also in Fiscal Reform, pp. 71-95.)
*Chamberlain, Imperial Union and Tariff Reform, pp. 19-44.
Ashley, W.J., Tariff Problem, pp. 53-210.
Marshall, Fiscal Policy of International Trade, pp. 30-82.
Pigou, Protective and Preferential Import Duties, pp. 1-117. (See also his Riddle of the Tariff, pp. 1-107.)
Cunningham, Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement, pp. 100-168.
Ashley, P., Modern Tariff History, pp. 78-112, 313-358.
Zimmermann, Deutsche Handelspolitik, pp. 218-314.
Meredith, Protection in France, pp. 54-129.
Balfour, Fiscal Reform, pp. 97-113, 266-280.
13. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT.
*Ashley, W.J., British Industries, pp. 2-38, 68-92.
*Howard, Recent Industrial Progress in Germany, pp. 51-109.
Cox, British Industries under Free Trade, pp. 2-84, 142-175, 235-376.
Levasseur, Questions ouvrières et industrielles en France sous le troisième République, pp. 27-166.
La Belgique, 1830-1905, pp. 397-617.
Fischer, Italien und die Italiener (ed. 1901), pp. 240-267.
Machat, Le Developpment Économique de la Russie, pp. 157-229.
Jeans, J.S., Iron Trade of Great Britain, pp. 1-73, 100-111.
Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, pp. 37-65.
Helm, E., Survey of the Cotton Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 417-437.
14. INDUSTRIAL COMBINATION.
*Report of Industrial Commission, Vol. XVIII, pp. 7-13, 75-88, 101-122, 143-165.
*Macrosty, The Trust Movement in Great Britain, in Ashley, British Industries, pp. 196-232.
Macrosty, Trust Movement in British Industry, pp. 24-56, 81-84, 117-154, 284-307, 329-345.
Walker, Monopolistic Combinations in Europe, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 13-41.
Walker, Combinations in German Coal Industry, pp. 38-111, 175-289, 322-327.
Walker, German Steel Syndicate, Q.J.E., Vol. XX, pp. 353-398.
Liefmann, Kartelle und Trusts, pp. 22-32.
Baumgarten und Meszlény, Kartelle und Trusts, pp. 83-152.
Chastin, J., Les Trusts et les Syndicats, pp. 23-127.
15. LABOR — COÖPERATIVE MOVEMENT.
*Bowley, Wages in the United Kingdom, pp. 22-57, 81-127.
*Shadwell, Industrial Efficiency, Vol. II, pp. 307-350.
Wood, Real Wages and the Standard of Comfort since 1860. Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1909, pp. 91-101.
Cost of Living of the Working Classes in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Report to the Board of Trade, 1909.
Webb, Trade Unionism, pp. 344-478.
Howell, Labor Legislation, pp. 447-499.
Willoughby, Workingmen’s Insurance, pp. 29-87.
Beveridge, Unemployment.
Ashley, W.J., Progress of German Working Classes, pp. 1-65, 74-141.
Dawson, The German Workman, pp. 1-245.
Holyoake, History of Coöperation in England (ed. 1906), Vol. I, pp. 32-42, 70-162, 283-298; Vol. II, pp. 361-396.
Gide, Productive Coöperation in France, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 30-66.
Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 394-397, 407-413.
Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, pp. 294-308.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1910-1911”.
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Final Examination Economics 6a
(1910-11)
Image Source: Edwin Francis Gay and Julius Klein, respectively, from The World’s Work, Vol. XXVII, No. 5 (March 1914) and Harvard Album 1920.