As was the case for Charles Jesse Bullock’s two semester sequence of public finance and taxation courses being merged into a single two semester course, two of Thomas Nixon Carvers’s semester courses were merged into a single one year course starting in the academic year 1912-13.
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ECONOMICS 7
Course Description
1912-13
[Economics] 7 (formerly 14a and 14b). Theories of Distribution and Distributive Justice. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Carver, assisted by Mr. ——.
Course 7 undertakes an analysis of the laws of value, as applied to consumable goods and to agents of production, and an examination of the relation of the laws of value to the problem of social adjustment; also a critical reading of various works on the distribution of wealth, on socialism, on the single tax, and other special schemes for attaining the ideals of economic justice.
Source: Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics, Courses of Instruction, 1912–13, p. 62.
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ECONOMICS 7
Course Enrollment
1912-13
Economics 7. (formerly 14a and 14b). Professor Carver. Theories of Distribution and Distributive Justice.
Total 25: 3 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Other.
Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1912-13, p. 57.
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ECONOMICS 7
Mid-year Examination
1912-13
Consider the questions very carefully. Make your answers accurate and complete. Beware of omitting important points.
- Define goods, utility, economy, scarcity, productivity, capital, property, wealth.
- Why are prices determined by the law of demand and supply, (a) in the case of consumers’ goods; (b) in the case of producers’ goods.
- What, precisely, is self interest? How would you describe a benevolent as contrasted with a selfish person?
- Why are wages high in some occupations and low in others?
- Compare the Ricardian law of rent with the theory that the rent of a given piece of land is equal to its specific productivity.
- Why does a piece of capital normally return to its owner more than enough to repay the cost of producing it?
Source: Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 9, bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1912-13.
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ECONOMICS 7
Year-end Examination
1912-13
- Explain and illustrate the principle of marginal utility and its relation to the value of consumers’ goods.
- Explain and illustrate the law of variable proportions and its relation to the value of the factors of production.
- Discuss the various criteria of justice in the distribution of wealth.
- Explain and illustrate exactly what you understand by self-interest.
- How would the single tax probably affect the demand for labor? Would its effect probably be stronger on unskilled than on skilled labor? On skilled labor than on business talent?
- How do mechanical inventions affect the demand for capital and for different grades of labor?
- Describe one communistic society, giving some account of its origin, the causes of its success if it succeeded and of its failure if it failed.
- Outline a program for raising the wages of all the lower grades of labor.
Image Source: J. S. Pughe, The socialists’ theory, and how it would work out. Centerfold in Puck, vol. 45, No. 1162 (14 June 1899). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
Uncle Sam, on the left, giving a bag of money to a man labeled “Socialist” and a bag of money to a man labeled “Businessman”, he tells them “Gentlemen, I have divided the wealth of the country equally among all the people. Here are your shares, now go ahead and be happy!” At center, “The Start”, the two men part ways with the socialist taking the path “To Idleness and Extravagance” and the businessman taking the path “To Industry and Thrift”. On the right, at “The Finish”, the two men again stand before Uncle Sam, this time the businessman is holding two bags of money and the dejected socialist is showing that his pockets are now empty.
From Earlier Income Distribution Courses
1904-05
1905-06
1907-08
1908-09
1909-10
1910-11
1911-12
’The course content is undoubtedly captured in Carver’s 1904 book The Distribution of Wealth which was reprinted several times during his lifetime.
From Earlier Social Reform Courses
Pre-Carver
- Exams and enrollment figures for economics of socialism and communism taught by Edward Cummings (1893-1900).
Carver’s courses
- 1901-02. co-taught with Frederick Alexander Bushée. Economics 14. Socialism and Communism
- 1902-03. Includes exam with the linked reading list.
- 1904-05
- 1905-06
- [1906-07, Carver was on his European sabbatical]
- 1907-08.
- 1908-09.
- 1909-10. Includes a list of topics and references.
- 1910-11.
- 1911-12.