Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the banking course that together with Andrew Piatt Andrew’s currency course constituted the money and banking sequence at Harvard’s economic department in the first decade of the twentieth century. Both economists later made major contributions to the work of Senator Nelson W. Aldrich’s National Monetary Commission.
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Related, earlier posts
- Andrew, Sprague, and Meyer’s money, banking, and international payment exams from 1901-02.
- Sprague’s International Trade and Payments exam from 1902-03
- Sprague’s Banking and its history from 1902-1903.
- Sprague’s Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems from 1903-1904.
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Course Enrollment
1904-05
Economics 8b 1hf. Asst. Professor Sprague. — Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems.
Total 82: 5 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 37 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 1 Other.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.
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Course Description
1904-05
[Economics] 8b 1hf. Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems. Half-course (first half-year).Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Asst. Professor Sprague.
In Course 8b, after a summary view of early forms of banking in Italy, Amsterdam, and Hamburg, a more detailed account is given of the development, to the middle of the nineteenth century, of the system of banking in which notes were the principal form of credit and the chief subject of discussion and legislation. The rise and growth of the modern system of banking by discount and deposit is then described. The work is both historical and comparative in its methods. The banking development, legislation, and present practice of various countries, including England, France, Germany, Scotland, and Canada, are reviewed and contrasted. Particular attention is given to banking history and experience in this country: the two United States banks; the more important features of banking in the separate states before 1860; the beginnings, growth, operation, and proposed modification of the national banking system; and credit institutions outside that system, such as state banks and trust companies.
The course of the money markets of London, Paris, Berlin, and New York will be followed during a series of months, and the various factors, such as stock exchange dealings, and international exchange payments, which bring about fluctuations in the demand for loans, and the rate of discount upon them will be considered. In conclusion the relations of banks to commercial crises will be analyzed, the crises of 1857 and 1893 being taken for detailed study.
Written work, in the preparation of short papers on assigned topics, and a regular course of prescribed reading will be required of all students.
The course is open to those who have taken Economics 1.
Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 42-43.
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ECONOMICS 8b
Year-end Examination, 1904-05
- What influences gave the Bank of England its “monarchical” position? What was Bagehot’s explanation?
- Why does New York exchange on London, on Paris, and on Berlin tend to move in the same direction?
- French banks of issue other than the bank of France.
- The relation of “Other Deposits” to the market rate of discount in London.
- The use of certified checks in connection with Stock Exchange dealings.
- Did the establishment of the national banking system create a demand for government bonds?
- Discuss the proposal to repeal the ten per cent. tax on State bank notes.
- Reasons for depositing the money of the government with the banks.
- The history and present practice of note redemption under the national banking system.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 29.