Harvard. Modern European Economic History. Gay, 1906-1907

 

Edwin F. Gay was promoted to the rank of professor in 1906 and served as the acting chairman of the Harvard economics department during Thomas Nixon Carver’s leave of absence. He then became the chair of the department in 1907. This was followed by his appointment as the first dean of the newly established Graduate School of Business Administration in 1908.

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Earlier, related posts

A brief course description for Economics 11 plus the exams from 1902-03.

Exams for 1903-04.

Exams for 1904-05.

Exams for 1905-06.

A short bibliography for “serious students” of economic history assembled by Gay and published in 1910 has also been posted.

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Course Enrollment
1906-07

Economics 11. Professor Gay. — Modern Economic History of Europe.

Total 25: 8 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 71.

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ECONOMICS 11
Mid-year Examination, 1906-07

1. Describe briefly, with reference to England in the sixteenth century:
   1. the position of the Hanseatic merchants.
   2. the policy with regard to shippingthe law and practice as to usury.
2. [Gilds]
   1. Cunningham says: “It is probable that the powers of the gilds had been so much affected by the legislation of Edward VI. that they had but little influence either for good or evil.”
      What precisely was this legislation? What was the attitude of the Tudor governments to the craft gilds?
   2. He also states that the craft gilds, “before the close of Elizabeth’s reign were reconstituted, or companies which corresponded to them were created anew.… These companies were different in many ways from the craft gilds, even when they were erected upon their ruins.”
      Do Ashley and Unwin agree with this view? What are the facts in regard to the development of gild organization under Elizabeth?
   3. State briefly, as compared with England, the chief points of analogy and difference in Continental gild history.
3. [Wages and prices]
   1. Criticise the following: “In the sixteenth century, when prices as well as wages were still frequently settled by authority, the competition of the laborers for food would not have such immediate effects on prices as in modern times; the regulation would tend to hasten the entire exhaustion of the supply, rather than to bring about a further rise of price.”
      What was the regulation of prices and wages here mentioned? Do you think it had any appreciable effect on the movement of prices or wages in the sixteenth century?
   2. What in general was the price movement of that period and what caused it? What are the difficulties in comparing the purchasing power of a shilling in 1450, 1550, and 1907.
4. What were the salient features of the Mercantile System?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1906-07.

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ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Examination, 1906-07

1. Explain briefly: —

(1) aulnager.
(2) ship-money.
(3) the “vend.”
(4) South Sea Bubble.
(5) contractus trinius.
(6) commenda.

1. [Mercantile policies]

1. 1. State the chief provisions and significance of

(a) the Statute of Artificers,
(b) the Navigation Act, and
(c) the Corn Law of 1688.

1. 1. When was the policy embodied in a and c changed, and under what circumstances?

III. [Company organization]

1. 1. What were the forms of company organization in England? What change took place in public sentiment regarding them?
   2. Compare the development of mercantile companies in England, France, and Holland.

1. [Domestic system vs. wage labor system]

1. 1. Comment on the following: “The distinguishing feature of the capitalist, as contrasted with the domestic, system lies in the fact, that under the former scheme, employers or undertakers own the materials and pay the wages, whereas in the domestic system the workman is his own master; he owns the materials on which he works and sells the product of his labour.”
   2. Give examples from the textile industries of three types of the domestic system.

Take one of the following.

1. Discuss this statement: “There has been a tendency to associate the great commercial expansion of the seventeenth century with the name of Cromwell…. It is difficult to see that any evidence whatever can be adduced in support of this view, while there is much to be said against it.”
2. “With a country almost naturally defenceless, engaged by position and religion in conflicts far beyond their real national strength, the Dutch at length became exhausted by the pressure of the taxes they paid.” Is this an adequate explanation of the economic decline of Holland? If not, what is the explanation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1906-07 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 33-34.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1914. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.