Harvard. Money, Banking, Crises. Description, enrollment, final exams. Day, 1912-1913

The origin of monetary macroeconomics at Harvard can be traced to the second decade of the twentieth century when money and banking became merged with the topic of commercial crises as taught by Edmund Ezra Day. This post offers rich biographical detail about the two teaching assistants for the course as an added bonus to the course description, enrollment and semester examinations.

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Banking, Foreign Exchange and Crises pre-1912/13

Links to earlier course material for Banking, Foreign Exchange, and Crises from Harvard, 1902-03 through 1911-12.

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Meet the Teaching Assistants

John Christopher Ise (Ph.D., 1914)

JOHN ISE, Mus.B.( Univ. of Kansas) 1908, A.B. (ibid.) 1910, LL.B.( ibid.) 1911, A.B. (Harvard Univ.) 1912. Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economics of Agriculture. Thesis, “The History of the Forestry Policy of the United States.” Assistant Professor of Economics, Iowa State College.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1913-1914, p. 93.

For greater biographical detail, see the post: Economics Ph.D. Alumnus, John Christopher Ise, 1914

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Frederic Ernest Richter (A.M., 1916)

General Examination in Economics, Monday, May 18, 1914.
Committee: Professors Sprague (chairman), Turner, Gay, Day, and Anderson.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1909-13; Harvard Graduate School, 1913—. A.B., 1913. Assistant in Economics, Harvard, 1912—.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Statistics. 4. Money, Banking and Commercial Crises. 5. Economics of Corporations. 6. History of American Institutions since 1783.
Special Subject: Economics of Corporations.
Thesis Subject: “Underwriting and Marketing Securities in the United States and England.” (With Professor Sprague.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1913-14”.

Frederick Ernest Richter (1917)

Born at Brooklyn, N.Y., Jan. 25, 1889.
Parents: Charles, Mary Emma (Lockwood) Richter.
School: Boys’ High School and Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Years in College: 1909-13.
Degrees: A.B. 1913; A.M. 1916.
Unmarried.
Occupation: Assistant Professor.

Address: (home) 235 Bergen St., Brooklyn, N.Y.; (business) 31 West Lake St., Chicago, Ill.

THE three academic years following graduation I spent at Harvard, doing graduate work in economics; holding in the first two years an assistantship and in the last an instructorship and a tutorship in the department. I was, during this time, and am still, a candidate for a Ph.D. in economics. My doctoral thesis is “The Copper Industry of the United States, 1845-1915.” In connection therewith I was granted a small Sheldon Travelling Fellowship for the summer of 1915, for a trip to the chief copper-mining camps and copper smelteries of the United States. I had planned to stay at Harvard until I had received my doctorate, but in May of last year (1916) I was offered the position I now hold and accepted it. I now hope to come up for my degree in 1918.

During the summer of 1914, I carried on a little investigation into the seasonal character of the employment of labor on municipal work in and around Boston. This was done under the auspices of the American Association for Labor Legislation and a committee of the Boston Chamber of Commerce. It resulted in the first of the two articles mentioned below.

I am engaged to be married to Miss Eutha C. Downs of Baltimore, Maryland.

PUBLICATIONS: “Seasonal Fluctuations in Public Works,” in American Labor Legislation Review, June, 1915; “The Amalgamated Copper Company: a Closed Chapter in Corporation Finance,” in Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 1916.

MEMBER: Harvard Club of Chicago; University Club of Evanston, Illinois; American Economic Association; American Statistical Association.

Source: Harvard College Class of 1913, Secretary’s Second Report,  (June, 1917), p. 262.

Frederick Ernest Richter (1920)

…TAKING up the narrative from 1916, I spent the academic year as Assistant Professor of Money and Banking at Northwestern School of Commerce, Chicago and Evanston, Ill. On June 27, 1917, I was married in Baltimore. In September, 1917, I was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Adjutant General’s Department. I was assigned to duty in Washington, where I remained until February, 1918, when I was ordered overseas. I was abroad until July, 1919, during most of which time I was Statistical Officer at the Air Service Headquarters. Immediately on my return to this country I was discharged [July 9, 1919, as 1st Lieutenant].
On August 13, 1919, I began work with the Guaranty Trust Co. of New York, at their main office, as a member of the editorial staff of the publicity department….

Source: Harvard College Class of 1913, Secretary’s Third Report,  (June, 1920), pp. 311-312.

Frederick Ernest Richter (1928)

Address (home): 81-28th St., Jackson Heights, L.I., N.Y. (business): c/o American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 195 Broadway, New York City.
Occupation: Economic Statistician.
Married: Eutha C. Downs, June 27, 1917.
Child: Eutha Helen, November 6, 1925.

 

Still with the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, in New York, where, as economic statistician, am in charge of the general economic research work and specifically of the studies of external business conditions. Been with the company since September, 1921. This being the case, and my residence being the same as it has been since 1921, and nothing exciting having happened to me, there’s nothing to report except the birth of our daughter, chronicled herewith. Said young lady has been the greatest of joys to her parents.

Necessarily do a great deal of writing of one sort or another, but have produced no books. Various articles on divers economic subjects have appeared over my signature (which means I really wrote ’em !) in the Harvard Business Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the ( Harvard ) Review of Economic Statistics, the Journal of the American Statistical Association, the Annalist, and the Bell Telephone Quarterly.

Source: Harvard College Class of 1913, Fifteenth Anniversary Report,  (1928), pp. 168-169.

Frederick Ernest Richter (d. 7 Feb 1974)

F.E. Richter, economist, dies

Princeton, N.J., (Special)—Frederic Ernest Richter, an economist and former Baltimore resident died at a nursing home near here yesterday after a long illness.

Mr. Richter, who was 85 and lived in Princeton in recent years, had lived at the Broadview Apartments, in Baltimore, from 1961 to 1968.

He had moved to Baltimore, the hometown of his wife, the former Eutha Charlotte, Downs, whom he married in 1917, after his retirement as an economic consultant to the federal Renegotiation Board.

Before his 10-year association with the board in Washington, he had served as an economist with several New York firms.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y. he graduated from Harvard University in 1913. He then taught at Harvard while obtaining a masters degree there.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Gavin Hildick-Smith, of Princeton, and two grandsons.

Source: The Baltimore Sun, 8 February 1974, p. 11.

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ECONOMICS 3
Course Description
1912-13

[Economics] 3 (formerly 8). Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 1.30. Dr. Day, assisted by ——.

This course aims to analyze the principal problems of money and credit. An examination is first made of the more important existing monetary systems. This is followed by a careful review of the more instructive chapters in the monetary history of England, Germany, France, the United States, Austria, British India, Mexico, and the Philippines.

The nature, origin, and early growth of commercial banking are considered. An investigation of present banking practice in England, France, Germany, and Canada is followed by a study of banking history and present banking problems in the United States. In this connection foreign exchange and the money markets of London, Paris, Berlin, and New York are examined.

Finally attention is turned to those problems of money and credit which appear most prominently in connection with economic crises. Though emphasis is thrown upon the financial aspects of the trade cycle, the investigation covers the more fundamental factors causing commercial and industrial fluctuations.

Short papers upon assigned topics will be required of all students.

Source: Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics, Courses of Instruction, 1912–13, p. 60.

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ECONOMICS 3
Course Enrollment
1912-13

[Economics] 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. Dr. E. E. Day, assisted by Messrs. Ise and F. E. Richter.

Total 119: 3 Graduates, 31 Seniors, 67 Juniors, 16 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1912-13, p. 57.

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ECONOMICS 3
Mid-year Examination
1912-13

1. Assuming the laws of the United States to remain unchanged, how would our monetary stock be affected if the market ratio of gold and silver should become 18 to 1; 15 to 1; 12 to 1?
2. What monies circulated in the United States in 1810; 1850; 1862; 1887; 1900?
3. State briefly the arguments for and against international bimetallism. How does the case for national bimetallism differ? What has caused bimetallism to disappear as an important political issue?
4. In Austria, “after 1870, — the value of paper money with respect to silver steadily rose until in 1878 it reached parity with silver. … In 1879 the free or private coinage of silver was stopped.” Consider whether, after this action, the (1) silver pieces, and (2) the paper notes were commodity, credit, of fiat money? Had Austria not closed the mints to the free coinage of silver, how would the following have been affected in that country: (a) the monetary stock; (b) the monetary standard; (c) the value of money?
5. Compare the clearing-house certificate with the clearinghouse loan certificate. What advantages result from the issue of the loan certificate? It has been said that, in 1907, by the issue of loan certificates, “all the reserves of all the banks were made available for those banks which were in temporary straits.” Do you agree? Why or why not?
6. Explain briefly: (a) free-banking principle; (b) asset banking; (c) safety-fund system; (d) bond-secured circulation; (e) branch banking. Indicate, if possible, one advantage and one disadvantage in each. Cite an illustration of each in banking in the United States before 1860.
7. Compare the joint-stock banks of England, the credit companies of France, and the credit banks of Germany with reference to: (a) their business; (b) the size and composition of their reserves; (c) their relation to their respective central banks.
8. On November 11, 907, sterling exchange was quoted in New York at the following rates: long bills, 4.79 at ½ ; sight bills, 4.86 at ¼ ; cables, 4.89 at ¼ . Explain the differences in these rates.
   On the same day, gold was engaged by the New York banks for import. How do you account for this?

Source: Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 9, bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1912-13.

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ECONOMICS 3
Year-end Examination
1912-13

1. What factors favored the monetary rehabilitation of silver in the United States during the 70’s? Which of these factors are still operative? Explain the disappearance of the others.
2. What banking abuses were most common in the United States early in the nineteenth century? When and how, if at all, have these since been eliminated?
3. What is the relation between the Bank of England rate and the London market rate of discount when (a) funds are abundant; (b) funds are relatively scarce? In what ways does varying the Bank rate accomplish the protection of the English banking reserves?
4. What is meant by a free gold market? Are the following such: London; Paris; Berlin; New York? In each case, why or why not?
5. How will the rate of sterling exchange in New York be affected by: (a) a crop failure in the United States; (b) hoarding of specie in Europe; (c) a slump on the New York Stock Exchange; (d) a banking panic in this country?
6. “The call-loan market . . . furnishes to the banks of the country under the present organization of banking, their only means of mobilizing their reserves, of liquifying their assets, and of securing flexibility in their lending power.” Explain and criticize. How, if at all, should this feature of our system be changed?
7. In the equation of exchange given by Professor Fisher, what is the relation of M, M’, V, and T (a) during a period of rising prices; (b) during a period of settled prices?
8. Describe the crisis of 1873 with reference to: (a) its general antecedents; (b) its more important causes in the United States; (c) its final outbreak in this country; (d) the territorial extent of the reaction; (e) the severity and duration of the subsequent depression.

Sources: Harvard University Examinations. Papers set for final examinations in history, history of science, government, economics, philosophy, social ethics, education, fine arts, music in Harvard College (June 1913), pp. 41-42.

Image Source: Frank A. Nankivell’s cover drawing “The central bank” for Puck, vol. 67, no. 1718 (2 February 1910). J. Pierpont Morgan clutching to his chest with his right arm large New York City buildings labeled “Billion Dollar Bank Merger”; in the foreground, a young child puts a coin in a “Toy Bank” as Morgan’s left arm reaches around the buildings to grab the toy bank for himself.  United States Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

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Exams from earlier years

1902/03-1907/08. Commercial Crises and Trade Cycles (A.P. Andrew)
1906/07. Banking and Foreign Exchange (A.P. Andrew)
1907/08. Banking and Foreign Exchange (A.P. Andrew)
1908/09. Commercial Crises and Trade Cycles (Wesley Clair Mitchell)
1908/09. Banking and Foreign Exchange (W.C. Mitchell)
1909/10. Commercial Crises and Trade Cycles [Not offered].
1909/10. Banking and Foreign Exchange (O.M.W. Sprague)
1910/11. Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade (E.E. Day)
1910/11. Banking and Foreign Exchange (E.E. Day)
1911/12. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises (E.E. Day)