Harvard. Principles of economics. Enrollment, description, exams. Taussig, 1911-1912

Today we begin a march through the economics course offerings at Harvard for the academic year 1911-12 with Frank W. Taussig’s Economics 1, Principles of Economics, an obvious starting point. 

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Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1910/11

1871-75	1880-81	1890-91	1900-01	1910-11
	1881-82	1891-92	1901-02
	1882-83	1892-93	1902-03
	1883-84	1893-94	1903-04
	1884-85	1894-95	1904-05
	1885-86	1895-96	1905-06
1876-77	1886-87	1896-97	1906-07
1877-78	1887-88	1897-98	1907-08
1878-79	1888-89	1898-99	1908-09
1879-80	1889-90	1899-00	1909-10

 Frank Taussig completed the first edition of his Principles of Economics [Volume I; Volume II] in March 1911 [Preface]. Links to the references from that first edition have been posted. Taussig expected his students to acquire a personal copy of the textbook and wrote a letter (transcribed and posted here) to Harvard President Lowell, dated October 6, 1911 giving his reasons for not putting a large number of copies into libraries as a reference book for students for them to consult. Taussig did allow one major exception to his textbook ownership policy: “I do not want to compel the poor fellows to buy my book. There is a text-book loan library in Phillips Brooks House, and this I have supplied with a sufficient number of copies for the use of the needy.”

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Course Announcement
1911-12

[Economics] 1.     Principles of Economics. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor [Frank William] Taussig, assisted by Dr. [Edmund Ezra] Day, and Messrs. [Eliot] Jones, [Alfred Burpee] Balcom, [Joseph Stancliffe] Davis, and [Harold Hitchings] Burbank.

Course 1 gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes a consideration of the principles of production, distribution, exchange, money, banking, international trade, and taxation. The relations of labor and capital, the present organization of industry, and the recent currency legislation of the United States will be treated in outline.

The course will be conducted partly by lectures, partly by oral discussion in sections. A course of reading will be laid down, and weekly written exercises will test the work of students in following systematically and continuously the lectures and the prescribed reading. Course 1 may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1911-12 (1^st edition) published as number 23 in Volume VIII of the Official Register of Harvard University (June 14, 1911). Transcribed and posted here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 1. Professor Taussig, assisted by Dr. E. E. Day, and Messrs. Jones, Balcom, J.S. Davis, Burbank, and Jay Morrison. — Principles of Economics.

Total 438: 1 Graduate, 19 Seniors, 85 Juniors, 252 Sophomores, 54 Freshmen, 27 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 63. 

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ECONOMICS 1
Hour Examination.
Nov. 18, 1911.

1. Explain what is meant by
   — capital,
   — producer’s goods,
   — consumer’s goods.

Can it be said that a monopolist has greater power over the price of producer’s goods than over that of consumer’s goods? If so, why? If not, why not?

1. Explain briefly but carefully:—
   — vertical combination;
   — by-products;
   — steam-engine theory of the efficiency of labor;
   — quantity theory of money.
2. “On grounds of general reasoning we are led to expect that the value of the precious metals will conform in the long run to their cost of production at the poorest mine, or at the poorest part of the better mines. It will conform, we should expect, to marginal cost of production.” What is the general reasoning here referred to? Does it apply to the precious metals as “we should expect”? If so, in what manner? If not, why not?
3. —
   1. Is the marginal utility of water greater or less than that of molasses? Is its total utility?
      Is the marginal utility of copper greater or less than that of steel? Its total utility? (The price of copper per pound is usually about ten times that of steel.)
      Is the marginal utility of diamonds greater or less than that of glass? Its total utility?
   2. Is consumer’s surplus larger (or more significant) for water than for molasses? For diamonds than for glass?

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination.
1911-12

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

1. Is it for the advantage of the community, and if so, wherein, that there should be
   — standardizing,
   — grain exchanges,
   — brokers’ business?
2. Is it for the advantage of the community, and if so wherein, that there should be
   — corporations,
   — transferability of corporate shares,
   — stock exchanges?
3. Arrange the following in the order of elasticity of demand; setting down first that for which you think demand is least elastic, last for which you think demand is most elastic. Give concisely the reasons for your arrangement.
   — Wheat,
   — Shakespere’s works,
   — sugar,
   — eye-glasses.

Assume now that each of these is in the hands of monopoly: which of them would it be for the interest of the monopolist to market at a high price, which at a low price? (By “high price” is meant a price much in excess of cost of production). Illustrate by a diagram.

4. Explain what is meant by
   — weighted index number,
   — specie premium,
   — “real depreciation” of paper money,
   — multiple standard.
5. Is a period of rising prices advantageous (a) for the community at large, (b) for any classes or sections in the community?
6. Is a low value of money, once settled, advantageous to the community at large? To any classes or sections in the community?
7. What are the restrictions on the total amount of banknotes that may be issued in (1) the United States, (2) England, (3) France? What degree of elasticity is found in the banknote issue of each country? Are there grounds for saying that elasticity of note issue is more important in one of these countries than in the others?
8. How is the volume of deposits in the United States affected by
   1. the quantity of lawful money (specie and its equivalent);
   2. the requirements of law;
   3. the temper of the business community.
9. “We need not fear labor competition with Christendom. The readjustment would involve some temporary hardship, but it would be only temporary. But to compete with the wages paid in India, China, and Japan would be impossible. In some cases American wages would fall; in other cases the American manufactures would cease. Wages at three or four dollars a day could not be long kept up in competition with wages at twenty-five, fifty, or even seventy-five cents a day. Oriental wages would rise a little; American wages would fall a great deal.”
   Would you agree?

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination.
1911-12

1. In what manner are saving and the formation of capital promoted or retarded by

(a) government borrowing;
(b) the corporate organization of industry;
(c) progressive inheritance taxes.

2. What part is played by (1) savings banks, (2) commercial banks, in the creation of capital? In the creation of deposits? How, if at all, do these two sorts of banks influence the effectiveness of capital?
3. The establishment of a postal savings system in the United States is expected to bring about a diminution in the remittances made to foreign countries by those who have recently immigrated to this country. Would such a change be to the advantage of the United States? If so, wherein? If not, why not?
4. Explain carefully,

— increasing returns;
— monopoly profit;
— unfair competition;
— potential competition;
— “the earmarks of effective monopoly.”

5. Suppose an urban site which, if utilized to best advantage, would secure an economic rent of $2000 a year; suppose an appropriate building to be erected on it, costing $50,000; suppose the current rate of interest to be 4%. What would be the net rental of the property (due allowance having been made for repairs, taxes, and the like), and what would be its capital value (selling price)?
   Suppose now that an inappropriate building had been erected on it, and that the property, thus utilized, had proved to command a net rental of $2500; what would be the capital value (selling price) of the property?
6. Explain and illustrate

— equalizing differences of wages;
— real differences of wages.

Broadly speaking, are the differences which appear in existing society of the first kind or of the second?
What is the effect of immigration into the United States on these differences of wages?

7. What is to be said for, what against,

— “making work”;
— insurance against unemployment;
— the employer’s power of discharge.

8. In what sense, if in any, can it be said that government ownership and management (of railways, for example) is socialistic? In what sense, if in any, can it be said that compulsory arbitration between employers and workmen is socialistic?
9. Explain progressive, regressive, degressive, and proportional taxation. Of which sort would you consider the following (discuss three only):

— the British income tax;
— the general property tax in the United States;
— the import duty upon sugar;
— a tax upon the unearned increment in urban sites?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Prof. F. W. Taussig, Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935  (Scrapbook).

Image Source: Frank William Taussig, Harvard Class Album 1915.