Tag: AndrewAP

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Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Exams for Money and Banking. Andrew, 1906-1907

A two course sequence covering money, banking and foreign exchange became an established specialty field at the beginning of the twentieth century. Assistant Professor A. Piatt Andrew covered that field at Harvard.

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Previous course materials for
Money and Banking 

1900-01 (Meyer and Sprague)
1901-02 (Andrew, Sprague, Meyer)
1902-03 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)
1903-04 (Andrew and Sprague)
1904-05 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)
1905-06 (Andrew’s money and banking exams)

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Course Enrollment 1906-07
Money, first semester

Economics 8a 1hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times.

Total 50: 4 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 2 Others.

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

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ECONOMICS 8a
Mid-year Examination, 1906-07

  1. Why was the Latin Monetary Union instituted? Why does it continue to exist? What conclusions of general significance can be drawn from its history?
  2. When may the levying of a seignorage be expected to result in rising prices? Falling prices? Stationary prices?
  3. “It is possible to introduce either a system of bi-metallism which will make prices fall, or one which will make them rise.” Explain these two systems, and show why they would affect prices in such ways.
  4. How is the increasing gold supply likely to affect —
    1. the interests of the working classes?
    2. the prosperity of business?
    3. the income of persons living upon a salary?
    4. the price of real estate?
    5. the price of bonds?
      Explain the reasons in each case.
  5. Explain the character, merits, and defects of —
    (a) the mathematical mean, (b) the geometrical mean, (c) the median, (d) the mode, (e) weighted averages, as methods of measuring changes in the value of money.
  1. “If an ounce of gold, which would be coined into the equivalent of £3 17s 10½ d, is sold for £4 or £5 in paper, the value of the currency has sunk just that much below what the value of a metallic currency would be.” — Mill, II, p. 92. What is your opinion of this statement?
  2. What does Darwin mean by the labor standard? By the commodity standard? Explain the merits claimed for each, and show the exemplification of the two standards in the history of the precious metals between 1873 and 1896. Has either been exemplified in the history of gold or silver since 1896?
  3. Enumerate the different kinds of money now current in the United States, and explain the circumstances and conditions of their issue.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1906-07. A copy is also found in Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1906-07 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 30-31.

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Course Enrollment, 1906-07
Banking, second semester

Economics 8b 2hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Banking and Foreign Exchange.

Total 82: 3 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 32 Juniors, 30 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 5 Others.

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

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ECONOMICS 8b
Year-end Examination, 1906-7

Omit one question
  1. Name and characterize briefly the various classes of banks existing in (a) the United States, (b) England, (c) Scotland, (d) France, and (e) Germany.
    Name when possible a few leading examples of each class.
  2. What is meant in England by the official Bank rate, the actual Bank rate, the deposit rate, the market rates?
    Suppose that the official rate is raised from 4% to 5%, to what extent will the other rates probably be affected? and why?
    Would the answer have been different thirty years ago?
  3. In what manner and to what extent does the government derive especial advantage in the way of revenue and of services from the banks in the United States? in England? in Germany?
  4. It has been said that “any amount of credit may be created … so long as the claims held by the bank are based upon actual and salable property.”
    Mention any person or persons to whom one might attribute this opinion. Would you accept it?
  5. Express and illustrate the various circumstances under which American quotations of exchange upon France may (1) exceed, and (2) fall short of the nominal gold points.
  6. In your opinion did Andrew Jackson’s policy work permanent benefit or permanent harm to the banking interests of the country? State reasons.
  7. Explain briefly the innovations made by Secretary Shaw in the relations of the Treasury with the banks, and state your opinion of the general policy involved therein.
  8. What contributions to the development of banking in England were made by the authors of (a) “The Bullion Report,” (b) “Lombard Street”?
    In what ways and how far are the principles there presented applicable to the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1906-07 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 31-32.

Image Source: A. Piatt Andrew’s The Red Roof Guestbook, 1914-1930. Available at the Historic New England Website. Henry Davis Sleeper (Andrew’s neighbor on the left) and A. Piatt Andrew Jr. (right).

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Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Enrollments, staffing, exams for principles of economics. Taussig, Bullock, Andrew. 1906-1907

It is now time to begin posting transcriptions of course material for the Harvard academic year 1906-07. Sometimes, even for the curator of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror, this becomes a tedious task. Still, the opportunity to assemble a long time series of economics exams into searchable text for one of the leading economics departments has the virtue of being steady work. 

In the beginning… there is the undergraduate principles of economics course and that is the subject of this post. Subsequent posts more or less follow the course numbering used at the time by Harvard.

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Taussig explains the course structure

In a letter Aug 8, 1906 to E.R.A. Seligman at Columbia describing how Economics 1 was taught we learn that Frank Taussig gave the first semester lectures and his younger colleagues, Charles J. Bullock and A. Piatt Andrew split the second semester’s lectures between themselves. The textbooks used in the course were “Mill, Walker, and Seager.” Taussig also gave himself credit for introducing the course structure of having a common set of lectures and small-section work for discussion and exercises.

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Course Enrollment
1906-07

Economics 1. Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Asst. Professors [Charles Jesse] Bullock and [Abram Piatt] Andrew, assisted by Messrs [Selden Osgood] Martin, [Frank Richardson] Mason, G. R. [George Randall] Lewis, [Charles Phillips] Huse, and [Arthur Norman] Holcombe. — Principles of Economics.

Total 392: 1 Graduate, 15 Seniors, 43 Juniors, 252 Sophomores, 50 Freshmen, 31 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 70.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1906-07

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. Explain briefly what is meant by, — free goods; public goods; utility; marginal utility; productive labor.
  2. Explain the relation between, — the rate of interest; the selling price of land; the capitalization of monopolies; vested rights.
  3. What is meant by urban site rent? Does such rent differ from the rent of agricultural land? If so, in what essentials? If not, why not?
  4. Are business profits a return different in kind from wages, according to Mill? Seager? the instructor in the course?
  5. Is a high birth-rate to be regarded with anxiety? a low birth-rate? a high death-rate? a low death-rate? State (in round numbers per 1000 of population) what you would regard as high and low rates.
  6. Would you expect the price of a commodity to fall if its cost of production were lowered? If so, under what conditions? If not, why not?
    Would you expect the cost of producing a commodity to be lowered if its price fell? If so, under what conditions? If not, why not?
  7. Wherein had immigration into the United States during the decade just passed differed from immigration in earlier times; and what effect has recent immigration had (a) on the general rate of wages, (b) on wages in particular occupations?
  8. Explain the connection between, — collective bargaining; the closed shop; the open union.
  9. Suppose socialism, in the form proposed by Fourier, were adopted: how would wages, rent, interest, business profits, be affected? What if socialism, as outlined by modern writers, were adopted?

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 1
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

I.
Answer three questions.

  1. Does the value of a commodity depend on its utility? Does the price of a commodity depend on its value?
  2. Explain briefly what is meant by (a) the sweating system, (b) producers’ coöperation, (c) collective bargaining.
  3. Suppose a great increase in the supply of (a) gold, (b) silver, (c) wheat: would the values of these three articles be affected in the same way and in the same degree?
  4. What is the nature of the income received by (a) an owner of lodging house who lets rooms to students; (b) an owner of shares a “trust”; (c) an author receiving royalty on a copy-righted book; (d) a mine owner receiving a royalty (so much per ton) on minerals extracted from his mine.

II.
Answer three questions.

  1. Describe the various forms of credit which serve as means of exchange. Does their existence afford any disproof of the “quantity theory”? Explain why or why not.
  2. If there were no legal restrictions, would anything tend to prevent an over-expansion (a) of deposits, (b) of notes?
    If the present legal restrictions on note issue were abolished, what substitutes would you suggest?
  3. The imports of the United States from Brazil permanently exceed our exports to that country. What movements of specie between these countries are involved? The total exports of merchandise from the United States permanently exceed its imports. What movements of specie to or from this country are involved?
  4. Given mint par with England 4.86 2/3, France 5.18, Germany 0.952. What conditions with regard to American trade are indicated by the following quotations of exchange in New York, 4.84, 5.20, 0.945? How ought these rates to stand if the American dollar were to fall to half its present gold value?

III.
Answer three questions.

  1. According: to the principles laid down by Adam Smith and Mill, what changes should be made in the system of taxation employed by our national government?
  2. Compare the history of the income tax in the United States with the history of the tax in two European countries.
  3. What are the principal arguments for and against the proposal to levy progressive income taxes in order to prevent “undue” concentration of wealth? What are the arguments for and against using progressive inheritance taxes for the same purpose?
  4. Should a national debt be extinguished? Should municipal debts be extinguished? (In each case state fully the reasons for your answer.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1907), pp. 24-25.

Image Source: Frank W. Taussig in the Harvard Class Album, 1906. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Business Cycles Exam Questions Harvard Problem Sets

Harvard. Report guidelines and exam for commercial crises and trade cycles. Andrew, 1905-1906

Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. (1911)

While the exam questions for A. Piatt Andrew’s course on commercial crises and trade cycles for 1905-06 have been transcribed and posted earlier, this post adds his “Suggestions with regard to first report and accompanying chart.” This artifact provides a taste of an actual course assignment.  

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Previously posted

All of Andrew’s exams from his commercial crises and trade cycles course at Harvard for the academic years 1902-03 through 1907-08.

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Commercial Crises
and Cycles of Trade
Economics 12b
1905-06 

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Course Enrollment
Commercial Crises
and Cycles of Trade
1905-06

[Economics] 12b 1hf. Ass’t. Professor Andrew. Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade.

Total 55: 9 Graduates, 20 Seniors, 20 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-190 6, p. 72.

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ECONOMICS 12b
SUGGESTIONS WITH REGARD TO FIRST REPORT AND ACCOMPANYING CHART

I. Concerning the Chart

  1. Neatness is desirable; accuracy essential.
  2. Before beginning the chart note the highest and the lowest figures, and devise a scale so that both may be included on the paper, but upon the largest possible plan.
  3. When several sets of figures are to be included upon the same chart, if possible, draw the various lines upon the same scale. If, by so doing, however, variations in one of the lines will be too small to be easily discerned, increase the scale for this line.
  4. Note the decimal division of the profile paper. Do not start with other than a decimal number as a basis. If you have a period covering 20 or 30 years a good plan is to let one of the large squares represent two years.
  5. When two or more decades are included mark the decennial years clearly with a heavier line than the other years.
  6. Bring the figures in every case as nearly to date as possible.
  7. Note on bottom of chart in small letters the source of your statistics, volume and page.
  8. Note also on chart whether the statistics are for the fiscal, calendar, or crop year, — or the year ending at what date.
  9. Place title and your own name somewhere on the chart.

II. Concerning the Report

  1. Give your figures in tabular form, naming all of the sources.
  2. Discuss the sources of your statistics, their authority, and their comprehensiveness.
  3. Trace the trade cycles as shown on your chart, showing the relation between the line movements and periods of prosperity or depression.
  4. Explain the reasons for the larger movements, paying particular attention to the maximal and minimal years. Show to what extent they may be caused by, or may be the cause of industrial fluctuations.
  5. When several countries are concerned note the resemblances and differences in their respective movements, explaining any important dissimilarities.
  6. Name all references employed in the preparation of the report. The references given by the instructor are only preliminary suggestions, and not meant to be sufficient for the completion of the report.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1905-1906”.

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ECONOMICS 12b
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

Omit one question
  1. Compare as regards recent cycles of trade,—
    1. the number and liabilities of failed firms.
    2. banking and commercial failures.
    3. railway and commercial failures.
  2. To what extent have changes in the clearings of the New York banks registered changes in general business?
  3. Explain Juglar’s theory as to the movements of bank loans and reserves, and state how far it is confirmed by American experience.
  4. Explain what was done by the Bank of England to relieve apprehension in 1825, 1847, 1857, 1866, 1890.
  5. Explain and discuss Rodbertus’ theory of crises.
  6. Upon what occasions within the past thirty-five years and by what means, have the American Secretaries of the Treasury helped to relieve a stringency in the financial centres?
  7. In what ways is business affected by the condition of the crops? Within what limitations? In the case of which crops is the connection closest?
  8. What part does “credit” play in the explanation of crises,—
    1. according to Laughlin,
    2. according to Chevalier,
    3. in your own opinion?
  9. In what ways and to what extent are trade conditions apt to be affected,—
    1. by the increasing gold supply,
    2. by the trust movement,
    3. by increasing armies and navies,
    4. by the present agricultural situation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1905-06. Also a copy in Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), p. 37.

Image Source: 1911 portrait of Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. by Anders Born at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Wikimedia Commons.

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Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Exams for Money and Banking. Andrew, 1905-1906

Abram Piatt Andrew

 

The financial Panic of 1907 was still a few years down the historical road when A. Piatt Andrew picked up the banking semester of the two semester sequence of money and banking at Harvard from O. M. W. Sprague who had left for Japan. This expanded scope in matters monetary no doubt came in handy when Andrew joined the staff of the National Monetary Commission established by Congress in 1908.

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Previous course materials
Money and Banking 

1900-01 (Meyer and Sprague)
1901-02 (Andrew, Sprague, Meyer)
1902-03 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)
1903-04 (Andrew and Sprague)
1904-05 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)

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Course Enrollment
1905-06

Economics 8a 1hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times.

Total 50: 5 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 72.

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ECONOMICS 8a
Mid-year Examination, 1905-06

  1. Explain and give illustrations of
    1. the double standard;
    2. the parallel standard;
    3. the limping standard;
    4. the single standard;
    5. quasi-redemption;
    6. forced circulation.
  2. State briefly the circumstances which led to the issue and withdrawal of the American trade dollar.
  3. Trace briefly the chronology of the adoption of the gold standard throughout the world. To what extent is the fall in price of silver due to this movement? To what extent has the value of gold been affected by it?
  4. How would the adoption of international bimetallism to-day at the ratio of 32 to 1 affect (a) the circulating medium, (b) the standard of value of different countries? Consider both the immediate and the eventual results.
  5. What arguments advanced in favor of bimetallism ten years ago are inapplicable to-day?
  6. Is there any peculiar significance for the “quantity theory”
    1. of British India between 1893 and 1898;
    2. of Austria between 1878 and 1892;
    3. of Russia between 1878 and 1896;
    4. of Holland between 1873 and 1875.
      When possible give variant opinions.
  7. Would an ideal monetary standard always measure the same quantity of goods?
    1. According to Walker?
    2. According to Darwin?
    3. According to your own opinion?
      Answer both from the points of view of production and distribution.
  8. “Inasmuch as gold (before 1848) was more valuable on the world’s market than at the French mint, relatively to silver, it was impossible that gold should circulate in France.” Is this a necessary conclusion?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1905-06. Also a copy in Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), p. 33.

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Course Enrollment
1905-06

Economics 8b 2hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems.

Total 105: 7 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 56 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 72.

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ECONOMICS 8b
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

  1. Explain the system of “cash credits” and the importance of the £1 note in Scotland.
  2. Discuss the following:—
    1. Bank statement based on falling averages.
    2. Five per cent fund with treasurer.
    3. Bonds for circulation.
    4. Bonds for deposits.
  3. Sketch briefly the various stages in the American government’s policy of caring for its funds.
  4. How do state banks compare with national banks in the United States to-day (a) in number, (b) in size, (c) in the kinds of business done? What differences in these regards appear in different parts of the country?
  5. On what grounds is an extension of branch-banking advocated in the United States? What are the objections raised? To what extent does it already exist?
  6. Explain the ways and trace the seasons in which the New York bank reserves are apt to decline. Discuss the means which have recently been employed by the government to strengthen them.
  7. Sight exchange is quoted at 4.8550; 60-day bills at 4.8240; commercial bills at 4.8212. Explain these differences and show how each quotation will be affected, if the Bank of England raises its rate by 1%.
  8. The following are abstracted statements of the New York Associated Banks:
(1)
Aug. 5, ’93		 (2)
Feb. 3, ’94		 (3)
May 20, ’99		 (4)
May 23, ’03
Loans 409 420 763 923
Deposits 373 552 902 914
Capital 129 133 134 224
Circulation 6 13 16 44
Reserve 79 250 260 238

Compare 1 with 2, and 3 with 4, explaining in each case the changes in the relations (a) between loans and deposits, (b) between deposits and reserve.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906),  p. 34.

Image Source: Picture of Abram Piatt Andrew from ca. 1909 used in a magazine article on his appointment to the directorship of the U. S. Mint. Hoover Institution Archives. A. Piatt Andrew Papers, Box 51. Retouched and colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Principles of Economics Exam. Taussig et al., 1905-1906

Over the next couple of weeks Economics in the Rear-view Mirror will be posting the printed economics course exams from Harvard for the academic year 1905-06.  Economics in the Rear-View Mirror has already transcribed and posted nearly every economics exam at Harvard University up to this year. You will find links to them in the Catalogue of Artifacts, then use page search for, e.g.,”Exam” to be awed if not shocked by the sheer quantity of material available to you.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 1. Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Asst. Professor [Abram Piatt] Andrew, assisted by Messrs. [Silas Wilder] Howland, [Chester Whitney] Wright, [Seldon Osgood] Martin, [William Hyde] Price, [Frank Richardson] Mason, and [Stuart] Daggett. — Principles of Economics.

Total 470: 1 Graduate, 9 Seniors, 87 Juniors, 266 Sophomores, 63 Freshmen, 44 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 72.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1905-06

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
Answer nine questions, five from Group I, four from Group II.

Group I

  1. Which of the following would you class as capital:—
    1. stocks of goods in retailers’ hands;
    2. a theatre:
    3. the skill, acquired through training and education, of highly efficient workmen;
    4. agricultural land permanently improved by drainage, embankments and the like.
  2. Explain concisely,
    1. the law of diminishing returns;
    2. intensive and extensive margin of cultivation;
    3. marginal utility.
  3. Suppose all agricultural land to be equally fertile and equally distant from the market; suppose all to be under cultivation: would there be rent? If so, why and where? if not, why not?
  4. Explain in what way the value of monopolized commodities is influenced on the one hand by cost of production, on the other hand by marginal utility.
  5. Explain in what way the value of commodities produced at joint cost is influenced on the one hand by cost of production, on the other hand by marginal utility.
  6. State two different ways in which expense of education and training affects variations of wages in different occupations.

Group II

  1. “The extra gains which any producer or dealer obtains through superior talents for business, or superior business arrangements, are very much of a similar kind [to rent]. . . . All advantages, in fact, which one competitor has over another, whether natural or acquired, whether personal or the result of social arrangements, bring the commodity, so far, into the Third Class, and assimilate the possessor of the advantage to a receiver of rent.” —Mill.
    Explain what is the “third class” of commodities here referred to by Mill; wherein “personal” advantages differ from those which are “the result of social arrangements”; and how far the general doctrine set forth in this extract is found also in Walker and in Seager.
  2. State concisely the residual theory of distribution, as set forth by Walker.
  3. Suppose the number of laborers to increase greatly, the other factors in production (capital, land) remaining unchanged: what changes in wages would ensue, and in what manner would they be brought about, according to Mill? Walker? Seager?
  4. Explain concisely,
    1. the capitalization of rent;
    2. the capitalization of monopoly profits;
    3. the statement that the rate of interest determines the value of land and securities;
    4. innocent investors and acquired rights.
  5. A corporation organized to do a mercantile business buys an expensive city site, erects a building thereon, carries on the operations of buying and selling, and in due time distributes dividends among its stockholders. What is the nature of the return received by the stockholders?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1905-06.

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

Omit one question from each group.

I.

  1. Define capital, and mention two articles of wealth which are always capital, two which never are, and two which sometimes are and sometimes are not.
  2. Under what conditions would there be no economic rent?
  3. Explain briefly the salient influences which will determine the value (1) at any given moment, (2) in the long run, of the following:
    1. an uncopyrighted book,
    2. a copyrighted book,
    3. an ounce of gold.
  4. What are the limits to the price-fixing and profit-earning powers of monopolies? Are there any other conditions which will tend to check the indefinite growth of combinations?

II.

  1. Is it true of all commodities that changes in supply affect their value proportionally? Is it true of the commodity money? If in your opinion there is any difference, explain it.
  2. Can a commodity change its value without changing its price? Can it change its price without changing its value? Suppose the commodity were gold bullion, would your answer vary?
  3. Suppose an increase in the volume of our currency, due to a new issue of silver, what would be the effect upon international trade? Would this effect be lasting? Would your answer depend at all upon the condition of our currency at the time the increase occurred?
  4. If the merchandise imports from England to the United States equalled the exports from the United States to England (a) what would be the state of exchange on London? (b) Would there be any greater advantage to either of the countries engaged in trade?

III.

  1. Would a tariff “for revenue only” differ from a protective tariff, the product of which is entirely devoted to revenue? Has either any advantage over the other?
  2. “A man is of all sorts of luggage the most difficult to be transported.” What is the bearing of this fact upon the theory of international trade?
  3. (a) How are loans affected when the reserve limit (as established either by law or custom) is reached in England, Germany, and in the United States?
    (b) Show whether a system of “combined reserves” is needed in France, England, or Germany.
  4. Arrange the following items in their proper order as they would appear in the statement of a national bank. What criticisms would a bank examiner make? Would these criticisms vary if the bank were situated in New York, Boston, or the town of Lexington?
Loans,

360 thousands of dollars
Capital,

50      “                “       “
Reserve,

50      “                “       “
Real estate,

28      “                “       “
Deposits,

300    “                “       “
Undivided profits,

3        “                “       “
Notes,

115    “                “       “
Other assets,

20      “                “       “
Bonds and stocks,

40      “                “       “
Surplus,

30      “                “       “

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), pp. 26-27.

Image Source: Portrait of Professor Frank W. Taussig in the Harvard Class Album 1906.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Course enrollment, description, and final exam for currency legislation, experience, and theory. Andrew, 1904-1905

Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. (1911)

 

The field of monetary economics used to be called “Money and Banking” where money in earlier times was understood to mean currency used for payment as opposed to the checkable deposits held in commercial banks. Abram Piatt Andrew was to money as Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague was to banking in theHarvard economics department at the start of the 20th century. I don’t know why the courses 8a for money and 8b for banking were offered in the reverse order (8b in the fall term, 8a in the spring term). If I ever find out why that was the sequence in 1904-05, I’ll update this post.

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Related, previous posts

Abram Piatt Andrew’s home and private life was the subject of an earlier post.

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Course Enrollment
1904-1905

Economics 8a 2hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times.

Total 68: 5 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 28 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 8a 2hf. Money. — A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Asst. Professor Andrew.

In this course the aim will be to show how the existing monetary systems of the principal countries have come to be, and to analyze the more important currency problems. The course will begin with a brief history of the precious metals, which will be connected, in so far as possible, with the history of prices and the development of monetary theory. The history of coinage legislation in England and Europe and the United States will be traced, and will lead to an extended consideration of the various aspects of the bimetallic controversy. At convenient points, the experiences of various countries with paper money will be reviewed, and the influence of such issues upon wages, prices, and trade examined. Attention will also be given to the non-monetary means of payment and the questions of monetary theory arising from their use. Among other subjects treated will be the several methods of measuring exchange value, various aspects of the labor and commodity standards, the explanation of price movements, the relations between prices and the rate of interest, and the reasons for the divergence in the value of money in different countries.

Systematic reading will be expected and will be tested by monthly examinations.

Course 8a is open to those who have taken Course 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), p. 42.

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ECONOMICS 8a
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

Omit one question.

  1. “The cost of production of money being given, the quantity will depend upon the rapidity of circulation.” How far is this true? and why?
  2. Suppose the single gold standard universally adopted. How then would the universal authorization of free silver coinage at the ratio of 16 to 1 affect (a) the circulating medium, (b) the standard of value?
    Consider both the immediate and the eventual results.
  3. What conclusions of general significance are to be drawn from the history of the Latin monetary union?
  4. State briefly the circumstances which led to the issue and the withdrawal of the American trade dollar.
  5. What influences in brief caused the cessation of free silver coinage in
    (a) England?
    (b) the United States?
    (c) Germany?
  6. Suppose the market ratio between gold and silver were to decline to 22 to 1, what would be the effect upon the currency of
    (a) Great Britain.
    (b) British India.
    (c) The United States.
    (d) The Philippines.
  7. Do falling prices “necessarily enhance the burden of all debts and fixed charges”?
    Illustrate by the experience of the United States during the period from 1873 to 1896, pointing out possible differences between agricultural and mercantile debts.
  8. Explain the respective merits of the labor standard, and the commodity standard, and show their exemplification in the history of the precious metals between 1873 and 1896.
  9. What conditions favorable to bimetallism existed ten years ago which do not exist today?

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. 28.

Image Source: 1911 portrait of Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. by Anders Born at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Wikimedia Commons.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Enrollment and exams for Outlines of Economics. Taussig et al., 1904-1905

Frank W. Taussig & A. Piatt Andrew

From the final exams for the two semester introductory economics course run by Frank Taussig and A. Piatt Andrew in 1904-05 we see (among other things) that John Stuart Mill provided the backbone of theory and that there was room for a compare and contrast question regarding a liberal market economy vs a socialist economy.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 1. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig, Asst. Professor [Abram Piatt] Andrew, and Messrs. [Vanderveer] Custis, [James Alfred] Field, [Silas Wilder] Howland, [Selden Osgood] Martin, and [Chester Whitney] Wright. — Outlines of Economics.

Total 438: 10 Seniors, 84 Juniors, 232 Sophomores, 54 Freshmen, 58 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 74.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

One question in each group may be omitted.
Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions
Give your reasons in all cases.

I

  1. Which among the following would you consider (1) “productive laborers,” (2) otherwise useful to society: actors, manufacturers of gambling implements, stock-brokers, landlords receiving and spending the rents of land.
  2. It has been laid down that,—
    Capital is distinguished from non-capital by its nature, — it consists of machinery, materials, and other apparatus for production;
    Capital is distinguished from non-capital by the intention of the owner in dealing with his wealth;
    Capital, though the result of saving, is yet continually consumed.
    Can you reconcile these propositions? If not, which do you consider sound?
  3. “The laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths.” Is this true of the law stating the conditions under which the accumulation of capital takes place? of that stating the conditions under which production upon land takes place?
  4. Define briefly: value in use, value in exchange, utility, marginal utility, margin of cultivation, consumer’s rent.
  5. Can a person having a monopoly of a given commodity control its price at will? If so, how? If not, why not?
  6. “An individual speculator cannot gain by a rise in price of his own creating . . . when there is neither at the time nor afterwards any cause for a rise of prices except his own proceedings.”
    On what reasoning does this statement of Mill’s rest? Does the practice of dealings for future delivery (“futures”) affect the reasoning.

II

  1. What is the difference between a wages-fund and a wages-flow? Which seems to you the better mode of describing the influences that act on the general rate of wages?
  2. “The expectations of profit, therefore, in different employments, cannot long continue very different: they tend to a common average.”
    “It is true that, to persons with the same amount of original means, there is more chance of making a large fortune in some employments than in others.”
    “Gross profit varies greatly from individual to individual, and can scarcely be in any two cases the same.”
    Can these statements of Mill’s be reconciled?
  3. Is the return from capital sunk in the soil to be regarded as rent or interest? Is the return from urban real estate to be regarded as rent or interest? Is the return on corporate securities (stocks and bonds) to be regarded as rent or interest?
  4. How will a rise in the rate of interest affect the selling value of land? that of securities yielding a fixed income?
  5. “But it is impossible for anyone to study political economy, even as at present taught, or to think at all upon the production and distribution of wealth, without seeing that property in land differs essentially from property in things of human production, and that it has no warrant in abstract justice.” Henry George.
    Do you think this statement true in view of what you have learned in this course? Consider both your reading and the lectures.
  6. What would become of interest, rent, business profits, in a socialist state? what if there were an all-embracing régime of coöperative production?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1904-05.

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

Omit one question from each group.

I

  1. What is meant by the equilibrium of demand and supply? How is it secured?
  2. Suppose there were a general rise in wages: could capitalists, by charging higher prices for their goods, prevent profits from falling?
    Suppose a rise of wages in a particular trade: could the capitalists in that trade, by charging higher prices, keep their profits from falling?
  3. Under what head — wages, rent, interest, profits — would you class the remuneration of (1) an apothecary; (2) a city merchant who owns the building in which he carries on his business; (3) an author who receives copyright payments on books which he has written; (4) a stockholder in a company which owns a lucrative patent?
  4. Is land capital? Are buildings capital? Are the skill and capacity of a workman — such as a trained engineer or a great inventor — to be regarded as capital?

II

  1. What would be the effect on the price of beef if a high protective tariff were levied on the import of hides?
  2. Which of the economic advantages and disadvantages of combination, in the broad sense, result from (a) pooling, (b) merger in a single corporation, (c) monopoly?
  3. President Roosevelt in a recent message said that our tariff “duties must never be reduced below the point that will cover the difference between the labor cost here and abroad.” Discuss this statement.
  4. Suppose that a country which manufactures only enough to supply half the home market, and which has a large export trade in wheat, imposes a uniform import duty of 50% on all commodities. What will be the effect on the nominal and the real wages of agricultural laborers, absolutely, and as compared with wages in manufacturing industries?

III

  1. How do you explain the fact that there is less than 1/10 as much silver in a dime as in a silver dollar? Is there any reason why this should be so?
  2. Explain briefly:—

(a) Deposit.
(b) Suffolk Bank system.
(c) Clearing House certificate.
(d) Post-note.
(e) Discount.
(f) Reserve city.
(g) Central reserve city.
(h) Asset currency.

  1. Secretary Shaw has said “Without claiming that the national banking act is perfect or that our currency system is free from objection I think that the world joins us in the verdict that it is the best system known to man.”
    Discuss this statement, comparing the American system as regards security and elasticity with those of England and Germany.
  2. If a national bank examiner should discover the following to be the account of a bank in Boston to what would he object:
Capital 200,000 Loans 733,000
Surplus 24,000 U.S. Bonds 75,000
Undivided profits 43,000 Other assets 42,000
Notes 78,000 Deposits in U.S. Treas. 3,500
Deposits 745,000 Deposits in other banks 150,000
Clearing House certificate 14,000
Coin & legal tender notes 72,500
1,090,000 1,090,000

Would his objections differ at all if the bank were located in Cambridge?

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), pp. 21-23.

Image Sources:  Frank W. Taussig (Original black and white image from of Frank William Taussig from a cabinet card photograph, 1895, at the Harvard University Archives HUP); Abram Piatt Andrews (Picture from ca. 1909 used in a magazine article about Andrew’s appointment to the directorship of the U. S. Mint. Hoover Institution Archives. A. Piatt Andrew Papers, Box 51). Images colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Economists Harvard LGBTQ Money and Banking Policy

Harvard. A. Piatt Andrew at his home “Red Roof”. Gloucester, MA. 1910

Abram Piatt Andrew taught monetary economics at Harvard before becoming a key player in the National Monetary Commission, Director  of the U.S. Mint, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, founder of the American Field Service, and a Republican member of the United States Congress from 1921-36. Much more has been posted about him here at Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

This post deals with his home and private life.

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This photograph features A. Piatt Andrew at his home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, before World War I began. Prior to founding the American Field Service during the war, Andrew served as an assistant professor of economics at Harvard, director of the U.S. Mint, and assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. “Red Roof,” as his home was called, was designed and built under Andrew’s direction in 1902. Red Roof contained secret rooms, one of which necessitated dismantling a sofa to access and contained a Prohibition-era wet bar and a player piano. Guests in the living room could therefore hear the music but didn’t know its source. Another secret room contained a dugout that was later filled with AFS artifacts from the war, including posters, AFS recruitment slides, shell fuses (a favorite souvenir of AFS Drivers), and trench art.

Andrew created elaborate entertainment for guests at Red Roof by organizing themed dinner parties, musical performances, and skits in full costume. Guests to Red Roof included interior decorator and longtime AFS supporter Henry Sleeper, the portrait painter John Singer Sargent, art collector and philanthropist Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt [May 2-4, 1903].

Source: Nicole Milano, “A. Piatt Andrew and Red Roof, 1910.” American Field Service Website.

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But wait, there’s more

A blog dealing exclusively (no kidding) with “A. Piatt Andrew and Red Roof“.

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Research tips:

At the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now called “Historic New England“) one can find “A. Piatt Andrew Guest Books, 1902-1930” among other items. These guest book pages have, in addition to the signatures, close to 700 photographs.  You can page through the pictures online (1902-1912) and (1913-1930).

At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum you will find online 249 items (photographs, correspondence from A. Piatt Andrew).

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Henry Davis Sleeper and
A. Piatt Andrew Jr.

Plot spoiler: They were more than friendly neighbours.

Source: A. Piatt Andrew’s The Red Roof Guestbook, 1914-1930. Available at the Historic New England Website.

 Sleeper’s frail constitution prevented him from participating in the rough-and-tumble games and amusements favored by Andrew and his young male friends, mostly Harvard undergraduates. [p. 90]

Mrs. Jack

Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) was a legend in her own time. Starting with the untimely death of her husband, John Lowell Gardner, in 1898, his widow, called Mrs. Jack, embarked on an ambitious program of art acquisition which culminated in the transformation of her fabulous Venetian-style palazzo, Fenway Court, into a beloved cultural institution. She accomplished this feat largely by relying on the skills, expertise and companionship of the coterie of attractive and talented homosexual men-mostly artists, collectors, and curators-that she gathered around her…. [p. 90]

Society Painter

By 1908 Mrs. Jack’s circle included the society painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). Born in Italy to American parents, Sargent had first come to Boston in 1887. After a solo exhibition in 1888 at the St. Botolph Club, he was commissioned in 1890 to design murals for the new Boston Public Library in Copley Square. Along with other commissions-for the Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard’s Widener Library-Sargent was almost fully occupied in Boston for the next twenty-five years. While circumspect about his private life, an album of male nudes that Sargent, a bachelor, kept for his own enjoyment offers insight into his predilections. [p. 91]

Seaside shenanigans

In the years preceding World War I, Isabella Stewart Gardner, John Singer Sargent, and others in their circle were drawn into the wealthy summer enclave at Eastern Point, Gloucester, where Harvard professor (later U.S. congressman) A. Piatt Andrew Jr. (1873-1936) and his neighbor, interior designer Henry Davis Sleeper (1878-1934), had homes. The letters from Sleeper to Andrew provide evidence of the intensity of his feelings.

Social life on Eastern Point revolved around ceaseless entertaining. One of Gardner’s biographers hints at the goings-on at Andrew’s home, Red Roof: “Gossip had it that often all the guests were men, their pastimes peculiar. Yet all the ladies on Eastern Point were fascinated by Piatt.” Portrait painter Cecilia Beaux (1863-1942) spent summers at her Gloucester home, Green Alley, where she enjoyed hosting evening gatherings of her neighbors. She never married. “Faithful in attendance were Harry Sleeper and Piatt Andrew, whose brilliancy of repartee has never been excelled” according to an observer. Concealment and ambiguity characterized the lives of many of the women and men who moved through this exclusive world of polite manners and material luxury. [p. 92]

Source: The History Project. Improper Bostonians: Lesbian and gay history from the Puritans to Playland. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998. [Note: you need to register at archive.org to access (borrow) the book for an hour at a time]

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October 6, 1910. A. Piatt Andrew and Isabella Stewart Gardner at “Red Roof”. Photo by Thomas E. Marr from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Cleaned and cropped by Economics in the Rear View Mirror

From Isabella Stewart Gardner’s biography

A. Piatt Andrew lived next door to Miss Davidge under his “Red Roof” – nearer the mainland than Miss Davidge and Miss Beaux, and with one more maiden lady beyond him….

Harry Sleeper, whom Mrs. Gardner already knew fairly well, lived just beyond. … Harry was sweet, gentle, affectionate. He was devoted to his mother, who protected him from the ladies when he feared they had designs on his celibacy. Still more was he the devoted slave to Piatt….

…A. Piatt Andrew had an organ installed in the passage between the living room and a recently added study. Here, Isabella sat on the couch (with a bearskin and two leopard skins on it) to listen to his music. She was probably unaware of a hidden space above the books – too low to stand up in but equipped with mattress and covers where some of Andrew’s guests could listen in still greater comfort. She had seen the Brittany bed in the living room but that there was a small hole over it, perhaps no one had told her. The sound of organ music could be heard the better through the hole – and was it just a coincidence that a person in the hidden alcove above could look down through it? Gossip had it that often all the guests were men, their pastimes peculiar. Yet all the ladies on Eastern Point were fascinated by Piatt and one especially keen observer thought that Miss Beaux was “sweet on him”.

When the fog lifted and the sun came out, the whole atmosphere at Red Roof changed. Gloucester harbor sparkled bright and blue. Isabella’s spirits lifted, macabre impressions vanished, and Isabella went out on a stone seat to be photographed with Piatt – or “A,” as she liked to call him, referring to herself as “Y,” amused to find herself at the opposite end of the alphabet.

Isabella wore a linen suit with leg o’mutton sleeves, long coat and wide gored skirt. She had on a toque with a black dotted veil over her face. Beside her, A. Piatt sat – head turned toward her, his handsome profile toward the camera.

A. Piatt Andrew had been chosen by President Eliot to work in Senator Aldrich’s monetary commission and he planned to go to Europe during the summer of 1908 to make preliminary studies. Mrs. Gardner told him to be sure to get in touch with Matthew Stewart Prichard – late of the Boston Art Museum. This Andrew did, Prichard showing him beautiful Greek and Roman coins which gave him ideas for new designs for American currency.

Source: Louise Hall Tharp, Mrs. Jack: A Biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Little, Brown and Company, 1965, pp. 276-278.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Semester exams for money and banking. Andrew and Sprague, 1903-1904

 

Abram Piatt Andrew (b. 1873, Princeton A.B. 1893; Harvard  Ph.D. 1900) and Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague (b. 1873, Harvard A.B. 1894; A.M. 1895; Ph.D. 1897) were rising stars in the department of economics at Harvard in the 1903-04 academic year. Together they covered the bases of money, banking, and international payments. 

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Related, previous posts

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Course Enrollment
Economics 8a and 8b
1903-04

Economics 8a 2hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times. [note: taught second semester]

Total 91: 8 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 39 Juniors, 24 Sophomores, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 66.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Economics 8b 1hf. Dr. Sprague. — Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems. [note: taught first semester]

Total 77: 6 Graduates, 30 Seniors, 30 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 8a
Year-End Examination
1903-04

Arrange answers in the order of the questions.
Omit one question.

  1. Explain the character, merits, and defects of
    1. the arithmetical mean;
    2. the geometrical mean;
    3. the median;
    4. the mode;
    5. weighted averages.
      Discuss Pierson’s criticism of index numbers.
  2. When a government issues inconvertible notes, is the premium on gold apt to measure the depreciation of the notes
    1. at the beginning of the issue?
    2. in the course of a war?
    3. at the restoration of peace?
    4. if the crops fail?
    5. “in the long run”?
      Give reasons, and where possible, illustrations.
  3. What justification is there for the respective claims that the United States adopted the gold standard
    1. by the act of 1834?
    2. by the act of 1853?
    3. by the act of 1873?
    4. by the act of 1874?
    5. by the act of 1900?
  4. To what extent was England’s adoption of the gold standard the result of a policy deliberately adopted and intentionally pursued? To what extent was it the result of unforeseen conditions?
  5. Suppose that owing to the increasing gold supply the ratio between gold and silver were to fall again below 32 to 1 how would foreign trade and the price level be affected
    1. in Mexico?
    2. in the Philippines?
  6. Would an ideal monetary standard always measure the same exchange value?
    1. according to Darwin?
    2. according to Walker?
    3. in your own opinion?
      Answer both from the points of view of production and of distribution.
  7. Is there any significance for “the quantity theory” in the currency history
    1. of India between 1893 and 1898?
    2. of Austria between 1878 and 1892?
    3. of Russia between 1878 and 1896?
    4. of Holland between 1873 and 1875?
      Where possible give variant opinions.
  8. Trace the general changes in the value of money in the United States from 1830 to the present time, analyzing the reasons for these changes.

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, … in Harvard College, pp. 30-31.

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ECONOMICS 8b
Mid-Year Examination.
1903-04

  1. Sight exchange, $4.86; sixty-day bills, $4.83; commercial bills, $4.82. What would be the probable effect of an advance of one per cent of the market rate of discount in London? Consider each quotation separately.
  2. The government of the Bank of England.
  3. Why does the existing system of note issue in the United States tend to check the expansion of credit in the form of deposits?
  4. Discuss briefly:—
    1. The payment of interest upon deposits by commercial banks.
    2. The significance of statistics relative to clearing-house transactions.
    3. The publication of weekly reports by the trust companies of New York.
    4. The use of certified checks in Stock Exchange dealings.
    5. The taxation of national banks.
  5. Contrast the value for purposes of reserve of call loans in New York made by the Canadian banks with those made by the banks of the city.
  6. The Suffolk Bank system.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1903-04.

Image Sources: Portrait of Abram Piatt Andrew from the Hoover Institution archives posted at the Federal Reserve History website. Portrait of Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague from the Harvard Classbook 1912. Images colorized and edited by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Principles Undergraduate

Harvard. Exam questions for Principles of Economics. Taussig and Andrew, 1903-1904

Frank W. Taussig & A. Piatt Andrew

After the longest break from posting since I began this blog almost eight years ago, I now return to regular posting for most of the rest of this month (May 2023).

We resume our slow march through the economics exams at Harvard in the first decade of the 20th century with the semester examinations for the undergraduate introductory course in economics for the academic year 1903-04. The division of labor between A. P. Andrew and Frank Taussig appears to have been Taussig being responsible for the first semester with his junior partner Andrew taking over for the second semester. This would be consistent with the fact  that the year-end examination was not included in Taussig’s personal scrapbook of course examinations [Harvard University Archives. Prof. F. W. Taussig, Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935  (Scrapbook)]. 

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Course Enrollment, 1903-04

Economics 1. Professor Taussig, Asst. Professor Andrew, and five assistants. — Outlines of Economics.

Total 529: 1 Graduate, 15 Seniors, 108 Juniors, 279 Sophomores, 72 Freshmen, 54 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 66.

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Economics 1
Mid-Year Examination. 1903-04

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer nine questions, and give your reasons for all answers.

  1. Is it advantageous to laborers, temporarily or permanently, that there should be (1) large government expenditures for military purposes; (2) large government expenditures for improvements in transportation; (3) luxurious expenditure by the rich; (4) savings by the rich? (You are free to discuss these separately, or as one general question.)
  2. Which of the following are productive laborers (1) according to Mill’s distinction, (2) in your own opinion:—

an actor;
a grain merchant;
one who engages in “commercial speculation”,
one who engages in “industrial speculation”;
one who engages in stock speculation.

  1. Will the population of a country be able to increase more rapidly when there is immigration than when there is not? Will it probably increase more rapidly?
  2. Suppose the variations in the fertility of land to be offset precisely by disadvantage in situation — the more distant land being the more fertile, the nearer land the less fertile — would there be rent? Would your answer be the same or different, according as you assume the whole of the land to be under cultivation, or some parts of it to be not yet in use?
  3. The significance of the principle of demand and supply, as regards (1) perishable commodities, (2) durable commodities, (3) monopolized commodities, — wherein different, wherein the same?
  4. How far is the proposition that the value of commodities conforms to their cost of production affected by (1) the varying rent of land; (2) the use of fixed capital (plant) on a great scale; (3) the growth of combinations?
  5. Is there a tendency to equality in the return to capital? in net profits (“business profits”)? in gross profits?
  6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the regulation of combinations and monopolies by (1) limitations of profits, (2) fixing of prices charged to the public, (3) enforcement of farsighted management?
  7. Suppose all education and training to be gratuitous, and all obstacles to the free choice of occupations removed: would there be differences of wages? If so, of what sort? If not, why not?
  8. How do you conceive the remuneration for labor to be determined in a socialistic community? Wherein is the underlying principle different from that in existing society? What do you believe to be the essential merit or defect, or both, of the socialist principle?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1903-04.

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Economics 1
Year-End Examination. 1903-04

Write answers strictly in the order of the questions.
Omit one question from each group.

I
  1. Differences of wages are sometimes due to the presence of competition, sometimes to its absence. Give examples of each.
  2. What factors tend to prevent the rate of interest from an excessive rise? from an excessive fall?
  3. What would be the effect upon the wealth of a community
    1. if landlords gave up all claims to rent?
    2. if all production took place upon the margin of cultivation?
    3. if the price of all agricultural produce were legally fixed at the average cost of production?
  4. What influences govern the value on the New York market of
    1. coffee?
    2. structural steel?
    3. hides?
II
  1. Under normal conditions in the United States the par of exchange on London is $4.866, and the value of 23.2 grains of gold is $1.00. Suppose that the market price of gold was quoted at 5 cents per grain, and exchange on London was quoted at $5.65. What would this indicate
    1. as to the balance of trade?
    2. as to the character of the currency?
  2. President Lincoln is reported to have said: “When we buy a ton of steel rails abroad, we get the rails and the foreigner gets the money; but when we buy a ton of steel rails produced at home, we get both the rails and the money.”
    Give your opinion of this statement as an argument for protection.
  3. “The fact that the greenbacks have circulated at par for more than a quarter of a century is a strong guarantee that their retention in limited amount, always promptly redeemable, has not proved a mistake.”
    State briefly the history of the greenbacks, and give your opinion of this statement with reasons.
  4. “They also urge — and this is in some respects their strongest argument — that a slowly depreciating currency is better than a slowly appreciating one.” — Hadley.
    Explain and criticise, stating the effect of a depreciating standard upon each of the four great shares in distribution.

III

  1. Given

Capital, $100.000;
Loans, $250.000;
Deposits, $240.000.

Complete and balance the account to show the condition of a National bank in New York city with a reasonable circulation giving in detail the items concerning the issue and securing of notes. How would the items probably differ, if the bank was located it Yonkers?

  1. Does an increase in bank notes add (1) to the amount, and (2) to the elasticity of the total currency in
    1. the United States?
    2. England?
    3. France?
    4. Germany?
  2. In the present industrial combinations how far have the economies of large scale and centralized production resulted in benefit to consumers? Give reasons.
  3. What four changes in industrial conditions resultant from the introduction of the factory system have influenced the character of modern trade-unionism?

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, … in Harvard College, June 1904, pp. 25-27.

Image Sources:  Frank W. Taussig (Original black and white image from of Frank William Taussig from a cabinet card photograph, 1895, at the Harvard University Archives HUP); Abram Piatt Andrews (Picture from ca. 1909 used in a magazine article about Andrew’s appointment to the directorship of the U. S. Mint. Hoover Institution Archives. A. Piatt Andrew Papers, Box 51). Images colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.