In the beginning (of economics instruction) was Economics 1. And the Word was Frank Taussig’s at early 20th century Harvard.
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Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1911/12
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.”
For those seeking further questions, one might consult the book first published in 1915 by Edmund Ezra Day and Joseph Stancliffe Davis, Questions on the Principles of Economics (New York: Macmillan, 1915). From their Preface (p. vi): “The book is arranged particularly for use with Professor Taussig’s ‘Principles of Economics’ (revised edition, 1915).”
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Meet the Teaching Assistants
Econ. 1. Principles of Economics
1912-13
Heilman, Ralph Emerson. Ph.D. Harvard 1913.
RALPH EMERSON HEILMAN, Ph.B. (Morningside Coll.) 1906, A.M. (Northwestern Univ.) 1907.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Social Ethics. Thesis, ” Chicago Traction: A Study in the Efforts of the City to Secure Good Service.” Assistant Professor of Economics, State University of Iowa.
Source: Report of the President 1912-13, p. 90.
Jones, Eliot. Ph.D. Harvard 1913.
ELIOT JONES, A.B. (Vanderbilt Univ.) 1906, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1908.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Railroad Transportation. Thesis, ” The Anthracite Coal Combination in the United States, with some Account of the Early Development of the Anthracite Industry.” Instructor in Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
Source: Report of the President 1912-13, p. 90.
Burbank, Harold Hitchings. Ph.D. Harvard 1915.
HAROLD HITCHINGS BURBANK, A.B. (Dartmouth Coll.) 1909, A.M. (ibid.) 1910.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Public Finance. Thesis, ” The General Property Tax in Massachusetts, 1775 to 1792, with some Consideration of Colonial and Provincial Legislation and Practices.” Instructor in Economics, and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.
Source: Report of the President 1914-15, p. 103.
Crosgrave, Lloyd Morgan. A.B. (Indiana) 1909, A.M. (Harvard University) 1911.
Travelling Fellow. Frederick Sheldon Fellow. Economics. Brussels. Instructor in Economics, University of Minnesota. From Report of the President 1913-1914, p. 98.;
Source: Harvard University. Quinquennial catalogue (1930), pp. 63, 712.
Lloyd M. Crosgrave
BIRTH. 21 Apr 1887. Jamestown, Chautauqua County, New York, USA
DEATH. 19 Jun 1961 (aged 74). Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana, USA
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LLOYD CROSGRAVE, EX-UNIVERSITY PROF, DIES HERE
Lloyd M. Crosgrave, 74, 2320 S. Walnut St., died at home at 11:30 a.m. Monday after an extended illness. Crosgrave was born in Jamestown, N.Y., and moved to Muncie when he was five years old.
He attended Purdue University, received his bachelor’s degree at Indiana University and his master’s in economics at Harvard. He taught economics at Harvard, IU, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Pittsburgh.
He retired from teaching several years ago due to failing health. Since then he has owned and operated a greenhouse at his home where he grew house plants, specializing in the growing of African violets.
Crosgrave was a member of the Senior Citizens of Muncie.
He is survived by a sister, Miss Pearl G. Crosgrave, who resided at the same address.
Muncie Evening Press. Mon, Jun 19, 1961, p. 8
Source: Find-A-Grave webpage for Lloyd W. [sic] Crosgrave.
Eldred, Wilfred. Ph.D. (Harvard University, 1919).
WILFRED ELDRED, A.B. (Washington and Lee Univ.) 1909, A.M. (ibid.) 1909, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1911. Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economic History. Thesis,’ The Wheat and Flour Trade of the United States under the Control of the Food Administration.” Statistician, U. S. Grain Corporation, 42 Broadway, New York, N. Y.
Source: Report of the President 1918-19, p. 81.
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ECONOMICS 1
Course Description
1912-13
Course 1 is introductory to the other courses. It is intended to give a general survey of the subject for those who take but one course in Economics, and also to prepare for the further study of the subject in advanced courses. It is usually taken with most profit by undergraduates in the second year of their college career. It may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor. History 1 or Government 1, or both of these courses, will usually be taken to advantage before Economics 1….
[Economics] 1. Principles of Economics. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Dr. [Edmund Ezra] Day, assisted by Messrs. ——, ——.
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: Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics, Courses of Instruction, 1912–13, pp. 57-58.
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ECONOMICS 1
Course Enrollment
1912-13
[Economics] 1. Professor Taussig and Dr. E. E. Day, assisted by Messrs. Heilman, Jones, Burbank, Crosgrave, and Eldred. Principles of Economics.
Total 481: 1 Graduate, 21 Seniors, 93 Juniors, 307 Sophomores, 21 Freshmen, 38 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1912-13, p. 57.
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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Final Examination
1912-13
[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer all the questions; and give your reasons in every case.]
- Give examples of each of the following:—
vertical combination;
internal economies;
localization of industry;
increasing returns.
- In the case of a commodity produced under constant returns, does demand determine the price of the commodity or the quantity produced? Illustrate by diagram.
Would your answer be the same if the commodity were produced under diminishing returns? - The cost of raising wheat on new land in Canada is said to be far below the average cost raising of wheat in the United States. Supposing this to be the case, can wheat grown in the United States continue to be sold in foreign countries in competition with Canadian wheat?
- How would a great increase in the world’s supply of gold affect:—
(1) The value of the gold dollar.
(2) The value of the silver dollar.
(3) The price of silver bullion.
(4) The price of gold bullion.
- State briefly what was the course of prices in the United States (a) between 1860 and 1870, (b) between 1900 and 1910. What were the causes of the price changes in each period; what evils arose; and how could the evils have been avoided?
- Arrange the following items of a bank statement in their proper order:—
| Loans | $380,000 |
| Bonds | $50,000 |
| Notes | $50,000 |
| Capital | $100,000 |
| Other Assets | $40,000 |
| Surplus | $30,000 |
| Undivided Profits | $10,000 |
| Real Estate | $22,000 |
| Deposits | $350,000 |
| Due from banks | $10,000 |
| Notes of other banks | $3,000 |
| Cash | $35,000 |
Could this be the statement of a national bank, conducting its business in conformity to law?
Suppose the bank to sell bonds which on this statement are carried as worth $20,000; selling them at a profit of $1,000, and receiving cash for them. Rearrange the statement, and consider whether it could then be the statement of a national bank conducting its business in conformity to law.
- How would a great increase in the production of gold in the United States affect:—
the imports and exports of the United States;
the “balance of trade” of the United States;
the price of foreign exchange in New York?
- Suppose large remittances to be made by immigrants from the United States to their native countries: what consequences would you expect on (1) the stock of specie circulating in the United States; (2) the relation between merchandise exports and imports; (3) the gain which the people of the United States secure from foreign trade?
- Which of the following would you reckon as part of the wealth of the country? as part of its capital?
The Great Lakes,
The Panama Canal,
Deposits in banks.
- Is the establishment of a manufacturing industry, brought into existence by a protective tariff, advantageous in that it creates a home market for agricultural products?
Source: Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 9, bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1912-13.
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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Final Examination
1912-13
- To what extent and in what manner do the following contribute to the formation of capital: (a) a government loan; (b) the stock exchange; (c) commercial banks; (d) the corporate form of business organization?
- Explain “margin of cultivation.” Distinguish between the intensive margin of cultivation and the extensive margin of cultivation. What is the relation between (a) the margin of cultivation in agriculture and the price of a bushel of wheat; (b) the margin in gold mining and the value of an ounce of gold?
- Assume that a monopoly produces a commodity under conditions of constant cost. What determines the extent to which the monopoly price will be above the price which competition, if existent, would establish? Illustrate by diagram.
- The rentals from a New York office building amount to $50,000 a year. The building is worth $200,000. To provide for insurance, depreciation and such fixed items, $10,000 is expended annually. The current rate of interest upon investments of equal security is 5%. What is the value of the land?
- What is “dumping “? What induces it? To what extent is it dependent upon (a) monopoly conditions; (b) tariff barriers?
- Explain briefly why (a) the rates of wages are generally higher in the United States than in Germany; (b) higher for plumbers than for unskilled laborers; (c) for domestic servants than for women employed in shops and factories. Suppose a socialist community apportioning wages on the basis of equality of sacrifice: would these differences persist?
- How are the wages and the number employed within a particular industry affected, immediately and ultimately, by the invention of labor-saving devices in that industry?
- Explain: (a) railroad rebates; (b) over-capitalization; (c) public service industries; (d) “reasonable restraint of trade”; (e) stoppage at the source.
Image Source: Frank William Taussig and Edmund Ezra Day’s portraits from The Harvard Class Album, 1915.