Tag: Gay

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Exam Questions France Germany Harvard History of Economics Methodology

Harvard. Exam for 19th century French and German Economics, Gay, 1906-07

von Thünen and Le Play

Edwin Francis Gay (1867-1946) had spent over a decade studying history and economics in Europe before coming to Harvard in 1903. I am somewhat surprised that he could find even three students to take his graduate course that appears to have required a better-than-average reading knowledge of both German and French.

In 1902-03 Gay taught “Outlines of the Development of Economic Thought in Germany in the Nineteenth Century”.

In 1904-05 he then taught “German and French economists of the 19th century” but Harvard’s collection of printed economics exams for 1904-05 did not include Gay’s exam for the course.

Fortunately, the year-end examination from the academic year 1906-07 was printed and we have transcribed it below. Added bonus material: an English translation of the paragraph taken from a book written by the German economist Karl Bücher that students were expected to translate.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 22. Professor Gay. — German and French Economists of the Nineteenth Century.

Total 3: 3 Graduates.

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

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ECONOMICS 22
Year-end Examination, 1906-07

  1. Explain von Thünen’s wage theory. What is his contribution to economic method? How does it compare with Le Play’s?
  2. Compare the conceptions of distributive justice entertained by the French socialists with those of the Austrian school.
  3. Trace the development of the concept of pure profits in the German and French economists.
  4. Discuss the attack of the German historical school on the classical economists and its justification.
  5. Translate die following:
    “Zwei Dinge müssen auf diesem Gebiete den an den Kategorien der modernen Volkswirtschaft geschulten Kopf besonders befremden; die Häufigkeit, mit der unkörperliche Sachen („Verhältnisse“) zu wirtschaftlichen Gütern werden und dem Verkehre unterliegen, und ihre verkehrsrechtliche Behandlung als Immobilien. An ihnen ist so recht zu sehen, wie die beginnende Tauschwirtschaft den Spielraum, den ihr die damalige Produktionsordnung versagte, dadurch zu erweitern suchte, dass sie in täppischem Zugreifen fast alles zum Verkehrsgut machte und so die Sphäre des Privatrechts ins Ungemessene ausdehnte. Was hat man im Mittelalter nicht verliehen, verschenkt, verkauft und verpfändet! Die herrschaftliche Gewalt über Länder und Städte, Grafschafts- und Vogteirechte, Cent- und Gaugerichte, kirchliche Würden und Patronate, Bannrechte, Fähren und Wegerechte, Münze und Zoll, Jagd- und Fischereigerechtsame, Beholzungsrechte, Zehnten, Fronden, Grundzinsen und Renten, überhaupt Reallasten jeder Art. Wirtschaftlich betrachtet, teilen alle diese Rechte und Verhältnisse mit dem Grund und Boden die Eigentümlichkeit, nicht von dem Orte ihrer Ausübung entfernt und nicht beliebig vermehrt werden zu können.”

[Note: quote comes from Professor Karl Bücher, University of Leipzig. Die  Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft, Vorträge und Versuche, 3rd ed. (Tübingen, 1901), p. 153.]

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, 1907), pp. 43-44.

English translation of Question 5’s quote

There are two things in connection with this that must appear especially strange to a student of modern political economy, namely, the frequency with which immaterial things (relationships) become economic commodities and subjects of exchange, and their treatment under commercial law as real property. These show clearly how primitive exchange sought to enlarge the sphere denied it under the existing conditions of production by awkwardly transforming, into negotiable property, almost everything it could lay hold upon, and thus extending infinitely the domain of private law. What an endless variety of things in mediaeval times were lent, bestowed, sold, and pawned! — the sovereign power over territories and towns; county and bailiff’s rights; jurisdiction over hundreds and cantons; church dignities and patronages; suburban monopoly rights; ferry and road privileges; prerogatives of mintage and toll, of hunting and fishing; wood-cutting rights, tithes, statute labour, ground-rents, and revenues; in fact charges of every kind falling upon the land. Economically considered, all these rights and “relationships”” share with land the peculiarity that they cannot be removed from the place where they are enjoyed, and that they cannot be multiplied at will.

Source: Karl Bücher, Industrial Evolution, third German edition (German title: Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft, Vorträge und Versuche. English translation by S. Morley Wickett, Lecturer on Political Economy and Statistics, University of Toronto. New York: Henry Hold and Company, 1907, p. 131.

Image Source: Johann Heinrich von Thünen (Wikimedia Commons). Frédéric Le Play (Social History Portal)

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Economic History Harvard

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

Edwin Francis Gay

 

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

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Earlier, related posts

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

Exams for 1903-04.

Exams for 1904-05.

Exams for 1905-06.

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

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Course Enrollment
1906-07

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

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

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

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ECONOMICS 11
Mid-year Examination, 1906-07

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

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

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ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Examination, 1906-07

  1. Explain briefly: —

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

  1. [Mercantile policies]
    1. State the chief provisions and significance of

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

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

III. [Company organization]

    1. What were the forms of company organization in England? What change took place in public sentiment regarding them?
    2. Compare the development of mercantile companies in England, France, and Holland.
  1. [Domestic system vs. wage labor system]
    1. Comment on the following: “The distinguishing feature of the capitalist, as contrasted with the domestic, system lies in the fact, that under the former scheme, employers or undertakers own the materials and pay the wages, whereas in the domestic system the workman is his own master; he owns the materials on which he works and sells the product of his labour.”
    2. Give examples from the textile industries of three types of the domestic system.

Take one of the following.

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

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

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

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam for European economic history (19th century). Gay, 1906-1907

Before Abbott Payson Usher (1883-1965) and Alexander Gerschenkron (1904-1978) and after William Ashley (1860-1927), Professor Edwin Francis Gay (1867-1946) taught European Economic history in the Harvard economics department. This post adds to the collection of his examination questions transcribed and posted at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Previously posted:
European economic history
taught at Harvard

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

Exams for 1903-04.

Exams for 1904-05.

Exams for 1905-06

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

Gay and Usher’s economic history exams from 1930 through 1949.

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Course Enrollment
1906-07

Economics 6a 1hf. Professor Gay. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 73: 17 Graduates, 20 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 3 Others.

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

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ECONOMICS 6a
Mid-year Examination, 1906-07

  1. Compare the conditions of land-ownership in England, France and Germany during the first half of the nineteenth century. Explain the differences.
  2. [European tariff policies]
    1. Date the liberal period in the tariff history of the chief European countries.
    2. Why was the English Corn Law repealed?
    3. Give a brief account of the tariff history of Germany since the formation of the Zollverein.
  3. What consequences, according to Chevalier, would follow from the increased production of gold?
  4. [Railroad policies]
    1. When and for what reasons did the states of Germany and Russia obtain ownership of the railroads? What value has their experience for other countries?
    2. State Hadley’s criticism of the English Railway Commission.
  5. Describe briefly the extent, causes and results of the agricultural depression in Europe.

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

Image Source: WikimediaCommons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading list and Exam for U.S. Economic History. Gay, 1906-1907

Edwin Francis Gay solo-taught the course on U.S. economic and financial history in 1906-07. He modified and expanded the course reading list from that used in the previous year by him and Taussig, but the structure of the course nonetheless appears to have been essentially unchanged.

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Previously…

Assistant Professor Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the Harvard course “Economic History of the United States”/ “Economic and Financial History of the United States” in 1901-02 (with James Horace Patten), 1902-03, 1903-04, and 1904-05. The course was taken over in 1905-06 by Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay after Sprague left for a full professorship at the Imperial University of Japan. The Taussig/Gay reading list and final exam for 1905-06.

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Course Enrollment
1906-07

Economics 6b 2hf. Professor [Edwin Francis] Gay. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 112: 20 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 44 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 8 Others.

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

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Course Reading List
1906-07

[Library Stamp: “May 13, 1907”]

ECONOMICS: 6b

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

1. COLONIAL PERIOD.

*Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-29; printed also in Ashley’s Surveys, pp. 309-335.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp.36-51.

McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 1-102.

Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, pp. 273-307.

Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 5-158.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.

Lord, Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America, pp. 56-86; 124-139.

1776-1860.
2. COMMERCE, MANUFACTURES, AND TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History of the United States, pp. 68-154

*Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-79, 103-107, (79-103).

Bolles, Industrial History of the United States, Book II, pp. 403-426.

Bishop, History of American Manufactures, Vol. II, pp. 256-505.

Pitkin, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States (ed. 1835), pp. 368-412.

Gallatin, Free Trade Memorial, in Taussig’s State Papers, pp. 108-213.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 146-183.

Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer. Econ. Assoc. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.

3. AGRICULTURE AND LAND POLICY. — WESTWARD MOVEMENT.

*Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257; printed also in Q.J.E., Vol. I, pp. 169-183, 251-254.

*Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 67-119.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 52-74.

Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1893, pp. 199-227.

Donaldson, Public Domain, pp. 1-29, 196-239, 332-356.

Sato, History of the Land Question in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, IV. Nos. 7-9, pp. 127-181.

Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways, Bulletin of Univ. of Wisconsin Econ., Pol. Sci, and Hist. Series, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 269-354.

Hart, History as Told by Contemporaries, Vol. III, pp. 459-478.

4. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

*Callender, Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 111-162; printed also separately, pp. 3-54.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. IV, Thos. C. Purdy’s Reports on History of Steam Navigation in the United States, pp. 1-62, and History of Operating Canals in the United States, pp. 1-32.

Chevalier, Society, Manners and Politics in the United States, pp. 80-87, 209-276.

Ringwalt, Development of Transportation Systems in the United States, pp. 41-54, 64-166.

Gallatin, Plan of Internal Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I, pp. 724-921 (see especially maps, pp. 744, 762, 764, 820, 830).

Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), pp. 531-581.

Chittenden, Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Vol. II, pp. 417-424.

5. FINANCE, BANKING AND CURRENCY.

*Dewey, Financial History of the United States, pp. 75-117, 223-237, 252-262.

*Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States, pp. 1-24, 68-119, 376 map, 402-403, 464-477.

*Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-93.

Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. I, pp. 15-37. 64-76.

Kinley. History of the Independent Treasury, pp. 16-39.

Sumner, Andrew Jackson (ed. 1886), pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.

Ross, Sinking Funds, pp. 21-85.

Scott, Repudiation of State Debts, pp. 33-196.

Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 1-43, 125-135.

Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, pp. 310-347.

6. POPULATION AND SLAVERY.

*Cairnes, The Slave Power (2d ed.), pp. 32-103, 140-178.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 34-66.

Russell, North America, its Agriculture and Climate, pp. 133-167.

De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (ed. 1838), pp. 336-361, or eds. 1841 and 1848, Vol. I, pp. 386-412.

Helper, Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, pp. 7-61.

1860-1900.
7. FINANCE, BANKING AND CURRENCY.

*Mitchell, History of the Greenbacks, pp. 3-43, 403-420.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 1-72, 234-254 (73-233).

Taussig, Silver Situation in the United States, pp. 1-157.

Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-26; printed also in Dunbar’s Economic Essays, pp. 227-247.

Howe, Taxation and Taxes in the United States under the Internal Revenue System, pp. 136-262.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. VII; Bayley, History of the National Loans, pp. 369-392, 444-486.

8. TRANSPORTATION.

*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 1-23, 125-145.

*Johnson, American Railway Transportation, pp. 24-68, 307-321, 367-385.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.

Adams, Chapters of Erie, pp. 1-99, 333-429.

Davis, The Union Pacific Railway, Annals of the Amer. Acad., Vol. VIII, pp. 259-303.

Villard, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 284-312.

Dixon, Interstate Commerce Act as Amended, Q.J.E., Vol. XXI, pp. 22-51.

9. AGRICULTURE AND OPENING OF THE WEST.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-167.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 167-187.

Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. V, pp. xvi-xlii.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 120-226.

Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-424.

Bemis, Discontent of the Farmer, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. I, 193-213.

10. THE TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 156-229.

Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.

Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.

Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol. VIII, pp. 1-39.

Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 610-647.

Robinson, History of Two Reciprocity Treaties, pp. 9-17, 40-77, 141-156.

Laughlin and Willis, Reciprocity, pp. 311-437.

11. INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION.

*Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. VII, pp. clxx-cxc (note especially the maps and comments on pp. clxx-clxxviii).

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 113-126.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.

Twelfth Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 725-748.

Wells, Recent Economic Changes, pp. 70-113.

12. COMMERCE AND SHIPPING.

*Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.

Soley, Maritime Industries of the United States, in Shaler’s United States, Vol. I, pp. 518-618.

Meeker, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 150-171.

McVey, Shipping Subsidies, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. IX, pp. 24-46.

Wells, Our Merchant Marine, pp. 1-94.

13. INDUSTRIAL CONCENTRATION.

*Willoughby, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-107.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 188-209.

Twelfth Census, Vol. VII, pp. cxc-ccxiv.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIII, pp. v-xviii.

Bullock, Trust Literature, Q.J.E., Vol. XV, pp. 167-217.

14. THE LABOR PROBLEM.

*United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, No. 18 (Sept. 1898), pp. 665-670; No. 30 (Sept. 1900), pp. 913-915; No. 53 (July, 1904), pp. 703-728.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 3-16, 502-547.

Levasseur. American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Mitchell, Organized Labor, pp. 391-411.

Twelfth Census, Special Report on Employees and Wages, p. xcix.

National Civic Federation, Industrial Conciliation, pp. 40-48, 141-154, 238-243, 254-266.

15. POPULATION, IMMIGRATION
AND THE RACE QUESTION.

*United States Census Bulletin, No. 4 (1903), pp. 5-38.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XV, pp. xix-Ivii.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 68-112.

Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 38-78.

Walker, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-451.

Hoffmann, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 250-309.

Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-228.

Twelfth Census Bulletin, No. 8.

United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, Nos. 14, 22, 32, 35, 37, 38, 48.

Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.

Stone, A Plantation Experiment, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 270-287.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder: “Economics 1906-07”.

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ECONOMICS 6b
Year-end Examination, 1906-07

  1. Describe briefly (not more than five minutes each) :—
    1. Independent Treasury.
    2. Greenbacks
    3. Mills Bill.
    4. Minimum system.
    5. Homestead system.
    6. Chief Canal systems.
  2. Outline succinctly :—
    1. The history and results of the tariff on wool and woolens.
    2. The experience of the United States with reciprocity.
  3. Comment on the following (from Grant’s message of 1870):
    “Building ships and navigating them utilizes vast capital at home; it creates a home market for the farm and the shop; it diminishes the balance of trade against us precisely to the extent of freights and passage money paid to American vessels, and gives us a supremacy of the seas of inestimable value in case of foreign war.”
  4. Compare in its more important features the economic history of the decade 1870-80 with that of the decade 1890-1900.
  5. [International labor migration]
    1. Describe the administration of the alien contract labor law.
    2. What are the present tendencies in the distribution of immigrants?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1906-07 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 29-30.

Image Source: Edwin F. Gay, seated in office, 1908. From Wikipedia. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam questions for Medieval and Modern Economic History of Europe. Gay, 1905-1906

For most of the twentieth century you didn’t have a full and complete economics department without significant course offerings in economic history. Needless to say, Harvard has had a full and complete economics department. 

This post contributes an incremental addition to the collection of economics exams with those from Edwin Francis Gay’s European economic history courses at Harvard in 1905-06.

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Related posts

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

Exams for 1903-04.

Exams for 1904-05.

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

Gay and Usher’s economic history exams from 1930 through 1949.

__________________________

Mediaeval Economic History of Europe.

Course Enrollment
1905-06

Economics 10 1hf. Asst. Professor Gay. — Mediaeval Economic History of Europe.

Total 8: 6 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Junior.

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

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

ECONOMICS 101
Final Examination
Mid-year 1905-06
  1. Explain briefly:—
    1. gwely.
    2. liti.
    3. molmen.
    4. formariage.
    5. lettre de foire.
    6. mercator.
    7. commenda.
    8. contractus trinius.
    9. droit d’amortissement, droit de régale.
    10. tunnage and poundage.
  2. Outline the estate organization prescribed by the Capitulare de Villis.
  3. “It seems to be almost certain that the ‘hams’ and ‘tuns’ (of England) were, generally speaking, and for the most part from the first, practically manors with communities in serfdom upon them.” Whose view is this? State succinctly the chief arguments for and against.
  4. Enumerate the chief franchises and privileges of a fair. What was the jus fori?

Take one of the following questions:

  1. What were the provisions of the Law Merchant in regard to sales and contracts?
  2. What is the significance of the following passages:—
    1. “ne alienigene opus suum operatum ad forum non deferant, nisi cum omnium eorum voluntate qui juri illo quod inninge appellatur participes existunt.” (Privilege to Magdeburg shoemakers, end of the twelfth century.)
    2. “quod nullus textor potest vel debet in aliqua civitate nullo etiam tempore, ubi non habet consortium mercatorum quod vulgariter ignige appellatur, pannos incidere.” (Halberstadt, 1291.)
    3. “Si aliquis alienus vult societatem pistorum, quod Innunge dicitur, ille dabit duas marcas et due partes spectabunt ad civitatem, una pars ad pistores.” (Neumarkt, 1235.)

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), pp. 35-36. 

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Modern Economic History of Europe

Course Enrollment
Economics 11
1905-06

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

Total 10: 8 Graduates, 2 Seniors.

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

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

ECONOMICS 11
Mid-year Examination, 1905-06
  1. Explain briefly:—
    1. purveyance.
    2. staple.
    3. copyhold.
    4. Leibzins.
    5. mainmorte.
    6. mesta.
  2. What were the chief factors in the emancipation of the serf? Compare the history of the movement in England with that in Germany.
  3. The craft gild:
    1. What in general was its object and policy?
    2. What, during the sixteenth century, was the attitude of the national government to the craft gilds in England and in France?
    3. What was the Statute of Artificers?
  4. Outline the history of the trade relations between England and northern Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, stating the chief facts connected with the decline of the Hanseatic position in England and the rise of the Merchant Adventurers.
  5. Describe succinctly the price movement of the sixteenth century, its extent, character, causes, and results.

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

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Examination, 1905-06
  1. State briefly the place in English economic history of Gresham, Burleigh, Cromwell, Paterson, Walpole, Bakewell, Arkwright, the younger Pitt.
  2. [Wages]
    1. Describe, stating causes, the growth of the wage-earning class in England.
    2. Summarize the history and results of wage regulation by public authority.
    3. The average daily wage of an English artisan at the close of the sixteenth century was about one shilling. How would you determine the modern equivalent in purchasing power? What other factors should be considered in a comparison of conditions?
  3. Compare the commerce of England with that of France in the eighteenth century. Can the comparative magnitude be statistically measured? If so, with what result? If not, why not?
  4. Why did the Industrial Revolution take place in England in the latter part of the eighteenth century? What facts of English agricultural history bear upon this question?
  5. Describe the transitions in industrial organization leading up to the domestic system, to the factory system.

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. 36-37.

Image Source: Image of a page from the Statute of Artificers  in Vimala C. Pasupathi, Shall Strangers Rule the Roast? Migration and Displacement in Sir Thomas More (1600).

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading list and final exam for U.S. economic and financial history. Taussig and Gay, 1905-1906

Assistant Professor Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the Harvard course “Economic History of the United States”/ “Economic and Financial History of the United States” in 1901-02 (with James Horace Patten), 1902-03, 1903-04, and 1904-05. The course was taken over in 1905-06 by Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay after Sprague left for a full professorship at the Imperial University of Japan.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1905-06

Economics 6 2hf. Professor Taussig and Asst. Professor Gay. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 79: 14 Graduates, 15 Seniors, 37 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 3 Others.

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

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READING FOR ECONOMICS 6
(1905-6)

Prescribed reading is indicated by an asterisk (*).

1. COLONIAL PERIOD.

*Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-30; printed also in Surveys, pp. 309-335.

Schmoller, Mercantile System, pp. 57-80.

Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 1-158.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.

Eggleston, Agriculture and Commerce in the Colonies, The Century Magazine, Jan. and June, 1884, Vol. V, pp. 431-449; Vol. VI, pp. 234-256.

2. COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES, 1776-1815.

*Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer Econ. Assn. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.

Pitkin, Statistical View of the United States, ed. 1835, ch. ix, pp. 368-412.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 287-324, 95-145.

Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-108.

3. REVOLUTIONARY AND NATIONAL FINANCE – WESTWARD MOVEMENT, 1776-1815.

*Dewey, Financial History of the United States, chs. ii-vi, pp. 33-141.

Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-78.

Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. 1, pp. 15-37, 64-67.

Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assn., 1893, pp. 199-227.

Semple, American History and its Geographical Conditions, chs. iv, v, pp. 52-92.

4. FINANCE AND BANKING, 1815-1860.

*Dewey, Financial History, pp. 223-237, 252-262.

Sumner, Andrew Jackson, ed. 1886, pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.

Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States, chs. xvi-vviii, pp. 376-403, 430-452.

Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, ch. xiv, pp. 310-347.

White, Money and Banking, chs. ix-xii, pp. 324-361.

5. TARIFFS AND MANUFACTURES, 1815-1860.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 1-154.

Taussig, State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 108-385.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, 146-199, 325-383.

6. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, 1815-1860.

*Callender, Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 111-162.

Chevalier, Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States, chs. vii, xx, xxi, pp. 80-87, 209-276.

Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), Vol. XII, pp. 531-581.

Gallatin, Plan of Internal Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I.

Tanner, Railways and Canals of the United States. See, especially, the map.

7. LAND POLICY AND AGRICULTURE, 1815-1860.

*Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257.

*Hammond, Cotton Industry, ch. iii, pp. 67-119.

Donaldson, Public Domain.

Sato, History of the Land Question in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, 4th series, nos. 7-9, pp. 127-181.

8. POPULATION AND SLAVERY, 1815-1860.

*Cairnes, Slave Power, chs. ii, iii, v, pp. 34-93, 120-150.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, ch. ii, pp. 34-60.

Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, ch. ix, pp. 150-177.

9. FINANCE, BANKING, AND CURRENCY PROBLEMS, 1860-1900.

*Dewey, Financial History, chs. xii, xiii, xx, pp. 271-330, 463-473.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, chs. i, ii, iii, x, pp. 1-72, 234-254.

Taussig, Silver Situation, pp. 1-157.

Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-36.

10. TRANSPORTATION; TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 155-230.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.

Johnson, American Railway Transportation, chs. ii, ii, v, pp. 13-38, 52-68.

Taussig, Contribution to the Theory of Railway Rates, Q.J.E., Vol. V, pp. 438-465.

Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 24-56.

11. INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION AND TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 230-409.

Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.

Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.

Twelfth United States Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 723-743.

Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol. VIII, pp. 1-39.

Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 610-647.

Willoughby, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-115.

12. AGRICULTURE AND OPENING OF THE FAR WEST.

*Industrial Commission, XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-168.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, Book I, chs. iv-vii, ix, pp. 120-228, 324-356.

Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CLXXV, pp. 394-424.

13. COMMERCE AND SHIPPING.

*Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Qr., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 167-209.

Wells, Our Merchant Marine, chs. i-v, pp. 1-94.

14. WAGES AND THE LABOR PROBLEM.

*Levasseur, American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Mitchell, Organized Labor.

Industrial Conciliation, National Civic Federation.

Wright, Industrial History of the United States, Part III, pp. 231-322.

15. IMMIGRATION AND THE RACE QUESTION.

*Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, chs. iii, iv, pp. 33-78.

Tillinghast, Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-227.

Hoffman, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 141-148, 170-176, 310-329.

Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.

Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 79-167, 227-283.

Walker, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-434.

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

__________________________

ECONOMICS 6
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

  1. Describe the history of the agitation for “cheap money” in the United States; the forms assumed both before and after 1860, its causes and the probability of its recurrence.
  2. Compare critically the financing of the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the Spanish War.
  3. (a) Summarize the principal features of our tariff legislation from the close of the Civil War to the Dingley Tariff.
    (b) What has been the effect of the tariffs on the iron and steel industry?
  4. Give the history of the Union Pacific Railroad and its relations to the government.
  5. Account for the changes in the character of the foreign trade of the United States in respect to the excess of imports or of exports.
    Take one of the following questions:
  6. Discuss the significance and causes of the increase of farm tenancy and the rural exodus.
  7. What can you say as to agricultural conditions in the South before and since the Civil War? What about the negro problem?

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. 31-32.

Image Source: Portraits of Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay from the Harvard Class Album 1906.

 

Categories
Federal Government Statistics Suggested Reading

Government Statistics. Centenary History of the U.S. Survey of Current Business. Reamer, 2020

While trawling the internet for a ca. 1920 photo of Edwin Francis Gay for another post (coming attraction), I found the following history of the Department of Commerce’s publication “Survey of Current Business” commissioned for the occasion of the centenary celebration of its founding. We encounter Herbert Hoover, Wesley Clair Mitchell, Edwin Francis Gay, and Simon Kuznets on page one of the history…

_______________________

The Origins of
the Survey of Current Business:
A Window on the Evolution of Economic Policy, Research, and Statistics

By Andrew D. Reamer

For decades, the Survey of Current Business, the flagship monthly publication of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), has provided macro-, industry, international, and regional economists with data, analysis, and methodological research concerning the national economic accounts. This was not always so.

The Survey was founded in July 1921 as Department of Commerce (DOC) Secretary Herbert Hoover’s primary tool to promote macroeconomic stabilization. Specifically, the Survey published current, detailed industry-specific data from hundreds of public and private secondary sources so businesses might make better operational and investment decisions. One decade and a Great Depression later, the extensive statistical clearinghouse feeding the Survey became the foundation for Simon Kuznets’ famed study of national income and the subsequent development of national economic accounting.

The Survey’s creation and its later repurposing were the results of efforts by economists Edwin Gay and Wesley Mitchell, largely through a series of collaborations with Hoover between 1921 and 1933. As members of Hoover’s Joint Census Advisory Committee, Gay and Mitchell recommended the Survey’s development, modeled on the statistical clearinghouse they created to guide federal economic planning in the First World War. As founding leaders of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), they guided path-setting studies of national income and business cycles, several commissioned by Hoover; trained and hired Kuznets, who contributed to several NBER studies, including one for Hoover; and detailed Kuznets to the DOC to prepare the groundbreaking national income report.

This article begins by describing the Survey’s role in economic stabilization policy in the 1920s and the development of national economic accounting in the 1930s. The succeeding sections unpack this story by delving into how the Survey came to play these successive roles, particularly through Gay, Mitchell, and Hoover’s efforts. …

Source: From “Chronicling 100 Years of the U.S. Economy,” Survey of Current Business Vol. 100, No. 10 (October 2020)

Links to archived versions of the full article: htm; pdf.

Image Source: Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, ca.1921. From the blog of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Mediaeval and Modern Economic History of Europe. Enrollments, descriptions, exam. Gay, 1904-1905

An assistant professor gotta do what an assistant professor has gotta do. Edwin Francis Gay was 37 years of age by the 1904-05 academic year with courses covering nearly a millennium of European economic history.  His biographer (and former student) Herbert Heaton described this period as being a strenuous time for Gay (pp. 64-65).

___________________________

Related posts

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

Exams for 1903-04.

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

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 10 1hf. Asst. Professor Gay. — Mediaeval Economic History of Europe.

Total 1: 1 Graduate.

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

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 10 1hf. The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and(at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Asst. Professor Gay.

After a preliminary examination of early economic and social institutions, this course aims to give a general view of the economic development of society during the Middle Ages. Among other topics, the following will be considered: mediaeval agriculture and serfdom; the manorial system and the economic aspects of feudalism; the beginnings of town life and the gild-system of industry; and the Italian and Hanseatic commercial supremacy.
A thesis will be required from each student, and occasional oral reports and discussions may be expected, but the work is conducted mainly by lectures with supplementary reading.
It is desirable that students should possess some acquaintance with mediaeval history and some reading knowledge of Latin.

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. 44.

No printed exam at mid-year for this course was found in the Harvard archives
(but of course only one student)

________________________

Course Enrollment
1904-05

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

Total 7: 3 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Sophomore.

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

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 11. The Modern Economic History of Europe. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 10. Asst. Professor Gay.

This course, while Course 10 may usefully precede it, will nevertheless be independent, and may be taken by those who have not followed the history of the earlier period.
At the outset a survey will be made of economic and social conditions in the chief European countries at the close of the Middle Ages. The history of trade, industry, and agriculture in the succeeding periods down to the nineteenth century will then be treated in some detail, together with the corresponding forms of social life and the advance in economic thought. England will receive the emphasis due to its increasing importance during this period.
A considerable amount of supplementary reading will be expected and two thesis subjects will be assigned.

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. 44.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. Explain briefly:—
    (1) lettre de maîtrise
    (2) métayage
    (3) the Steelyard
    (4) goldsmith’s notes
    (5) enumerated commodities
    (6) Merchant Adventurer’s
  2. What are the chief facts you associate with the names of
    (1) Bodin, (2) Colbert, (3) Paterson, (4) Law?
  3. (1) Who were the Fuggers? What type of company organization do they represent?
    (2) Describe the development in the company organization of the English East India Company. How and why did this company’s history differ from that of the Dutch East India Company?
  4. Enumerate the forms of indirect taxation in use in England in the seventeenth century.
  5. How do you distinguish the domestic system of industry from the handicraft and factory systems? Give some examples of different forms of the domestic system.

Take one of the following questions.

  1. It is stated that the total value of exports and imports for England and France were as follows for the years here given:
England
£		 France
livres
1613   4,628,586
1750 20,471,120 1750 355,202,357
1800 62,639,398 1789 758,104,000

Are these figures of equal statistical value? What are the sources of error?

  1. (1) In 1655 a London merchant shipped raisins and oil to Hamburg, but finding this market not so good as the English desired to ship the goods back to England in the same ship that carried them to Hamburg, paying customs and excise on the reimportation. He petitioned the Council for license to do this. State precisely why.
    (2) In 1665 a Dutch merchant desired to send to England from Amsterdam a lading of silk and linen cloth, loaf sugar, paper (all of Dutch manufacture), Bordeaux wine, tobacco and pepper. Could he do this, and if so, how?

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. 30-31.

Image Source: Edwin F. Gay, seated in office, 1908. From Wikipedia. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Enrollment and exam questions for agrarian history. Gay, 1903-04

Edwin Francis Gay

Edwin F. Gay only taught the graduate economics course “General Outlines of Agrarian History” once. As we see from the course enrollment for this course offered at Harvard during the first term of 1903-04, only four students attended. Who among us has not been personally confronted with the reality that our supply does not necessarily generate its own demand? 

___________________________

Course Enrollment

Economics 24 1hf. Asst. Professor Gay. — General Outlines of Agrarian History.

Total 4: 3 Seniors, 1 Junior.

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

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ECONOMICS 24
Mid-Year Examination. 1903-04

  1. Explain briefly:

(1) emphyteusis.
(2) massa and fundus.
(3) mainmorte.
(4) gavelkind and Borough English.
(5) common recovery.
(6) copyhold.
(7) majorat and seniorat.
(8) Norfolk husbandry.

  1. Describe briefly:

(1) the provisions of the Capitulare de villis; its date and significance.
(2) the system of estate settlement by “Familienfideikommisse.”
(3) the place in agrarian history of Colbert, Orlando Bridgman, Arthur Young and Albrecht Thaer.

  1. “It seems to be almost certain that the ‘hams’ and ‘tuns’ [of England] were, generally speaking, and for the most part from the first, practically manors with communities in serfdom upon them.” Whose view is this? State succinctly the chief arguments for and against.
  2. What were the chief factors in the emancipation of the medieval serf and how far had the movement of emancipation progressed by 1500 in England, France and Northern Italy?
  3. What were the causes of the Peasant War of 1525? How did the condition of the peasant of South Germany differ from that of the peasant in the North-east and North-west?
  4. Summarize (with dates of the more important statutes) the changes of policy in the English Corn-laws.

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

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1914.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for the Modern Economic History of Europe. Gay, 1903-1904

Edwin F. Gay was hired as instructor to cover the economic history field left vacant by the departure of William Ashley for the University of Birmingham in 1901. By the end of his first semester (December 1902) he was promoted to an assistant professorship. Medieval economic history proved not to be a magnet for student enrollment (I am shocked to report) so he began to give greater emphasis to “modern” European economic history.

___________________________

Getting to 1903-1904

The outstanding feature of Gay’s years of study abroad is their number. He went to Europe expecting to return within two years, but stayed twelve and a half. Instead of getting his Ph.D. after working for three or four semesters on medieval history, he spent nine in universities–three in Leipzig, five in Berlin, and one in Zurich; then for seven years he studied privately; and finally, after being registered for three more semesters in Berlin but attending no classes, he wrote a dissertation on a theme in economic history, took his examinations, and was granted his degree in the summer of 1902….[p.30]

*  *  *

…[Gay] arrived in Harvard somewhat nervous about the reception he was likely to receive. Apart from the President, the only men who knew him — Gross and Haskins — were in the history department. His position, junior and temporary, was in the economics department, yet the economists had played no part in choosing him. When he visited Cambridge for his interview, he met neither the veteran F.W. Taussig nor the recently appointed younger men, Carver and Ripley. Apart from a very brief encounter with Carver in Berlin in the summer of 1902, he was a complete stranger to all his associates….[p. 63]

*  *  *

…By Christmas, 1902, [Gay] felt confident that he was holding the attention and interest of his students. By that time he also had learned, through T. N. Carver, chairman of the department, what the students thought of his work: they said it was so stiff and heavy in its demands that “whenever you see any of us going around with circles under our eyes, you can know we are taking Gay’s course.” There were very few of them at first; the medieval story [10 students] and the German economists [4 students] did not attract much attention… [p. 61]

*  *  *

…by Christmas 1902, [Gay] was informed the department wanted him to stay and before his first year ended he was raised to the rank of assistant professor of economics with a tenure of five years. In recommending the promotion Carver wrote to [President] Eliot: “His scholarship is of the very highest type and his success as a classroom lectureer is unqualified, as shown by his work this year.” [p. 64]

Source: Herbert Heaton, A Scholar in Action: Edwin F. Gay. Cambridge (Massachusetts), Harvard University Press, 1952.

___________________________

Related posts

A brief course description for Economics 11 plus the exams from the the 1902-03 academic year have been posted earlier .

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

___________________________

ECONOMICS 11
Course Enrollment
1903-04

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

Total 18: 10 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 4 Sophomores.

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

___________________________

ECONOMICS 11
Mid-Year Examination, 1903-04

  1. Explain briefly:—

(a) convertible husbandry.
(b) bodgers.
(c) book of rates.
(d) Gutsherrschaft.
(e) lettre de maîtrise.
(f) Fondaco dei Tedeschi.

  1. Describe briefly, with indication of the bearing on wider questions:—

(a) The divergent views as to the security of copyhold tenure in the sixteenth century.
(b) The organization of the Florentine woollen industry.
(c) The rise of the Merchant Adventurers.

  1. Comment on the following passage:—

“Everie day some of us encloseth a plote of his ground to pasture; and weare it not that oure grounde lieth in the common feildes, intermingled one with a nother, I thincke also oure feildes had bene enclosed, of a common agreement of all the townshippe, longe ere this time.”

  1. Give an account of the gild system of industry in England, emphasizing the analogies and contrasts with the continent.
  2. It is estimated that the following series of figures represents the change in the average purchasing power of wages in England:

1451-1500

 100

1501-1520

 88

1521-1550

 70

1551-1570

57
1571-1602

47
1603-1652

40
1653-1702

47

(a) How would you construct such a series and what is its value?
(b) What caused the change thus indicated and what were its effects?

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

___________________________

ECONOMICS 11
Year-End Examination, 1903-04

I. Explain briefly:—

(1) contractus trinius.
(2) two forms of capitation.
(3) Gesellenverbände.
(4) Gulden and Thaler.
(5) the vend.
(6) Exchequer Bills
(7) the Molasses Act.
(8) roundsmen.

II. Describe briefly:—

(1) the influence of the Civil War on English economic history.
(2) the distinction between the economic views of Whigs and Tories.

III.

(1) State the chief provisions and significance of

(a) the Statute of Artificers (1563),
(b) the Navigation Act (1660), and
(c) the Corn Law of 1688.

(2) When in England was the policy embodied in each of the above statutes changed, and under what circumstances?
(3) Indicate the analogies and contrasts of this English policy in relation to industry, commerce, and agriculture with the policies of France and Holland in the seventeenth century.

IV.

When and why did indirect taxation become prominent in Western Europe?

V. Comment on the following statement:

“the domestic system existed [in England] from the earliest times till it was superseded by capitalism; … craft gilds were a form of industrial organization which was appropriate to the domestic, rather than to the capitalist system.”

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. 33-34.

Image Source: Edwin F. Gay, seated in office, 1908. From Wikipedia. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror