Economic essays

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1753623200

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136107

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Economic essays

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: viii, 368 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: The early teaching of economics in the United States / Edwin R.A. Seligman

Collection:: Economics Books

THE EARLY TEACHING OF ECONOMICS IN THE UNITED STATES 289 Jonathan Edwards was not much concerned with material things. On the other hand, Benjamin Franklin took from the very outset a lively interest in economic questions. It is significant that in 1749, when he was organizing the academy which subsequently developed into the University of Pennsylvania, he issued his Proposals for a Complete Education of Youth. In this document he suggested a course of instruction which, although dealing primarily with history, was to treat of many topics now included under the general name of economics. He proposed that infor- mation be given in the curriculum on “the history of commerce, on the invention of the arts, on the rise of manufactures, on the progress of trade, and the change of its seats together with the reasons and causes therefor.” ' Although nothing seems to have come of this suggestion, we find that, according to an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1750, the college at that time included in the curriculum a course of study entitled “Merchants’ Accounts.” * What was taught in this course and how long it continued, we do not know. Perhaps a further study of the contemporary periodical litera- ture may throw some light on the matter. At all events, we hear nothing more of Political Economy or anything resembling it for over a century. The first instruction in the subject at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania—unless, indeed, as we suspect, later investigation may disclose the fact that economics was taught by Dr. Vethake in the preceding decade *—seems to have been given in the year 1855-6 by the professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, the course being turned over in 1868 to the professor of English. A more detailed development may be traced in Kings College, the forerunner of Columbia University, founded in 1754. Tts first president was the Reverend Dr. Samuel Johnson, born in Guil- ford, Connecticut, in 1696. He graduated from the college at Saybrooke, now Yale University, where he subsequently remained as a tutor for three years. He became a Congregational minister, but soon went to England and took orders in the Church of England. On his return to the colonies, he settled. at Stratford, ' Cf. Montgomery, C. H., A History of the University of Pennsylvania from its Foundations to 1770, p. 500. i * We owe this fact to the kindness of Dr. W. C. Plummer, instructor in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. * See below, p. 311.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Economic essays

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation