HE EARLY TEACHING OF ECONOMICS IN THE UNITED STATES 291 
ccordance with the best traditions of the old country, some 
eaching on economic questions was included in the course. 
owever that be, we know that in 1763 a more elaborate plan 
f education was adopted and that the third-year class now 
tudied the ethics of Hutcheson, and that the fourth-year class 
tudied “Grotius or Pudendorf (sic) as well as a continuation of 
he moral philosophy of Hutcheson et alienum.” Inasmuch as 
t was this same Hutcheson, whose lectures on moral philosoph 
ere attended by Adam Smith, it is not an unreasonable sup 
osition that the course also included, as in the mother country 
he subject of police later called political economy. 
at happened during the next decade or two 1s uncertain. 
n 1784, however, after Kings College had been reconstituted as 
olumbia College, a committee of the graduates, of which Alex- 
nder Hamilton was now a member, reported on the plan of edu- 
ation. The committee recommended, among other things, in 
ddition to three professorships in the Faculty of Law,—dealing 
espectively with the law of nature and nations, the Roman civil 
aw, and municipal law,—the creation of eight professorships in 
he Faculty of Medicine, and sixteen professorships in the Faculty 
f Arts. Two of these latter professorships were to deal respec- 
ively with commerce and agriculture and were to be additional 
o the professorship in moral philosophy. Among the chairs 
hat were actually filled was that of geography. 
here has fortunately been preserved a description of the 
nstruction in geography by Professor Gross. He taught to the 
ophomore class, three times a week, a course characterized as a 
escription of the globe in respect of all general matters, includ- 
ng “the origin of the present states and kingdoms, their extent, 
ower, commerce, religion, and customs.” This was evidently 
he earliest course of which we have any information dealing 
ith economic topics, even though the character of the instruction 
seems to have been descriptive rather than analytical. A few 
years later Professor Gross was transferred to the chair of moral 
hilosophy, a subject which he had taught from the ver 
er 
* The plan of education of 1763 is found in The History of Columbia 
University, p. 451. 
? As to these points see History of Columbia University, pp. 64, 69. So 
ar as Professor Gross’ instruction in history is concerned, cf. Herbert B. 
Adams, “The Study of History in American Colleges and Universities,” 
Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, no. 2, 1887, p. 60.