sum be counted as part of the bank's reserves? Is it a wise or justifiable policy?

6. What do you consider the essential contributions of Marx to socialist theory and practice?

7. What, briefly, were the distinctive features of the socialism of Owen, Fourier, Rodbertus, Lassalle, Millerand, Morris, Webb?

8. Describe the contest between the revolutionary and the reformist wings of the socialist party of any country.

9. Discuss the bearing on socialism of the doctrine of natural selection.

10. Comment on the present day attitude of the leading socialist parties toward (i) the small farmer, (ii) the church, (iii) militarism.

FINAL HONOURS.

POLITICAL SCIENCE.

Economic Theory.

A.

Eight questions will constitute a full paper.

1. "It is the purpose of this work to show that the distribution of the income of society is controlled by a natural law, and that this law, if it worked without friction, would give to every agent of production the amount of wealth which that agent creates. However wages may be adjusted by bargains freely made between individual men, the rates of pay tend, it is here claimed, to equal that part of the product of industry which is traceable to labor itself, and however interest is adjusted by similarly free bargaining, it naturally tends to equal the fractional product that is traceable to capital."-J. B. Clark, The Distribution of Wealth, Preface, p. 1.

rest?

(a) Upon what scientific basis does Clark's optimism

(b) In the static state in which Clark works out his theories, would there be any need of factory or other labor legislation?

(c) What are the defects of Clark's marginal-productivity analysis?

2. “Cost of production is the measure of value; but it is not, as Ricardo thought, individual cost. Marginal utility determines value, but it is not, as Jevons thought, individual utility. Both cost and utility measure value, because . . marginal cost is always equal

to marginal social utility." Ibid, p. 198.

(a) How does this illustrate Clark's conception of society as an organism, and derivative concepts of group pain,

group pleasure, group utility, group cost, etc.? Analyze these concepts.

(b) Is marginal utility an individual, subjective estimation or is it a social estimation which coincides with normal market-value?

3. Explain carefully Clark's concept of:

(a) Capital as an abstract, homogeneous value fund. (b) Labor as value-productivity uints.

What use does he make of these concepts in his theory of distribution? For static purposes, is land regarded as capital? For dynamic purposes-purposes of retrospect or phophecy is the tripartite division of productive factors made important?

B.

4. "The first portion which is sold goes to satisfy the strongest desires of consumers, the next portion a somewhat weaker desire, and so on until the last portion that is sold satisfies the weakest desire, or, using the ordinary language, has the smallest utility attached to it. Yet all portions have the same price and the same value. For, as the subjective utility furnished by consumption of the later units of supply diminishes, the subjective cost of producing these has increased."-J. A. Hobson, The Economics of Distribution, p. 102.

(a) What value has this theory as an explanation of prices?

(b) Has it any significance as a purely individual computation of value?

(c) Has Hobson established any direct connection between subjective evaluation and objective price?

5. How does Hobson determine both land hires and product prices by a process of margin fixation?

6. "The same reasoning which shows that differential rents of land need not enter price shows also that differential payments for capital and labor need not enter into price. . . . Just as rent of land need not form an element of cost or price in agricultural produce, some of which is raised on no-rest land, so interest need not

figure in the cost or price of manufactured goods, some of which are produced by no-interest business." Ibid, p. 157.

(a) What payments, then, for use of land capital, labor, are price determining?

(b) If somewhere there were found a man working on good-for-nothing land, and with valueless appliances in the hands of laborers paid at precisely the cost of their keep, what warrant would there be for assuming that this man's cost would either fix or be the market price?

C.

7. Criticise and explain the relation between values and distributive shares as traced by Carver in the Distribution of Wealth.

8. "There is, however, a sense in which wages do enter into the price of products and in which rent does not. Laborers have to be persuaded to work by some offer of advantage to themselves, and land does not. It is true that landlords may have to be persuaded, but there would be land if there were no landowners, whereas there would be no labor if there were no laborers." Op cit., pp. 206, 207. What conclusions does Carver draw from this, especially as to the amount of economic rent that may be taken by the state without affecting production?

9. Make a careful analysis of Carver's treatment of the law of diminishing returns. What bearing has this law upon his theory of value?

D.

10. "How could the vice, the crime, the ignorance, the brutality, that spring from poverty and the fear of poverty exist when poverty had vanished? Who should crouch where all were freemen; who oppress where all were peers?"-Henry George, Progress and Poverty.

(a) Is poverty, then, the cause of these ills or vice versa?

(b) Criticise George's theory of poverty being an inevitable concomitant of progress under present conditions.

11. "I assert that in any given state of civilization a greater number of people can collectively be better provided for than a smaller. I assert that the injustice of society, not the niggardliness of nature, is the cause of the want and misery which the current theory attributes to over-population. . . . I assert that, in a state of equality, the natural increase of population would constantly tend to make each individual richer instead of poorer."

Outline Henry George's argument by which he seeks to substantiate the above, and criticise the same.

12. Comment upon the Single Tax from the (a) historical,. (b) ethical, (c) fiscal and (d) economic standpoints.