Under the Bland-Allison Act of 1878,
(a) the U.S. Treasury committed to buying silver for coins at the current market price.
(b) the U.S. Treasury committed to buying gold for coins at a set price.
(c) the U.S. was placed on the gold standard.
(d) the National Monetary Commission was created.
Which of the following contributed to the increase in steamboat productivity?
(a) Improvements in ship design
(b) Better docking stations
(c) Increased competition by railroads
(d) All of the above
The famous “Kennedy Tax Cut” of 1964 was
(a) meant to stimulate private spending.
(b) meant to reduce private investment.
(c) meant to restrain consumption.
(d) designed to increase the federal deficit.
Which of the following did not occur during the early years of the Great Depression?
(a) Marriage rates fell.
(b) Birth rates fell.
(c) Divorce rates increased.
(d) Actually, all of the above occurred.
With regard to the subject matter of American economic history, Hughes and Cain
(2011) suggest that
(a) the presence of the highest living standards known in world history supports the
claim that American history is largely a ‘success story.”
(b) the American economy is an economy with only successes but no failures.
(c) U.S. history provides a fragmented record of problem-solving and
problem-producing solutions to the challenges of economic development.
(d) there is no link between today’s economy and the economy of yesteryear.
By 1913, steel making by Bessemer converter had been completely surpassed by
(a) continuous casting integrated mills.
(b) the Basic Oxygen furnace.
(c) electric furnaces.
(d) open hearth furnaces.
In 1906, the Hepburn Act
(a) Required the federal government to set “fair rates” for customers regardless of
geographical location.
(b) Required the federal government to set rates that promised a positive rate of return
to railroads.
(c) Granted the power to set maximum rates in the railroad industry to the federal
government.
(d) Granted the power to set maximum rates in the railroad industry to the leading
railroad tycoons.
The federal government’s fiscal policy (taxing and spending policy) during the 1920s
was one in which
(a) the federal budget was in surplus every year.
(b) the federal budget exerted a mildly deflationary impact on the economy, tending to
slow overall spending in the economy.
(c) Parkinson’s third law, “expenditures rise to meet income,” seemed to hold for the
federal government.
(d) all of the above applied.
Private initiative and financing were most important in
(a) the canal system of transportation.
(b) the steamboat system.
(c) the railroad system.
(d) none of the transportation systems.
Under the gold standard, a country experiencing a fall in its gold reserves was supposed
to:
(a) Expand loans
(b) Buy securities
(c) Lower discount rates
(d) Cut loans
The Employment Act of 1946, which sets up the Council of Economic Advisers,
(a) was the final legislation of the New Deal.
(b) grew out of the War Manpower Board’s experience.
(c) grew out of financial negotiations with Britain.
(d) was the product of New Deal experience with fiscal policy.
Producers of goods and services suffered during the American War in which of the
following sectors?
(a) Fishing, whaling, and shipping
(b) Exports and imports
(c) Manufacturing and agriculture
(d) All of the above
Between 1870 and 1920, the total labor force increased by threefold while
(a) the total number of people employed in agriculture increased by almost twofold and
the total number of people employed in manufacturing and other non- agriculture
increased fivefold.
(b) the total number of people employed in agriculture increased by almost fivefold and
the total number of people employed in manufacturing and other non- agriculture
increased by threefold.
(c) the total number of people employed in agriculture increased and the total number
of people employed in manufacturing and other non- agriculture increased by threefold.
(d) the total number of people employed in manufacturing and other non- agriculture
increased fivefold while agriculture decreased by twofold.
Land inheritance in the Southern Colonies differed from inheritance in the Middle and
New England Colonies in that
(a) the policy of primogeniture was followed in the South, which encouraged the
formation of large land-holdings, whereas primogeniture was normally not followed
outside the South.
(b) primogeniture was actually followed throughout the colonies but the crops grown in
the South, such as tobacco, required larger land-holdings to be profitable than those
outside the South.
(c) in the South, the large slave plantations had to be re-granted by the colonial
government after the death of the owner, usually to the eldest son, but this was not
required outside the South.
(d) all of the above
Which of the following was the most successful attempt to establish a colony with the
longest and most sustainable future, according to Hughes and Cain (2011)?
(a) Jamestown
(b) Plymouth Company
(c) Massachusetts Bay
(d) Maryland
Governmental policy decisions have
(a) only social benefits.
(b) no private costs.
(c) intended and unintended effects.
(d) no social costs.
Taxes provide individuals with incentive to:
(a) Increase the number of working hours.
(b) Increase productivity by working longer and harder.
(c) Direct resources to uses where taxes are relatively low or nonexistent.
(d) Buy and save more.
During the Civil War (1861″1865), hyperinflation occurred in
(a) the North.
(b) the South.
(c) both the North and South.
(d) neither the North nor the South.
The U.S. government is an asset to the U.S. economy when it
(a) effectively serves its role as the agent that defines and protects private property
rights.
(b) taxes one group of individuals and redistributes that taxed income to another group.
(c) permits special groups to secure legislative protection from foreign competition in
the industries which they own, manage or work within.
(d) does all of the above.
Fogel (1964) showed that railroad construction after the Civil War dominated the
markets for which of the following?
(a) Steel
(b) Coal
(c) Wood
(d) None of the above
Conrad and Meyer (1958) found evidence to support the claim that the annual rates of
return to slave agriculture were
(a) high enough to attract investment funds away from other alternatives in the cotton
South.
(b) high enough to benefit the entire Southern economy through the profits generated
and the backward and forward links to other businesses.
(c) relatively low in the new frontier, thus encouraging the new cotton producing areas
of the South to move away from the slave system.
(d) low enough that the people in the North could purchase the slaves and free them at
minimal cost.
Differences in what can explain the wage gap between U.S.-born and foreign-born
workers?
(a) Culture
(b) Schooling
(c) Urbanization
(d) All of the above
During the entire period of 1820″1920, there were persistent trends in the structure of
American foreign trade. They exhibited
(a) a decrease in imported finished manufactures and an increase in exported finished
manufactures.
(b) an increase in the exports of crude materials and foodstuffs and a decline in their
importation.
(c) increases in both imports and exports of manufactured goods and foodstuffs.
(d) no exports or imports.
From 1860 to 1910, U.S. mobility between social classes and occupations
(a) distracted immigrants.
(b) increased the potential migrant’s opportunity cost of staying in Europe.
(c) attracted immigrants to the U.S.
(d) decreased foreign investment in the U.S.
The command of World War II (1941″45)
(a) was more structured than that of World War I (1914″18) (WWI).
(b) experienced the same unconstitutionality problems experienced during WWI.
(c) was distinct from WWI in most ways.
(d) did not involve rationing of goods and services, given the high unemployment of the
period.
When Hughes and Cain (2011) say that workers lacked an “economic identity” until the
middle decades of the 19th century, they mean all of the following except
(a) Earlier in U.S. history, most adults were self-employed and, therefore, did not think
of themselves as having common interests with laborers possessing views that
workers should position themselves against employers.
(b) Earlier in U.S. history, production was carried out in shops within the guild
structure. The tight relationships among apprentices, journeymen, and master
encouraged workers to think of themselves as sharing interests with employers.
(c) The establishment of the factory system and its large size increased the net benefits
of separating the interests of the workers and employers.
(d) Earlier in U.S. history, the laws forbade workers from organizing to promote their
own interests and, therefore, labor could not achieve a recognized identity.
The command economy of World War I (1914″18) possessed which of the following
traits?
(a) Decentralized decision-making in the markets
(b) The creation of many state agencies
(c) Volunteers for the armed forces
(d) Centralized decision making by bureaucrats
During the international crises of 1837 and 1857,
(a) the U.S. and England were connected financially.
(b) the British were pursuing heavy internal improvements.
(c) the U.S. was in the midst of heavy industrial expansion.
(d) all of the above were true.
The growth of cities was due to the existence of important scale economies, which
include all of the following except
(a) Central water and sewer systems
(b) Education systems
(c) Crime, congestion and pollution
(d) Police and fire protection
The Navigation Acts (1651 and later amendments) were part of the contemporary
European commercial policy theory called
(a) laissez-faire.
(b) mercantilism.
(c) commercialism.
(d) classical liberalism.
According to the Quantity Theory of Money, the excessive printing of currency (the
issuance of greenbacks and national bank notes) generated the post-Civil War increases
in
(a) productivity.
(b) prices.
(c) production.
(d) rising real wages and incomes for all individuals.
In the four decades from 1860 to 1900, the U.S. population nearly tripled. Real Gross
Domestic Product (GDP)
(a) fell by more than the amount by which the population increased.
(b) fell by the same amount by which the population increased.
(c) rose at about the same rate as the population increase.
(d) increased by even more than the population increase.
By the 1830s, young women and children
(a) were a very important portion of the industrial work force, about 40%.
(b) were a minor portion of the industrial work force, about 10%.
(c) were a moderate portion of the industrial work force, about 25%.
(d) were not a part of the “industrial” work force because legislation forbade it in order
to protect young women and children.
Money serves the following function(s):
(a) Medium of exchange
(b) Store of value
(c) Unit of account
(d) All of the above