Quiz: The National System of Political Economy

All 50 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. Which country, according to List, alone had reached the last stage, the return to free trade?

   France Great Britain The United States The German states
2. 2. What example does List give of foreign legislation already directing German industry?

   France’s ban on German books and newspapers, and its high duties on German cloth England’s exclusion of German corn and heavy duties on German wool, wine and timber The United States’ tax on German shipping and its duties on German hardware Russia’s prohibition of German emigration and its tolls on the Vistula trade
3. 3. How does List characterise political economy as it stood in his day, in the view of its critical readers?

   As a mere offshoot of the physiocratic system As an astrology yet to become an astronomy As a mere branch of moral theology and natural law As a completed science, needing no additions after Smith and Say
4. 4. What does List identify as the main cause of the American commercial crises of the 1830s?

   The paper-money issues of the American banks alone, quite apart from any question of tariffs Imports far exceeding exports once the Compromise Bill cut duties A fall in British demand for American timber and grain, caused by war Excessive spending on canals and railways
5. 5. What does List say called the more recent systems of protection into existence?

   The writings of Adam Smith, which taught the agricultural nations their own interest The discovery of America, which opened new markets for the manufactures of Europe The founding of the Bank of England, which gave credit to new manufacturing ventures War, which acted like a prohibitive tariff by cutting off foreign manufactures
6. 6. In his 1786 argument for the Eden Treaty, how did Pitt (as List reports) say England and France should behave towards each other?

   Like two rival fleets competing for the carrying trade Like two great merchants in different branches of trade Like a mother country and its colonies Like a city and its surrounding countryside
7. 7. What does List’s German proverb about the collar and the stomach illustrate?

   Visible goods like clothing spur emulation more than food Luxury laws protect public morals Workers should spend less on fine clothing and more on food Manufactures matter less than agriculture
8. 8. Which of England’s “less important articles” did List say France was duped into admitting?

   Linen yarn and fabrics Cotton yarn Coal, pig-iron and hardware Silk goods
9. 9. How did Villèle reportedly answer Canning’s invitation to follow England’s freer trade?

   France could not lower duties while the Corn Laws remained France would accept free trade in exchange for British wine duties being abolished France would open its market only once its manufactures no longer needed protection France’s protective system was required by the Holy Alliance
10. 10. Why, according to List, is power more important than wealth?

    Because a powerful state can borrow more cheaply abroad Because power can be bought more cheaply than wealth Because wealth is always spent unproductively Because power opens new productive sources and protects what a nation has
11. 11. Under which ruler did the Privy Council abolish the privileges of the “Merchants of the Steelyard”?

    James I Edward III Henry VII Edward VI
12. 12. Where does List say Ricardo could have seen that his theory of rent was "based on sand"?

    Ireland Canada Holland Prussia
13. 13. In List’s satire of a world of universal free trade, what would Germany supply to the “English world”?

    Coal, iron and machinery, from the Ruhr and the workshops of Saxony and Silesia Cotton cloth and linen for the colonies, carried in ships of the Hanseatic towns Children’s toys, wooden clocks, philological writings and sometimes an auxiliary corps Fine wines, a little millinery, and the silks and fancy goods of its southern towns
14. 14. How does List answer free traders who cite Switzerland’s prosperity without tariffs?

    Swiss prosperity comes entirely from mercenary pay and the trade of its overseas colonies Switzerland is a small special case, a conglomeration of municipalities making luxury goods Switzerland is in truth poor and declining, its industry ruined by English competition Switzerland actually levies very high tariffs, concealed as cantonal tolls and excise duties
15. 15. According to List, how does the value of land of equal natural fertility in England compare with that in Poland?

    It is twice as high in England It is about the same, since fertility is equal It is ten to twenty times higher in England It is higher in Poland, where rent takes a larger share of the produce
16. 16. By what measure does List say a nation’s civilisation and the value of its labour can be estimated most accurately?

    The number of its universities The value it attributes to time The amount of gold in its treasury The size of its army
17. 17. What image does List use for a nation that only practises agriculture?

    A tree without roots A man lacking one arm in material production A ship with sails and cargo but without a rudder to steer it A house built on sand
18. 18. What future did List predict for Britain once the United States surpassed it?

    Britain would have to lead a European coalition against America Britain would retreat into agriculture, like Holland Britain would ally with Russia to divide Asia Britain would be absorbed into the American Union
19. 19. What does List say is the real cause of productivity in Smith’s pin factory?

    Not merely the division of tasks but the use of steam-driven machinery at each stage Not the division of tasks but the large foreign market open to English-made pins Not merely the division of tasks but the union or co-operation of the workers’ powers Not the division of tasks but the low wages paid to the women and children employed
20. 20. What protective duty did List propose for German cotton and linen spinning?

    A prohibition of English yarn until Germany could export its own yarn About 25 per cent for some years, later lowered to 15–20 per cent No duty, but subsidies for spinning mills A permanent duty of 60 per cent
21. 21. Where, according to List, must a navy find its able sailors?

    In naval academies alone In the merchant marine, coastal shipping and sea fisheries In conscripted farm labourers drilled like land troops In foreign mercenary crews
22. 22. Why did List prefer German emigration to Central and South America over emigration to North America?

    The United States forbade German immigration Land in South America was cheaper and more fertile than in the American West Emigrants to the United States are assimilated and lost to Germany The climate of North America is unsuited to the habits of German farmers
23. 23. Which earlier economist does List praise as superior to Say on the main points, especially the effect of politics on wealth?

    Antonio Serra Gaetano Filangieri Cesare Beccaria Count Pecchio
24. 24. What does List call the Eden Treaty of 1786?

    A second edition of the Methuen Treaty The beginning of the Continental blockade A treaty that ruined the English wine trade The foundation of Colbert’s system
25. 25. According to List, what is the historical relation between political and commercial union?

    Commercial union has always come first, and has gradually produced political union The two have always been established at the same moment by treaty Political union has always come first, and commercial union has followed History offers no examples of either kind of union
26. 26. How did England treat Indian cotton and silk fabrics, according to List?

    It admitted them freely to keep wages low It taxed them only lightly, to protect the Indian weavers’ livelihood It banned them at home but supplied them cheaply to the Continent It bought them only for re-export to America
27. 27. What test does List propose for whether a nation lacks the conditions for a manufacturing industry?

    The industry cannot begin exporting within five years of receiving its first protective duty from the state The industry cannot match English prices within a decade, even behind a moderate tariff The industry cannot be established behind 40–60 per cent protection or survive behind 20–30 per cent The industry needs any protective duty at all, however small, to hold its own home market
28. 28. In List’s parable of two landowning fathers, which one acts according to the theory of productive powers?

    The one who puts his savings out at interest The one who buys more land for each of his sons The one who spends his savings educating his sons in farming and trades The one who leaves the most exchangeable value, in money and land, at his death
29. 29. To what does List compare Germany as long as Holland stays outside the German Union?

    A ship without a harbour A body without a head A house the door of which belongs to a stranger A cask tapped and drained on every side
30. 30. According to Lloyd, what is the fundamental idea of List’s theory?

    Unconditional free trade for any nation once it has built a strong navy Protective duties on food, raw materials and manufactures alike, at uniformly high rates Prohibition of all foreign imports until home industry is fully mature Free food and raw materials; moderate protection for manufactures
31. 31. What does List say he did when he went to the United States?

    He translated Adam Smith for American readers He studied the American customs-house records He taught political economy at Harvard He cast all books aside and studied “actual life”
32. 32. What, according to List, does a nation that has reached the summit of greatness typically do?

    Kicks away the ladder by which it climbed, so others cannot follow Lends its surplus capital to its weaker rivals Opens its colonies to the trade of all nations Lowers its own tariffs only in exchange for equal concessions from its rivals
33. 33. How does List answer Smith’s argument that what is prudent for a family cannot be folly for a kingdom?

    What is folly for a family may be wisdom for a nation He argues that a kingdom is merely the sum of its families He says private families should then also impose tariffs on one another He accepts it for all nations at every stage
34. 34. How does List treat Say’s view of foreign export bounties?

    He likens them to the silken cords a Sultan sends his pashas He agrees that they are simply gifts to consumers He proposes that Germany answer them with export bounties of its own He says they have no lasting effect on the receiving nation at all
35. 35. What point does List illustrate by saying the merchant imports poisons as readily as medicines?

    The merchant’s gain can conflict with the nation’s productive powers Only the state, never private merchants, should import medicines and drugs Free trade improves public health Merchants should be banned from foreign trade and replaced by state agents
36. 36. What, according to List, really harmed Venice?

    Introducing protection at all, which stifled her early trade The free-trade policy she followed in her early centuries Keeping protection after the reasons for it had passed The loss of her maritime code to Pisa
37. 37. On which earlier tariff, according to List, is the Zollverein tariff substantially based?

    The Austrian tariff of Joseph II The Prussian tariff of 1818 The American tariff of 1828 The French tariff of Colbert
38. 38. According to List, which transitions are best achieved by free commerce, and which need the power of the state?

    Free trade carries a nation to the beginnings of manufacture; developed industry, a marine and large foreign trade need the state Neither free trade nor protection matters; nations pass between the stages by the growth of population alone State intervention is needed at every stage, from barbarism through pasturage and agriculture to manufacture Free trade suits only advanced nations; the passage from barbarism to agriculture needs the state
39. 39. Why, in List’s account, did Poland fail to develop a manufacturing power?

    Its climate was too harsh and its soil too poor to support a large manufacturing population It had no navigable rivers or coast, and so could neither obtain raw materials nor reach markets Its kings imposed prohibitive tariffs on all imports, stifling the trade that feeds industry Its aristocracy preferred to export grain produced by serfs and import cheap foreign manufactures
40. 40. What one thing, according to List, did medieval Italy lack to become what England later became?

    Skilled seamen and shipbuilders for a navy of her own A common system of banking, coinage and exchange National union and the power springing from it Access to raw materials
41. 41. Which of these is not among the defects List finds in Napoleon’s Continental system?

    It lowered French tariffs too far against English goods France claimed free competition abroad while protecting itself It sought a French Continental supremacy in place of the English maritime one It almost destroyed trade between Continental manufacturers and tropical countries
42. 42. To what does List compare England’s position when gold leaves the country?

    A poor man who is drawn upon by the rich A colony supported in hard times by its mother country A miser hoarding coin in a strongbox A rich banker drawing on business connections at will
43. 43. What did England grant Portugal under the Methuen Treaty?

    A monopoly of the slave trade to Brazil and Angola Exemption for Portuguese ships from the Navigation Laws Free import of Portuguese cloth and linen into English markets Wine duty one-third lower than other wines
44. 44. What did Bowring’s report, as List reads it, tell the English landowners in Parliament?

    Their Corn Laws had aided German industry and must be repealed Germany would buy more English goods if the Royal Navy were enlarged The Zollverein was a purely fiscal union, with low duties that posed no danger German protection would soon collapse by itself, without any action
45. 45. What did List show with the American cotton exports of 1816 and 1826?

    The tariff of 1828 had reduced cotton exports by half Exports more than doubled in quantity while their value barely rose Cotton prices doubled because of English demand American cotton was steadily being replaced by Indian cotton in English mills
46. 46. What did List conclude from the Continental System and its abolition?

    Blockades always ruin the nations that impose them, never their targets Free-trade theory is true only if all nations reciprocate Free trade between the provinces of one state is as harmful as between nations Agriculture prospers most when a nation imports all its manufactures
47. 47. What does List call the most serious blow to Dutch commerce?

    The Methuen Treaty of 1703 The fall of Antwerp The loss of Brazil The Continental blockade
48. 48. What happened to the Hanseatic towns’ surplus commercial capital once they were shut out of foreign markets?

    It was invested in German agriculture It founded manufactures in the Baltic towns It was lent to the German emperor It flowed to Holland and England, enriching their rivals
49. 49. What image does List use for a new manufacturing nation competing freely with England?

    A child or boy wrestling with a strong man A tree whose fruit grows on the twig A shoemaker’s apprentice learning his trade Wine grown in greenhouses in a cold climate
50. 50. What did Bowring himself admit, according to List, about German goods made under the Zollverein tariff?

    They cost consumers 20 to 60 per cent more than imports They could be sold only within Prussia They were both better and cheaper than the foreign ones They were cheaper but much inferior in quality