—submit papers by 3:00 p.m. to my mailbox in Ballantine 704

How have people at a particular place and time in the past understood money’s value?  What questions have they raised about it?  What have they understood the limits on money’s usefulness to be?  Use at least one (you may use more) of the texts listed below to answer these questions, remembering that different authors made different arguments and that various strategies for asserting or establishing the meaning of money may contradict, as well as re-enforce, each other.

Your paper should mainly provide a close analysis of the particular text(s) you have chosen.  In order to do so, however, you will need to take contexts into consideration, as well.  That is, the substance of Jevons’s analysis of barter (say) may seem to you  immediately intelligible, but telling me what he wrote is not the same as explaining why he was writing.  In order to understand Jevons’s Money and the Mechanisms of Exchange you need to ask yourself: Why was he writing? What made it seem worthwhile to write this text at that time? For what audience was he writing?  

In your paper, you need to pay attention not only to what the author writes, but how he writes: what sort of language does he use, what figures of speech?  Remember that an author probably does not state his assumptions, but that those may well be an important element of his argument (and may be revealed by recurrent metaphors, or otherwise odd seeming choice of words).  In other words, try to analyze the text’s implicit, as well as explicit, claims.

Implicit claims (that is, notions that are implied but never directly stated) may be revealed by casual or passing references.  Or, you may be able to begin unpacking them by noticing what is absent from a text.  For instance, Adam Smith’s account of the workplace—whether it’s the pin factory or the farmyard full of sauntering bumpkins—refers only to men.  Yet we know that women were also present in eighteenth-century British workplaces (and that women and children formed the bulk of the workforce in the early nineteenth-century textile industry, that central example of the division of labour.) So what does women’s absence from Smith’s text reveal about The Wealth of Nations? At the very least, you might argue that it shows Smith is describing “ideal types” rather than actually existing realities; moreover, you might want to comment on why/how the gendering of work (and wealth) is part of Smith’s ideal.  In order to do this, you will probably again need to know more about Smith’s context. You might want first to do a fast on-line search for “Scottish Enlightenment” or “eighteenth-century England AND labor relations,” but remember that Wikipedia (for instance) will mainly give you an introduction to the topic and that more in-depth analysis will require consulting a range of books or articles.  If you have a specific question in mind, please feel free to ask me for bibliographical suggestions, but do not expect me to write your paper for you.  In other words: I will NOT answer the question “What should I read?” but I will try to help answer the question, “What should I read to learn how many pins were actually made and sold in eighteenth-century Britain?”  

In short, while your paper should provide an in-depth analysis of one or two texts, you will probably only be able to do that by using other works, as well. Make sure that you provide full and accurate foot/endnote references for any quotations and for any argument that is not your own.  You should also append a bibliography that lists every work (website, book, article) that you consulted for this paper. [SEE HERE for guidance on reference and bibliography format and content.]

Your paper should be 6-8 pages long (double-spaced, in an eleven- or twelve-point font, with standard width margins).  In terms of page length, the bibliography does not count as part of your paper.  Papers that are significantly under or over length may be penalized.  Finally, please remember to give your paper an appropriate and evocative title.  “Honors H-304: First Paper” does not give a very clear indication of your paper’s subject and argument! FURTHER GUIDANCE ON PAPER WRITING IS AVAILABLE. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask them.

I would hope to get the papers back to you within two weeks.  I am in the habit of returning papers to students in one-on-one meetings (lasting 10-20 minutes), so that we can have a sustained discussion about your paper.  I realize it may be difficult to schedule mutually convenient meetings and that you might find such a session intimidating. If you prefer, I can simply hand you your paper at the end of class and you can e-mail me with any questions. 

RECOMMENDED TEXTS:
Walter Bagehot, Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market (1873)
David Hume, “On Money,” “On the Balance of Trade,” “On Taxes,” “On Public Credit” in his Essays (1748).
William Stanley Jevons, Money and the Mechanisms of Exchange ALL OF IT.
John Law, Money and Trade Considered (1705).
John Locke, Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of
Interest and the Raising of the Value of Money (1691).
Jean-Charles-Leonard Simonde de Sismondi, Political Economy—especially chapter five, ‘On Money’ (1847 translation into English).

If you would prefer to write on another text—of comparable length and vintage—please let me know.

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT ANY OF THIS--please come talk with me or send me an e-mail. I try to answer my e-mail within twenty-four hours but please do not expect me to write the paper for you (that is, answer questions of the form "What should my paper say?") or deal with last minute crises caused by poor planning on your part.

Policy on Academic Honesty: Every paper must include consistently formatted endnotes or footnotes and a full bibliography.  Ignorance of scholarly reference form is no excuse and papers submitted without full references will be returned unmarked.  Plagiarism and misuse of sources constitute intellectual theft and will not be tolerated under any circumstances. If you have any doubts or concerns, consult the College website's page on avoiding plagiarism. REMEMBER: You must provide a reference for anything in your essay that is neither "common knowledge" nor your OWN original argument.