ABSTRACT

The development of the study of economics at Oxford duringroughly-the last third of the nineteenth century, was largely determined by its association with the School of Modern History.1 The 1850 statutes had established that while an honours degree in arts could only be obtained by reading Literae Humaniores (Greats), students could also take courses from different Schools. These new SchoolsMathematics and Physics, Natural Science, and Law and Modern History-although not yet fully-fledged Honours Schools, were generally regarded as a way of rounding off an Oxford education with additional evidence of scholarly attainment. This later led to the custom amongst Oxford’s more ambitious arts students of reading for more than one Honours School, the one remaining Greats, the prestige of which survived later reforms unchallenged.