ABSTRACT

The class lists of the first examinations held in the Moral Sciences Tripos under the new statutes, seemed to belie Marshall’s confident assertion that many students, known to him personally, who had expressed an interest in reading advanced economics as offered in the Moral Sciences Tripos, Part II, had been deterred by compulsory metaphysics. In 1891, only one first class was awarded to a student-James Welton (1854-1942), winner of the Marshall Prize for 1891, who had also offered advanced political economy as his field of specialization.1 Not that Moral Sciences Part II proved in general very popular. There were two firsts and two seconds in 1891, one second in 1892 (plus one woman third),2 and one third in 1893.3 On the average, each class list consisted of more examiners than candidates. In a letter to Gonner from 1894, Marshall was forced to admit:

I do not think it can be said that Cambridge offers very high inducements to graduates or undergraduates to study Economics. Those who study it have a generally strong interest in it: from a pecuniary point of view they would generally find a better account in the study of something else. In particular the ablest students for our great Triposes-Mathematics, Classics and Natural Sciences-often think that they would rather diminish than increase their chance of a fellowship by taking up a new line of study: and they are generally advised to try to do some original work in that with which they are already familiar.4