Discussion of Report of the Economics Syndicate, 7 May 1903

Prof. Marshall said that he would like to add one suggestion to the admirable remarks which Mr Dickinson had made. It was that the Historical Tripos as at present constituted was an almost exclusively English Historical Tripos, especially on its economic side. That was because it had been found that in three years a student could not trace the detailed history over eight centuries of more than one country: any glances he might take at other countries must be hasty: and his studies were cut short for want of access to secret documents just about the time when the electric telegraph and other modern means of communication were leading up to the economic conditions of our own time. Economically the western world was now a single organism: so that no nation could understand its own economic problems without constant reference to the recent and contemporary international history of other countries. Recent international history was absolutely essential to the economist, and that was not represented at all in the Historical Tripos.

It was almost impossible to overrate the value of Historical Studies as an end in themselves. He hoped and believed that they would attract, as time went on, a largely increasing part of the best intellect of the world. But history to the economist was a means towards his ends, and they must consider what his ends were.