Thomas Tooke

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, son of the chaplain of the English factory of that city. After a brief education, Tooke became involved as a merchant in the Russia trade.

During the depths of an economic depression of 1820, Thomas Tooke drafted and organized the famous London Merchants' Petition, signed by numerous London merchants, bankers and classical economists. It was presented to parliament on May 8, 1820 under the sponsorship of Alexander Baring, MP. The petition called for the repeal of the Corn Laws and other protectionist restrictions, as harmful to British industry. The petition notably rejects the doctrine of reciprocity, the use of trade barriers as diplomatic negotiating tokens, and notes that trade barriers are injurious to Britain, regardless of what foreign countries do ("our restrictions would not be the less prejudicial to our own capital and industry, because other Government persisted in preserving impolitic regulations"). Tooke's petition is normally credited as kicking off the British free-trade movement, Tooke subsequently became the leading organizer of the Political Economy Club of London, founded in 1821.

In the 1820s, Tooke emerged as the leading figure of the English "Banking School" during the Bullionist Controversy. He rejected the Quantity Theory without actually developed a clear monetary theory of his own.

Tooke is particularly renowned for the magnificent compilation of economic statistics, esp. the corn prices, in his monumental six-volume History of Prices (1838 to 1857, last two volumes edited with William Newmarch).

Although Tooke’s support of the gold standard remained unwavering, his study of prices gradually led him to the view that bank-created money is a result and not a cause of price changes, thereby adopting one of the basic tenets of the antibullionist position. Thus, unlike the other bullionists and in contrast to his earlier views, Tooke opposed the Bank Charter Act of 1844, which greatly limited the discretion of the Bank of England over the supply of currency. Tooke held that its rigid limits neglected deposits and caused damaging fluctuations in the rate of interest.