13 Facts About Thomas Tooke

Thomas Tooke was an English economist known for writing on money and economic statistics.

Thomas Tooke was an early director of the London and Birmingham Railway.

Thomas Tooke took no serious part in discussion of economic questions until 1819, when he gave evidence before committees of both Houses of Parliament on the resumption of cash payments by the Bank of England.

Thomas Tooke was one of the earliest supporters of the free trade movement which assumed the form in the petition of the merchants of the City of London presented to the House of Commons by Alexander Baring, on 8 May 1820.

Thomas Tooke thought that by some changes in the management of the Bank of England, coupled with the compulsory maintenance of a much larger reserve of bullion, more satisfactory results would be achieved.

Besides giving evidence on economic questions before several parliamentary committees, such as those of 1821 on agricultural depression and on foreign trade, of 1832,1840, and 1848 on the Bank Acts, Thomas Tooke was a member of the factories inquiry commission of 1833.

Thomas Tooke retired from active business on his own account in 1836, but was governor of the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation from 1840 to 1852, and was chairman of the St Katharine's Dock Company.

Thomas Tooke was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1821, and membre correspondant de l'Institut de France in February 1853.

Thomas Tooke resided in London at 12 Russell Square, then later in Richmond Terrace, and at 31 Spring Gardens, where he died on 26 February 1858.

Thomas Tooke entered on a detailed examination of the causes which might affect prices, and claimed to establish the conclusion that the variations, both during the period of restriction and after the resumption, were due to circumstances directly connected with the commodities themselves, and not to alterations in the quantity of money.

Thomas Tooke's conclusions were that the high prices which, speaking generally, ruled between 1793 and 1814 were due to a relatively large number of unfavourable seasons, coupled with the obstructions to trade which were created by the Napoleonic Wars; while the lower range of prices in the subsequent years was attributable to a series of more prolific seasons, the removal of the state of war, and improvement in the processes of manufacture and industry.

The later volumes record of the steps by which Thomas Tooke gradually severed himself from the supporters of the currency theory, the direct heirs of the bullionists of 1810 and 1819.

Thomas Tooke married, in 1802, Priscilla Combe, by whom he had three sons.