Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T08:12:58.279Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Thomas Tooke, Henry Thornton, and the Development of British Monetary Orthodoxy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Neil T. Skaggs
Neil T. Skaggs
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790–4200.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The first half of the nineteenth century in Great Britain was one of nearly continuous controversy over monetary issues. The Restriction of Cash Payments and the Bullion Controversy dominated the first two decades. After Resumption in 1821, a series of banking crises kept monetary issues on the front burner, until they boiled over again in the Currency-Banking Controversy of the 1840s. Of the many writers contributing to the monetary literature during the period, few contributed so much as Thomas Tooke. Long recognized as a collector of economic data without peer in his era, Tooke's reputation as an economic theorist has grown in recent years (cf. Laidler 1972; Arnon 1991; M. Smith 2001). Readers of Tooke's works have long known that his views on monetary theory changed radically from the 1820s to the 1840s, when he adopted a starkly anti-quantity theory approach. In his early years as a collector of economic data, Tooke allied himself with David Ricardo in the effort to return Great Britain to the gold standard. But though both subscribed to the quantity-theory/price-specie-flow-mechanism (QT-PSFM) framework for analyzing the economy's adjustment to monetary disturbances, their theoretical approaches differed in important respects. The differences were great enough to lead Arnon (1989, 1991) to conclude that Tooke and Ricardo should be viewed primarily as political, not theoretical, allies and to suggest that Tooke's approach shared greater affinities with the work of moderate bullionists than with Ricardo (Arnon 1991, pp. 48, 58, 108).

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , June 2003 , pp. 177 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Angell, James W. 1926. The Theory of International Prices. New York: Sentry Press. Reprinted Fairfield, NJ: A.M. Kelley, 1965.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnon, Arie. 1989. “The Early Tooke and Ricardo: A Political Alliance and First Signs of Theoretical Disagreements.” History of Political Economy 21 (Spring): 1–14.Google Scholar
Arnon, Arie. 1991. Thomas Tooke: Pioneer of Monetary Theory. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagehot, Walter. 1873. Lombard Street. London: P.S. King. Reprinted Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1962.Google Scholar
de Boyer, Jérôme. 1998. “Endogenous Money and Shareholders' Funds in the Classical Theory of Banking.” European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 5 (Spring): 60–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassidy, Mark. 1998a. “John Fullarton's ‘Response to a Proposal for a Bank of India’.” European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 5 (Autumn): 480–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassidy, Mark. 1998b. “The Development of John Fullarton's Monetary Theory.” European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 5 (Autumn): 509–35.Google Scholar
Duffy, Ian P. H. 1982. “The Discount Policy of the Bank of England during the Suspension of Cash Payments, 1797–1821.” Economic History Review ser. 2, 35 (02): 67–82.Google Scholar
Fetter, Frank W. 1955. The Irish Pound. London and Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Fetter, Frank W. 1978. The Development of British Monetary Orthodoxy, 1797–1875. Fairfield, NJ: A.M. Kelley, 1965.Google Scholar
Frenkel, Jacob A. and Johnson, Harry G.. 1976. “The Monetary Approach to the Balance of Payments: Essential Concepts and Historical Origins.” In Frenkel, J.A. and Johnson, H.G., eds., The Monetary Approach to the Balance of Payments. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Fullarton, John. 1845. On the Regulation of Currencies. London: John Murray. Reprinted New York: A.M. Kelley, 1969.Google Scholar
Glasner, David. 1985. “A Reinterpretation of Classical Monetary Theory.” Southern Economic Journal 52 (07): 46–67.Google Scholar
Glasner, David. 1989. “On Some Classical Monetary Controversies.” History of Political Economy 21 (Summer): 201–29.Google Scholar
Grubel, Herbert G. 1961. “Ricardo and Thornton on the Transfer Mechanism.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 75: 292–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hume, David. 1985. “Of Money.” In Essays Moral, Political, and Literary, edited by Miller, Eugene F.. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Classics.Google Scholar
Laidler, David. 1972. “Thomas Tooke on Monetary Reform.” In Peston, Maurice and Corry, Bernard, eds., Essays in Honour of Lord Robbins. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Laidler, David. 1988. “British Monetary Orthodoxy in the 1870s.” Oxford Economic Papers 40 (1): 74–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malthus, Thomas Robert. 1811. “Depreciation of Paper Currency.” Edinburgh Review XVII (02): 339–72.Google Scholar
Mason, Will E. 1957. “Ricardo's Transfer-Mechanism Theory.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 71 (02): 107–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, D.P. 1994. “Introduction” to Foundations of Monetary Economics, Vol. IV: The Currency School. London: William Pickering.Google Scholar
Pressnell, L. S. 1956. Country Banking in the Industrial Revolution. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Ricardo, David. 1816. Proposals for an Economical and Secure Currency. In Sraffa, Piero, ed., Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. IV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962, pp. 43–141.Google Scholar
Santiago-Valiente, Wilfredo. 1988. “Historical Background of the Classical Monetary Theory and the ‘Real-Bills’ Banking Tradition.” History of Political Economy 20 (Spring): 43–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silberling, Norman. 1919. “British Financial Experience, 1790–1830.” Review of Economics and Statistics 1 (10): 282–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skaggs, Neil T. 1991. “John Fullarton's Law of Reflux and Central Bank Policy.” History of Political Economy 23 (Fall): 457–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skaggs, Neil T. 1994. “The Place of J. S. Mill in the Development of British Monetary Orthodoxy.” History of Political Economy 26 (Winter): 539–67.Google Scholar
Skaggs, Neil T. 1995. “Henry Thornton and the Development of Classical Monetary Economics.” Canadian Journal of Economics 28.4b (11): 1212–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skaggs, Neil T. 1999. “Changing Views: Twentieth-Century Opinion on the Banking School-Currency School Controversy.” History of Political Economy 31 (Summer): 361–91.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. 1776. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 1976.Google Scholar
Smith, Matthew. 2001. “Endogenous Money, Interest and Prices: Tooke's Monetary Thought Revisited.” Contributions to Political Economy 20: 31–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Earl A. 1974. “The Theory of Money and Income Consistent with Orthodox Value Theory.” In Horwich, George and Samuelson, Paul A., eds., Trade, Stability, and Macroeconomics. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Thornton, Henry. 1802. An Enquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Paper Credit of Great Britain, edited with an Introduction by Hayek, Friedrich A.. Fairfield, NJ: A.M. Kelley, 1978.Google Scholar
Tooke, Thomas. 1824. Thoughts and Details on the High and Low Prices of the Thirty Years from 1793 to 1822, 2nd edition. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Tooke, Thomas. 1826. Considerations on the State of the Currency, 2nd edition. London: John Murray. Reprinted New York: Garland, 1983.Google Scholar
Tooke, Thomas. 1844. An Inquiry into the Currency Principle. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.Google Scholar
Tooke, Thomas. 1848. A History of Prices, and of the State of the Circulation, from 1839 to 1847 Inclusive, Vol. 4. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. Reprinted New York: Johnson Reprint Corp, 1972.Google Scholar
Tooke, Thomas and Newmarch, William. 1857. A History of Prices and of the State of the Circulation, During the Nine Years 1848–1856, Vol. 5. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. Reprinted New York: Johnson Reprint Corp, 1972.Google Scholar
Viner, Jacob. 1924. Canada's Balance of International Indebtedness 1900–1913. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar