ABSTRACT
This book incorporates the substance of several of Arie Arnon’s published articles (1984, 1987, 1989). Part I sets the theoretical and factual stage, relying heavily on Feavearyear (1963) for the latter, and includes a chapter on Ricardian monetary thought. Part II on Tooke the Follower’—of mainstream monetary theory, largely Ricardo (excluding the posthumous paper Plan of a National Bank)—takes the preparatory material further by outlining Tooke’s pre-Banking School views in what is called the ‘stable conceptual framework’ of his first published work, Thoughts and Details on the High and Low Prices of the Last Thirty Years (1823) through the first two volumes of A History of Prices and of the State of the Circulation…(1838). But the core of the book is to be found in parts III and IV. Part III (‘Tooke, the Innovator’) contains three chapters-one on Tookean Banking School principles as they appear in An Inquiry into the Currency Principle (1844), a second on the transition to those principles which Arnon dates largely from 1838 (though in part II reference is made to some early dissensions from Ricardian orthodoxy even in the 1820s), and a third on the post-1844 years. Part IV (‘An Attempt at Perspective’) comprises two chapters: one on Tooke’s knowledge of price trends considering his neglect or ignorance of index numbers; and the second, which contains the substance of the OEP paper, on the applicability of the competitive solution to money and credit.
