Ricardo versus Tooke

In chapter 4 of Charles Rist’s History of Monetary and Credit Theory: from John Law to the Present Day (1940), the monetary thought of ‘Tooke the historian’ is compared favourably to that of ‘Ricardo the logician’. To quote Rist:

On almost every point Tooke takes the opposite view to Ricardo. ‘Abstract arguments’, as Tooke is pleased to call Ricardo’s reasoning, find no place in his book [i.e. History of Prices]. His conclusions are always preceded by a detailed description and analysis of facts, and are so superior to and so much more comprehensive than the Ricardian simplifications as to make the latter seem unrecognisable. History and theory go hand in hand.

(Rist 1940: 180)