ABSTRACT
The Political Economy Club was founded in London in the year 1821, chiefly by the exertions of the late Thomas Tooke, F.R.S., (who died February 1858, aged 84) and as a consequence of the discussions which arose out of the interest excited by the presentation on 8th May, 1820, in the House of Commons, by Mr. Alexander Baring (afterwards Lord Ashburnham), one of the members for the City, of the famous Petition of the Merchants of London in favour of Free Trade – a document of which Mr. Tooke was the author.
