His first published work was an attack on
Methodism. Tucker became conspicuous in the controversy which arose in 1771 as to the proposed abolition of clerical subscription to the
Thirty-Nine Articles. He defended the
Church of England against
Andrew Kippis, but said that some relaxation of the terms of subscription was desirable. After some early tracts he first became generally known by pamphlets in favour of the measures for naturalising foreign Protestants and
Jews, a view so unpopular that he was burnt in effigy at Bristol along with his pamphlets. He made his name as an economist with
A Brief Essay on the Advantages and Disadvantages which Respectively Attend France and Great Britain, with Regard to Trade (1749). It was translated into French and may have influenced the later French
physiocrats (
economistes). Tucker had a reputation for his knowledge of trade, and in 1755 was asked by
Thomas Hayter, then
bishop of Norwich and royal preceptor, to draw up a treatise called
Elements of Commerce and the Theory of Taxes for the instruction of the future King (
George III of Great Britain). A fragment was privately printed, but it was never completed. In 1757, he published a prescriptive travel guide called
Instructions for Travellers. It was part of a larger, unpublished work also related to economics, probably requested by Thomas Hayter. The
Instructions includes discussions of both moral and practical aspects of travel, as well as appropriate ways of recording observations. He opposed warfare on economic grounds. In 1763 Tucker published a tract against ‘going to war for the sake of trade,’ which was translated by
Turgot, who had previously translated one of the naturalisation pamphlets, and
The Elements of Commerce and Theory of Taxes (privately printed, 1755),translated as
Questions sur le commerce in 1753. He wrote in complimentary terms to Tucker some years later, and sent him a copy of the 'Réflexions sur la Formation des Richesses'. He mentions a visit of Tucker to Paris, but they were not personally acquainted. His assertion as early as 1749 that the American colonies would seek independence as soon as they no longer needed Britain has brought him to the attention of American historians. He consistently wrote in favour of American independence through the American Revolutionary War. He wrote pamphlets, including
A Series of Answers to Certain Popular Objections Against Separating from the Rebellious Colonies (1776). Tucker argued with both
Edmund Burke and
John Wilkes over attitudes to Britain's American colonies and took a distinctive position on the
American War of Independence. As early as 1766, he thought a separation inevitable. But he was also hostile to the Americans. He maintained in pamphlets that a separation from the colonies was desirable. He held that the supposed advantage of the colonial trade to the mother country was a delusion. On the other hand, he maintained that the colonies turned adrift would fall out with each other, and be glad to return to political union. The policy pleased nobody in England, and Tucker, though his views were approved in later years by many of the
laisser-faire economists, was for a time treated as a
Cassandra, a name under which he published in the newspapers. The most popular of his American tracts was
Cui Bono? in the form of letters addressed to
Jacques Necker (1781), arguing that the war was a mistake for all the nations concerned. In political theory he was an opponent of the
social contract theory which held all the mainstream writers of his day. In 1781 he published
A Treatise Concerning Civil Government, attacking
John Locke's principles as tending to democracy, and supporting the British constitution. In 1785 he again applied his theories to the disputes about Irish trade with Great Britain. Tucker was an advocate for increase in British population, to the extent that he advocated a tax on bachelors; he welcomed immigrants and regretted the emigration to America. He embraced the
free market, writing against monopoly in all its forms including the exclusive rights of overseas trading companies like the
East India Company, decrying restrictive guild rules of apprenticeship, the
Navigation Acts and other impediments to the rule of the unfettered marketplace. ==Family==