Arthur Kitson

Arthur Kitson (6 April 1859, London – 2 October 1937) was a British monetary theorist and inventor.

Early life

Arthur Kitson, M.E., was born in London, England ... He is the fourth son of James Kitson, Esq., of London and cousin of Sir James Kitson, Baronet ... Arthur Kitson was educated by private tutors and at King's College, London, where he won the Whitworth scholarship in a competitive examination, being second out of 600 contestants. He came to the United States immediately after college, and was engaged by the Baldwin Locomotive Company of Philadelphia.[1]

He married Fannie Ernestina Aschenbach in Spring Garden, Philadelphia on 25 March 1886.[2] They had seven children but eventually divorced.[3]

Arthur Kitson knew William Jennings Bryan personally and in Pennsylvania worked for Bryan's U.S. Presidential campaign in 1896.[4]

Career

He was the managing director of the Kitson Empire Lighting Company of Stamford, Lincolnshire and held many patents.

In 1901, he invented the vaporised oil burner. The fuel was vaporised at high pressure and burned to heat the mantle, giving an output of over six times the luminosity of traditional oil lights. This device was later improved by David Hood at Trinity House.

Banking research

Kitson was invited to contribute critical testimony to the Cunliffe Currency Committee in January 1919. In place of oral testimony, he published his criticism at his own expense and furnished copies to every member of the committee.[5] He later formed the Economic Freedom League with Frederick Soddy and was active in this venture through the 1920s.[6]

Later life

He was declared bankrupt in 1925.[7]

Kitson's antisemitism and fascism

Kitson became convinced Jewish bankers were the cause of his bankruptcy and most of the world's miseries. He sent Ezra Pound a copy of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion even before Pound changed from a money radical to a notorious anti-Semite.

By the time of his death in 1937, Arthur Kitson was the second most influential fascist in Britain, the first being Oswald Mosley. In his late years he was brought to Germany to consult with Nazi party economists.[8]

Works

Published under pseudonym "A Fellow Pilgrim".

Pamphlets

  • Usury (Payment for the Use of Things): The Prime Cause of Want and Unemployment. s.n., 1910.
  • Is a Money Crisis Imminent?: Being the Becture Delivered under the Auspices of the Banking and Currency Reform League at the New Reform Club, 1 November. Commercial Intelligence Publ. Co., 1911.
  • England's Trade Barrier! The Bank Charter Act: An Address Delivered to the Members of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, at the Grand Hotel, Birmingham, 17 December 1917. Hudson & Son, 1917.
  • Reconstruction Through Banking Reform. Cornish Echo Company, 1918.
  • Renewal of the Bank of England Charter: How the Present Banking System Restricts Trade. Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, 1918.
  • A Criticism of the First Interim Report of the Committee on Currency and Foreign Exchanges. British Banking Reform League, 1919.
  • The Treasury's Latest Craze. Unwin, 1920.
  • A Letter to H.R.H. The Prince of Wales on the World Crisis – Its Cause, and Remedy. Oxford: Alden Press, 1931.
  • The Science of Plenty, s.n.

Articles

Further reading

  • Cowen, Tyler & Kroszner, Randall. "The Development of the New Monetary Economics", Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 95(3), June 1987.
  • Fisher, Irving. Stable Money; a History of the Movement, Adelphi, 1934.
  • Hammes, David & Wills, Douglas. "Thomas Edison's 'Except One'; The Monetary Views of Arthur Kitson Revisited", Journal of Economic Studies, Vol. 32(1), 2005.
  • Surette, Leon. "Arthur Kitson", Pound in Purgatory: From Radical Economics to Anti-Semitism, Chap. X, University of Illinois Press, 1999.
  • Wales, Wendy. "Arthur Kitson, Cook's Biographer". Captain Cook Society.

See also

References

  1. "The Kitson Incandescent Oil Lamp". The Banker's Magazine. 60: 930–934. June 1900.
  2. Wales, Wendy. "Arthur Kitson, Cook's Biographer". Captain Cook Society.
    Arthur Octavius Kitson (1848–1915?), the biographer of Captain James Cook, married Linda Elizabeth Douglas Leroy in August 1881 in Australia. "Arthur Octavius Kitson - KangaWeb" (PDF). fretwell.kangaweb.com.au.
  3. "Arthur Kitson-Fannie Ernestina Aschenbach". www.british-genealogy.com.
  4. I Cease Not to Yowl: Ezra Pound's Letters to Olivia Rossetti Agresti. University of Illinois Press. 1998. p. 13.
  5. A. F. “Concerning the Author and his Work.” In: The Bankers' Conspiracy! Which Started the World Order, by Arthur Kitson. London: Elliot Stock (1933), pp. 7–. Audiobook available.
  6. Scott, John, and Ray Bromley. Envisioning Sociology: Victor Branford, Patrick Geddes, and the Quest for Social Reconstruction. New York: State University of New York Press (January 2, 2014), p. 204. ISBN 978-1438447308.
  7. London Gazette Issue 33409 published on 3 July 1928, page 94 covers discharge from bankruptcy from 3 August 1928
  8. gpzero. "Arthur Kitson, Inventor & Asshole." blipfoto (February 2, 2013). Archived from the original.
  9. Dietrick, Hellen Battelle. "A Standard of Value" The American Magazine of Civics, Vol. VII, 1895.
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