The Money Problem

In The Money Problem (1903), Arthur Kitson delivers a radical critique of orthodox economic theory and proposes a sweeping overhaul of the monetary system. He argues that traditional economists—especially followers of Adam Smith and David Ricardo—have misunderstood the nature of money, value, and interest, leading to widespread social and financial injustice. Kitson denounces gold and silver as unstable and inefficient standards of value, blaming their scarcity and production costs for economic volatility and poverty. He calls for the abolition of metallic money and advocates a system of mutual banking, where credit is issued freely to producers in the form of paper currency redeemable in all commodities—not just specie. This, he claims, would eliminate interest, which he equates with extortion, and restore economic fairness. The book is both a monetary manifesto and a moral indictment of the financial elite, whom Kitson portrays as monopolists manipulating credit to enrich themselves at the expense of society. His solution emphasizes decentralization, free credit issuance, and a redefinition of wealth as the product of labor alone.