le 9/10/00 20:30, Roger Gosling à [log in to unmask] a écrit :
> However there is also quite a different use for mine tokens. This is when
> miners were paid in tokens which could only be spent in the 'company
> approved' shops, who by virtue of the fact that they had a 'captive
> audience' generally charged more for their goods than their local
> competitors. I'm not sure during which years, historically, this happened,
> but it was quite a common way of paying miners. This of course is the way
> that quite a lot of companies (not just mining companies) paid their workers
> some time ago. The two books I mentioned in my email to the list yesterday
> are both about the use of tokens as payment for work, rather than as 'safety
> tags'
This is the famous 'truck' system, notably in use in the South Wales
Ironworks area from the mid-18th c to mid-19th. A whole series of,
admittedly, 'romanticised' books by Alexander Cordell gives a very vivid
social description of this system, and living/working conditions generally,
along the northern outcrop from Hirwaun to the Blorenge in those days.
Ian
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