371.  A mode of paying the wages of workmen in articles which they consume, has been introduced into some of our manufacturing districts, which has been called the truck system.  As in many instances this has nearly the effect of a combination of the masters against the men, it is a fit subject for discussion in the present chapter:  but it should be carefully distinguished from another system of a very different tendency, which will be first described.

372.  The principal necessaries for the support of a workman and his family are few in number, and are usually purchased by him in small quantities weekly.  Upon such quantities, sold by the retail dealer, a large profit is generally made; and if the article is one whose quality, like that of tea, is not readily estimated, then a great additional gain is made by the retail dealer selling an inferior article.

Where the number of workmen living on the same spot is large, it may be thought desirable that they should unite together and have an agent, to purchase by wholesale those articles which are most in demand, as tea, suger, bacon, etc., and to retail them at prices, which will just repay the wholesale cost, together with the expense of the agent who conducts their sale.  If this be managed wholly by a committee of workmen, aided perhaps by advice from the master, and if the agent is paid in such a manner as to have himself an interest in procuring good and reasonable articles, it may be a benefit to the workmen:  and if the plan succeed in reducing the cost of articles of necessity to the men, it is clearly the interest of the master to encourage it.  The master may indeed be enabled to afford them facilities in making their wholesale purchases; but he ought never to have the least interest in, or any connection with, the profit made by the articles sold.  The men, on the other hand, who subscribe to set up the shop, ought not, in the slightest degree, to be compelled to make their purchases there:  the goodness and cheapness of the article ought to be their sole inducements.

It may perhaps be objected, that this plan is only employing a portion of the capital belonging to the workmen in a retail trade; and that, without it, competition amongst small shopkeepers will reduce the articles to nearly the same price.  This objection would be valid if the objects of consumption required no verification; but combining what has been already stated on that subject(1*) with the present argument, the plan seems liable to no serious objections.

373.  The truck system is entirely different in its effects.  The master manufacturer keeps a retail shop for articles required by his men, and either pays their wages in goods, or compels them by express agreement, or less directly, by unfair means, to expend the whole or a certain part of their wages at his shop.  If the manufacturer kept this shop merely for the purpose of securing good articles, at fair prices, to his workmen, and if he offered