A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing are owned by the same company that also serves as the town's main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and recreation facilities.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Company towns and the corvee labor system both place a worker daily obligations under a single controlling authority, though the company town control runs through private ownership rather than government compulsion.
The scrip and company-store systems common to company towns frequently produced a de facto debt bondage, keeping workers perpetually indebted to their employer.
Company towns and sharecropping both let an employer control a worker housing and credit alongside the labor relationship itself, deepening dependency well beyond the wage alone.
The company town controlled the wage-labor relationship completely: the employer was also landlord, merchant and often the sole source of usable currency within the town.
Sources
Company Town (Wikipedia)
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A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer.
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