Company Store


The Company Store is a general store which sells anything the miner and his family needs for living, which is owned by the mining company. In many cases mines are started in the nowhere, there is no infrastructure at first. In the 19th century the miners lived in tents, then built wooden huts. People selling stuff or offering services followed the gold rush or the mining operations, opened stores, brothels, pubs, and anything else. But when the mining town was built by the company, they built houses for living, a church, a pub, and a shop. And so, as a side effect, the pub and shop were owned and operated by the mining company. Probably the whole ground was owned by the mining company, and so no other entrepreneur had the possibility to open a venue without the support by the mining company.

The next step is almost natural: the company pays wages, which are spent in the company store. So they get their money back. Even more if there is no competition, they can determine lucrative (high) prices. And the next step is payment in coupons, called scrip or company credit. Half of the wage is not money, it's a sort of company money which is valid only in the company store. This system ic called the truck system, the money substitute is called scrip, chits, vouchers or tokens. Another way to make sure the money is spent here. In the end, the system is a capitalists dream of slave labour, people work for food, and they have no chance to ever leave the system, because all their work is paid only by benefits inside the system. Today most countries have strict laws against such exploitative methods.

A blues song which very vividly explains the situation of those miners, here a coal miner, is called 16 tons.


Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load 16 tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded 16 tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said, "Well, a-bless my soul"

You load 16 tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Can't no high toned woman make me walk the line

You load 16 tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't get you
Then the left one will

You load 16 tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store