Truce System

A name given to the practice of paying the wages of workmen in goods instead of money. The plan has been for the masters, to establish warehouses or shops, and the workmen in their employment have either got their wages accounted for to them by supplies of goods from such depots, without receiving any money, or they have got the money, with a tacit or express understanding that they were to resort to the warehouses or shops of their masters for such articles as they were furnished with. M'Cull, Comm. Diet. This system of dealing being considered open to grave abuses, was abolished in 1831 by Stat; 1 & 2 Wm. IV. ch. 37, commonly called the truck act. By its provisions, contracts for the hiring of artificers in certain trades are to be made in the current coin of the realm, and without any stipulations as to the manner in which the wages shall be expended, otherwise they are declared to be illegal and void; and any employer entering into such a contract, or making any illegal payment, is liable to be fined' as therein mentioned. Mozley S/- W.