SWEATING. See APPENDIX II.
TABLE the first schedule to the Companies Act, 1908, there is set out a table of model regulations of a company incorporated under that Act. It deals with the shares, capital, meetings, members, directors, divi dends, accounts and audit of a company, and, in the case of a company limited by shares, " if the memorandum of association is not accompanied by articles of association, or in so far as the articles do not exclude or modify the regu lations contained in the table . . . , the last-mentioned regulations shall, so far as the same are applicable, be deemed to be the regulations of the com pany in the same manner and to the same extent as if they had been inserted in articles of association, and the articles had been duly registered." S'ce ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION.
TALLY system of dealing by which traders furnish goods on credit to their customers, the latter agreeing to pay the stipulated price by certain weekly, monthly, or other periodical payments. This system, in its earlier phase, was mainly confined to dealings between traders who supplied only the cheapest class of the necessaries of life, such as blankets and clothes, and the poorer classes of wage-earners who found it a struggle to obtain these goods, if, in order to obtain them, it was necessary' to first accumulate even the most trifling amount of " capital." M'Culloch, in his Dictionary of Commerce, gives an interesting account of that class of tally trade--probably the only class that existed at the time he wrote, and straightly denounces it as an " obnoxious trade." From some points of view his denunciation was probably justified, but on the whole the system may undoubtedly be regarded as beneficial to a certain class of the community. Whilst recognising the evil which may result to the working classes as a consequence of their habit of comparatively extensive dealing on credit, it must not be forgotten that their wages, when earned, are generally hardly sufficient for that subsistence, that they have to give some credit to their employers for payment of their wages, and that constant employment is the exception rather than the rule.
They must at some time or other, under present economic conditions, have recourse to credit. To make such credit transactions illegal and void, as is extensively advocated, would undoubtedly operate very hardly upon the class it is intended to benefit, and would probably dislocate, to some extent, its relations with the employers. Whatever evil there is in the system, and whatever injustice it does to individuals, can be adequately dealt with by the law, as it has stood since the abolition of imprisonment for debt, through the medium of the procedure of the County Court. The powers of the judges and registrars in respect of small debts is so extensive as to enable them effectually to penalise unscrupulous creditors and to protect oppressed debtors. M‘Culloch, writing more than half a century ago, suggested that this trade is " rather on the wane." As a matter of fact, not only has the lower class of the tally trade continued to flourish, but the system has developed to such an extent that at the present day it is applied to dealings in practically every class of commodity by every class of the community. This development is largely the result of the modern extension of the newspaper press as an advertising medium ; the rapid and cheap methods of present-day carriage of goods, especially by means of the parcel post ; and the facilities now offered by the post-office and by the banks for forwarding money, in small amounts, from one part of the country to another. The Scotch " traveller " from door to door is no longer the only tally-man ; the great advertising dealer through the post, and even many of the important and old-established manufacturers, merchants, and retailers are now competing with him in the effort to sell to the public on the " instalment plan." The operation of this plan is often bound up with the HIRE-PURCHASE SYSTEM, but just as frequently the goods are sold without the addition of any such security.