TRUCK SYSTEM. TRUCK ACT. Track, which means exchange or barter, has come to be appropriated to signify the payment of wages of labour in goods, and not in money. By the truck-system is meant this mode of paying wages, to gether with the mass of its tendencies and results. The Truck Act, 1 & 2 Wm. IV. cc. 36, 37, is an act passed iu 1831, which, repealing all the previous acts passed for the same purpose, provided anew and more stringently for the pre vention of payment of wages in truck in the departments of industry therein enumerated. The wages of agricultural labourers and domestic servants are ex empted from the operation of the act. The evidence published in the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons appointed in the session (1842) " to enquire into the operation of the law which prohibits the payment of wages in goods, or otherwise than in the current coin of the realm, and into the alleged violations and defects of the existing enactments," shows that, notwithstanding the Truck Act, the track system is still in extensive operation in mills, factories, iron-works, colleries, and stone-quarries In the kingdom, and abundantly illus trates the evil tendencies of the system. These evil tendencies will be found also ably explained in the debates in parlia ment to which the introduction of the Track Act gave rise in the years 1830 and 1831, and especially in the speeches of Mr. Littleton (now Lord Hatherton the author of the act, Mr. Herries, and Mr. Huskisson.
It is to be observed, in the outset, that the chief part of the evil of what is called the truck-system is incidental, and not essential to the payment of wages in truck, and arises out of the power of the master over the workman, which enables the former to use this mode of paying wages to defraud and oppress the latter. A master may pay the wages of his work men wholly or in part in truck, in articles of food, clothing, &c., either by agree ment, or with only the understood consent of his workmen ; and if he supply these articles at prices no higher than those at which they are to be procured elsewhere, and study to meet the various wants of the workmen and their families, the ut most harm that can result is the loss to the workmen of the moral and economical lessons which the disbursement by them selves of weekly money-wages is fitted to supply, and the interference with the business and profits of neighbouring re tail shopkeepers ; and there will always in such cases be some advantage to set against these, so far as they go, evil re sults. Where the truck-system acts be neficially, it is owing entirely to the justice and benevolence of the individual truck-masters. On the character of the master everything depends. In the hands of masters of opposite character, and under circumstances, whether of scarcity of employment, of isolated situation, or of combination among masters in the same business, or through an extensive district, which place the workman more or less at the mercy of his employer, the payment of wages in truck may be, and continually has been, and is still extensively, used for the defrauding and oppressing of work men.
The following is a summary of the Truck Act, often known as Mr. Little ton's Act, which was passed in 1831. It declares all contracts for hiring of the artificers afterwards enumerated, by which wages are made payable wholly or in part otherwise than in the current coin of the realm, or which contain regu lations as to the expenditure of wages, to be illegal, null, and void. All payment of wages is to be in money entire ; and any payment of wages in goods is declared ille gal. Wages which have been paid other wise than in the current coin of the realm are made recoverable ; and in an action brought for the recovery of wages, no set-off is to be allowed for goods given in payment of wages, or for goods sold at any shop in which the employer has an interest. Employers are denied an action in return against artificers for goods which have been supplied in payment of wages. If workmen or their wives or children become chargeable to the parish, overseers may recover from their em ployers wages which have been earned within three months previous, and have not been paid in money. The penalty on employers making the illegal contracts or illegal payments of wages, to be for the first offence a sum not greater than 10/. nor less than 51.; for the second a
sum not greater than 201., nor less than 10/. ; and the third offence is declared a misdemeanour ; and the employer who has been convicted, to be punishable by fine within the discretion of the convicting magistrates, but not in a sum greater than 100/. The convicting justices are em powered to award a portion of the pe nalty, which shall never exceed 20/ , to the informer. The penalties may be sued for and recovered by any one before two Instices of the peace having jurisdiction ID the county, rding, city, or place within which the offence Las been com mitted. No justice of the peace being engaged in any of the trades or manu factures enumerated in the act, or the father, son, or brother of such person, shall act as a justice of the peace under this act ; and provision is made for county magistrates taking the place of borough magistrates thus disqualified. Justices are empowered to compel attendance of witnesses. Power is given to levy the penalties by distress. A member of a partnership is not liable personally for the offence of his partner, but distress may be made on the partnership property. The 19th clause thus enumerates the arti ficers to whom the act relates :—" arti ficers employed in or about the making, casting, converting, or manufacturing of iron or steel, or any parts, branches, or processes thereof, or in or about the work ing or getting of stone, salt, or clay ; or in or about the making or preparing of salt, bricks, tiles, or quarries ; or in or about the making or manufactur ing of any kinds of nails, chains, rivets, anvils, vices, spades, shovels, screws, keys, locks, bolts, hinges, or any other articles or hardwares made of iron or steel, or of iron and steel combined, or of any plated articles of cutlery, or of any goods or wares made of brass, tin, lead, pewter, or other metal ; or of any japanned goods or wares whatsoever ; or in or about the making, spinning, throwing, twisting, doubling, winding, weaving, combing, knitting, bleaching, dyeing, printing, or otherwise preparing of any woollen, worsted, yarn, stuff, jersey, linen, fustian, cloth, serge, cotton, leather, fur, hemp, flax, mohair, or silk manufactures ; or in or about any manufactures what soever made of the said last-mentioned materials, whether the same be or be not mixed one with another, or in or about the making or otherwise preparing, orna menting, or finishing of any glass, porce lain, china, or earthenware whatsoever ; or any parts, branches, or processes there of, or any materials used in any of such last-mentioned trades or employments; or in or about the making or preparing of bone, thread, silk, or cotton-lace, or of lace made of any mixed materials." Do made servants and servants in herr bandry are exempted from the act. The 23rd clause declares that nothing in the act shall prevent the supplying to arti ficers of medicine or medical attendance, or fuel, materials, tools or implements to be used in his trade or occupation, if a miner ; or of hay, corn, or other proven der to be consumed by any horse or beast of burden, or the letting to any artificer the whole or part of any tenement, or the supplying of victuals dressed under the roof of any employer and there consumed ; and making deduction of wages on any of the above accounts, or on account of money advanced, " provided always that such stoppage or deduction shall not ex ceed the real and true value of such fuel, materials, tools, implements, hay. corn, and provender, and shall not be in any case made from the wages of such arti ficer unless the agreement or contract for such stoppage or deduction shall be in writing and signed by such artificer." The interpretation clause (25th) gives a most extensive meaning to the word con tract : " Any agreement, understanding, device, contrivance, collusion, or arrange ment whatsoever on the subject of wages, whether written or oral, whether direct or indirect, to which the employer and artificer are parties or are assenting, or by which they are mutually bound to each other, or whereby either of them shall have endeavoured to impose an obligation on the other." Such are the provisions of the Truck Act. Well adapted, as it would appear, for the purpose of protecting the work man against this species of oppression by his master, it is yet extensively violated and evaded.