Indeed, in one coalfield after another the disappearance of truck and
kindred evils coincides with the appearance of strong County Unions.

6. We are given to understand that the miners of South Wales insist on
economics written by sound labour men. We therefore offer them a few
suggestions for a history of the currency in the nineteenth century from
the worker's point of view.

i. In 1800 London relied for small coin on private enterprise.
Every week the Jews' boys collected from the shopkeepers their
bad shillings, buying them at a heavy discount, with serviceable
copper coin forged in Birmingham (_vide_ Patrick Colquhoun, _A
Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis_, 1800, Chapter VII).
The resumption of cash payments in 1819 was injurious; for owing
to the shortage of small coin, the wage-earners were paid in bulk
with large notes, which they had to split at the nearest
public-house. The Truck Act of 1831 prohibited wage-payments in
notes on Banks more than 15 miles distant, but said nothing about
cheques--an oversight which the capitalists repeated in their
Bank Act of 1844.

ii. The general dissatisfaction with the state of the currency
led to attempts to dispense with coin. About 1830 Labour
Exchanges were opened in London for the exchange of goods against
time notes, representing one or more hours of labour. The
originator was Robert Owen, and the failure of the Exchanges was
probably due to the fact that Owen was at heart a capitalist.
The National Equitable Labour Exchange at one time was doing a
business of over 20,000 hours per week, but very shortly after
this, the President (Owen) had to report a serious deficiency of
hours, many thousands having been mislaid or stolen. The Exchange
in consequence had to close its doors.

iii. In the 'forties the centre of interest is the Midlands, and
the period may be termed the Staffordshire or beer period. The
currency was very popular and highly liquid, but it was issued to
excess and difficult to store. More solid surrogates were
therefore tried. A Bilston pawnbroker[64] said that he had in
pawn numerous batches of flour, which the men's wives had brought
from the Truck Shops and turned into money, in order to pay their
house-rents. Flour, however, was not so hard as a Prescot watch.

iv. We come next