The Feudal Society of Matewan :: Stone Mountain Coal Company Economics Essays

The Feudal Society of Matewan The Stone vision Coal come with wielded monopoly control over the town of Matewan by means of a feudal organisation of economic, cultural, political, and environmental processes. Every person in the town of Matewan came under the spot of the confederacy in one course or another. The employees of Stone freshet were under a bondage contract with the party. Once they came to the company it was insufferable to leave and at the same time maintain a canonic standard of living. They could not leave also because once they signed on with the company they owed the company a large sum of money for everything ranging from the just the ticket for the train that brought them to Matewan to the equipment they needed to work there. In this way it was as if they were pay the company to let them work in the mines rather the other way around. They did not have the remunerates basic to capitalism such as the right to join a union, the right to sell their labor in a labor market to the bidder of their choice, and the right to spend their wage freely. The Stone Mountain Coal Company controlled the processes involving the production, circulation, and distribution of products and services in the town of Matewan. or so of the people in the town were employees of the company and others were in debt to the company through mortgages and loans. Everyone depended on the company for daily necessities such as food and wear because the company owned the stores in Matewan and because all employees of Matewan were paid in company script which only allowed them to buy in the company stores. Furthermore, their contract state that to buy from any other store would mean immediate spillage from employment. The Stone Mountain Coal company was the only major employer in town. To become self-employed, citizens of Matewan would have needed initial endowments of resources, products and land that were only ready(prenominal) at the company s prerogative. The Stone Mountain Coal company kept economic control through political processes which served to punish behavior unfavorable to the company. The company sent in agents from Baldwin-Felts to act as the feudal managers or Knights who scare the people and infiltrated the new union.