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Company scrip
Company scrip is scrip (a substitute for government-issued legal tender or currency) issued by a company to pay its employees. It can only be exchanged in company stores owned by the employers. In the UK, such truck systems have long been formally outlawed under the Truck Acts.
In the United States, mining and logging camps were typically created, owned and operated by a single company. These locations, some quite remote, were often cash poor;
Lumber company scrip
In 19th century United States forested areas, cash was often hard to come by. As such, coal scrip could only be used at the specific locality or coal town of the company named. Because coal scrip was used in the context of a coal town, where there are usually no other retail establishments in that specific remote location, employees who used this could only redeem their value at that specific location. As there were no other retail establishments, this constituted a monopoly.
The country musician Merle Travis makes a reference to coal scrip in the song, "Sixteen Tons" on the Folk Songs of the Hills album and made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Modern practice
The practice has been documented as recently as September, 2008. On September 4, 2008, the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice ruled that Wal-Mart de Mexico, the Mexican subsidiary of Wal-Mart, must cease paying its employees in part with vouchers redeemable only at Wal-Mart stores.
