Was he the first to do that? I read a book about Frick & Carnegie and was shocked to learn Frick had company housing and stores for the workers of Carnegie's steel empire. I wonder where this idea came from? Not even wikipedia has its origins:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_store
Company housing was very, very common in Europe when the Industrial Revolution really got started.
Many German towns which got a train connection early on have these typical big red brick houses were the workers lived, probably the most visible reminder of that practice.
It was very common in all communist countries, which pushed hard towards industrialization. They thus transformed rural farmers into suburban industrial workers.
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Was he the first to do that? I read a book about Frick & Carnegie and was shocked to learn Frick had company housing and stores for the workers of Carnegie's steel empire. I wonder where this idea came from? Not even wikipedia has its origins: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_store
EDIT: I should have clicked more. Pullman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town
Company housing was very, very common in Europe when the Industrial Revolution really got started.
Many German towns which got a train connection early on have these typical big red brick houses were the workers lived, probably the most visible reminder of that practice.
And, of course, it's still very common in newly-industrialising countries like China.
It was very common in all communist countries, which pushed hard towards industrialization. They thus transformed rural farmers into suburban industrial workers.