One Hundred Years of Solitude

nonexistence of medical
services, and terrible working
conditions. They stated,
furthermore, that they were
not being paid in real money
but in scrip, which was good
only to buy Virginia ham in
the company commissaries.
José Arcadio Segundo was
put in jail because he revealed
that the scrip system was a
way for the company to
finance its fruit ships; which
without the commissary