n so doing, hastening its extinction. How were they to know that this was only the first step to becoming dependants of the Company and that to make a living they would be forced to work under the oppressive conditions of a higher power on land that had once been their own. After the acquisition of land and the initial economic boom, conditions worsened for the mountain people and a set of stable controls was necessary in order to maintain the system the Association had created and in turn, their position of dominance. As Middlesborough developed into a Company Town, the absentee and unitary control exercised by the British owners grew to ensure the dependence of all upon it. They owned not only most of the land but controlled the town's key factors of production, requiring even independent companies to function under their terms. As was mentioned earlier, the people who had once been independent in earning a living for themselves were now required to work as miners and labourers under the autocracy of a huge enterprise. Even small entrepreneurs now found themselves answering to the higher power of the Association. Although the Company had created many jobs for the people, inequalities developed as the absentee owners ,or upper class, extracted wealth from the region leaving few of the profits to be distributed among the workers themselves. Within the Appalachian area itself there developed a local elite who ranked next in the class hierarchy. "They were the men of wealth, and fine backgrounds, and politics was not ne...
