Company Towns are built around factories or mines for the workers and their families to stay closer to work. The negative situation is that workers had to pay for the company for a living, they had a small paycheck and had to buy everything at the company store. This way the company has the power over the workers, where they live, what they eat, what they gain. The company kept the workers in debt so they would not leave work.
Both societies practiced religious tolerance. Both organized around major rivers. Both were monotheistic societies. Both were polytheistic societies.