Holy Roman Empire

Who would have thought that there are still three or four years old child laborers in the factories of capitalists?Not one or two, but the appearance of hundreds of people.

The life span of these child laborers usually does not exceed 20 years old.Entering the dark factory too early will severely damage their bodies.

Among them, Britain is the craziest. As the starting point of the Industrial Revolution, the British Isles have a small population and limited labor. In order to reduce costs, capitalists have turned their attention to women and children.

The salary of an adult male worker can hire 2 female workers and 3 to 7 child workers. The younger the age, the lower the salary.

Compared with adults, child labor is significantly easier to manage, and strike suppression is also simpler. In factories where labor demand is not too large, a large number of child labor is flooded.

The sources of these child labors are also varied. One part is that the bottom people are forced to make a living and send their children to the factory; the other part is bought from the trading market.

Yes, child labor is also a commodity at this time. Orphanages, church relief homes, and traffickers are the biggest sellers, and a very small number are sold by parents.

The bloody factory is the truest portrayal of society in this era.

While squeezing child labor for profiteering, he created a gentleman's appearance in the outside world, donated money to the church, and invested in education to support poor students.

Franz was too lazy to talk, anyway, he did not believe that the capitalists would be so kind, just look at the private goods entrained in these private schools.

The advanced nature of the capitalist political system is only available in the future. The countries of the capitalist system in this era are more severely exploited than the feudal aristocracy.

Since the introduction of the Austrian minimum wage bill, the interest of Austrian capitalists in child labor has been greatly reduced, which is also related to national conditions.

Austria ’s industrialization has just started, the demand for labor is not too great, and its own labor force is large.

After the implementation of the "Minimum Wage Law", the capitalists found that the remuneration they paid to child laborers increased greatly, and it was not much lower than that of adults. This kind of temptation was less.

Especially after the government caught several typical direct fines and went bankrupt, everyone remembered that Austria also has a "Minimum Wage Law."

Prime Minister Felix joked: "Your Majesty, since we implemented the Minimum Wage Law, the number of homeless children in the country has increased dramatically, and now the government has become the world's largest nursery.

According to our statistics, as of three days ago, we had a total of 38,600 children. This number is still increasing.

The capitalists seem to be ready to give up using child labor, and now we need to clean up the mess for them."

On the surface, hosting so many orphans is a burden to the government, which is actually very politically extra points.

In ancient Austria, the nobles were deeply influenced by the spirit of the knights, and without compromising their own interests, they were still willing to pity the weak.

Now that the Austrian government has come forward to accept these wanderers, it has occupied a moral high ground in public opinion. By the way, it can also condemn the blackhearted capitalists.

Black capitalists are also politically correct in Austria. During the process of the industrial revolution, the power of the bourgeoisie will grow rapidly.

Now that the Austrian government relies on the aristocracy to suppress the bourgeoisie, it may not be able to suppress it in the future. The bourgeoisie with increased strength will soon reach out to politics.

In order to restrict the bourgeoisie, it is necessary to make some preparations in advance.

Anyway, these are facts, and it is their essential job for the media to expose social reality.

The more black material, the worse the reputation of the capitalists, the better for the Austrian government.In the future, the bourgeoisie will dare to chaos. Franz does n’t mind letting them learn about the “dictatorship of the Austrian people”.

Franz thought for a while and said, "The question is left to the Ministry of Education. Earl Huo Hu recruited enough teachers as soon as possible to send these homeless children into compulsory education.

The government has established orphanages in major cities to accommodate homeless children. Some poor families cannot afford children, and those who are sent can also receive them."

So much he can do. After receiving compulsory education, except those 1% of genius who can enter middle school to continue their studies, these children are going to society.

The reality is really cruel. Even after completing compulsory education, these children are only twelve or three years old. In the future generations, this is the abuse of child labor.

Unfortunately, this is the first industrial revolution. Crows all over the world are generally black. There is no way to accumulate original capital.Compared to entering the factory at the age of three or four, this is a big improvement.

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The most important thing about any decree is enforcement. Compulsory education has become the highest national policy of the Austrian government, so cracking down on the use of child labor by capitalists has become an inevitable choice.

Prohibit the use of child labor?This is an impossible thing, not only the capitalists cannot accept it, but also the people at the bottom.

This year there are many children. It is common for ordinary people to have five or six children. There are even more than a dozen children. How do they raise them?

If Franz did not understand the status quo of society and let the government bear all the expenses of the compulsory education stage, he would blindly formulate a compulsory education law, and in the end it would be a human tragedy.

Vienna

As the core of Austria and the origin of the "Labor Protection Law", the "Minimum Wage Law" was also promoted from here.

After the Hungarian rebellion was suppressed, the Austrian Empire became peaceful.The government also canceled local tariffs, abolished serfdom, and freed up a vast rural market. Vienna ’s industry and commerce began to flourish.

Looking at the increasing orders every day, Daniel was not happy, but very uncomfortable.As the owner of a hydraulic cotton mill, he is the biggest victim of the Minimum Wage Law.

The labor intensity of the cotton spinning factory is not high. After using the machinery, the physical strength and technical proficiency requirements of the workers are reduced, as long as the disconnection is done.

In order to reduce labor costs, Daniel naturally learned the successful experience of his British counterparts and hired cheaper women and children to enter the factory.

But now it doesn't work anymore. As soon as the minimum wage law comes out, Austrian child labor is no longer cheap.

Despite the low labor costs of this era, even if they increased labor costs, they also have huge benefits, but how can capitalists' greed be satisfied?

Directly violating the law, Daniel did not dare. Realistic examples are in front of him. One of his competitors was fined by the Vienna government for bankruptcy because he ignored the labor protection law.

Looking at the factory manager hired by his "high salary", Daniel asked: "Wison, can you lower the labor cost for me?"

"Sir, why don't we also use the piece-rate system to formulate a task that the workers can't accomplish and deduct their wages when the time comes?" Wissen suggested insidiously

Daniel shook his head and said: "It's useless. I've consulted a lawyer. The government's reference standard is set by a state-owned enterprise. If the piece-rate system exceeds this standard, we have no right to deduct wages.

Even if the contract is signed, it is useless. The Vienna government will determine that it is an invalid contract. We will still face a fine of at least a thousand times starting without a cap."

Since the outbreak of the March Revolution, the Vienna government has become discordant to the capitalists, and the friendship of the past has no effect.

Up to now, Daniel has become more careful in speaking. If he encountered this kind of thing before, he would have done things in tandem with his peers, but now he dare not dare.

In the event that the Vienna government determined that it was plotting a rebellion, it was about to land on the ground. The cleansing that took place in Vienna a few months ago is still fresh in his memory.

If it wasn't for his luck, he happened to be ill during that time, did not go to the capitalist party, and can't continue to do it here now.

Capital knows no borders, this is the future.In this era, the capitalists did not dare to relocate casually. They went to an unfamiliar place without a backstage, and there was no one left in the custody that swallowed you.

Despite being very dissatisfied with the Austrian government, Daniel continued to do business in Vienna, with less profit, less risk, let's just risk it.

In contrast, Austria ’s labor costs are more harmonious than those of Western European countries such as Britain and France. After all, Austria is a grain exporter, and its price level on living materials is lower and there is no shortage of labor.

The highest average wage in the capitalist world is London, which is one-third to one-half higher than Vienna. This is after Austria has labor protection laws.

There are policies and measures to counter.

Daniel still thought of ways to reduce labor costs, such as: cutting overtime pay, deducting the time the worker goes to the toilet, and deducting the time the machine stopped working.

These are routine operations, a little more powerful, and some capitalists built free toilets a few kilometers away, and built paid toilets inside the factory.

Some capitalists even use low-quality fabrics as work clothes and sell them to workers at high prices.

With high-priced work clothes, naturally high-priced food.The capitalists banned workers from bringing food into the factory, and then sold them high-priced food for profit.

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In short, as long as you ca n’t think of what you ca n’t do, the capitalists have racked their brains to reduce labor costs.