Who would have thought that there were three or four-year-old children working in the capitalists' factories? It wasn't just one or two, but hundreds and thousands of them.
The lifespan of these child workers was usually no more than twenty years old. Entering the dark factories too early would cause their bodies to suffer serious damage.
Among them, England was the craziest. As the starting point of the industrial revolution, the British Isles had a small population and limited labor force. In order to reduce costs, the capitalists turned their attention to women and children.
The salary of an adult male worker could hire two female workers and three to seven child workers. The younger the age, the lower the expenditure.
Compared to adults, child labor was obviously easier to manage, and it was easier to suppress strikes. Factories that didn't require too much labor were full of child labor.
These child labor came from a variety of sources. Some of the people at the bottom were forced to send their children to the factories to make a living; others were bought from the market.
That's right, child labor was also a kind of commodity at this time. Orphanages, churches, and human traffickers were the biggest sellers, and a very small part was sold by parents.
The bloody factory was the most realistic portrayal of society in this era.
On the one hand, they made huge profits by madly exploiting child labor, on the other hand, they portrayed a gentleman's appearance to the outside world, donating to the church and investing in education in the name of supporting poor students.
Franz was too lazy to complain. Anyway, he didn't believe that the capitalists would be so kind. Just look at the private goods in these private schools.
The advanced nature of the capitalist political system was only available in the future. In this era, the capitalist system was more serious than the feudal aristocracy's exploitation.
Ever since Austria's minimum wage law came out, the Austrian capitalists' interest in child labor had greatly decreased. This was also related to the country's national conditions.
Austria's industrialization had just begun, and the demand for labor was not too great. Moreover, the labor force itself was large.
After the implementation of the minimum wage law, the capitalists found that the pay they paid to child labor had greatly increased. It wasn't much lower than that of adults, so the temptation was less tempting.
Especially after the government caught a few typical cases and directly punished them with bankruptcy, everyone remembered that Austria still had 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. Now the government has become the world's largest nursery.
According to our statistics, as of three days ago, we have taken in a total of 38,600 children, and the number is still increasing.
The capitalists seem to be ready to give up using child labor, and now we need to clean up their mess. "
On the surface, taking in so many orphans was a burden to the government, but in reality, it was a political plus.
In ancient Austria, the nobles were deeply influenced by the spirit of chivalry. As long as it didn't affect their own interests, they were willing to take pity on the weak.
Now that the Government of Austria had come forward to take in these homeless children, they had occupied the moral high ground in public opinion, and they could also condemn the black-hearted capitalists at the same time.
Black capitalists were also a form of political correctness in Austria. In the process of the industrial revolution, the power of the bourgeoisie would grow rapidly.
Currently, the Government of Austria relied on the aristocracy to suppress the bourgeoisie. However, in the future, they might not be able to do so. Sooner or later, the growing power of the bourgeoisie would reach out to politics.
In order to restrict the bourgeoisie, it was necessary to make some preparations in advance.
Anyway, these were all facts. It was the nature of the media's job to expose the reality of society.
The more dirt there was, the worse the reputation of the capitalists, and the better it was for the Government of Austria. If the bourgeoisie dared to mess around in the future, Franz didn't mind letting them have a taste of the "iron fist of the Austrian people's dictatorship."
Franz thought for a moment and said, "This problem will be handed over to the Ministry of Education. Count Hohen, recruit enough teachers as soon as possible and send these homeless children to receive compulsory education.
The government will set up orphanages in major cities to take in homeless children. Some of the poor families can't afford to raise children, so they can send them to receive compulsory education. "
That was all he could do. After receiving compulsory education, except for the one percent of geniuses who could enter high school to further their studies, these children would have to enter society.
Reality was really cruel. Even after completing compulsory education, these children were only twelve or thirteen years old. In the eyes of future generations, this was an abuse of child labor.
Unfortunately, this was the first industrial revolution, and all the crows in the world were equally black. In order to accumulate primitive capital, there was no other way. Compared to entering the factory at three or four years old, this was a big improvement.
…
The most important thing about any law was implementation. Compulsory education had become the highest national policy of the Government of Austria, so it was necessary to crack down on the use of child labor by the capitalists.
Banning the use of child labor? This was impossible. Not only the capitalists couldn't accept it, but the people at the bottom of society couldn't either.
There were many children these days. It was common for ordinary people to have five or six children, and some even had more than ten children. How could they afford to raise them?
If Franz didn't understand the current situation of society and let the government bear all the expenses of compulsory education, he would have created a compulsory education law blindly. In the end, it would have been another human tragedy.
As the core of Austria and the birthplace of the Labor Protection Act, the minimum wage law was also promoted from here.
After the suppression of the Hungarian rebellion, the Austrian Empire was at peace. The government also abolished local tariffs, abolished serfdom, and released the vast rural market. Vienna's industry and commerce began to flourish.
Looking at the increasing orders every day, Daniel didn't feel happy. Instead, he felt very uncomfortable. As the owner of a water-powered cotton mill, he was the biggest victim of the minimum wage law.
Cotton mills didn't have high labor intensity. After the use of machinery, the physical strength and technical proficiency of the workers were reduced. They only needed to do a good job connecting the ends.
In order to reduce labor costs, Daniel naturally learned from the successful experience of his British counterparts and wantonly hired cheaper women and children to work in the factory.
But now, with the minimum wage law, child labor in Austria wasn't cheap anymore.
Although labor costs were low in this era, even if they increased labor costs, they would still have rich profits. But how could the greed of the capitalists be satisfied?
Daniel didn't dare to break the law directly. A real example was in front of him. One of his competitors had ignored the labor protection law and was fined by the Government of Vienna until they went bankrupt.
Looking at the factory director he hired with a "high salary," Daniel asked, "Vincent, do you have any way to lower the labor costs?"
"Sir, why don't we also adopt a piecework system and set a task that the workers can't complete, and then deduct their wages?" Vincent suggested sinisterly.
Daniel shook his head and said, "It's useless. I've already consulted a lawyer. The government's reference standard is set by the state-owned enterprises. If we use a piecework system and exceed this standard, we have no right to deduct wages.
Even if we sign a contract, it's useless. The Government of Vienna will deem it invalid, and we will face at least a thousand times the original price, with no upper limit. "
Since the outbreak of the March Revolution, the Government of Vienna didn't get along well with the capitalists. The friendship in the past didn't work.
Daniel became careful with his words. If he encountered this kind of thing in the past, he would have already colluded with his peers to cause trouble, but now he didn't dare.
If the Government of Vienna determined that it was a conspiracy to rebel, he would immediately be killed. He still remembered the great purge that happened in Vienna a few months ago.
If he wasn't lucky that he happened to be sick during that time and didn't go to the capitalist party, he wouldn't be able to continue working here.
Capital had no borders. This was a matter of the future. In this era, the capitalists didn't dare to move casually. Without a backer, if they went to a strange place, they were guaranteed to swallow you whole.
Although he was very dissatisfied with the Government of Austria, Daniel continued to do business in Vienna. The less profit, the less risk.
In contrast, Austria's labor costs were more harmonious than the United Kingdom and France and other Western European countries. After all, Austria was a food exporter. The price level of daily necessities was lower, and there was no shortage of labor.
The highest average wage in the capitalist world was in London, which was one-third to one-half higher than Vienna. This was after Austria had labor protection laws.
There were policies, and there were countermeasures.
Daniel still thought of ways to reduce labor costs, such as: cutting overtime pay, deducting workers' toilet time, deducting the time when the machinery stopped working.
These were all routine operations. Some of the more powerful capitalists even built free toilets a few kilometers away and built paid toilets inside the factory.
Some capitalists even made work clothes of inferior quality and sold them to workers at a high price.
With expensive work clothes, there was naturally no shortage of expensive food. The capitalists prohibited workers from bringing food into the factory, and then sold them high-priced food for profit.
…
In short, as long as they thought of it, there was nothing they couldn't do. In order to reduce labor costs, the capitalists racked their brains.
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