Chapter 963

Ten million immigrants sounded scary, but after five years, it was only two million immigrants per year.

With Austria's current population base, based on a 2% growth rate, there would be 1.7 million new people every year. In fact, it would be more.

In an era without any entertainment, people were still keen on making babies. With the birth subsidies from the Government of Vienna, Austria's population growth rate had been among the highest in the world.

The total population didn't decrease much, but the impact was still not small. It was now at the juncture of the second industrial revolution. The scale of emerging industries continued to expand, and the demand for labor was also increasing.

The demand for labor was increasing, but the quantity was decreasing. The supply and demand relationship in the labor market had changed, and labor costs were rising.

Compared to traditional industries, the biggest feature of the emerging industries was vitality. During the period of rapid development, companies had higher profits, and naturally could pay higher wages.

In this context, if traditional companies didn't want to be eliminated by the market, it was necessary to carry out technological innovation.

In fact, many new production equipment had already appeared, but some capitalists were too lazy to replace it in order to save costs.

This wasn't Franz's guess, but there was evidence. There were also capitalists who complained in the newspapers:

Nowadays, machinery and equipment were being replaced so frequently. If they were replaced today, they might fall behind in a few years. Anyway, the current equipment could still be used, so it was better to wait for better equipment to appear and then put it in place.

The comfortable business environment for a long time had made the capitalists conservative. Many people were even opposed to technological progress because it increased uncertainty.

The most typical example was the era of electricity. In order to save costs, many factories insisted on using gas lamps.

It wasn't that capitalists didn't know the advantages of electric light, but they were unwilling to pay for the installation of electric equipment.

In any case, he could continue to use the gas lamp and continue to make money. Why bother looking for trouble?

Austria's poor people weren't in the vast rural areas, but concentrated in the cities. The main reason for this situation was that while everything else was increasing, wages were not increasing.

From 1848 to the present, Austria's per capita income had increased by 2.3 times, but workers' wages had only increased by 56%. There were even a considerable number of factory wages that hadn't changed.

The economy was developing, but income didn't keep up, so it wasn't surprising that people became poor.

Now that Franz used the immigration trick, he was actually forced to do so. If this situation didn't change, sooner or later, something would happen.

…

Milan, as the capital of the Lombardy Kingdom, had always been the most prosperous city in the Regions of Italy. No, now it should be the most prosperous area in the German Region.

Regions had always been divided artificially. Now that Austria was powerful, Franz directly included the Lombardy region into the German Region.

Whether people were used to it or not, all official documents stated that Milan was part of the German Region. The theory was that the Lombards were a branch of the German.

Although there were more Italians in the area, it did not matter. History could be changed, cultural traditions could be changed, and the people could also be changed.

The international community recognized that the Kingdom of Lombardy was part of the German region. Lombardy and Lombardy were also included in the German region, such as Venice next door, Hungary further away, the Balkans …

The Kingdom would soon. Even Kingdom, would become a part of the German Region. on. on. Kingdom of the map of Kingdom.

Natural conditions and historical factors were all nonsense. The real division was based on the characteristics of the times. Within the range of Austria's artillery, it was all the German Region, or rather, the Austrian Region.

It was just a name. It didn't affect everyone's interests. You would get used to it after hearing it a few times.

The Daker textile factory was a famous enterprise in the Milan region. It was one of the top three textile factories in Austria.

It included silk reeling factories, wool mills, cotton mills, printing and dyeing factories, clothing factories, and more than a dozen other factories. It had more than 130,000 employees.

There was an independent industrial park in the Milan region. In the past, the factories would have been busy at this time, but now it was strangely silent.

People who knew the situation knew that there was another strike here.

Austria had universal compulsory education, and the Lombardy Kingdom was no exception. Thanks to the sense of discipline cultivated from a young age, the current strike movement was much more harmonious.

Everyone clearly understood that machinery and equipment were tools to make a living. Smashing, robbing, and burning was equivalent to smashing their own bowls of rice.

This didn't affect people's legal strike. As long as it didn't affect social and public order, it was still a basic right for everyone to strike without anyone's approval.

Milan was heavily influenced by Italian maritime culture and was the birthplace of the Renaissance. Compared to other parts of Austria, new ideas were much more active here, and strikes were much more frequent.

Of course, this was not the main reason for the Daker textile factory's strike. Like the vast majority of traditional enterprises, the once prosperous Daker textile factory has gradually declined.

After the outbreak of the second industrial revolution, the Daker textile factory didn't grasp the opportunity and stood on the conservative side. They didn't update their equipment in time and became tired in the market competition.

Affected by the decline in profits, from 1870 to the present, the enterprise didn't increase wages once. However, prices didn't stop waiting for them, so the strike movement naturally occurred.

Like most enterprises, the Daker textile factory was also a family business. The current head, Daker Lanno, was already an old man in his seventies.

When he was young, he was also an influential person. In the Austrian War, he decisively bet on Austria. After the war, the competitors took a lunch box because they stood on the wrong side. Daker Lanno took the opportunity to merge their factory, and then started a life of sleeping and winning.

Taking advantage of the gap in the market, the Daker textile factory developed rapidly. At its peak, the number of workers once exceeded 180,000, and the enterprise's annual output entered Austria's top 100.

However, this kind of industry without core technology had a common problem, and that was, there were many competitors.

After the Government of Vienna's "change wheat to mulberry" strategy, the Lombard Kingdom quickly became Austria's most important raw silk producer.

The Daker textile factory enjoyed the first wave of dividends, and the local production undoubtedly greatly reduced the cost.

Even now, the Daker textile factory accounted for most of the raw silk processing in the Lombard Kingdom. With a complete industrial chain, it was reasonable to say that the Daker textile factory should be very comfortable.

However, with the advent of the second industrial revolution, the situation began to change. All kinds of machinery and equipment were constantly updated. The old and conservative Daker Lanno didn't keep up with the pace of the times in pursuit of greater profits.

Once one step was slow, it would always be slow. The competition for capital was also unscrupulous. Their competitors would not give them a chance.

The new technology not only brought an increase in productivity, but also improved product quality. In the case that the price was almost the same, the good quality goods would certainly be more popular.

In just a few years, the Daker textile market share was eaten by one-third by the competitors, and the company's profits plummeted.

After receiving the news of the strike, Daker Lanno slammed the table: "Another strike, this group of ungrateful things, they don't even think about who is supporting them!

If we go down, they won't even have a job. If they don't want to work, then don't do it. There are many people who want to work in Daker.

According to the old rules, fire 10% of the workers on strike and order them to return to work immediately. Those who are the slowest to return to work, get out of here! "

This was Daker Lanno's experience in dealing with the strike. Among the workers, he also bribed spies. Whenever this happened, as long as someone took the lead to return to work, the strike would not continue.

Usually, those who stayed until the end were the diehards, and naturally, they had to be fired. As for whether to really lay off 10% of the workers, it didn't matter. As long as the diehards, or the leaders, were fired, it would be fine.

In this era, Daker Lanno thought that he had done a good job. At least he abided by the law, which was much better than the underground black factories.

Of course, this was only limited to him. In the eyes of the workers, he was a vampire. Abiding by the Labor Protection Act, sorry, no big company in Austria dared to break the law. It was the small companies that took the risk.

It couldn't be helped, the Government of Vienna was very strict, and the law enforcement was very strong. In addition, the Labor Protection Act was not excessive, and in essence, it was also protecting the interests of both sides.

It was not that there were no people who threatened the Government of Vienna with closing the factory, but it was useless. In terms of maintaining the dignity of the law, Franz did a very thorough job.

No matter what the consequences were, those who should go to jail still had to go to jail. Before threatening the government, it was best to hope that there was no black history. Otherwise, they did not even have the right to close the factory, and all the assets would be confiscated by the government.

A large part of Austria's state-owned enterprises were confiscated. Almost every three to five years, the Government of Vienna would auction a group of state-owned enterprises, most of which were small factories.

After learning from the previous example, the people who came later were much more low-key. Taking advantage of the loopholes of the law was fine, but directly going against the government, forget it!

It seemed that the bourgeoisie was powerful, but in fact, their strength was very limited. They all relied on throwing money to blow their momentum.

Not to mention other things, who could unite the bourgeoisie with serious conflicts of interest? Believe it or not, there would be people who would become traitors at any moment.

This situation was most obvious in Austria. After the law stipulated that the news must be true, the momentum of the capitalists was much smaller.

Empty promises and empty promises were also responsible for the law. Even if you dare to brag, the newspapers would not dare to publish it.

Little Lanno objected, "Father, this is not good! In the past year, we have fired 20,000 old workers. Now, many of the newly recruited people's skills are not up to standard, and the rate of defective products is two percent higher.

The increase in the rate of defective products will affect the reputation of our products. Now that the competition is so fierce, if we can't guarantee the quality of our products, our market will be taken by our competitors.

This is equivalent to a vicious cycle. It is better to first send someone to talk to the workers' representatives, and then fire these troublesome people afterwards. "

As a qualified capitalist, he would always put his own interests above all else.

After Dacer Lanno weighed the pros and cons, he shook his head, "We can't compromise, human desires are endless. Once this precedent is set, we will never have a day of peace.

Remember the cannery next door, Michael was such a smart person, but in order to rush a batch of orders, he compromised with the workers, and then was directly dragged down by the high labor costs.

Remember, even if you want to raise the salary, it must be us who take the initiative to raise it. You won't get any gratitude if you give in under their pressure. "

Little Lan Nuo had heard about this case many times. But his opinion was the opposite. The cannery was closed, but Michael was still living well. Obviously, it was not because he could not afford the labor costs.

The Kingdom of Lombardy did not have a large-scale cannery, which could already explain a lot of problems. Most of Austria's food factories were concentrated in Hungary and The Balkans, for no other reason than the proximity of the raw materials.

To produce canned food in Milan, was it possible to use mulberry as raw material? Don't be ridiculous, who would this thing be sold to?

Now, the best-selling canned food in the market were all meat, and canned fruits and vegetables were only purchased by the crew. Unfortunately, Milan really did not have an advantage in this aspect.

However, Lan Nuo still agreed with the last sentence. Making concessions at this time would indeed not be able to buy people's hearts.

As for afterward, they had already resumed work, why would they increase the labor costs?