Who would have thought that there are still three or four-year-old child laborers in the factories of the capitalists? Not one or two, but hundreds of thousands of people.
The lifespan of these child laborers usually does not exceed twenty years. Entering the dark factory too early will cause serious damage to their bodies.
Among them, the United Kingdom is the most crazy. As the starting place of the Industrial Revolution, the British Isles have a small population and limited labor force. In order to reduce costs, capitalists have turned their attention to women and children.
The salary of an adult male worker can employ 2 female workers and 3 to 7 child workers. The younger the age, the lower the salary expenditure.
Compared with adults, child labor is significantly easier to manage, and it is easier to suppress strikes. There are a lot of child labor in factories with less labor-intensive demands.
The sources of these child labors are also varied. Some are the people at the bottom who are forced to make a living and send their children to factories; the other is bought from the trading market.
That’s right, child labor is also a commodity at this time, and orphanages, church almshouses, and human traffickers are the biggest sellers, and very few are sold by parents.
The bloody factory is the most realistic portrayal of society in this era.
On the one hand, he made huge profits by frantically exploiting child labor, and on the other hand, he created the appearance of a gentleman in the outside world, donating money to the church, investing in education, and subsidizing poor students.
Franz is too lazy to complain. Anyway, he doesn't believe that the capitalists will 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 capitalist system of this era is more serious than the exploitation of the feudal aristocracy.
Since Austria's minimum wage bill came out, Austrian capitalists' interest 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 large, and its own labor force is large.
After the implementation of the Minimum Wage Law, capitalists found that the remuneration they paid for child labor was greatly increased, and it was not much lower than that of adults, and the temptation was less.
Especially after the government caught several typical cases and were directly fined and bankrupt, everyone remembered that there is still a "Minimum Wage Law" in Austria.
Prime Minister Felix joked: "Your Majesty, since we implemented the Minimum Wage Act, the number of homeless children in the country has grown dramatically and the government is now the largest nursery in the world.
According to our statistics, as of three days ago, we have accommodated a total of 38,600 children, and this number is still growing.
The capitalists seem ready to give up child labor, and now we need us to clean up the mess for them. "
On the surface, taking in so many orphans is a burden to the government, but it is actually a very political bonus.
In ancient Austria, the nobles were deeply influenced by chivalry, and they were still willing to pity the weak without affecting their own interests.
Now that the Austrian government has come forward to take in these homeless children, it has occupied the moral high ground in public opinion, and by the way, it can also condemn the black-hearted capitalists.
Black capitalists are also politically correct in Austria. In the process of advancing the Industrial Revolution, the power of the bourgeoisie will grow rapidly.
Now the Austrian government relies on the aristocracy to suppress the bourgeoisie, and it may not be able to suppress it in the future. Sooner or later, the growing bourgeoisie will reach out to politics.
In order to limit the bourgeoisie, it is very 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 and the worse the reputation of the capitalists, the better for the Austrian government. In the future, if the bourgeoisie dares to riot, Franz would not mind letting them learn what the "Iron Fist of the Austrian People's Dictatorship" is.
Franz thought for a while and said, "This question is left to the Ministry of Education, and Earl Huohen will recruit enough teachers as soon as possible, and first send these homeless children into compulsory education.
The government has established orphanages in major cities to specifically take in homeless children. Some poor families cannot afford to support children, but they can also receive those who are sent. "
There is only so much he can do. After receiving compulsory education, except for the one percent of geniuses who can enter middle school to continue their studies, these children will go to society.
The reality is really cruel. Even after completing compulsory education, these children are only twelve or thirteen years old. In the eyes of later generations, this is an abuse of child labor.
Unfortunately, this is the period of the first industrial revolution, crows all over the world are generally black, and there is no way to accumulate primitive capital. Compared to entering the factory at the age of three or four, this is also a big improvement.
…
The most important thing for any decree is to implement it. 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 child labor? This is impossible, not only the capitalists can't accept it, but also the people at the bottom.
There are many children these days. It is a common phenomenon for ordinary people to have five or six children. There are even more than a dozen children. How can they raise them
If Franz hadn't understood the social status quo and let the government bear all the expenses of the compulsory education stage, and blindly enacted a compulsory education law, it would have been a human tragedy in the end.
Vienna
As the core of Austria and the origin of the Labour Protection Act, the Minimum Wage Act was also promoted from here.
After the Hungarian rebellion was crushed, the Austrian Empire was at peace. The government abolished local tariffs, abolished serfdom, freed up a vast rural market, and Vienna's industry and commerce began to flourish.
Looking at the daily increase in orders, Daniel was not happy, but very uncomfortable. As the owner of a hydro cotton mill, he was the biggest victim of the Minimum Wage Act.
The labor intensity of cotton spinning factories is not high. After the use of machinery, the physical strength and technical proficiency requirements of workers are reduced, as long as the broken ends are connected well.
In order to reduce labor costs, Daniel naturally learned from the successful experience of his British counterparts and hired cheaper women and children into the factory.
But not anymore. Once the minimum wage law is released, child labor in Austria is no longer cheap.
Although the labor cost of this era is low, even if the labor cost is increased, they also have huge benefits, but how can the greed of the capitalists be satisfied
Daniel didn't dare to directly violate the law. The real example is in front of him. One of his competitors was punished by the Vienna government and went bankrupt because of ignoring labor protection laws.
Looking at the factory manager he hired with a "high salary", Daniel asked, "Wesson, is there any way you can reduce the labor cost for me?"
"Sir, why don't we also adopt the piece rate system and set a task that the workers can't complete, and then deduct their wages?" Weisen suggested sinisterly.
Daniel shook his head and said, "It's useless, I have already consulted a lawyer. The government's reference standard is set by state-owned enterprises. If the piece rate system exceeds this standard, we have no right to deduct wages.
Even if a contract is signed, it is useless, the Vienna government will consider it invalid, and we will face a fine of at least one thousand times the starting point and no ceiling. "
Since the outbreak of the March Revolution, the Vienna government has become disharmonious with the capitalists, and past friendships have had no effect.
Now Daniel has become more careful with his words. If this happened before, he would have been in a relationship with his peers for a long time, but now he dare not.
In case of being identified by the Vienna government as a conspiracy to rebel, he would be killed immediately. He still had fresh memories of the great purge that took place in Vienna a few months ago.
If it weren't for his luck, he happened to be sick during that time, and he didn't go to the capitalist party, and now he can't continue to do it here.
Capital knows no borders, this is the future. In this era, the capitalists dare not relocate casually. They go to an unfamiliar place without a backstage, and there is not a single hair left in the custody of you.
Despite his dissatisfaction with the Austrian government, Daniel continued to do business in Vienna, making less profit and taking the risk.
In contrast, Austria's labor cost is more harmonious than that of Western European countries such as Britain and France. After all, Austria is a grain exporter, and the price level of living materials is lower, and there is no shortage of labor.
The highest average wage in the capitalist world is in London, which is one third to one half higher than that in Vienna. This is after Austria has a labor protection law.
There are policies and measures to counter.
Daniel still thought of ways to reduce labor costs, such as cutting overtime wages, deducting the time workers spend going to the toilet, and deducting the time when machinery stops running.
These are all routine operations, a little bit more powerful, and capitalists have built free toilets a few kilometers away, and set up paid toilets inside the factory.
Some capitalists even use inferior fabrics to make work clothes and sell them to workers at high prices.
With high-priced work clothes, high-priced food is also indispensable. Capitalists forbid workers from bringing food into factories and then sell them high-priced food for profit.
…
In short, as long as you can't think of it, you can't do it, in order to reduce labor costs, the capitalists are racking their brains.