Chapter 123: Dark age

Who would have thought that there would be three or four-year-old child laborers in the capitalists' factories? Not one or two, but the appearance of hundreds or thousands of people.
The lives of these child laborers usually do not exceed twenty years. Premature entry into the dark factory 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 salary, the lower the salary.
Compared with adults, child labor is significantly easier to manage, and suppression of strikes is simpler. There are a lot of child labor in factories where labor intensity is not much needed.
The source of these child labors is also diverse. One part is that the bottom people are forced to make a living and send their children into the factory. The other part is bought from the trading market.
Yes, at this time child labor is also a commodity. Orphanages, church relief homes, and traffickers are the biggest sellers, and a small part is sold by their parents.
The blood factory is the most authentic social portrayal of this era.
While earning huge profits by frantically squeezing child labor, it has also shaped a gentleman outside, donating money to the church and investing in education, which is well-known for supporting poor students.
Franz was too lazy to talk about it. Anyway, he didn't believe that the capitalists would be so kind, just look at the private goods carried in these private schools.
The advanced nature of the capitalist political system will only be available in the future. Countries of the capitalist system in this era are more severely exploited than feudal aristocracy.
Since the introduction of the Austrian minimum wage bill, the interest of Austrian capitalists in child labor has greatly decreased, which is also related to national conditions.
Austria's industrialization has just begun, the demand for labor is not too great, and the labor force itself is large.
After the implementation of the "Minimum Wage Law", capitalists found that the remuneration they pay to child laborers has greatly increased, and it is not much lower than that of adults. This temptation is small.
Especially after the government caught several typical direct penalties and bankruptcy, everyone remembered that Austria also has a "minimum wage law".
Prime Minister Felix joked: "Your Majesty, the number of homeless children in the country has grown dramatically since we implemented the Minimum Wage Law, and the government has now become the largest nursery in the world.
According to our statistics, as of three days ago, we had accommodated 38,600 children, and this number is still growing.
It seems that the capitalists are ready to give up the use of child labor, and now we need to clean up their mess. "
On the surface, hosting so many orphans is a burden to the government, and it is actually very politically rewarding.
In ancient Austria, the nobles were deeply influenced by the chivalry spirit, and they were still willing to show mercy to the weak without affecting their own interests.
Now that the Austrian government has come to accept these stray children, it has occupied the moral high ground in public opinion. By the way, it can also condemn the black capitalists.
Black capitalists are also politically correct in Austria. As the industrial revolution advances, 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 increasing strength will sooner or later reach out to politics.
In order to limit the bourgeoisie, it is necessary to prepare in advance.
Anyway, these are facts. It is their essential job to expose social reality in the media.
The more black matter and the worse the reputation of the capitalists, the better it is for the Austrian government. In the future, the bourgeoisie will dare to chaos. Franz will not mind letting them teach what is the "iron dictatorship of the Austrian people".
Franz thought for a while and said, "The question is left to the Ministry of Education, and Count Huo will recruit enough teachers as soon as possible to send these homeless children in for compulsory education.
The government has set up orphanages in major cities to accommodate homeless children. Some poor families cannot afford to raise children, and they can also receive them. "
That's all he can do. After receiving compulsory education, except for that one percent of the day before he can go to middle school to continue his studies, these children are going to society.
The reality is really cruel. Even if compulsory education is completed, these children are only twelve or three years old. From the perspective of later generations, this is abusing child labor.
Unfortunately, this is the first industrial revolution. Crows around the world are generally black. There is no way to accumulate original capital. This is also a big improvement compared to entering the factory at the age of three or four.
...
The most important thing in any decree is enforcement. Compulsory education has become the highest national policy of the Austrian government, so it is an inevitable choice to crack down on the use of child labor by capitalists.
Ban on child labor? This is impossible, not only for the capitalists, but also for the people at the bottom.
There are many children this year, and it is common for ordinary people to have five or six children, and even more than a dozen children. How can they raise them?
If Franz didn't understand the current situation of the society and let the government bear the entire cost of compulsory education, he would blindly enact a compulsory education law, and it would be a human tragedy in the end.
Vienna
As the core of Austria and the birthplace of the Labor Protection Act, the Minimum Wage Act was also promoted from here.
After the Hungarian rebellion was suppressed, the Austrian Empire was peaceful. The government abolished local tariffs, abolished serfdom, released a vast rural market, and 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 Act.
The labor intensity of cotton spinning factories is not high. After using machinery, the physical and technical proficiency requirements of workers have been reduced, as long as the joints are ready.
In order to reduce labor costs, Daniel naturally learned from the successful experience of his British counterparts, hiring cheaper women and children to enter the factory.
But now it is no longer possible. As soon as the minimum wage law is released, child labor in Austria is not cheap.
Although the labor cost in this era is low, even if the labor cost is increased, they also have rich benefits. But how can the greed of the capitalists be satisfied?
Violating the law directly, Daniel didn't dare. The real example is in front of him. One of his competitors was punished by the Vienna government for bankruptcy because he ignored the labor protection law.
Looking at the factory director he hired at a "high salary", Daniel asked, "Vissen, is there any way you can reduce the labor cost to me?"
"Sir, why don't we also adopt the piece-rate system and formulate a task that the workers can't complete and deduct their wages at that time?" Weisen insidiously suggested
Daniel shook his head and said, "It's useless. I've consulted with a lawyer. The government's reference standards are 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 determine it as an invalid contract, and we will face at least a thousand times the starting penalty. "
Since the March Revolution broke out, the Vienna government has become discordant to the capitalists, and their friendship in the past has no effect.
By now Daniel had become more cautious in speaking. If he had encountered such a thing before, he would have been connected with his peers to do things, but now he dare not.
In case he was convicted by the Vienna government of conspiracy and rebellion, his head was about to land immediately. He still remembers the purge in Vienna a few months ago.
If it wasn't for his luck, he happened to be ill during that time, and didn't go to the capitalist party, and he can't continue to do it now.
Capital knows no borders, this is the future. In this era, capitalists dare not relocate casually. They went to an unfamiliar place without a back office, and there was no one left to keep your swallowed hair.
Despite his dissatisfaction with the Austrian government, Daniel continued to do business in Vienna, with less profit and less risk.
In comparison, Austria ’s labor costs are more harmonious than those of Western European countries such as Britain and France. After all, Austria is a food exporter, and the price level of its means of living 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 a labor protection law.
There are policies and measures to counter.
Daniel still thought of ways to reduce labor costs, such as: reducing overtime wages, deducting workers' time to go to the toilet, and deducting the time when machinery stopped.
These are routine operations, a little bit worse, and capitalists built free toilets a few kilometers away, and built paid toilets inside the factory.
Some capitalists even use low-quality fabrics to make overalls and sell them to workers at high prices.
With high-priced work clothes, naturally high-priced food is also indispensable. Capitalists forbid workers to bring food into factories and then sell them high-value food for profit.
...
In short, as long as it is not possible to do so, capitalists have racked their brains in order to reduce labor costs.
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