Chapter 124: The Dark Age
Chapter 123 The Dark Age
Who could have imagined that there were still child laborers as young as three or four years old in the factories of the capitalists? And not just one or two, but hundreds and thousands of them appeared.
The life expectancy of these child laborers is usually no more than twenty years old. Going into the dark, sunless factories too early would cause their bodies to suffer severe destruction.
Among them, England is the most crazy, as the first place of the Industrial Revolution, the British Isles has a small population and limited labor force, in order to reduce costs, the capitalists will focus on women and children.
For the salary of one adult male worker, two female workers could be employed, and three to seven child laborers could be hired, with the younger the age the lower the wage bill.
Compared to adults, child laborers were significantly easier to manage and simpler to suppress strikes, and factories where the labor intensity demand was not too great were filled with large numbers of child laborers.
These child laborers came from a variety of sources, partly from the lower classes who were forced to make ends meet and sent their children to the factories, and partly from those who bought them from the trading market.
Yes, child labor was also a commodity at this time, with orphanages, church soup kitchens, and human traffickers being the biggest sellers, and a very small percentage being sold by their parents.
The bloody factory is the truest social portrait of this era.
On the one hand, they made huge profits from the crazy exploitation of child laborers, and on the other hand, they portrayed a gentlemanly appearance to the outside world, giving donations to churches and investing in education in the name of subsidizing impoverished students.
Franz did not even bother to spit, anyway, he does not believe that the capitalists will be so kind, look at these private schools in the private goods will know.
The advanced capitalist political system, that is only in the future to have, this era of capitalist system of the country than the feudal aristocracy exploitation is more serious.
Since the Austrian minimum wage bill came out, the Austrian capitalists are much less interested in child labor, and this has to do with the national situation.
Austria’s industrialization is just beginning, the demand for labor is not too big, and its own labor force population is large.
After the implementation of the Minimum Wage Act, capitalists found that they paid child laborers much more, not much lower than adults, the temptation is smaller.
Especially after the government caught a few cases of child laborers and sent them directly into bankruptcy, everyone remembered that Austria still had a Minimum Wage Law.
Prime Minister Felix joked, “Your Majesty, since we implemented the Minimum Wage Act, the number of homeless children in the country has increased so dramatically that the government has now become the largest childcare center in the world.
According to our statistics, as of three days ago, we have taken in a total of 38,600 children, and this number continues to grow.
The capitalists look like they’re ready to give up on child labor, and now they need us to clean up their mess for them.”
On the surface, taking in so many orphans is a burden on the government, in actuality politically this is a huge plus.
In old Austria, the nobles were heavily influenced by chivalry, and they were still willing to pity the weak without compromising their own interests.
Now that the Austrian government has stepped in to take in these stray children, it occupies the moral high ground in terms of public opinion, and by the way, it can also condemn the black-hearted capitalists.
Black capitalists were also politically correct in Austria, and the bourgeoisie would grow rapidly in strength as the industrial revolution advanced.
Now the Austrian government is relying on the aristocracy to suppress the bourgeoisie, in the future it won’t necessarily be able to do so; sooner or later the bourgeoisie, which is growing in strength, will reach out to politics.
In order to limit the bourgeoisie, it is necessary to make some preparations in advance.
Anyway, these are all facts, and it is the media’s job to expose social reality.
The more blackmail there was, and the more the capitalists were discredited, the better it was for the Austrian government. If the bourgeoisie dared to make a fuss in the future, Franz would not mind letting them know what the “iron fist of the Austrian people’s dictatorship” was.
Franz thought for a moment and said: “This issue is left to the Ministry of Education, Count Hohan as soon as possible to recruit enough teachers, first of all, to send these homeless children to receive compulsory education.
The government establishes orphanages in major cities, specializing in sheltering homeless children, some poor families can not afford to raise children, sent over can also be accepted.”
After receiving compulsory education, except for the one percent of geniuses who can enter secondary schools to further their education, these children will have to go out into the society.
The reality is really cruel, even after completing compulsory education, these children are only 12 or 13 years old, which in later times seems to be the abuse of child labor.
Unfortunately, this was the period of the first industrial revolution, all the crows in the world were generally black, in order to accumulate raw capital there was no way. Compared to entering factories at the age of three or four, this was also a big step forward.
……
The most important thing about any decree is its enforcement, and with compulsory education becoming the highest state policy of the Austrian government, it became inevitable to crack down on the use of child labor by capitalists.
Banning child labor? This is impossible, not only the capitalists can’t accept it, but also the grassroots can’t stand it.
These days there are a lot of children, the ordinary people have five or six children is a common phenomenon, even more than a dozen children, how can they afford to raise?
If it is not Franz understand the social status quo, let the government bear all the expenses of the compulsory education stage, then blindly formulate a compulsory education law out, in the end most likely another human tragedy.
Vienna
As the core of Austria, it is also the place where the Labor Protection Law originated, and the Minimum Wage Law was also promoted from here.
After the suppression of the Hungarian rebellion, the Austrian Empire was at peace. The government abolished local tariffs, abolished serfdom, and unleashed a vast rural market, and Vienna’s commerce and industry began to flourish.
Looking at the daily growth of orders, Daniel did not feel happy, but very difficult. As the owner of a water-powered cotton mill, he was the biggest victim of the Minimum Wage Law.
Cotton spinning factory labor intensity is not high, after the use of machinery, the physical strength of the workers and technical proficiency requirements have been reduced, as long as a good job to connect the broken head can be.
In order to reduce labor costs, Daniel naturally learned from the successful experience of his British counterparts and went on a rampage to hire cheaper women and children into the factories.
But not anymore, once the minimum wage law came out, child labor in Austria is not cheap anymore.
Despite the low cost of labor in this era, even if they raise the labor overhead, they also have a lucrative interest, but how can the greed of capitalists be satisfied?
Directly violate the law, Daniel and dare not, the reality of the example in front of the eyes, one of his competitors is because of ignoring the labor protection law, the government of Vienna to the bankruptcy of the fine.
Looking at his “highly paid” factory manager, Daniel asked: “Wison, do you have any way to bring down the labor cost for me?”
“Sir, why don’t we adopt the piece-rate system, and set a task that the workers can’t complete, and then deduct their wages at that time?” Vixen suggested sinisterly
Daniel shook his head and said, “It’s no use, I’ve already consulted a lawyer, the government’s reference standard is set by the state-owned enterprises, and we have no right to deduct wages if we exceed it by adopting a piece-rate system.
Even if we signed a contract, it’s useless, the Vienna government will recognize it as an invalid contract, and we’ll also face a penalty of at least a thousand times the amount to start with, with no ceiling.”
Since the outbreak of the March Revolution, the Vienna government had become discordant towards the capitalists, and none of the old friendships had any effect.
By now Daniel had become careful with his words, if he had encountered this kind of thing before, he would have colluded with his peers to make things happen, but now he didn’t dare.
In case the Vienna government recognized as conspiracy to rebel, immediately have to head to the ground, a few months ago in Vienna’s great cleansing, so far he is still fresh in his memory.
If he is not lucky, that time happened to be sick, did not go to participate in the capitalist party, now also can not continue to do here.
Capital without borders, this is the future. In this era, capitalists don’t dare to migrate casually, without the background to a strange place, the custody of you swallowed hairs don’t have one left.
Although the Austrian government is very dissatisfied, Daniel still continue to do business in Vienna, a little less profit is a little less, risk or forget it.
In contrast, Austria’s labor costs compared to Britain, France and other Western European countries is still harmonious, after all, Austria is a food exporter, in the price level of living materials to be lower, and no shortage of labor.
The highest average wage in the capitalist world is in London, which is one-third to one-half higher than in Vienna, and that’s after Austria has labor protection laws.
What goes up, comes down.
Daniel still came up with ways to reduce labor costs, such as: cutting overtime pay, deducting workers’ bathroom breaks, and deducting the time when machinery stops running.
These are routine operations, a little more powerful, there are capitalists to build free toilets a few kilometers away from the land, while in the factory inside the establishment of paid toilets.
There are even capitalists who make work clothes from low-quality fabrics and sell them to workers at high prices.
With high-priced work clothes, naturally high-priced food is also necessary. The capitalists prohibit workers from bringing food into the factories and then sell them high-priced food for profit.
……
In short, as long as there is nothing that can’t be done, the capitalists are racking their brains in order to compress labor costs.
(End of chapter)