Chapter 45: Legal Weapons

  Chapter 45 Legal Weapons

On March 21st, the Vienna government introduced another Land Lease Act, which stipulated that farmers had the right to lease their land, and that the maximum rent could not exceed fifty percent of the land’s proceeds.

This is to protect the most basic rights and interests of farmers to survive, if not restricted, it is estimated that it will not be long before another hunger explosion will break out.

On March 22, the Vienna government introduced the Serf Settlement Guarantee Act, which required the nobility to provide a minimum subsistence guarantee for freed serfs and to solve the problem of employment for peasants.

Namely, the peasants should not be deprived of the right to live in their existing houses; the land should be leased to the peasants or the peasants should be employed to guarantee the employment problem.

In order to avoid the capitalist aristocracy taking advantage of the situation, on March 23, 1848, the Vienna government introduced the Act on the Prohibition of Usury.

The bill stipulated that the interest rate for any mode of lending in Austria should not exceed thirty-five percent per annum, and that the interest rate for lending to disadvantaged groups such as peasants and workers should not exceed twenty-five percent per annum.

Interest is calculated on the actual amount in hand for any personal loan.

After May 1, 1848, any usury contract is considered null and void and has no legal effect, which means that it can not be repaid. The law only protects the proceeds of usurious contracts that have been concluded to the extent that they are legal.

This was a precautionary measure, and in fact, when this law was enacted, the cabinet members did not think at all that the nobility would take advantage of the situation, which was usually done only by capitalists.

Well, Franz didn’t debate with them on this issue, the big nobles were surely not going to do it, such a small gain wasn’t worth dirtying their hands, the small nobles might not be able to say the same.

There are also poor people among the nobles, every year in Europe there are a number of nobles bankrupt, these people can not care about what the honor of the nobility.

Since it is to combat the capitalists, then the usury bill, there are naturally a lot of unfavorable provisions of the lawbreakers, such as the punishment that is terrible.

As long as caught loan sharks first confiscate all the property, along with a walk inside the prison, a minimum of three years to start, life is not a dream.

On March 25th, the Vienna government introduced the Minimum Wage Act, which is a subsidiary act of the Labor Protection Act, stipulating the minimum wage.

Because the economic development of each region is different, the first published minimum wage is only for the Vienna region, which is 4.5 guilders per week for male workers, 2.5 guilders per week for female workers, and 45 klets per week for child laborers.

(Note: 1 guilder here = 11.6928 grams of silver = 60 klets.)

Franz is still very pragmatic, did not set a wage beyond the actual situation, this wage can only meet the needs of their lives, if the workers want a better life still need to work overtime.

Including the most disgusting use of child labor, the same did not get solved.

There is no way, the current situation in Austria is so, banning the use of child labor in factories is easy, but after the loss of economic resources, these children’s life is a big problem.

However, these laws still have a positive effect, a small increase in the treatment of workers, to ensure the survival of the workers, but of course this is only to ensure the right to live.

If you want a better life, wait for the further development of productivity, which is determined by the social reality, without lowering the cost of labor, enterprises will lose the competitiveness of their products.

……

It can be said that 1848 was the year of legislation in Austria. Franz was perhaps used to staying in a legal society and was very enthusiastic about legislation.

In March alone, Franz promulgated fifteen laws, and almost every day after his regency, a new bill was introduced.

From the initial abolition of serfdom, to the late workers’ rights and interests, that all have special laws and regulations.

Regardless of the role of other, these laws first Austrian reformers to fool a stunned, everyone believes that the strength of this reform must be earth-shattering.

Franz succeeded in diverting people’s attention through legislation, because the coverage of the law is too wide, in the introduction of the law at the same time, but also to meet the needs of the interests of serfs and workers.

The antagonism between the people and the government improved, and without realizing it the revolution lost its mass base, but of course it was only the Vienna region that was the first to be transformed, and other regions still needed time to ferment.

All these were things of the future. Just now the Austrian government received the good news that on March 18th the Berlin Revolution broke out, and Prussia was also caught in the wave of revolution.

Light their own bad luck, that mood is certainly not pleasant, this time there is another unlucky person, everyone’s mood is much more comfortable.

Of course, the fear of the Kingdom of Prussia to take advantage of the fire is the main factor, and now the Berlin revolution broke out, Prussia is self-conscious naturally impossible to do things at this time.

The good mood of the people did not last long, the Czech Republic is again in trouble, do not have to think Franz know, the Czech region of the big capitalists are Austrians, if this is not their shadow is strange.

Now not only do they want to establish a unified Czech parliament and an independent national self-defense army, but they also demand that the Czech language be given the same status as German.

There is no doubt that this demand for the division of the country was non-negotiable, and there was no way that the government in Vienna would agree to let Austria split.

Intelligence officers were now recording the list of nobles and capitalists involved in this campaign, and Franz was ready to move against the Czech regions.

The biggest problem of the common people in this era was still to have enough to eat, any demand beyond that, that was directed by someone.

Franz had always rejected history books that put the small and medium bourgeoisie together with the working class; could the needs of the exploiting class and the exploited class be the same?

The Austrian government was pushing for a labor protection law, and there was no reason for the workers to oppose the government’s fight for their rights at this time.

According to the information that came back to us, the main demonstrators in Prague were students and the middle and small bourgeoisie, and the workers just regarded the demonstration as a job and got paid to do it.

“Mr. Prime Minister, what is the Cabinet going to do about the demonstrations in Prague?”

The conditions they put forward, Franz decisively ignored, it was impossible to agree to, there was no need to even discuss it.

“We have ordered the Prague government to arrest the masterminds of this conspiracy, at the same time, the cabinet has given Prince Windischgreise an order to prepare to suppress the rebellion!” Felix said in a murderous voice

There was no way the Vienna government would give in at this point, he didn’t even bother to make a false peace, the Czech region was different from other regions, there was no mass base for revolution here now.

In his opinion, this is part of the nobility and capitalists, dissatisfied with the Vienna government’s reforms, only to make a counterattack, after all, as soon as the Czech Kingdom was established, these bills do not have to be implemented.

Thank you for your support, Hai Yue is really grateful!

The problem of updating, I have been very hard, the new book period two more has been very conscientious, can not be more, we on the shelves outbreak!

(End of chapter)