Who would have thought that there would still be three or four-year-old child laborers in the factories of the capitalists? Not just two, but hundreds.

The lifespan of these child labourers usually does not exceed 20 years. Entering a dark factory too soon can cause them to suffer severe physical damage.

Among them, Britain is the most crazy, as the first place of the industrial revolution, the British Isles has a small population and limited labor, in order to reduce costs, capitalists have set their sights on women and children.

The salary of an adult male worker can employ 2 female workers and 3~7 child laborers, and the younger the salary, the lower the wage expenditure.

Child labor is significantly easier to manage than adults, and it is easier to suppress strikes, with a large number of child laborers in factories where the demand for labor is not too great.

The sources of these child laborers are also diverse, some of which are forced by the people at the bottom to send their children to factories for their livelihood; The other part is bought from the exchange market.

That's right, child labor was also a commodity at this time, orphanages, church almshouses, and traffickers were the largest sellers, and a very small part was sold by parents.

The Bloody Factory is the truest social portrayal of this era.

On the one hand, he made huge profits by frantically exploiting child labor, and on the other hand, he created a gentleman's appearance in the outside world, donating money to the church and investing in education to fund poor students.

Franz didn't bother to complain, anyway, he didn't believe that the capitalists would 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, and the capitalist system of the state in this era is more exploitative than that of the feudal aristocracy.

Since the introduction of the Austrian minimum wage law, the interest of Austrian capitalists in child labor has been greatly reduced, which is also related to the national situation.

Austria's industrialization has just begun, the demand for labor is not too large, and the labor force itself is large.

After the implementation of the Minimum Wage Act, capitalists found that the remuneration they paid to child labour was much higher and not much lower than that of adults, and this temptation was less.

Especially after the government caught a few typical cases of direct fines and bankruptcy, everyone remembered that Austria also has a "minimum wage law".

Prime Minister Felix joked: "Your Majesty, since we implemented the Minimum Wage Law, the number of homeless children in the country has increased dramatically, and now the government has become the largest nursery in the world."

According to our statistics, as of three days ago, we had 38,600 children in place, and this number is still growing.

The capitalists seem to be 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 on the government, but in fact it is a political plus.

In ancient Austria, the aristocracy was deeply influenced by chivalry, and they were willing to pity the weak without compromising 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.

The black capitalists were also a form of political correctness in Austria, and the power of the bourgeoisie would grow rapidly as the industrial revolution progressed.

At present, the Austrian government relies on the aristocratic class to suppress the bourgeoisie, and it may not be able to suppress it in the future, and sooner or later the bourgeoisie, which has grown in strength, will reach out to politics.

In order to restrain the bourgeoisie, it is necessary to prepare a little 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 more bad the reputation of the capitalists, the better it was for the Austrian government. In the future, the bourgeoisie dared to mess around, and Franz did not mind letting them learn what the "iron fist of the dictatorship of the Austrian people" was.

Franz thought for a moment and said, "This question is left to the Ministry of Education, and Count Huo Hum will recruit enough teachers as soon as possible to send these homeless children to compulsory education first."

The government has set up orphanages in major cities to house homeless children, and some poor families cannot afford to support their children, so they can also accept those who are sent in. ”

That's all 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 out into society.

The reality is really cruel, even after completing compulsory education, these children are only twelve or thirteen years old, and in the eyes of future generations, this is the abuse of child labor.

Unfortunately, this was the period of the first industrial revolution, and the crows of the whole world were generally black, and there was no way to accumulate primitive capital. This is also a big improvement compared to entering the factory at the age of three or four.

……

The most important thing for any decree is to enforce it, and 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.

Prohibition of child labor? This is impossible, not only the capitalists can't accept it, but the people at the bottom can't stand it either.

In these years, it is common for ordinary people to have five or six children, and there are even more than a dozen children, how can they raise them?

If Franz hadn't understood the current state of society and let the government bear all the expenses of compulsory education, he would have blindly enacted a compulsory education law, which would have been a human tragedy in the end.

Vienna

As the heart of Austria and the origin of the Labour Protection Act, the Minimum Wage Act was also introduced here.

After the Hungarian rebellion was suppressed, the Austrian Empire was at peace. The government abolished local tariffs, abolished serfdom, freed up vast rural markets, and commerce began to flourish in Vienna.

Looking at the daily increase in orders, Daniel was not happy, but very uncomfortable. As the owner of a water-powered cotton mill, he was the biggest victim of the Minimum Wage Act.

The labor intensity of the cotton spinning factory is not high, and after the use of machinery, the physical strength and technical proficiency requirements of the workers are reduced, as long as the joints are done.

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 now, as soon as the minimum wage law is introduced, 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 rich profits, but how can the greed of the capitalists be satisfied?

Daniel did not dare to break the law directly, and a realistic example is in front of him, one of his competitors was fined to bankruptcy by the Vienna government for ignoring labor protection laws.

Looking at the factory director hired by his "high salary", Daniel asked: "Weisen, is there any way you can reduce the labor cost for me?" ”

"Sir, why don't we also adopt a piecework system, set a task that the workers can't accomplish, and deduct their wages when the time comes?" Visson insidiously suggested

Daniel shook his head and said: "It's useless, I've already consulted a lawyer, the government's reference standard is set by state-owned enterprises, and if the piecework system exceeds this standard, we have no right to deduct wages."

Even if the contract is signed, it will not work, the Vienna government will consider the contract invalid, and we will face a fine of at least 1,000 times the starting point, and the upper limit will not be capped. ”

Since the outbreak of the March Revolution, the Vienna government has become discordant with the capitalists, and the old friendships have had no effect.

Now Daniel has become more careful when he speaks, if he had encountered this kind of thing before, he would have been doing things in tandem with his peers, but now he doesn't dare.

If it is determined by the Vienna government to be a conspiracy to rebel, it will soon be killed, and he still remembers the purge that took place in Vienna a few months ago.

If it weren't for his luck, he happened to be ill during that time and didn't go to the capitalist party, and he wouldn't be able to continue doing it here now.

Capital knows no borders, this is the future. In this era, capitalists don't dare to move casually, and they go to a strange place without a backstage, and there is not a single hair left to keep you swallowed.

Despite his dissatisfaction with the Austrian government, Daniel continued to do business in Vienna, making less profit and taking risks.

In contrast, Austria's labor costs are more harmonious than those of Western European countries such as Britain and France, after all, Austria is a grain exporter, the price level of the means of subsistence is lower, and there is no shortage of labor.

The highest average wage in the capitalist world is in London, where it is one-third to one-half higher than in Vienna, and this is only after Austria has a labour protection law.

There are policies above, and there are countermeasures below.

Daniel still thought of ways to reduce labor costs, such as cutting overtime pay, deducting the time workers spend on the toilet, and deducting the time when machinery stops running.

These are routine operations, and to put it a little bit better, there are capitalists who have built free toilets a few kilometers away, and paid toilets inside the factories.

Some capitalists even make work clothes from inferior fabrics and sell them to workers at high prices.

With high-priced work clothes, high-priced food is naturally indispensable. The capitalists forbade the workers to bring food into the factories and then sold 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.

。 m.