Holy Roman Empire - Chapter 120

Chapter 120: Chapter 7, The Dark Ages

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Who would have thought that in the factories of capitalists there could be child laborers as young as three or four years old? Not merely one or two, but hundreds, even thousands.

The lifespan of these child laborers usually did not exceed twenty years. Entering the sunless factories at such a young age severely damaged their health.

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The United Kingdom was the most extreme, as the originator of the Industrial Revolution. With a limited population and labor force, capitalists turned their attention to women and children to cut costs.

The wage of an adult male worker could employ two female workers, or three to seven child laborers, with the younger ones being paid even less.

Compared with adults, child laborers were clearly easier to manage, and suppressing their strikes was also simpler. Factories not requiring too heavy labor were filled with a large number of child workers.

The sources of these child laborers were diverse, some were shipped to factories by the lower-class populace out of necessity; others were bought from the market.

Indeed, at this time, child labor was also a commodity, with orphanages, Church relief agencies, and human traffickers serving as the biggest sellers, along with the rare few sold by their parents.

The bloody factories served as the truest social portrayal of the era.

On one hand, they reaped enormous profits by ruthlessly exploiting child labor, while on the other, they maintained a gentlemanly façade in public, donating to the Church and investing in education under the guise of supporting poor students.

Franz was too lazy to even criticize; he simply did not believe that capitalists could be so benevolent. One only needed to see the hidden agenda in these private schools to know the truth.

The superiority of the capitalist political system would be a feature of the future, but in this era, capitalist nation-states exploited even more severely than the feuding nobility.

Ever since Austria’s “Minimum Wage Act” was rolled out, Austrian capitalists’ interest in child labor greatly diminished, which also related to the national situation.

Industrialization in Austria had just begun, and there was not an overwhelming demand for labor, coupled with an abundant working-age population.

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Following the implementation of the “Minimum Wage Act,” capitalists found their compensation to child laborers had significantly increased, making it not much less than what they would pay to adults, thus the incentive diminished.

Especially after the government fined a few typical cases into bankruptcy, everyone remembered that Austria had a “Minimum Wage Act.”

Prime Minister Felix joked, “Your Majesty, since we’ve implemented the ‘Minimum Wage Act,’ the number of homeless children in the country has skyrocketed. Now the government has become the world’s largest daycare.

According to the data we’ve compiled, up until three days ago, we have sheltered 38,600 children, and that number continues to grow.

It seems that the capitalists are ready to give up on using child labor, and now it’s up to us to clean up their mess.”

On the surface, sheltering so many orphans appears to be a burden on the government, but politically it’s a significant boon.

In the old Austrian Empire, the nobility were deeply influenced by chivalric ideals and were willing to show compassion to the weak, provided it did not affect their own interests.

Now, with the Austrian Government stepping in to take in these homeless children, they occupied the moral high ground in public opinion and could also condemn the heartless capitalists.

Denouncing heartless capitalists was politically correct in Austria. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, the strength of the bourgeoisie would rapidly grow.

The current Austrian Government relied on the nobility class to suppress the bourgeoisie, but it might not hold in the future, as a strengthened bourgeoisie would inevitably reach for political power.

It was necessary to make preparations in advance to restrict the bourgeoisie.

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After all, these were the facts. The media exposing social realities was their fundamental job.

The more scandals exposed, and the worse the reputation of capitalists, the more advantageous it was for the Austrian Government. Should the bourgeoisie dare to step out of line in the future, Franz wouldn’t mind letting them experience the “iron fist of Austrian people’s dictatorship.”

Franz thought it over and said, “Leave this problem to the Ministry of Education. Earl Hohenberg must recruit enough teachers as soon as possible and start providing compulsory education to these homeless children.

Government will establish orphanages in major cities, specifically to shelter homeless children. Those from impoverished families who can’t afford to raise their kids can bring them here as well.”

That was all he could do. After completing compulsory education, aside from the one percent of geniuses who could continue to secondary education, these children would step into society.

Reality was indeed cruel. Even with compulsory education completed, these children were only twelve or thirteen years old, which in future eyes was still child labor exploitation.

Unfortunately, this was the time of the first Industrial Revolution. Every country was as equally culpable. Accumulating initial capital was an unavoidable hardship. In comparison to entering factories at three or four, this was still considerable progress.

The most important aspect of any decree is its implementation. Compulsory education had become the highest national policy of the Austrian Government, so cracking down on capitalists’ use of child labor became an inevitable choice.

Prohibit the use of child labor? That was an impossible task, not just for the capitalists to accept, but for the lower classes to endure as well.

In those times, it was common for ordinary people to have five or six children, and some even had as many as a dozen. How could they possibly afford to raise them?

If Franz had not been aware of the social situation and had the government assume all costs of compulsory education, a blindly established compulsory education law would most likely have resulted in another human tragedy.

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Vienna

As the heart of Austria and the origin of the “Labor Protection Law,” the “Minimum Wage Act” also began its spread from there.

After the Hungarian rebellion was suppressed, the Austrian Empire settled into peace. The government abolished local tariffs, ended serfdom, and unlocked the vast rural market, leading to thriving commerce and industry in Vienna.

Watching the orders grow each day, Daniel was far from happy; in fact, he felt extremely uncomfortable. As the owner of a hydro-powered cotton mill, he was one of the biggest victims of the “Minimum Wage Act.”

The labor intensity at the cotton mill was not high. With the introduction of machinery, both the physical and skill requirements for workers were lowered; they just needed to attend to the thread splicing.

To reduce labor costs, Daniel naturally followed the successful examples of his British peers, extensively hiring cheaper women and children into the factory.

But now it was no longer feasible, with the “Minimum Wage Act” in place, Austrian child labor was no longer cheap.

Despite the fact that labor costs were low in this era, and that even with increased labor costs they still reaped substantial profits, the greed of capitalists knows no satisfaction, does it?

Daniel dared not blatantly break the law either; the reality in front of him was that one of his competitors had gone bankrupt because they ignored the Labor Protection Law and faced severe penalties from the Vienna Government.

Looking at his highly paid factory manager, Daniel asked, “Jason, do you have a way to lower my labor costs?”

“Sir, why don’t we also adopt a piece-rate system, set a target workers can’t meet, and then deduct from their wages?” Jason sinisterly suggested.

Daniel shook his head and said, “It’s no use, I’ve already consulted with a lawyer. The government’s reference standard is set by state-owned enterprises, and if we use a piece-rate system that exceeds this standard, we have no right to deduct wages.

Even signing a contract is useless, the Vienna Government will deem it an invalid contract, and we would face a penalty starting at a minimum of a thousandfold, with no upper limit.”

Since the outbreak of the March Revolution, the Vienna Government hasn’t been on good terms with the capitalists, and past connections were of no avail.

Now, Daniel had become more cautious with his words. Had this happened before, he would have long since colluded with his peers to stir up trouble, but now he didn’t dare.

If the Vienna Government declared him conspiring to rebel, he would immediately be executed by decapitation. The great purge that occurred in Vienna just a few months ago was still fresh in his memory.

If he hadn’t been lucky enough to fall ill and missed attending the capitalists’ gathering during that time, he wouldn’t have been able to continue sitting here.

Capital is without borders, that is a matter for the future. In this era, capitalists did not dare to relocate at will; without strong backing in a strange place, you’d be sure to be swallowed up to the last hair.

Despite his dissatisfaction with the Austrian Government, Daniel continued to do business in Vienna. A little less profit was better than taking risks.

In comparison, labor costs in Austria were moderate compared to those in Western European countries like England and France. After all, Austria was a grain-exporting country, and the prices of living materials were lower due to ample supply and no shortage of labor.

The world of capitalism’s highest average wages was in London, ranging from one-third to one-half higher than Vienna, and this was after Austria had its Labor Protection Law.

For every policy from above, there’s a countermeasure from below.

Daniel still thought of ways to reduce labor costs, such as cutting overtime pay, deducting time workers spent in the bathroom, or deducting downtime when machinery stopped running.

These were all routine strategies; for the more ruthless, there were capitalists who built free toilets several kilometers away and set up pay toilets inside the factory.

Even some capitalists sold inferior-quality uniforms as work clothes at high prices to their workers.

With high-priced work clothes came high-priced food. The capitalists forbade workers from bringing food into the factories and then sold them overpriced food for profit.

Essentially, there was nothing they hadn’t thought of or done to squeeze labor costs; the capitalists racked their brains to do it.