War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

On the other side of the ocean, the world's most powerful country at this time - the British Empire.

Unlike fellow workers in the city who had to sleep in coffins and hang ropes, the miners' "bedrooms" were obviously much larger.

David woke up in a narrow and cramped old alley. The clothes covering his body were already full of patches. This was thanks to his mother. After all, everyone else in the alley was wearing clothes with holes.

Thinking of this, David felt a little proud, when a scream came from the entrance of the alley, coming from a girl.

She was a beautiful little girl with a brown ponytail. Since she was the youngest and a girl, the other child workers gave her the best pile of straw at the entrance of the alley.

"It's just after five o'clock and I don't know why the supervisor was so crazy to come to work so early today!" David complained to the child workers around him while putting on his ragged clothes.

"We didn't get off work until eight o'clock last night. These damn guys took it out on us if they couldn't recruit workers!"

Jim cursed, then grabbed a cup and drank the turbid liquid in it, and then choked out a few pebbles from his nose.

"Go over and take a look. Kate is only seven years old. That black-hearted guy with the big nose doesn't attack lightly or harshly. Don't hurt anyone."

After saying that, the two and a half boys ran towards the entrance of the cave.

In fact, in order to prevent the child workers from dozing off, the supervisors usually grab the boy or girl's head and press it directly into the sink until the devils are satisfied.

This trick usually keeps people awake for a whole day, but occasionally accidents happen, that is, they can't sleep at all.

(This was during the British miners' strike.)

On March 31, 1844, Britain's largest coal company required all miners to sign new contracts on the grounds that the old contracts had expired.

But before this group of capitalists proposed a new contract, the miners proposed a new contract of their own.

The content is as follows:

(1) Wages are calculated based on weight instead of volume;

(2) When weighing, use ordinary scales and weights that have been inspected by government prosecutors;

(3) The employment period is half a year;

(4) Abolish the fine system and pay wages according to the type of work actually done;

(5) The mine owner has the obligation to ensure that workers who work exclusively for him work at least four days a week, or to ensure that they receive wages for four days a week.

These terms may seem of little significance to modern eyes, but the situation faced by British miners at that time was that coal was sold by weight, but workers were paid by volume.

But the reality is that coal is solid rather than liquid, so it is difficult to tell whether the barrel is full or not.

According to the regulations at the mine at the time, if the bucket was not completely filled, he would not get any salary at all, but if he filled it more, he would not get a penny more.

At the same time, if the amount of sand in the mining barrel exceeds a certain amount, the industry will not only not receive wages, but will also be fined for "cheating" the foreman.

However, the amount of sand in a coal mine is not determined by the miners, but usually depends on the depth of the coal seam.

At that time, there were no explicit provisions on fines. The amount of fines and the fines depended entirely on the whims and "conscience" of the supervisors and bosses.

Therefore, no one dares to offend the supervisor, because once he offends the supervisor, not only will he not get paid, but he will even have to pay a fine to the company.

As for why it is necessary to use scales and weights that have been inspected by government prosecutors when weighing, the reason is also very simple. Quejinshaoliang is not only found in the East, Westerners play it even better.

Those who are more conscientious use lead as weights, while those who are unscrupulous simply use a ten kilogram weight as a five kilogram weight. At that time, there was a strange law in the UK, which was that if a worker wanted to accuse the mining factory of inaccurate weights, he had to report it three weeks in advance.

This kind of protection for enterprises can be described as "meticulous".

Why is Article 3 half a year? This has something to do with Franz, because there are always economic crises in the UK, and coal sales are divided into off-season and peak seasons, so mines will sign one-year contracts in order to have labor at any time.

At that time, British law stipulated that workers were not allowed to leave their posts without authorization during their employment, otherwise they would have to compensate the employer for losses and be imprisoned for five to six weeks.

But those coal mine owners will not pay workers during non-working hours, which means that once the mines stop production during an economic downturn, the miners can only drink the northwest wind and are not allowed to find other jobs to make ends meet, otherwise they will have to Compensate the boss for his losses.

And in order to control the miners, usually the bosses will withhold wages from one week to half a year.

As for taking the legal approach, generally speaking, the mine owners are the local parliamentarians or even the speaker of the house. The officials who handle these matters are either their relatives or friends. Even if they are not relatives, they can become "relatives and friends". After all, this is considered " A strong alliance?"

Articles 4 and 5 are also intended to restrict mine owners from deducting wages from miners and prevent them from taking advantage of legal loopholes.

Naturally, the mine owners would not accept these conditions, but this time the fuss was a bit big. On the first day alone, 40,000 miners laid down their hoes and picks, followed by 60,000 in Manchester, and the news even reached Robert Peel. In the Prime Minister's ears.

Of course, these mine owners also thought of other methods, such as replacing child labor. You must know that there are a large number of children in the workhouses, and the price is low, and there are street children everywhere in London.

In fact, although British law has explicitly prohibited the use of child labor since 1842, in fact the problem of child labor still exists widely in British society.

At this time, these children in the tunnel were child workers in the mine, and the supervisor was naturally angry because he could not meet the targets above.

Kate was sold into the mines by her drunkard father. Because she was too young and a girl, her only task was to clean the wind tunnel.

She had to crawl into a hole less than a meter in diameter and clean it of dust and debris while preventing water and mud from blocking it.

To overcome the fear of repeating simple movements for more than ten hours in the dark, Kate sings a song her mother sang when she was still alive.

The girl's singing echoed in the alley, which made these child workers feel the same, so some people were willing to give her the softest and most comfortable haystack.

Because that song is their light in the darkness

At this moment, the girl named Kate was too slow to get dressed, so the supervisor "Big Nose" grabbed her ponytail and dragged her out of bed naked.

The supervisor raised the "cat's claw whip" (a whip made of several hemp ropes) in his hand and shouted harshly.

"Damn little thing! You can't even put on your clothes, so don't wear them! You'll be a bitch when you grow up!"

"Big Nose" got more and more aggressive as he scolded her. I don't know if it was because he used too much force or because the girl's body was too fragile.

With a "tearing" sound, the supervisor actually tore off the ponytail and all the flesh. "Big Nose" looked at the hair and flesh in his hand, threw it away, and then spat on Kate.

"What are you looking at! Why don't you go to work? Don't you want to live anymore? I tell you, each of you has twenty-four cars today. If you miss one car, you won't be able to eat."

At this time, the supervisor was hit hard on the back of his head, and he subconsciously reached out to touch it, which was already dripping with blood. "Big Nose" immediately became angry. He discovered that the murder weapon was a stone that could be seen everywhere, but he could not find the murderer.

"Who did it?! Didn't you hear it? Tell me! You are a bunch of rubbish, pigs no one wants!" The supervisor waved the whip in his hand and beat the child workers in front of him desperately.

At this time, someone picked up a stone and threw it at the overseer's head. He turned around and finally found the murderer, the boy named David.

"David! You won't survive today! And your deformed mother, you all must die!" The overseer brandished his whip and rushed towards the boy, but he tripped and fell to the ground.

When he looked up and wanted to get up, he saw the tall and thin David standing in front of him holding a big stone.

"you dare!"

Before the supervisor could finish his words, he was hit in the head by the big stone. Then a second stone flew towards him, then a third and a fourth until he stopped struggling.