Chapter 196 Protecting Workers’ Rights

Since November 1875, Spain has completely entered the era of Carlo.

On November 11, more than 20 nobles and officials who were found guilty after trial were publicly executed in the central square of Madrid.

These nobles and officials sentenced to death can freely choose the method of execution, such as guillotine or gallows.

The large-scale execution of officials and nobles also made the people very curious about this. Even the revolution six or seven years ago did not reach the point of large-scale public execution of nobles.

Carlo was able to issue an execution order for nobles, which in the eyes of the Spanish people showed that he valued the opinions of the Spanish people.

Along with these 20 noble officials, the bosses of the factories that were at the center of the public opinion storm at the time, that is, the exposed factories, were also executed.

In order to calm the anger of Spanish workers, they had to be pulled out as scapegoats. But they were not so innocent. After all, flies will not bite seamless eggs. The fact that the rebellious nobles used it as an excuse for the parade at least proved that they had not exploited the workers much in normal times.

In addition to executing these criminals, the government also disclosed how to deal with other nobles and officials who were not sentenced to death.

First of all, no matter whether they were nobles or officials, all their properties were confiscated, and the nobles were abolished from their titles. Their families were prohibited from running for parliament for 50 years, and the current elected parliamentarians were also disqualified from parliament.

According to the degree of their participation in the rebellion, they were sentenced to different prison terms. But the shortest prison term among these people was close to 20 years, and the longest was life imprisonment.

Carlo will build a new prison in the Congo Territory to detain these traitors. As for whether these people are going to prison to serve their sentences or to Congo as laborers, only the people of the Congo Territory know.

Anyway, these people are criminals. Instead of letting them stay in prison and waste food, it is better to let them play their last bit of heat and contribute to the development of the Congo Territory.

After executing these criminals, the Spanish government immediately turned its attention to protecting workers' rights.

The biggest reason why the large-scale workers' march in Madrid was aroused was that the factory owners were too unscrupulous in their recognized exploitation.

Although the government has also promulgated the corresponding "Labor Protection Law", there are always loopholes in the law. These capitalists try their best to exploit loopholes in the law and can still exploit workers wantonly within the scope of legal supervision.

In order to protect the interests of workers and to completely quell the public anger caused by the workers' march, Spanish interim Prime Minister Serrano publicly stated that he would promote further reforms of the "Labor Protection Law", clarify the working hours and minimum income of workers, and implement them in all regions of the country.

Serrano acted quickly and promulgated the new "Labor Protection Law" in Spain in just a few days.

The new "Labor Protection Law" stipulates that when Spanish citizens work in local enterprises and factories, the normal working hours per day shall not exceed ten hours.

After working more than ten hours a day, the extra working hours will be regarded as overtime, and they should enjoy a salary higher than the normal working hours, at least 1.5 times the salary of the normal working hours.

Spanish citizens shall not work more than 70 hours a week and shall have at least 2 days of vacation per month. For those who continue to work overtime during major holidays and important events, the factory and enterprise should provide overtime income of more than 1.5 times the normal working hours.

Although the government does not explicitly require workers to work no more than ten hours, as long as it exceeds ten hours, the factory must provide workers with overtime wages of 1.5 times the normal working hours.

This also meets the workers' requirements. The reason why the workers are angry is not overtime, but overtime without any reward.

As long as overtime can get higher income, most workers are still willing to work harder and make more money.

The new "Labor Protection Law" stipulates the working hours of Spanish citizens, and the latest "Labor Minimum Income Law" promulgated next has revised the minimum income criteria for Spanish citizens to participate in labor.

For Spain at present, the minimum income law promulgated a few years ago is obviously no longer applicable.

In the six years of rapid development in Spain, per capita income has also increased greatly. If all Spanish workers are protected according to the previous minimum income law, factory owners will have a lot of room to exploit workers.

Since it is to be revised, the minimum income law must also be revised.

According to the latest "Minimum Income Law for Workers", the minimum income for Spanish citizens participating in labor has also ushered in a significant increase.

The minimum weekly wage for adult male Spanish citizens participating in work shall not be less than 2 pesetas and 15 copper coins, and the minimum weekly wage for adult female Spanish citizens participating in work shall not be less than 1 pesetas and 75 copper coins.

The minimum weekly wage for male Spanish citizens over 50 years old participating in work shall not be less than 1 pesetas and 60 copper coins, and the minimum weekly wage for female Spanish citizens over 50 years old participating in work shall not be less than 1 pesetas and 25 copper coins.

The minimum weekly wage for child workers participating in work shall not be less than 90 copper coins, and child workers shall not work overtime for any reason, and the daily working hours shall not exceed ten hours, and every Sunday is a rest day for child workers.

Compared with the "Minimum Income Law for Workers" a few years ago, the current latest minimum income law is obviously much more powerful in terms of income protection.

Even child laborers are guaranteed a weekly salary of more than 90 copper coins, which is higher than the weekly salary of female Spanish citizens over 50 years old in the previous income law.

The main reason why the income of child labor has been greatly improved is to take care of the poor families who have to let their children work.

Carlo can allow capitalists to squeeze workers to a certain extent. After all, doing so is conducive to factory production, and is conducive to Spain's industrial construction and economic development.

But if the capitalists want to exploit even child labor, Carlo doesn't mind letting them feel the strength of Spanish justice.

The interests of child labor must be protected, working hours must not exceed ten hours a day, and there must be one day of rest per week. This is Carlo's bottom line.

This latest "Workers' Minimum Income Law" was formulated based on Spain's per capita income. The economic conditions of each major region in Spain are not the same, and the minimum income in each major region also fluctuates to a certain extent.

However, such a fluctuation only takes into account the issue that people in more economically developed areas should receive higher incomes. Therefore, regarding the fluctuation of the minimum income law in various regions, only increases are allowed and no decreases are allowed.

Two laws on protecting the interests of workers were revised, and the public anger caused by workers' demonstrations was completely quelled.

Again, the Spanish people still trust the Spanish government. What they are angry about is the oppression of workers by the capitalists, and they are not very dissatisfied with the government.

After the government successively revised laws on labor laws, the people only have satisfaction and love for the government, and there is no possibility of any dissatisfaction or opposition.

The Grand Dukes Carlo and Serrano, who led the reform of labor laws, also won the love and praise of the Spanish people.

A few days later, at the Royal Palace of Madrid, Carlo met with Count Canovas, who had become the deputy prime minister of the interim cabinet.

In addition to Carlo, who gained the power of the government, the two people who gained the most from this rebellion were Archduke Serrano, who became Prime Minister, and Count Canovas, who became Deputy Prime Minister.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Archduke Serrano becoming Prime Minister is just a transition, and the next person to officially serve as Prime Minister will definitely be Count Canovas.

The reason is also very simple. First of all, Grand Duke Serrano is 65 years old and does not have much energy to become the controller of the Spanish government.

Secondly, Grand Duke Serrano himself has a very high reputation in the military and has been Spain's Minister of Defense for two terms since the revolution.

If he becomes Prime Minister again, wouldn't his prestige be comparable to that of Prime Minister Primo? Carlo finally got the chance to take power, so how could he allow another Prime Minister Primo to be born?

It is this idea that makes many lawmakers and officials feel that Count Canovas, who does not have much prestige in the military, will eventually serve as Prime Minister of Spain.

Of course Carlo thought so too, but it was not out of precaution against Grand Duke Serrano, but because he felt that Canovas, a younger guy, was more suitable to be the Prime Minister of Spain.

Canovas was born in 1828 and is currently 47 years old. In the position of Prime Minister, Canovas is obviously still in his prime and has a lot of time and energy to control Spanish government affairs.

After all, Grand Duke Serrano is 65 years old. What's more, Grand Duke Serrano himself was not very good at government affairs and economic development, otherwise he would not have made Primo the prime minister after the revolution, and he became the minister of defense.

Let Canovas take over as Prime Minister of Spain. Because he is in his prime, he can cooperate with Carlo for two terms, which is ten years.

A longer period of rule is a very valuable stage of development for Spain at present. I am afraid that too frequent regime changes will cause a country that originally hoped to develop rapidly to fall into the problem of stagnant development due to the change of regimes.

Historically, Spain experienced civil strife and frequent changes in political power during this period. Queen Isabel was succeeded by the Provisional Government, which was succeeded by Amadeo I, who was succeeded by the Government of the Republic, who was succeeded by Alfonso XII.

During this period, whether it was the three kings or the provisional government and the republican government, Spain has never had a stable candidate for the prime minister and president.

This also resulted in Spain having almost no room for stable development during this period in history. After missing this relatively golden period of development, Spain fell into complete decline.

Carlo won't make the same mistake again. Unless Spain's prime minister has issues with loyalty, Carlo would not consider changing the prime minister too frequently.

Of course, if there is a problem with the ability, it still needs to be replaced. After all, only a capable prime minister can promote the development of the country, and an incompetent one will only make things worse.

Spanish political parties and parliamentarians are concerned about the reorganization of parliament and new elections. At this time, Carlo is concerned about the issue of large tracts of land obtained after confiscating noble property.

Speaking of which, even if there were close to a hundred nobles participating in the rebellion, they were only one-tenth of the Spanish nobles.

But it is this tenth of the nobles who have more property

There are too many to count, and the amount of land is even more exaggerated.

According to preliminary statistics, the land area owned by these nobles exceeds 1 million acres, of which nearly 600,000 acres are cultivated land. This is the cultivated land resource that Spain is in urgent need of today.

After all the property of these rebellious nobles is counted, there will be more land resources.

Although it will not completely solve the problem of arable land area in Spain, it has at least solved a considerable part of it.

Carlo does not intend to control these lands in his own hands, but sell or rent them to local people for planting.

The land is sold at the standard market price, and a subsidy of no more than 10% can be considered for some poor families with low income.

If it is rented, it will be carried out in full accordance with the Spanish land rental law. Carlo will not reduce the rent again on this basis. After all, sometimes appropriate charges are conducive to maintaining the relationship with the people.

But in any case, these lands will eventually have to be transferred. Carlo does not intend to make the royal family a land aristocracy. The royal family only needs to control a small part of the land.

There are countless industries that are more profitable than farming and renting land, and Carlo does not need to compete with other farmers in the agricultural field.

In addition to retaining some land in plains and flat areas to cope with the development of mechanized agriculture in the future, other lands are best sold to the government or farmers.

And speaking of land, the royal family still controls a complete Congo territory. There is no upper limit to the land area of ​​the Congo territory. Wherever the Spanish colonial outposts are established, they are part of the Congo territory.

At present, Carlo still has to worry about the development of the Congo territory, so he will not hold on to these lands.

A few days later, the royal family began to gradually sell and rent out the lands confiscated by the nobles.

The price of selling land to the outside world is very fair, and it is sold to local farmers to prevent these lands from flowing back into the hands of the nobles.

For those farmers who really have no money to buy land, the royal family can also rent land to them at a low price. The current land rent in Spain is relatively low, at least much lower than before the land rental law was enacted.

This also effectively protects the income of farmers. At least the current income of Spanish farmers has also ushered in a lot of growth.

In addition to owning large tracts of land, the nobles also own castles and manors of all sizes, as well as various other industries.

Carlo asked Butler Loren to screen these castles and manors. The royal family can continue to retain some castles and manors with better geographical locations and environments.

Those castles and manors with poor geographical locations or poor environments are openly sold to the Spanish nobles or capitalists in exchange for funds.

Although the Royal Palace of Madrid is one of the three major palaces in Europe, Carlo does not plan to live in the Royal Palace of Madrid for a long time.

Going to some manors with better environments for vacation and living appropriately can not only achieve the purpose of relaxing, but also benefit physical health.

In addition to the Royal Palace of Madrid, the current Spanish royal family does not have too many castles and manors to provide for Carlo to vacation.

The property of these nobles is a good supplement for Carlo. At least there are indeed several noble manor castles that meet Carlo's requirements.

In the castles and manors of the nobles, there are also a large number of precious jewels and other properties. Because the number is too scattered, even though Butler Loren has taken people to count for several days, it is still not completely counted.

However, it is certain that the combined property of these nearly 100 nobles is countless, and the cash alone is close to 10 million pesetas.

The value of those gold jewelry and various antique calligraphy and paintings is as high as tens of millions of pesetas. The total value of the property currently counted is close to 50 million pesetas.

Although a considerable part of it was contributed by the dukes, the accumulated property of the earls and barons is not a small number.

In fact, if the land is counted, the property of these rebellious nobles will be even more. There are also those castles and manors, the value of these real estates is inestimable.

Some castles have a history of hundreds of years. Although it is nothing to Carlo, if they are auctioned in the future, they will easily exceed 100 million US dollars.

The good news is that the property of these nobles and various gold, silver and jewelry can be easily sold.

Even the value of the property currently counted is enough to make the royal family's property one twentieth more.

However, Carlo does not intend to take all the property for himself, but to set up an organization related to poverty alleviation and charity to improve the reputation of the royal family.

Carlo acted quickly, and this organization for improving the reputation of the royal family was established in Madrid in just a few days.

This charity was named the Royal Relief Committee of Spain by Carlo, and its purpose is to provide the best possible help and assistance to the extremely low-income population in Spain.

On the day when the Royal Relief Committee was announced, Carlo publicly stated that he would inject 5 million pesetas into the Royal Relief Committee to assist low-income people, and promised to inject no less than 2 million pesetas into the Royal Relief Committee every year.

In order to make the Royal Relief Committee play its value, Carlo even expressed encouragement for all Spaniards to supervise the expenditure of the Royal Relief Committee to ensure that all the money invested in the Royal Relief Committee is used to help low-income people, rather than for some people to embezzle.

After all, it is an institution that brings reputation to the royal family, so it still has to do some practical things.

In addition to having its headquarters in Madrid, the Royal Relief Committee will also expand to the capital cities of various regions in Spain, spreading the good reputation of the Spanish royal family throughout Spain, bringing a lot of prestige to the royal family every year.

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