Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 196 Protecting Workers' Rights
Since November 1875, Spain has completely entered the era of Carlo.

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

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

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

Carlo was able to issue execution orders against nobles, which was seen by the Spanish people as a sign that he valued the opinions of the Spanish people.

Along with these 20 or so noble officials, the owners of the factories that were at the center of the public opinion storm at the time, namely, those that were exposed, were also executed.

In order to appease the anger of the Spanish workers, they had to be used as scapegoats. However, they were not innocent. After all, flies will not bite seamless eggs. The fact that the rebellious nobles used them as an excuse for the parade at least proved that they had exploited the workers a lot in normal times.

In addition to executing these criminals, the government also made public its treatment of other nobles and officials whose crimes did not deserve the death penalty.

First, all their properties, whether nobles or officials, will be confiscated, and their titles will be abolished. Their families will be prohibited from running for parliament for 50 years, and the current elected parliamentarians will also be disqualified.

The length of time they were sentenced to was different depending on the extent of their involvement in the rebellion, but the shortest prison term 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 or to Congo as laborers, only the people in 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 make use of their last bit of energy 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' demonstrations in Madrid were triggered 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 every means 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 "Workers Protection Law", clarify workers' working hours and minimum income, and implement them in all regions of the country.

Serrano acted quickly, and in just a few days he enacted Spain's new Workers' Protection Law.

The new "Workers Protection Law" stipulates that the normal working hours of Spanish citizens working in domestic enterprises and factories shall not exceed ten hours per day.

If the working hours in a single day exceed ten hours, the extra working hours will be regarded as overtime and should be paid a higher salary than the normal working hours, at least 1.5 times the salary of the normal working hours.

Spanish citizens must work no more than 70 hours a week and have at least two days off a month. For those who continue to work overtime during major holidays and important events, factories and companies should provide overtime income of more than 2 times the normal working hours.

Although the government does not explicitly require workers to work no more than ten hours, if the working hours exceed ten hours, the factory must provide workers with overtime pay of 1.5 times the normal working hours.

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

As long as overtime work can earn higher income, most workers are willing to work harder and earn more.

The new "Workers Protection Law" stipulates the working hours of Spanish citizens, and the latest "Workers Minimum Income Law" promulgated subsequently modifies the minimum income standards for Spanish citizens to participate in labor.

For Spain today, the minimum income law enacted a few years ago is clearly no longer applicable.

During the six years of rapid development in Spain, per capita income has also increased significantly. If the previous minimum income law is used to protect all Spanish workers, factory owners will have a lot of room to exploit workers.

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

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

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

50岁以上男性西班牙公民参加工作时的最低周薪不得低于1比塞塔60铜币，50岁以上女性西班牙公民参加工作时的最低周薪不得低于1比塞塔25铜币。

The minimum weekly wage for child workers must not be less than 90 copper coins, and child workers are not allowed to work overtime for any reason. The daily working hours must not exceed ten hours, and Sunday is a day off for child workers.

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

Even child workers were guaranteed a weekly wage of more than 90 copper coins, which was higher than the weekly wage of female Spanish citizens over 50 years old under the previous income law.

The main reason why the income of child laborers has increased dramatically is to take care of the poor families who have to let their children work.

Carlo could allow capitalists to exploit workers to a certain extent. After all, doing so was beneficial to factory production and to Spain's industrial construction and economic development.

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

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

This latest "Minimum Income Law for Workers" was formulated based on the per capita income in Spain. The economic conditions of the various regions in Spain are different, and the minimum income in each region also fluctuates to a certain extent.

However, such fluctuations are only taken into consideration because people in economically more developed regions should receive higher incomes. Therefore, regarding the fluctuations in the minimum income law in various regions, only increases are allowed, not decreases.

Two laws on protecting workers' interests were revised in succession, and the public anger caused by the workers' marches was completely calmed down.

Again, the Spanish people still trust the Spanish government. They are only angry about the capitalists' exploitation of workers, and they are not too dissatisfied with the government.

After the government revised the labor law in succession, the people were only satisfied and loved the government and could not possibly have any dissatisfaction or opposition.

Archduke Carlo and Serrano, who led the revision of the labor law, 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 government power, 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 could see that Archduke Serrano becoming prime minister was just a transition, and the next person to officially serve as prime minister would definitely be Count Canovas.

The reason is very simple. First, Archduke Serrano is already 65 years old and does not have much energy to be the controller of the Spanish government.

Secondly, Archduke Serrano himself had a very high reputation in the military and had served as Spain's Minister of Defense for two terms since the revolution.

If he became prime minister again, wouldn't his prestige be comparable to that of Prime Minister Primo? Carlo had finally gotten the chance to take power, so how could he allow another Prime Minister Primo to be born?
It was this idea that made many parliamentarians and officials feel that Count Canovas, who did not have much prestige in the military, would eventually become the Prime Minister of Spain.

Of course, Carlo thought so too, but it was not out of guard against Archduke 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 only 47 years old. As prime minister, Canovas is still in his prime and has plenty of time and energy to manage Spanish government affairs.

After all, Archduke Serrano was already 65 years old. Moreover, Archduke Serrano himself was not very good at government affairs and economic development, otherwise he would not have appointed Primo as prime minister after the revolution and become defense minister. He let Canovas take over as the prime minister of Spain, because he was in his prime, he could cooperate with Carlo for two terms, that is, ten years.

A longer ruling period is a very valuable development stage for Spain at present. The only fear is that too frequent regime changes will cause a country that originally had the hope of rapid development to fall into the difficult problem of stagnant development due to the change of regimes.

Spain was in a state of internal turmoil and frequent changes of government during this period. After Queen Isabel came the interim government, after the interim government came Amadeo I, after Amadeo I came the republican government, and after the republican government came Alfonso XII.

During this period, whether it was the three kings or the interim government and the republican government, there has never been a stable candidate for the prime minister and presidency of Spain.

This also led to the fact that Spain had almost no stable development space during this period in history. After missing this golden period of development, Spain fell into complete decline.

Carlo will not repeat the same mistake. Unless the Spanish prime minister has a loyalty problem, Carlo will not consider changing the prime minister too frequently.

Of course, if there is a problem with the ability, then the prime minister should 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.

While the political parties and parliamentarians in Spain were concerned about the reorganization of parliament and re-elections, Carlo was concerned about the large tracts of land he had acquired after confiscating the property of the nobility.

In fact, even if there were nearly a hundred nobles participating in the rebellion, they were only one-tenth of the Spanish noble group.

But it is this tenth of the nobility whose wealth is so great.
There are countless of them, and the amount of land is even more exaggerated.

According to preliminary statistics, the land area owned by these nobles exceeds 100 million acres, of which nearly 60 acres are arable land, which is the arable land resource that Spain is in urgent need of today.

After counting all the property of these rebellious nobles, even more land resources will be obtained.

Although it did not completely solve Spain's problem of arable land, it at least solved a considerable part of it.

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

Land sales are based on standard market prices, and subsidies of up to 10% may be considered for certain low-income poor families.

If it is rented out, it will be done in full compliance with the Spanish Land Rental Law. Carlo will not lower the rent again on this basis. After all, sometimes appropriate charges are conducive to maintaining relations with the people.

But no matter what, some of these lands will eventually change hands. 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 there is no need for Carlo to compete with other farmers in the agricultural field.

Except for reserving some land in plains and flat areas to cope with the future development of mechanized agriculture, it is best to sell the rest of the land to the government or farmers.

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

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

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

The price for selling land was very fair, and it was sold to local farmers to prevent the land 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 has also effectively protected farmers' income. At least the income of Spanish farmers has seen a significant increase at present.

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

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

Those castle estates with poor geographical locations or environments were sold openly to Spanish nobles or capitalists in exchange for funds.

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

Appropriately going to some manors with better environments for vacation and residence can not only relax the mind, but also be beneficial to physical health.

Apart from the Royal Palace in Madrid, the current Spanish royal family does not have many castles and estates to provide for Carlo to vacation.

The properties of these nobles were a good supplement for Carlo. At least there were a few nobles' manors and castles that met Carlo's requirements.

In the castles and manors of the nobles, there were also a large number of precious jewels and other properties. Because the number was too scattered, even though Butler Loren had led people to count them for several days, they still could not be fully counted.

However, what is certain is that the combined wealth of these nearly one hundred nobles is incalculable, with cash alone approaching tens of millions of pesetas.

The value of the gold, jewellery and various antiques and paintings was as high as tens of millions of pesetas. The total value of the property currently counted was close to 5000 million pesetas.

Although a considerable portion of it was contributed by the dukes, the accumulated wealth of the earls and barons was not a small figure.

In fact, if the land is included, the property of these rebellious nobles would be much greater. And the value of the castles and manors is inestimable.

Some castles have a history of hundreds of years. Although it is nothing to Carlo, if they were put up for auction in the future, they would easily fetch over 100 million US dollars.

The good news is that these nobles' properties and various gold, silver and jewelry can be sold easily.

Even the value of the property currently counted would be enough to increase the royal family's wealth by one twentieth.

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

Carlo acted quickly, and this institution to enhance the reputation of the royal family was established in Madrid in just a few days.

The charity, named by Carlo as the Royal Commission for Relief of Spain, aims to provide all possible help and assistance to the extremely low-income people in Spain.

On the day the Royal Relief Commission was announced, Carlo publicly stated that he would inject 500 million pesetas into the Royal Relief Commission to assist low-income people, and promised to inject no less than 200 million pesetas into the Royal Relief Commission every year.

In order to make the Royal Relief Committee play its value, Carlo encouraged all Spaniards to supervise the expenditure of the Royal Relief Committee to ensure that all money invested in the Royal Relief Committee was used to help low-income people rather than for some people to enrich themselves.

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

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

5000 words two-in-one chapter, please support!



(End of this chapter)