Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 203 Child Labor School
Whether from a historical perspective or from the perspective of the current situation in Europe, recent years have been a period of relative peace and stability in Europe.

Since the establishment of the German Empire, the relations between the European powers have become stable. Although there are more intense conflicts between countries, such conflicts are not enough to drive countries to promote a large-scale war between the powers.

This is fortunate for Spain, after all, what Spain lacks is a peaceful and stable development environment. But it is also unfortunate for Spain, as an overly stable and peaceful development environment has led to a relatively slow development of the military industry, making it difficult to find opportunities to export large quantities of weapons like in World War I and World War II.

The Tenth Russo-Turkish War was a large-scale war verified by history. It was also the first time that the Royal Arsenal faced the opportunity to export weapons and equipment on a large scale since its establishment.

Of course, it is not certain whether Spain can have a piece of cake in this war. After all, in addition to Russia, other European powers led by Britain and Austria-Hungary are also paying attention to the situation in the Balkans.

It was for this reason that when Carlo ordered the Royal Arsenal to expand production, he set the weapons storage target at 15 rifles, 1200 artillery pieces and corresponding bullets and shells.

Even if Spain could not sell its weapons in the Russo-Turkish War, these stockpiled rifles and artillery could be sold to other countries in the form of small-scale orders, or used by itself.

After all, military training will also result in the loss of weapons and ammunition, so stockpiling more weapons and ammunition is not a big problem.

The weapons and equipment of this era were nothing more than standard firearms, mainly rifles, and artillery as an important firepower output. The manufacturing costs of these two weapons and the matching bullets and shells were not too high, which was why Carlo was confident in ordering the Royal Arsenal to start production without inspection.

It is worth mentioning that as the Spanish Royal Arsenal expanded, it recruited a large number of child workers.

This is not to say that Carlo deliberately exploited child labor, but it was the general background of the times. Not only in Spain, but also in the whole of Europe, including the traditional powers such as Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Austria, there were a large number of child laborers.

One of the important reasons why the average life expectancy in Europe at this time was only 30 or 40 years old was that a large number of children entered factories as child laborers and were exploited madly by factory owners and capitalists, which eventually led to various physical problems and premature death in their twenties or thirties.

Even living to the age of 20 or 30 was considered quite good. Many child laborers died directly on the production line under the oppression of factory owners. This is also the bloody and cruel reality of this era.

Of course, the reason why the Royal Arsenal recruited a large number of child laborers was not that Carlo wanted to exploit these child laborers, but to do his best to give these child laborers better welfare benefits.

Although Spain's labor laws and minimum income laws also stipulate the working hours and income of child laborers, this can only alleviate the suffering of a part of the child labor group.

These children are the future of Spain. Even if it is just for the future of Spain, Carlo will try his best to take care of more child laborers so that they can grow up more healthily.

The current Royal Arsenal is definitely the leading enterprise in Spain's military industry, and it is also a benchmark and representative enterprise in Spain's military industry.

At present, the number of child laborers in military factories accounts for more than 30%, which is quite exaggerated. Every day, thousands of child laborers in the Royal Military Factory can be seen rushing to their production lines, contributing their meager strength to the Spanish military industry.

Carlo will not increase the income of child workers too much, which is unfair to adult workers. Of course, there are still benefits for child workers, even more than what is stipulated in the labor law.

All child workers in the royal enterprises can enjoy at least one day of vacation per week, and more than four days of vacation per month. In addition, factories and enterprises will provide milk or bone soup to child workers at least once a week to help them replenish their bodies.

Child workers are not allowed to work overtime. After the factory's set working time, child workers can leave first.

This is Carlo's way of helping these child laborers to the best of his ability, allowing them to feel a little warmth in this dark age.

Carlo cannot change this situation by himself. He must promote the economic progress of the whole country, so that Spaniards have more savings and income, so that they will let their children go to school instead of working in factories.

As early as the literacy education, Carlo asked the royal enterprises to organize child workers to participate in literacy education during the holidays. The current progress is still relatively good. At least in the royal factories and enterprises, most of the child workers have completed literacy education and have gotten rid of their illiteracy.

Later, Carlo also planned to set up child labor schools inside some larger factories so that these child workers could enjoy compulsory primary education in the factories and complete their studies while working.

Child labor schools can not only teach them the knowledge of compulsory primary education, but also allow them to learn some basic skills and transform themselves from child laborers to skilled workers.

Doing so will not only improve the educational level of Spaniards, but will also effectively improve the living standards of these child laborers.

After all, the income of an illiterate child laborer who knows nothing and a skilled child laborer who has only primary school education and certain skills is definitely different.

It’s just that child labor schools involve aspects that ordinary public schools do not involve, so Carlo only has some ideas but has not had time to implement them.

Compared with child laborers in royal enterprise factories, the income level and welfare benefits of child laborers in private enterprise factories are much lower.

There is nothing that can be done about it. After all, the labor force that child labor can provide is really limited. Moreover, child labor is easier to exploit than adult workers, and their resistance will be weaker. Even under the coercion and intimidation of capitalists, many child laborers dare not resist at all.

Capitalists are not the seemingly friendly business tycoons on the Internet in later generations, but bullies who eat people without leaving any bones.

Carlo can only say that he is powerless to do anything about this. This is a common phenomenon in the context of this era, and Carlo cannot completely cure it even if he wants to rectify it.

However, Carlo still made relevant regulations regarding certain bottom lines regarding child labor.

Europe is quite extreme in terms of child labor. How extreme is it? There are even a large number of child laborers under the age of ten in capitalist factories.

Yes, there are child laborers under the age of ten. To be more precise, there are a large number of children aged four or five, five or six.

The sources of these child laborers are also varied. Some families cannot afford to raise too many children, so they are forced to send some of their children to work in factories to survive.

The other part came from the buying and selling of various church relief institutions, orphanages and other institutions. Even in the technologically advanced societies of later times, the phenomenon of human trafficking existed, not to mention the 1876 era when technology and related laws and regulations were very backward.

The phenomenon of human trafficking was prevalent in European countries, and the lives of the lower-class people in this era were indeed very miserable.

It is ironic that while these capitalists are madly exploiting child laborers for huge profits, they are also disguising themselves as kind and benevolent gentlemen.

They donated money to the church so that it could set up more orphanages and schools to take in orphans and abandoned children.

These orphans were secretly transferred to the capitalists' factories and became free labor under the capitalists' whip.

The capitalists showed no mercy to the people they bought. If they encountered disobedient child laborers, they would either beat them with sticks or make them disappear in various ways.

Sooner or later, the Spanish government will have to make rectifications to such church orphanages and church schools.

Not to mention the hidden problem of human trafficking, the mere fact that these orphanages and church schools impart knowledge with ulterior motives is enough to ensure that they are either banned by the government or have to undergo large-scale reforms.

As we all know, the public is blind and easily influenced by public opinion. Children are the most blind group of the public. They will easily believe what they have learned. Capitalists and churches will also use such means to shape a distorted world view for them.

This was totally unacceptable to Carlo. In Spain, only the royal family and the government could be brainwashed through education. Such behavior by capitalists and the church was a challenge to the status of the royal family and the majesty of the government.

It is not that Spain does not allow the existence of private schools, but private schools must obey the supervision of the Ministry of Education, and the corresponding teaching materials must be reviewed by the Ministry of Education. They cannot teach whatever they want.

In the official public schools, there are a lot of ideological education courses starting from primary school. These courses do not force students to brainwash, but subtly cultivate their loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, so that they can develop a love for Spain and a love for the royal family and Carlo.

These students who have just entered the school are like a piece of white paper. Even if Carlo does not write on it, sooner or later someone will write and draw on it.

Instead of doing this, it would be better for Carlo and the government to take the initiative to write something on these blank papers that is beneficial to the development of Spain, starting from the children, to cultivate the Spanish people's sense of national identity and national pride, and use the royal family as a bond to closely connect the Spaniards in various regions and jointly create the vast nation of Spain and the united Spanish country.

There are many advantages to tying the royal family to the country, such as the stability of the royal family's status. If politicians do not want the country to fall into a situation of division, they must preserve the royal family and control the entire unified country with the royal legal principles.

In this respect, it is similar to the British royal family. Although the British royal family has lost most of its power in later generations, its role as a link between the various regions of the United Kingdom is enough to prevent the British government from taking action against the royal family.

The British government can indeed easily abolish the royal family. The result of doing so is that Scotland and Ireland will no longer be under the control of England, and the British Empire will fall apart.

What Carlo wanted to do was to make the Spanish royal family have a status similar to that of the British royal family in later generations. Even if the royal family did not have much power, the government would not dare to despise the royal family.

As long as the succession to the throne does not fall into the chaos of the Carlists, the Spanish royal family will be irreplaceable in the future, and its status will become very stable. There is no need to worry about any risks that will affect the status of the royal family.

Time passed quickly, and soon it was late August 1876, the first year that the compulsory primary education pilot program in the two regions of Madrid and Catalonia was officially implemented.

In the past few months, the Ministry of Education has renovated and built more than 100 primary schools, which is barely enough to support the promotion of compulsory primary education in the two major regions.

Although these schools are very simple, they can still accommodate several hundred students. Hundreds of primary schools mean that they can accommodate tens of thousands of students. Adding the existing number of primary schools in the two regions, they can barely meet the demand for primary schools required for the promotion of compulsory education.

Because this is the first year of compulsory education, the enrollment period for primary schools has been extended. From late August to late September, children who are willing to participate in compulsory education can go to nearby schools to register.

It turns out that completely free compulsory education coupled with the provision of three meals a day is very attractive to the Spanish people.

Since primary schools began accepting students in late August, in less than a week, the number of students registered in all primary schools in Madrid alone has exceeded 10,000.

In the two regions of Madrid and Catalonia combined, the number of students who registered exceeded 20,000 in less than ten days.

Both Carlo and Education Secretary Gerard Wilson were relieved by the public's enthusiastic participation in the promotion of compulsory education.

Although compulsory education is completely free and students are provided with three meals a day, some stubborn parents are only concerned about their immediate interests and are only willing to send their children to factories instead of schools.

After all, sending them to school is free, but they also don't make money. If they are sent to a factory, even if they are just a child laborer, they can earn a lot of money with the minimum income law enacted by Spain.

These laws were clearly enacted to improve the living standards of child laborers, but now they have become the reason why some parents are reluctant to let their children go to school.

In the days when there were no minimum wage laws, an adult male worker's income was several times or even dozens of times that of a child worker.

But with the introduction of the minimum income law, the income of child workers has continued to grow and is now almost half the income level of adult male workers.

The consequence of this is that many capitalists no longer favor cheap child laborers. After all, child laborers not only enjoy holidays and rest time, but their income is not much lower than that of female workers.

Because the combined population of the Madrid and Catalonia regions is only over 200 million, the peak period for student registration only occurs in late August and early September.

By mid-September, there were already very few students going to the primary schools to register. However, in the past half month, all the primary schools in the two regions have enrolled more than 3 students, which is a great achievement.

(End of this chapter)