Chapter 198: Ensuring Workers' Rights and Interests

Starting in November 1875, Spain completely entered the era of Carlos.

On November 11, more than 20 nobles and officials whose crimes were confirmed after trial were publicly executed in the central square of Madrid.

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

The mass execution of officials and nobles also made the public very curious; even the revolution six or seven years ago had not reached the point of mass public executions of nobles.

That Carlos could issue execution orders for nobles was seen by the Spanish public as a sign that he valued the opinions of the Spanish people.

Executed alongside these twenty-some noble officials were the owners of those factories that had been exposed, who were at the very center of the public opinion storm.

To appease the anger of the Spanish workers, they had to be dragged out as scapegoats. However, they were not entirely innocent; after all, flies do not bite seamless eggs. Being used by rebellious nobles as an excuse for protests at least proved that they had not been sparing in their exploitation of workers in daily life.

In addition to executing these criminals, the government also made public the handling of other nobles and officials whose crimes did not warrant death.

First, regardless of whether they were nobles or officials, all their property was confiscated, and the nobles had their titles abolished. Their families were prohibited from running for parliamentary seats for 50 years, and those currently serving as members of parliament had their qualifications revoked simultaneously.

Depending on the degree of their participation in the rebellion, their prison sentences varied. But the shortest prison term among these people was nearly 20 years, and the longest was life imprisonment.

Carlos would build a new prison in the Congo territory to hold these traitors. As for whether these people were going to the prison to serve their sentences or to the Congo to serve as labor, only the people in the Congo territory would know.

In any case, these people were criminals; rather than letting them stay in prison and waste food, it was better to let them exert their last bit of residual heat and contribute to the development of the Congo territory.

After executing these criminals, the Spanish government immediately turned its attention to safeguarding the rights and interests of workers.

The reason why large-scale worker protests had been incited throughout Madrid previously was primarily because those factory owners were too unscrupulous in their exploitation of workers.

Although the government had promulgated the corresponding "Laborer Protection Law," there were always loopholes in the law to be exploited. These capitalists tried every possible way to exploit these loopholes, still wantonly exploiting workers within the scope where legal supervision could not reach.

To guarantee the interests of workers, and also to completely quell the public anger caused by the worker protests, Serrano, the Prime Minister of the Spanish provisional government, appeared in public and stated that he would promote further reforms to the "Laborer Protection Law," clarify the working hours and minimum income for workers, and implement them in all regions of the country.

Serrano's actions were swift; it took only a few days to promulgate the new Spanish "Laborer Protection Law."

The new "Laborer Protection Law" stipulated that when Spanish citizens worked in domestic enterprises and factories, their normal daily working hours must not exceed ten hours.

After exceeding ten hours of work in a single day, the extra working hours would be regarded as overtime and should enjoy a salary higher than that of normal working hours, which should be at least 1. times the salary of normal working hours.

The weekly working hours for Spanish citizens must not exceed 70 hours, and there should be at least 2 days of vacation per month. Those who continued to stay at their posts for overtime during major holidays and important events should be provided with overtime pay of at least 1. times the normal working hours by factories and enterprises.

Although the government did not explicitly require that workers' working hours must not exceed ten hours, as long as it exceeded ten hours, the factory had to provide the workers with overtime pay 1. times that of normal working hours.

This could be considered as satisfying the workers' demands. What the workers were angry about was not overtime, but overtime without any return.

As long as overtime could earn higher income, most workers were still willing to work a little harder themselves while making their income a little higher.

The new "Laborer Protection Law" stipulated the working hours for Spanish citizens, and the subsequent latest "Laborer Minimum Income Law" modified the minimum income standards for Spanish citizens participating in labor.

For the current Spain, the minimum income law promulgated a few years ago was clearly no longer applicable.

In the six years of Spain's rapid development, per capita income had also gained a huge increase. If the previous minimum income law were still used to protect all laborers in Spain, the room for factory owners to exploit laborers would be very large.

Since it had to be modified, the minimum income law certainly had to be modified as well.

According to the latest "Laborer Minimum Income Law," the minimum income obtained by Spanish citizens participating in labor also ushered in a relatively large increase.

The minimum weekly wage for adult male Spanish citizens when working must not be lower than 2 pesetas and 15 centimos, and the minimum weekly wage for adult female Spanish citizens when working must not be lower than 1 peseta and 75 centimos.

The minimum weekly wage for male Spanish citizens over 50 when working must not be lower than 1 peseta and 60 centimos, and the minimum weekly wage for female Spanish citizens over 50 when working must not be lower than 1 peseta and 25 centimos.

The minimum weekly wage for child laborers when working must not be lower than 90 centimos, and child laborers must not work overtime for any reason; daily working hours must not exceed ten hours, and every Sunday must be a rest day for child laborers.

Compared to the "Laborer Minimum Income Law" of a few years ago, this latest minimum income law was clearly much more powerful in terms of income security.

Even the weekly wage of child laborers was guaranteed to be above 90 centimos; such an income was higher than the weekly wage of female Spanish citizens over 50 in the previous income law.

The main reason why the income of child laborers had gained a huge increase was to take care of those poor families who had to let their children participate in work.

Carlos could allow capitalists to exploit workers to a certain extent; after all, doing so was conducive to factory production and conducive to Spain's industrial construction and economic development.

But if capitalists even wanted to exploit child laborers, Carlos would not mind letting them feel the strength of the Spanish judiciary.

The interests of child laborers must be guaranteed; daily working hours must not exceed ten hours, and there must be one day of rest every week. This was Carlos's bottom line.

This latest "Laborer Minimum Income Law" was formulated with Spain's per capita income as a reference. The economic conditions of Spain's major regions were not the same, and the minimum income of major regions also had a certain degree of fluctuation.

But such fluctuation only took into account the issue that people in more economically developed regions should receive higher income, so regarding the fluctuation of the minimum income law in major regions, only increases were allowed, not decreases.

With two consecutive laws regarding the protection of laborers' interests being revised, the public anger caused by the worker protests was completely quelled.

As the saying goes, the Spanish public still trusted the Spanish government. What they were angry about was only the capitalists' exploitation of workers; they did not have much dissatisfaction with the government.

After the government successively modified the laws regarding labor, the public had only satisfaction and love for the government; it was impossible to have the slightest dissatisfaction or opposition.

Carlos and Prince Serrano, who led the revision of the labor laws, also gained the love and praise of the Spanish people.

A few days later at the Madrid Royal Palace, Carlos met with Count Canovas, who had become the Deputy Prime Minister of the provisional cabinet.

In this rebellion, besides Carlos, who gained the supreme power of the government, the two people who gained the most were Prince Serrano, who became Prime Minister, and Count Canovas, who became Deputy Prime Minister.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Prince Serrano becoming Prime Minister was only a transition, and the person who would officially serve as Prime Minister next would definitely be Count Canovas.

The reason was also very simple. First, Prince Serrano was already at the advanced age of 65 and did not have much energy to become the controller of the Spanish government.

Secondly, Prince Serrano himself possessed extremely high prestige in the military and had been the Minister of National Defense for two terms since the revolution in Spain.

If he were to become Prime Minister again, wouldn't his prestige be comparable to the former Prime Minister Primo? Carlos had finally waited for the opportunity to take power; how could he allow the birth of another Prime Minister Primo?

It was precisely this kind of thinking that made many members of parliament and officials feel that Count Canovas, who did not have much prestige in the military, would eventually serve as the Prime Minister of Spain.

Carlos certainly thought so too, but it was not out of the idea of guarding against Prince Serrano, but rather feeling that this younger guy, Canovas, was more suitable to serve as the Prime Minister of Spain.

Canovas was born in 1828 and was currently only 47 years old. In the position of Prime Minister, the current Canovas was clearly still in his prime, with plenty of time and energy to manage Spain's government affairs.

And Prince Serrano was already at the advanced age of 65. Moreover, Prince Serrano himself was not very good at government affairs and economic development; otherwise, he would not have let Primo serve as Prime Minister after the revolution while he himself became the Minister of National Defense.

Letting Canovas succeed as Prime Minister of Spain, because he was in his prime, he could cooperate with Carlos for two terms, which was ten years.

A longer period of rule was a very precious development stage for the current Spain. The fear was too frequent changes of government, which would cause a country that originally had hope for rapid development to fall into the dilemma of development stagnation due to the alternation of power.

Historically, Spain during this period was due to civil strife and frequent changes of government. After Queen Isabel came the provisional government, after the provisional 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 provisional government and the republican government, the seats of Prime Minister and President of Spain never had very stable candidates.

This also led to the fact that historically, Spain during this period had almost no stable space for development. After missing this relatively golden development time, Spain completely fell into decline.

Carlos would not repeat the same mistakes. Unless the Prime Minister of Spain had problems with loyalty, Carlos would not consider changing the Prime Minister too frequently.

Of course, if there was a problem with ability, it should still be changed. After all, only a capable Prime Minister could promote the country's development; an incapable one would only make things worse.

Spain's political parties and members of parliament were concerned about the reorganization of parliament and the re-election, while Carlos, at this time, was concerned about the large tracts of land obtained after the confiscation of noble property.

Speaking of which, the nobles who participated in the rebellion, even if they were close to a hundred, were only one-tenth of the Spanish noble group.

But it was precisely this one-tenth of the nobles whose property was countless.

The land was even more of an exaggerated number.

According to preliminary statistics, the land area owned by these nobles exceeded 1 million acres, of which nearly 600, 00 acres were arable land; this was a resource of arable land that Spain was currently in urgent need of.

After all the property of these rebellious nobles was fully counted, the land resources obtained would be even more.

Although it would not allow Spain to completely solve the trouble of arable land area, at least it solved a considerable part.

Carlos did not intend to control these lands in his own hands, but to sell or lease them to the local people for cultivation.

Land sales would be conducted at standard market prices; for some poor families with lower income, consideration could be given to providing a subsidy of no more than 10%.

As for leasing, it would be carried out entirely in accordance with Spain's Land Leasing Law. Carlos would not lower the rent on this basis; after all, sometimes appropriate charging was conducive to maintaining the relationship with the people.

But no matter what, a portion of these lands would eventually have to be transferred. Carlos did not intend to let the royal family become land-owning nobles; the royal family only needed to control a small portion of land.

There were countless industries more profitable than farming and leasing land, and there was no need for Carlos to compete with other farmers for meat in the agricultural field.

Except for retaining a portion of land in plains and flat areas to cope with the future development of mechanized agriculture, it was best to sell the other lands to the government or farmers.

And speaking of land, the royal family also held a complete Congo territory. There was no upper limit to the land area of the Congo territory; wherever Spain's colonial strongholds were established, that place was part of the Congo territory.

Currently, Carlos still had a headache over the development of the Congo territory, so naturally, he would not hold onto these lands.

And a few days later, the royal family began to gradually sell and lease the confiscated land of those nobles to the outside world.

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

For those farmers who really had no money to buy land, the royal family could also lease land to them at a low price. Spain's current land rent was relatively low, at least much lower than before the promulgation of the Land Leasing Law.

This also effectively protected the income of farmers; at least the current income of Spanish farmers had also ushered in quite a lot of growth.

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

Carlos let Butler Luo Lun screen these castles and manors; the royal family could continue to retain some castles and manors with relatively good geographical locations and environments.

As for those castles and manors with poor geographical locations or poor environments, they were publicly sold to the outside world, sold to Spanish nobles or capitalists in exchange for funds.

Although the Madrid Royal Palace was one of the three major palaces in Europe, Carlos did not intend to live in the Madrid Royal Palace for a long time.

Appropriately going to some manors with better environments for vacation and residence could not only achieve the purpose of relaxing, but also be beneficial to physical health.

The current Spanish royal family, besides the Madrid Royal Palace, indeed did not have many castles and manors that could be provided to Carlos for vacation.

The property of these nobles was a good supplement for Carlos; at least there were indeed several noble manors and castles that met Carlos's requirements.

In the castles and manors of the nobles, there were also a large number of precious jewels and other property. Because the quantity was too scattered, even though Butler Luo Lun had led people to count for several days, they still had not been fully counted.

However, what was certain was that the property of these nearly one hundred nobles added up to be countless; the cash alone was close to 10 million pesetas.

And the value of those gold, jewels, and various antique paintings and calligraphy was as high as tens of millions of pesetas. The total value of the property counted so far had already approached 50 million pesetas.

Although a considerable part of it was contributed by those dukes, as counts and barons accumulated, their accumulated property was not a small number.

In fact, if those lands were counted, the property of these rebellious nobles would be even more. And there were those castles and manors; the value of these real estates was immeasurable.

Some castles had a history of hundreds of years; although it didn't mean much to Carlos, if they were auctioned in later generations, they would easily be worth over 100 million, and that would be in dollars.

The good news was that the property and various gold and silver jewelry of these nobles could be easily sold.

Even the value of the property counted so far was enough to increase the royal family's property by one-twentieth.

However, Carlos did not intend to take all these properties as his own, but to establish an organization related to poverty alleviation and public welfare to polish the royal family's reputation.

Carlos's actions were swift; this organization for polishing the royal family's reputation was established in Madrid in just a few days.

This charity organization was named by Carlos as the Spanish Royal Relief Committee, with the purpose of providing help and assistance within its power to Spain's extremely low-income population.

On the day the establishment of the Royal Relief Committee was announced, Carlos publicly stated that he would inject 5 million pesetas into the Royal Relief Committee to aid the low-income population, and promised to inject no less than 2 million pesetas into the Royal Relief Committee every year.

In order to let the Royal Relief Committee exert its value, Carlos even expressed encouragement for all Spaniards to supervise the expenditures of the Royal Relief Committee, ensuring that all the money invested in the Royal Relief Committee was used to help the low-income population, rather than letting some people line their own pockets.

After all, it was an organization to polish the royal family's reputation, so it still had to do some practical things.

In addition to having its headquarters in Ma Deli, the Royal Relief Committee will also expand to the capital cities of all major regions in Spain, spreading the good reputation of the Spanish royal family throughout all of Spain and bringing a massive amount of prestige to the royal family every year.

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(End of this chapter)