The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven Chapter 81

London, England.

Britain is the first country to complete the industrial revolution and is known as the "world factory".

In order to reverse hundreds of years of Europeans' inherent pirate image of Britain, the British turned to publicize its "parliamentary democracy", the so-called progressive and civilized "gentleman".

However, the so-called democracy of the British is just the product of the peace between the capitalists and the nobles. Only the rich have the right to vote and be elected. The voices of workers, farmers, and tramps cannot be heard in the parliament.

However, with the process of industrialization, the urban population has increased rapidly, and a new class has emerged, that is, the working class. The workers here are different from the handicraftsmen in the past. poor.

At the same time, they have stronger organization and discipline than farmers, and they are relatively centralized and easy to form an organization.

In 1838, the urban population of the United Kingdom had reached 48% of the total population of the United Kingdom. Industrialization and rapid urbanization had caused conflicts between the poor and the rich to surge.

In 1815, after the Napoleonic Wars, the average spinning mill worker walked eight miles a day between machines; by 1838, the average worker walked twenty-four miles a day.

You may have no idea about twenty miles, 38.62 kilometers. During the same period, the marching speed of the Austrian army was 20 kilometers per day, and the forced march was only 30 kilometers to 40 kilometers.

By the way, it is possible to die during a forced march, which means that it is common for people to be exhausted by forced marches in this era.

In addition, some people will definitely say that traveling 120 kilometers a day is not a normal situation, and 99.999% of pure infantry troops in ancient and modern China and foreign countries cannot do it.

At this time, the daily working hours are also unbearable for ordinary people. The 12-14-hour working system, and the more extreme 16-hour working system, are only what you dare not think about, and nothing they dare not do.

As for the working environment, not to mention coal mines and brick factories where death is inevitable, even textile workshops are also tortured like purgatory. In summer, the high temperature in the closed room can reach up to 70 ° 80 ° It is common for workers to suffer from heat stroke.

And the fallen workers will most likely never be able to stand up again, because most of the workers caught in the machinery will die immediately, and the rest will die within a few months. If they still survive, there is a high probability that they will die Sent to a workhouse.

The increase in work intensity and working hours did not bring about an increase in income. After the initial market dividends disappeared, factory owners began to squeeze employees. In 1804, workers in the Americas could get 15 shillings, but in 1838 workers could only get 15 shillings. to 10 shillings.

The more ruthless factory owners usually replace wages with real goods, and these real goods are usually not those best-selling goods, but some unsalable defective products.

There are even mine owners who directly give miners those ores that have no smelting value to replace wages. The cost of smelting these ores has almost caught up with their own value, but all of this is legal in the UK.

As for child labor, half of the factory workers were usually minors because they were paid half as much as adults.

Some factories recruited child labor and even provided three meals directly as a bait. After the child workers accepted the contract of two pence a day, they found that the so-called three meals were not as good as pig food, but a mixture of weeds, sawdust, and soil. .

There are huge crowds of people on the streets of London, and a team of ragged workers marched through London Bridge. The police and gendarmerie have been dispatched, but there are still not enough people because there are too many workers.

Palmerston advocated a complete suppression of the London Workers' March, and the Viscount of Melbourne also felt that the problem must be solved before it expanded.

Even Iron Duke Wellington, who had long been in a semi-retired state, was found out. The Viscount of Melbourne asked the Duke of Wellington to gather his troops and suppress workers' uprisings when necessary.

In order to prevent a vicious incident like that in Lyon, France, the Viscount of Melbourne had prepared for the worst, and he asked Palmerston to tell Iron Duke Wellington.

If the workers rioted, the cavalry had to disperse the crowd as soon as possible.

Palmerston asked the Duke of Wellington to send troops to block the streets and prevent the workers from continuing to the House of Commons at all costs, because once the workers arrived in the House of Commons, it would have a great international impact.

Because Palmerston knew what those workers were going to do, they demanded that the People's Charter be enacted into law.

The People's Charter is a petition put forward by the London Workingmen's Association to Parliament in 1837. It proposes universal suffrage for men who have reached the age of 21, electoral votes should be held in secret, and property qualification restrictions for candidates for Parliament are abolished. Parliament is held every year. Once re-election, the constituencies are evenly distributed.

At this time, the "People's Charter" has been revised, but the spearhead is still directed at those nobles and those who are rich and unkind.

Some factory owners even said that if the eight-hour working system is implemented, he will move the factory to France and become a Frenchman.

There was also a treasonous petition from the leaders of the workers, which read.

"Your Honorable House, as it is now constituted, is neither elected by nor ruled by the people. It serves the interests of the few and ignores the poverty, misery, and aspirations of the majority. "

"Queen Victoria earns £164, 17s. 60p a day, her husband, Prince Albert, £104, 20s, and millions of workers earn only two or threepence a day."

"Viscount Palmerston, in collusion with the Sassoon family, is going to make England fight for the opium dealers and so on."

The most frightening thing is that there are still 1.25 million signatures on this petition. At this time, the total population of the UK is only 10 million.

For the sake of Britain ~www.mtlnovel.com~ this petition must not be made public and Palmerston will spare no expense for it.

In history, although the troops of the Duke of Wellington reached the House of Commons before the parade, they did not implement the blockade order. The relationship was very complicated, and the soldiers were unwilling to shoot at their own people, so the parade reached the House of Commons House of Commons.

The procession has already crossed London Bridge and is about to reach St Margaret Street in the House of Commons.

Prepared for the worst, Palmerston hired a few bums to blend in with the crowd, shooting and causing chaos when necessary.

Once someone in the parade fired, the army had to fight back, so that his plan to conspire with the Sassoon family to start a war would not be exposed, and he remained the British foreign secretary.

However, at this moment, the parade suddenly turned around and did not go to the House of Commons, but to Buckingham Palace, where Queen Victoria stayed.

In fact, many labor leaders were very puzzled by this decision. But William Lovett, the de facto leader of the Workers' Association at this time, insisted on doing so.

William Lovett opened a letter, which contained a letter from the "mysterious man".

"This is the instruction of the mysterious man. Do you still doubt it? The mysterious man has never missed it. Without him, we would have been caught in the gendarmerie long ago."

Several of the worker leaders knew the mysterious man's handwriting, but this time the mysterious man used Latin again, which many leaders couldn't understand. Fortunately, some of the worker leaders had been pastors and understood some Latin, so they could read it to everyone. .

The leaders of the British Workers' Association still admire this mysterious man very much, but this mysterious man writes letters in different languages ​​every time, which is really difficult to read, and occasionally inserts a sentence or two in German and French.

Chapter end