Holy Roman Empire - Chapter 45
On March 21, the Vienna government introduced the Land Lease Act, which stipulated that farmers had the right to lease land and that the maximum rent should not exceed 50% of the land revenue.
This was to protect the most basic survival rights of farmers. If there were no restrictions, it would surely not be long before more hunger riots.
On March 22, the government of Vienna issued the Law on the Settlement and Security of Serfs, which required the nobles to provide minimum living security for the released serfs and solve the problem of the employment of farmers.
That was to say, they could not deprive the farmers of their right to live in their existing houses, and they had to lease the land to farmers or hire farmers to ensure employment.
In order to prevent the capitalists and nobles from taking advantage of the instability, on March 23, 1848, the Vienna government issued the Act on Prohibition of Usury.
The act provided that the annual interest rate for loans of any mode in Austria should not exceed 35%; for loans for vulnerable groups such as farmers and workers, the annual interest rate should not exceed 25%.
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For any personal loan, interest was calculated based on the actual amount.
After May 1, 1848, any usurious contract was regarded as an invalid contract and had no legal effect; that was to say, it did not need to be repaid. For the usurious contracts that had already been signed, the law only protected the amount of income within the legal limits.
This was a preventive measure. In fact, when the law was enacted, the cabinet members did not think that the nobles would take advantage of the current situation, that it was only the capitalists who would do that kind of thing.
Well, Franz did not debate them on this issue. The great nobles would definitely not do it because such a little profit was not worth ruining their reputations.
But there were also poor people among the nobles. Every year in Europe, some nobles always went bankrupt, and they might not care so much about the glory of the nobles.
Since the law was written to crack down on capitalists, there were many unfavorable provisions for offenders. For example, the intensity of punishment was very serious.
If caught, all the property of the usurer would be confiscated; he would be imprisoned for a minimum of three years, up to a maximum life sentence.
On March 25, the Vienna government introduced the Minimum Wage Act, which was a subsidiary act of the Labor Protection Act and set the minimum wage standard.
Because the economic development of different regions varied, the minimum wage in Vienna was the first to be announced: 4.5 guldens per week for a male worker, 2.5 guldens per week for a female worker, and 45 Klitzs per week for a child worker.
(Note: 1 gulden = 11.6928 grams of silver = 60 Klitzs)
Franz was still very pragmatic and had not worked out a salary beyond the current moment. This salary standard could only meet workers’ basic needs, so they still needed to work overtime if they wanted a better life.
As for the most disgusting issue of child labor, it had not been resolved.
It was as it was: this was the reality of that time in Austria. It would be easy to ban the use of child labor in factories, but if they lost their financial resources, these children’s livelihoods would be in danger.
However, these acts still had positive effects: slightly improving the treatment of workers and ensuring the survival needs of workers. Of course, this only guaranteed their right to live.
If they wanted a better life, they had to wait for the further development of production. This situation was determined by social reality: if you did not lower labor costs, the products of enterprises would lose their competitiveness.
…
It could be said that 1848 was the year of legislation in Austria. Maybe it was because Franz was used to a legal society, so he was very keen on legislation.
In March alone, Franz enacted 15 laws. After he took office, new laws were enacted almost every day.
From the abolition of serfdom to workers’ rights, there were specific laws and regulations for everything.
Regardless of their functions, these laws first off fooled the Austrian reformists, so everyone thought that the reforms that were happening must have been earth-shattering.
Franz successfully used legislation to divert the public’s attention, as the coverage of the laws was too broad. When the laws were introduced, they met the interests of serfs and workers.
The intensity of opposition between the public and the government was alleviated, and unconsciously, the revolution lost its base. Of course, it only happened in Vienna at first; other regions still needed time to ferment.
These were things to be taken into consideration in the future. Just then, the Austrian government had received a piece of good news that the Berlin revolution had broken out on March 18, and Prussia too had fallen to the tides of revolution.
If you were the only unlucky one, you could not be in a good mood; however, when you knew there was another person suffering the same misfortune, then you could enjoy some peace of mind.
Of course, Franz was always worrying about the Prussian kingdom taking advantage of the rebellions in Austria. But now that the Berlin revolution had broken out, Prussia would be too busy to do anything else.
The good mood didn’t last long before the riots in the Czech lands. Needless to say, Franz knew that the big capitalists in the Czech region were all Austrians, and some of them were definitely the power behind the curtain.
Not only did they want to establish a unified Czech Parliament, but also to establish an independent national self-defense army, and to give the Czech language an equal status to German.
Undoubtedly, these kinds of requests to split the country were not negotiable; the Vienna government could not possibly agree to split Austria.
For now, intelligence personnel were listing nobles and capitalists involved in the event, and Franz was ready to crack down on the Czechs.
In that era, the biggest problem for ordinary people was simply to survive, so the riots there had to have been manipulated by someone.
In some history books, they compared the middle and small capitalists to the working class, which Franz had always sniffed at because the needs of the exploiting class and the exploited class could not possibly be the same.
When the Austrian government was promoting the Labor Protection Law, there was no reason for workers to oppose the government fighting for their rights.
According to the information sent back from Prague, the main crowd of demonstrators was students and the middle and small capitalists, while the workers only got involved in the demonstration as a paying gig.
“Prime Minister, with regard to the demonstrations in Prague, what is the cabinet going to do?”
Franz decisively ignored the conditions they put forward. They were impossible to agree to, so there was no need to discuss them.
“We have ordered the Prague government to arrest the mastermind of this conspiracy, and we’ve ordered Prince Wentishgreitz to prepare to suppress the rebellion!” Felix said aggressively.
At the time, it was impossible for the Vienna government to make concessions. He even didn’t bother to fake a good attitude. The Czech lands were different from other regions because there was no revolutionary base there.
In his view, this was simply a counterattack made by some nobles and capitalists who were dissatisfied with the reform of the Vienna government. After all, if a Czech Kingdom was established, the new laws would not apply there.
