"On the surface, the cause of the Guangzhou Incident was that the Chaozhou people were sold piglets, but on the inside, it was also the result of the intensification of the labor-management contradictions in the areas ruled by the revolutionary party to a certain extent," Dai Yaodai, a staff officer of the Political Department of the Intelligence Bureau, stood on the podium and analyzed the bigwigs in the audience. None of these bosses in the audience, such as the chief minister and commander, interjected, including the head seat, listened carefully and recorded, and everyone else was either thoughtful or buried in notes, and his boss Director He Min Hanhe was also sitting in the last row, Dai Yao saw that the bosses did not ask questions, so he hurriedly continued the following analysis.

"This is our salary questionnaire for local workers collected from Shanghai Tianlun Textile Factory, the income of general unskilled workers is 10-15 yuan, and the salary of middle and senior skilled workers has reached the level of 18-25 yuan, which can fully bear the living expenses of a family of three to five people in a normal market environment." Dai Yao opened another questionnaire and continued to explain: "In the interview, Chen Cunren, a graduate of Tongji Medical College, said without scruples that he was a trainee doctor in Shanghai, and although his monthly salary was only 8 yuan, there was often a sonorous sound of silver dollars hitting in his bag, which made him strong and fluttering, "In the first month, I ate and used it, and I still had five yuan left in my pocket." ”

"In the newly established Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau of our autonomous government, the monthly salary of patrol officers is 10 to 13 yuan, and that of patrol officers is 16 to 18 yuan. Interestingly, this kind of wage level, which is not even as good as that of female textile workers, is actually 1 to 2 yuan higher than that of the Songhu Police Department during the revolutionary party. You must know that a section chief of the Shanghai Health Bureau in the same period had a monthly salary of only 30 yuan. ”

Many of the bigwigs in the audience have lived in Shandong for a long time, and they don't know much about ordinary people's affairs, so they can't believe that the salary of a female spinning worker is higher than that of the inspector and section chief! You must know that the price level during this period was relatively stable: even in Shanghai in the early years of the Republic, 1 quintal of rice cost 3 to 4 silver dollars, a pack of Laodao brand cigarettes with 3 copper plates, 8 copper plates for shaving heads, 1 catty and 1 dime for Shaoxing wine, and 1 copper plate for stinky dried tofu to buy two pieces. took 1 yuan for the manuscript, invited six or seven classmates to eat tea, 8 copper plates for tea, and more than 20 copper plates for various snacks such as fried steamed buns and crab shell yellow. Colleagues from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce often come and go, and the bigwigs all know that now each silver dollar in Shanghai can be exchanged for two or three hundred copper plates, and one or two copper plates can be exchanged for an egg.

In other cities, that's pretty much the case. For example, in Jinan, which is relatively well developed, 1 silver dollar can buy 6 catties of good pork, 40 pork dumplings, two bowls of millet porridge, plus a plate of sugar, and two cents and two cents. In Chongqing, rice is 1 catty and 2 cents and 5,100 catties and two dimes. Even in the rural areas of Gansu in the northwest, 100 catties of wheat cost 5 to 3 yuan. In Hankou, the price of sesame oil and eggs per 100 catties is about 20 yuan, cotton and pork are about 3 dimes per catty, 1 catty of carp is less than 5 cents, and the retail price of 1 catty of kerosene has remained between 0.10~0.15 yuan for a long time.

As for land prices and housing, they are not expensive except in concessions and commercial areas. Even in the suburbs of Shanghai, Gaohang, Chenhang, Jiangwan and Yanghang, the prices per mu are 150-100, 100-60, 1000-70 and 100-300 yuan respectively. In 1933, the lowest land price in the sixth district of Hankou was 84 yuan 1 mu, and the lowest land price in the seventh district was 90 yuan 1 mu.

Rent price: one floor of Shikumen in Shanghai, with electric lights and running water, monthly rent of 10 yuan; Guest inns, 3 corners of 5 to 6 corners per bunk; Yarn factory dormitory, monthly rent ranging from 2 to 5 yuan, two floors can live 10 people, tap water is provided by the factory, some also power supply, with family members, two families rent a floor, the cost is only more than 1 yuan; The best dormitory, with a brick structure, flooring, length and width of 500 square feet, a volume of 5,000 cubic feet, a kitchen, street lights and sewers, a monthly rent of 6 to 9 yuan; In addition, workers can also rent land, settle down and live, the annual rent of half an acre of land is 200 yuan, 21 households share, on average 8 cents per month per household, of course, the environment is extremely poor.

Another example is in Beijing: "In a courtyard house, the rent is only about 20 yuan per month; A 20-square-meter single dormitory, the monthly rent is 4-5 yuan, and even the courtyard house at No. 21 Xisantiao Hutong purchased by Lu Xun has several houses and a small garden, and the price is only 1,000 yuan. ”

Since the self-government unified most of the provinces in the country, prices have generally remained stable throughout the country, and some agricultural products have declined somewhat due to bumper grain harvests. In terms of industrial products, due to the European war, foreign goods such as cotton cloth and oil that are unsalable in the Far East have also been reduced in price and promoted. For example, in the Hankou market, 100 catties of sesame oil are only 17.90 and 14.50 yuan respectively, 1 catty of pork is only 0.29 and 0.198 yuan respectively, eggs have fallen the most, almost half, and 100 catties of rice have also fallen from 7.55 yuan in 1926 to 4.66 yuan in 1933, and the retail price of 100 catties of briquettes has also fallen from 1 yuan in the past to about 8 cents. At the same time, land prices have also fallen. The price of farmland with a yield of 400 catties per mu in Zhenhai County, Jiangsu Province fell from 140 yuan in 1928 to 70 yuan, and the price of farmland with a yield of 300 catties per mu fell from 100 yuan to 40 yuan. If it weren't for the Canton Incident and the subsequent workers' movement in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, everyone would still think that in this peaceful and prosperous era, the workers should be regarded as a stable class with vested interests.

"There are three main reasons for the conflict between labor and capital, the first is the problem of employment stability, now the rapid development of industry and commerce, there are many investors, but most of them only have capital and no corresponding investment in manpower training, skilled workers and other skilled workers have to rely on social recruitment, to put it bluntly, it is poaching. In this way, the wages of the workers seem to have increased, but if the investment does not go well, or the management feels that the workers' asking prices are inflated in the later stage of production, it often leads to the termination of the contract and the displacement of the workers. Moreover, now that the circulation of land has intensified, a large number of yeoman farmers and hired farmers have lost their land and poured into the cities, they have no technology to produce in factories, and can only engage in simple manual labor, and these workers are often at the bottom of the extremely precarious, with low remuneration and little security, and once there is an illness or accident, it is easy to cause the family to fall into a desperate situation. Finally, with the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, many original guilds and underworld organizations have regarded workers as the object of oppression, recruiting and employing workers, and even driving up the employment price of workers to make huge profits, which is also the reason why the income of the working class seems to be acceptable, but the real income is not high and very unstable. Dai Yao put down the whip, bowed to the bigwigs and stepped back, the chart projected on the whiteboard clearly marked the pie chart of the current workers' income composition, the part that was exploited by the guild underworld and the large piece of income that had to be borrowed after unemployment, these accounted for almost half of the total income, which worker can still maintain food and clothing.

"It seems that we still focus only on the interests of businessmen and ignore the interests of ordinary people." Wu Chenxuan sat on the sofa, he had actually heard about these situations, but he didn't expect it to become so menacing, "I don't know what you think?" If you are involved in recruiting workers, you can avoid it. ”

Wu Chenxuan said this cold joke, several government bigwigs are laughing, their class has reached the top of the society, naturally they will not covet those small money, but always pay attention to the health of the entire national economy and people's livelihood, after all, they are at the helm of this country, and the interests of the country are closely related to them.

"Although the three major laws of the "Minimum Wage Security System", "Employment Promotion Law" and "Employer and Employee Rights and Obligations Law" have been promulgated, they are still in accordance with the law in Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and even the commercial ports of Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan and Chongqing are dry thunder and no rain, let alone other provinces." Wu Yuncheng opened his mouth first, he had long been very annoyed by the casual style of the following provinces not seriously implementing laws and regulations, and of course he would not let go of this opportunity: "I think we should mobilize various departments to carry out law enforcement supervision, and seriously investigate and deal with violations of law and discipline in various provinces, and push forward the three laws on the reconciliation of labor-management relations." Well, for those who know how to do the dregs of society, ask the police department to clean them up and restore social order. ”

"I also agree with what Inspector General Wu said, I think the popularization of the law propaganda should also keep up, the workers only know about strikes, and even smash machines to fight, but they do not know how to use legal weapons to protect their legitimate rights and interests, I think the efforts to popularize the law should be increased," Huang Xinpei also said. It seems that the two bigwigs on the legal front are planning to solve this problem in accordance with the law, but Wu Chenxuan knows not to mention that it has just been liberated from the Qing Dynasty for less than ten years, even if the later generations have experienced decades of modernization, this sweatshop is not extinct on the land of China, in a word, the law is not omnipotent.

"Brother Miao, the factories and enterprises of the Chamber of Commerce don't have this situation, right?" Wu Chenxuan suddenly thought that his basic plate was the Shandong Chamber of Commerce and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce, if there was a problem in these two places, it would be a direct slap in the face.

"Shandong's side is naturally abiding by rules and disciplines, and there will be no problems." Miao Hainan is very confident in the Shandong Chamber of Commerce, everyone is following Boss Wu to fight the world, although it is a business trip, but they all understand that now they are violating the law set by Boss Wu, that is, to demolish their own foundation, no bastard dares to do this. Besides, the Shandong Chamber of Commerce itself also has a supervision department, all of which are the people who have retired from Director He Minhanhe's side, and they are elusive on weekdays, and they can't hide the big and small things in the Chamber of Commerce from them. And if there is a violation of the law, expulsion from the Chamber of Commerce is light, who is not an ancestor to accumulate virtue to enter the Shandong Chamber of Commerce, for a few small money will be expelled from the Chamber of Commerce, and even the business community will not be mixed in the future, naturally no one will be stupid to such a point. "Jiangsu and Zhejiang should not be, their profitability is not low, the degree of industrialization is in the forefront of the country, and the wages of workers do not account for much of it, and Gu Lao, Mr. Zhu and the Rong brothers have also introduced inspection offices in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce, and the requirements for this aspect are no worse than those of the Shandong Chamber of Commerce."

"That's good, by the way, Second Brother Miao, brother, I want to entrust you and Meng Lao and Gu Lao to blow the wind to the big merchants around the country, just say that we will investigate the mistreatment of employees and violations of labor laws to the end, and I hope you can cooperate more at that time, so as not to meet in the future."

"Boss, is this really going to investigate and deal with industry and commerce?" Xu Juren Xu Lao felt that although this matter was hateful, but this was not the best time to investigate and deal with these people, and when the First World War was over, everyone would make almost enough money, and it would not hurt to make an example of chickens and monkeys, and now doing it will inevitably cause instability in industry and commerce, and it seems that some gains outweigh the losses.

It's a pity that he didn't know that Wu Chenxuan was more worried about the bald little man in Switzerland, if the First World War really led to the fall of Tsarist Russia as it did in history, it would not be a bad thing, but if Red Russia came to power, the domestic door may not be able to close tightly, and in the face of the struggle of the working class, he Wu Chenxuan did not have the confidence that he would inevitably be able to turn evil into good fortune, so he still planned to solve the problem in the bud.