Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Chapter 1323: Chapter 1228: The Capitalists’ Alliance

A few days later.

In front of the gate of the Donbas United Coal Company, over a hundred workers were chaotically shouting, “My children are starving!”

“We need bread…”

“The wages are too low, they must be raised to 10 Rubles per month!”

“Yes, no work unless the wages are increased!”

At the window of the second floor of the company’s ramshackle wooden office building, Viscount Olivier frowned as he watched the rioting workers, shaking his head at his assistant beside him, “Haven’t they seen a strike before?

“Not even holding a placard, and their shouting is so disorganized!

“Christoff, you’ll need to properly instruct them in the evening. Oh, and bring in more people, my God, there are thousands of workers at my mine, why are there only so few here?”

The assistant hastily replied, “You know, these Russians all think they’re going to get whipped, so they don’t dare to come at all…”

Viscount Olivier sighed, “If it’s really not working, just give a few Rubles to the leaders.”

“Yes, sir, I guarantee the number will be doubled, no, tripled by tomorrow.”

Under Christoff’s manipulation, the scale of the strike at the United Coal Industry grew larger and quickly spread from the coal mines to the iron mines and the ironworks, causing the entire company to come to a standstill.

The Russian police in Yekaterinoslav came twice, but after secretly receiving benefits from the “worker representatives” and the iron-rooster boss of the coal company refusing to pay the “hardship fee,” they no longer showed up.

The news quickly reached Krasnoyarsk, and several shareholders of the “John Coal Company” immediately started mocking, “Poor French people, heard even their supervisors joined the strike ranks.”

“Those Tatars actually want 10 Rubles a month, that’s insane!”

“Olivier is in big trouble now, haha. I heard his output this month dropped by 60%.”

“Maybe we have a chance to buy his mine at a cheaper price.”

More than ten days later, the troubled Viscount Olivier, under the pressure of orders, reluctantly agreed to the workers’ demands for a wage increase, and the company resumed operations.

This drew another round of ridicule from the British counterparts to the south.

Who knew the good times wouldn’t last long, as the workers of the United Coal Industry seemed to taste the sweetness of striking, and just a month and a half after returning to work, they launched an even larger-scale strike.

Well, the poor Russians saw that striking really worked, and they weren’t beaten, so this time they all joined in spontaneously without much incitement from Christoff.

More than 1,300 workers marched back and forth between the company and the town, now with banners and speeches.

One must know that the whole Yekaterinoslav region had only eighty to ninety thousand residents at this time, so this strike’s scale was absolutely terrifying.

This time Olivier compromised very quickly, agreeing to raise wages to 13 Rubles within a few days.

But the British in Krasnoyarsk could no longer laugh.

Their workers, hearing the effectiveness of the strikes at United Coal Industry, started organizing their own strikes, numbering in the hundreds.

But the British bosses wouldn’t spoil them; they immediately bribed the local police to cooperate with their own supervisors to ruthlessly beat the strikers. Several leading workers were imprisoned.

Yet the matter did not end there.

The workers at John Coal Company and several other British companies found out that they were earning only 7 Rubles a month, while in Yekaterinoslav, it was 13 Rubles.

Almost doubled.

One would definitely want to go work at United Coal Industry! And Olivier did not turn anyone away.

The British bosses finally started to panic, having to negotiate with Olivier, and after paying a “review fee” of 10,000 Rubles, they got assurances that United Coal Industry would not accept their workers.

Then the workers at the British companies began resigning en masse—who could keep their balance in their heart, even if it meant changing names to work for a French company, or even unemployment, they didn’t want to continue enduring low wages.

The British bosses had no choice but to raise wages as well, raising them to 11 Rubles, but the soaring costs left them unable to increase any further—they were now treading on the breakeven line.

It was at this moment that Olivier reached out to his British counterparts to discuss strategies.

“You can’t compromise with these laborers!” Lai Li, the major shareholder of John Coal Company, angrily said to the Frenchman. “As long as you give the police some incentives, they can solve all your troubles.”

“That would cause my company to halt production for two or three months. The workers are serious.” Olivier said, “They even want to burn my warehouse.”

The capitalists all cursed at once.

“What then?” Lai Li shouted, “We can’t just operate at a loss, right?”

Viscount Olivier immediately responded, “I’m here to solve the loss issue.”

Everyone looked at him.

“As long as we all raise prices together, we can maintain profits.”

Lai Li shook his head, “That would make us lose our competitive edge. The Ural mine owners will quickly devour our markets.”

“No, they can’t do it.” Olivier smiled, “Donbass’s coal and iron production exceeds Ural’s by twice, and the shipping cost from here is only a fraction of Ural’s.

“After buyers run out of their production, they’ll have to come to us.

“So the Ural mine owners will quickly follow us in raising prices.”

The other capitalists’ eyes began to light up. Perhaps the strike incident was an opportunity, bringing together all the mine owners in Donbass.

In just half a day, Olivier reached a price agreement with the British bosses, deciding to increase the price of the produced coal and iron by 25%.

Of course, even so, the price of coal and iron from here was still slightly below that in Europe.

Indeed, as Olivier predicted, just over a month later, coal and iron prices in the Russian Ural region also rose by 25%. The rightful source is novel[f]ire.net

Those who don’t make money are fools!

And combined, Donbass and Ural accounted for more than 90% of the coal and iron production in all of Russia.

The first to feel the pain was the Moscow Royal Foundry.

The soaring raw material prices increased the cost of producing gun carriages, ammunition wagons, and even shells by nearly one-sixth.

So they had to inform the military committee that procurement funds needed to be increased.

Soon, the prices of ships, agricultural tools, carriages, and even axes throughout Russia also rose dramatically.

Frankly speaking, as an agricultural country, Russia did not have a significant demand for coal and iron.

But at the same time, Russia’s structure was already very fragile, and the large-scale increase in iron product prices quickly pushed up overall inflation levels.

Entering January 1799, a strange scene appeared—due to the rise in coal and iron prices, the bread price in Saint Petersburg increased by 1 kopeck.

It seemed like a small increase, but for the lower-class Russian people, it was almost an unbearable burden.