Chapter 7, The Dark Ages

Who would have thought that in the factories of capitalists there could be child laborers as young as three or four years old? Not merely one or two, but hundreds, even thousands.

The lifespan of these child laborers usually did not exceed twenty years. Entering the sunless factories at such a young age severely damaged their health.

The United Kingdom was the most extreme, as the originator of the Industrial Revolution. With a limited population and labor force, capitalists turned their attention to women and children to cut costs.

The wage of an adult male worker could employ two female workers, or three to seven child laborers, with the younger ones being paid even less.

Compared with adults, child laborers were clearly easier to manage, and suppressing their strikes was also simpler. Factories not requiring too heavy labor were filled with a large number of child workers.