Analysis of the Early Industrial Working Class in Hansa


 * 1) Economic History of Hansa

Hansa began its history as a populated island in conditions very different than other civilizations in Rathnir. Because of its small and infertile land, it had very little space for actual agricultural plantations to be built, and therefore relied largely on foreign imports of food for sustainability. In fact, to this day only half of a borough in Hansa (less than 1/8th of the total landmass) is actively dedicated to agriculture, and at its founding as a population center that area did not exist. As a result, Hansa never developed a feudal agrarian society as is common with many early societies in Rathnir, and it was forced to adopted other venues of revenue such as exp, arms production, brewing, and deep sea mining.

A vital moment for Hansa's economy was the construction of its cactus factory - which centered Hansa's economy on the exp trade - and caused a population boom as dozens of immigrants flooded the country monthly looking for easy and accessible labor at the factory (also thanks to the Henry Corporation's aggressive marketing campaign for it). This dramatically shifted Hansa's economy from being mostly reliant on deep sea mining and the extraction of resources like iron and gold to being diversified between deep sea mining, exp, and brewing - although the last one was only occupied by one specialized brewer who had set up shop in the city.

At this point in Hansan history, after the great migration to Hansa and the creation of a massive industrial working class which worked the factories, the conditions for the Hansan people changed dramatically. Now, about 69% of the active Hansan population worked in an industrial job as a wage laborer, and only about 36% of those had access to housing, with the remaining 64% of industrial workers being either homeless or staying at a public park (according to a WSP survey). Of these industrial workers, almost all reported having suffered from food insecurity as a result of the lack of native agriculture, and the resulting high dependence on buying food from foreign nations, which many industrial workers could not afford.

This new class is probably the leading factor behind the growth of the new political party of the time, the Worker's Socialist Party of Hansa, which proposed itself as a representative of the interests of the new industrial workers.

2. The Political Economy of Hansa

From the founding of Hansa and much through the early industrialization period, there were three main sources of development for Hansa. Henry Von Chamberlain, the founder of Hansa and the owner of the Henry Corporation - a massive corporation which industrialized the nation, Captain Eel - a landowner and builder who owns (and built) the majority of Hansa's housing and real estate, and Admiral Bach - a political architect who built Hansa's foreign and internal policy towards military spending and operations. These three figures were also the ones who occupied Hansa's offices for its first years, with Henry being the Chancellor, Eel being the Prime Minister, and Bach being a representative on the Hansestag.

Moreover, the close nature of the owners of the means of production and private property in general (Henry, Eel) with the state and its functions meant that there was very little extra effort needed for the coordination of economic development, and political aims could be used to achieve economic ones just as easily as economic aims could be used to achieve political ones (such as the creation of the Trade League, which protected free markets in and out of Hansa just as easily at it protected Hansa diplomatically).

This dynamic worked very well for the while that Hansa was a small nation, as these three were essentially the only consistently active people in Hansa and built the foundations of the nation. However, after the immigration spike and the return of a few active players to the nation, their political-economic order slowly eroded as more calls for change such as an end to food insecurity, common ownership of property, and constitutional checks and balances began to rise.

The first sign of erosion was the explosion in popularity of the WSP, becoming the strongest and largest political parties in Hansa to date, and the consequent election of E.G - the Party's soon-to-be General Secretary - in place of Admiral Bach in the Hansestag. The Party only grew in popularity as the socialist presence in office gave way to the creation of communal farms in form of the Community Gardens, the approval of multiple new communal housing zones, the renovation of canals, and so on.