How do I manage minimum wages that's killing my economy?
Hi all,
I tried playing as Qing over the weekend and I’ve been having a lot of fun. I allowed foreign investment rights and avoided the Opium War. I got recognized around the late 1840s and have since grown my economy massively.
I focused on maximizing my population growth, so I created the Basic Food Company, public health insurance, and joined a power bloc that reduces mortality (or boosts birth rates). Things went smoothly for a long time. I tried to pass Laissez-Faire but never managed it, sad but no big deal.
I think this is where I went wrong though. I passed Poor Laws around the late 1880s. At first I thought it would be fine. I had about 2/3 of the country employed (with roughly 250 million peasants left) and was spending around 500k on welfare, which I could still somewhat afford, even at low taxes. I assumed that as I industrialized further, the welfare cost would decrease as more people got jobs.
It was a slow process. I was gaining about 10 million pops per year, and I managed to bring the number of peasants down to around 200 million by the mid 1890s. However, I noticed that welfare spending had actually ballooned to 800k and kept creeping higher. Eventually I reached a point where I couldn’t build anything myself and had to rely entirely on the investment pool.
After investigating, I believe the issue is caused by minimum wages, but I have no idea how to bring them down. Doesn’t having a larger population help lower wages? I have a save from 1870 and I’m thinking of going back to fix this. Any advice on how to approach it?
Also I'm definitely going to try not passing poor laws
TIA!