As for the Austrian Empire's minimum wage standards and its reduction of the original fourteen-hour workday to a ten-hour system.
A pack of fools saw only the rising costs, not the increased benefits, nor the skilled craftsmen and masses of laborers flocking in from other countries at its reputation.
The Austrian Empire's generous terms were highly appealing to skilled workers, especially Germans and Italians. Even some French chose to seek work in the Austrian Empire.
After all, France's domestic situation at the time was truly dreadful. The economic crisis, successive defeats in foreign wars, and the resulting political turmoil had plunged nearly every industry in France into depression.
As far as industry was concerned, losing the colonies inevitably drove up raw-material prices, while defeat in foreign wars caused markets to shrink.
Thus, cutting workers' wages became almost inevitable. Higher productivity from the workers could not solve the problem; on the contrary, it would only worsen it.
To avoid starving to death, French workers could only switch trades or seek a living elsewhere. Their first choice was naturally Alsace-Lorraine and the French-speaking cantons of the German Confederation's Swiss region, since communication was easier and the journey relatively short.
Next came former French colonies such as Algeria. Algeria undoubtedly offered better treatment, but Europeans at the time still detested Africa—even North Africa, separated from them by only a strip of sea.
What was more, Napoleon III was no fool. He could not possibly allow his own citizens to bolster hostile forces.
From the very beginning of its founding, the French Second Empire sealed its borders. On the surface, it was to protect its citizens from surprise attacks by hostile nations, but in truth, it was also a helpless measure to prevent population loss.
Yet doing something did not mean it would succeed,