The last seasons stories have been focusing on the plight of the lowest classes.
For the entire Victorian period the work house was the only form of government help that was offered (with some exceptions towards the end)
There must be thousands of people desperate enough to into the workhouse, after all people are selling their literal souls.
By the time London fell the system was firmly established and would continue for decades yet.
The workhouse program was HUGE with more then million people involved at a time.
However this game has no reference to them (or some minor ones I forgot)
There are two options.
Workhouses are still in operation but just haven’t been brought up.
The system was abolished for some reason.
If it was abolished then the question is why. Maybe the masters just horded so much money the system went bankrupt. Although Mr. Fires at least would love the system because of the all the labour he could coerce. Did the devils disapprove of someone else offering Faustian bargains. Storm inspired mass urchin uprising. Did the revolutionaries just blow up all the workhouses (definitely some of them would want to). Was the policy of forced separation blocking off too many love stories. Was the dawn machine involved somehow?
A lot of people managed to die or something when the City fell, since London is frequently said to be underpopulated (I guess that it takes some time for Neath weirdness to sink in?) Also a huge chunk of the population left for Port Carnelian.
So with a decreased labor force, and an increase in many weird new trades, the unemployment rate is probably pretty low. Workhouses were an artifact of more labourers than work.
A quick search reveals a handful of references to workhouses still active in the city. So, they are around - they just haven’t been feature prominently in the story.
There’d be a substantially reduced demand for human labor compared to London before the Fall, due in large part to the introduction of Clay Men. Laborers from Polythreme are good for business because the possess great strength, do not tire easily (or at all?), and are less inclined to join labor revolts. Rubbery Men may also serve in some particularly menial tasks, like garbage removal, but I’m not well-versed on rubbery matters.
Many of the buildings which served as workhouses may not have accompanied London to the Neath at all. I don’t know of any sources of detailed information on the material specifics of the Fall, but the general impression I get is that only central London was taken, with the outlying boroughs staying on the Surface or vanishing entirely.
The Echo Bazaar’s presence is another probable factor. There’s no need for textile workshops when the Bazaar offers clothing of all qualities in apparently endless supply, and that’s true of many other sorts of goods as well. The Bazaar goes much, much deeper than most Londoners are allowed to know (see the end of the questline for Maybe’s Daughter in SSea, or a certain Christmas event in FL), and perhaps it holds strange machineries which produce the goods it peddles to the Fallen Cities.
Funnily enough, this is one element of Fallen London’s industrial production we do have knowledge of. The Coquettish Relicker makes clear that Mr Veils does have "looms and factories" in the city, and that he doesn’t regularly oversee them in person. Like Mr Fires, it’s clear he employs mortal workers to produce his goods.
Really, FL’s in an odd position in terms of the production of goods. Real-world Victorian London wasn’t really a centre of manufacturing - what industry it did have often involved finishing of products brought in from elsewhere in the country. Obviously, that’s no longer an option - London’s had to become a lot more self-sufficient. On the other hand, there are new forms of automation available - particularly if one counts Clay Men as "automation." So, we’re left with a city that needs workers, but is trying like hell to avoid paying for them.
…Huh. From the Masters’ perspective, Clay Men make perfect sense, now that I think of it. A Londoner who works 12 hours a day at a factory is not likely to produce many exciting stories, they just don’t have the time to write poetry or run around playing spy tag or what have you. By bringing in Clay Men to take over the menial labour you free up the human population to seek other, more story-rich life styles, like zailing the Unterzee. Even those Londoners that just get plain shafted by this arrangement and are forced to turn to a life of crime are still a satisfactory result - underworld intrigue and romantic master thieves may be unproductive to the society, but not to the Bazaar.
One wonders what a wonderland London would be if the Masters didn’t keep shooting it in the foot by favouring unproductive but exciting jobs. Maybe Albion and the Throne of Hours is just what happens when all of London’s ingenuity is turned towards productive goals for once, like innovation and expansion, and the abundant funding for mushroom poetry and playing James Bond dries up. :p
London empowered with the full might and will of the Bazaar… ah, if only. That happens to be my character’s personal vision for London’s ideal future, which puts them in the awkward position of supporting the revolutionaries but not supporting the anarchists. Come to think of it, they might fit in well with the New Sequence, which was certainly not part of my plans when I started. Oh, how the road of life twists and turns…
Since we’re on the topic, where in Fallen London might agents or works of the New Sequence be encountered? Asking for… academic reasons.
There are three stories involving them, all Fate-Locked. The first is available from the opportunity card that allows you to visit your acquaintances, and the other two are Exceptional Stories: The Last Dog Society and Our Lady of Pyres, in particular. One could also visit the Grand Geode in Sunless Sea.[li]