Rise of the Argentine Empire

Cotton production in the Chaco Plain is rapidly advancing. Future Agriculture began its technical preparations last year. With these large agricultural machines, the vast wasteland can be quickly cultivated, and the problems are not significant.

The Chaco region is sparsely populated, and land prices are not high. Coupled with the domestic economic crisis, the land prices for purchasing land are even cheaper.

The large landowners in Argentina actually favor years of famine because it is a good opportunity to annex land and population. They only need to spend a small amount of capital to quickly expand their fields. The number of farms in Argentina is much smaller now, but the individual scale is further expanding.

In comparison, Future Agriculture is more humane. After purchasing these fields, it will still recruit local workers. However, the cotton fields may be different. There are no farms set up, and there are not many local people, which is just right to take care of the cotton fields.

Nora is leading the reclamation of these fields. It takes two days to transport the large agricultural machinery there.

The personnel of the Blue Delta Security Company are responsible for escorting these agricultural machinery and equipment. Moreover, they must carry a large amount of diesel.

San Jose was not at ease because it was special machinery, so there were many troublesome things. After all the arrangements were in place, he planned to return to his residence only after personally seeing the machinery loaded onto the train.

With a whistle from the train, this freight train will travel north along the banks of the La Plata River.

When he returned home, it was already 8 p.m. San Jose saw Elena, who had not rested yet. She was watching TV on the sofa waiting for him to come back. She seemed to be yawning, and he didn't know if it was really because the pregnancy reaction was too strong, making her so sleepy every day that she could barely open her eyes.

San Jose hurriedly dealt with a meal. He told Elena some interesting things about today. TV programs were quite rare in this era, of course, not interesting.

As San Jose spoke, Elena occasionally responded. The air suddenly became a little quiet. Elena was so sleepy that she couldn't open her eyes and directly leaned on San Jose's shoulder and fell asleep.

He looked at Elena's tired face with some guilt, stretched out his thick arms, gently picked her up in a princess carry, walked from the living room to the bedroom, and gently placed her on the made bed before going back to turn off the TV.

Today, he did not continue to work. After taking a bath, he dried his hair before turning off the lights, and the two lay together.

… …

December 14th, the auction of the Uruguayan iron ore mine has been postponed for more than ten days due to San Jose's interference.

Little Nicks has also returned to Uruguay from Spain and is continuing to advance the work arranged by San Jose non-stop.

Good news came one after another.

Not only did the Americans withdraw from the bidding, but the Brazilians also couldn't hold on and didn't even want the deposit.

On the American side, Georgia Steel Company and Georgia Mining were suppressed. All kinds of negative news and false news flew everywhere. After completing the preliminary preparations, Blackstone took action. In just a few days, the stock price plummeted, and the stock price was cut three times.

Several American banks that received the news also tightened their credit and directly carried out loan withdrawals and collection. The two companies directly ran out of cash flow and planned to auction the company to prevent bad debts.

The American Georgian family was originally just an immigrant family with ordinary heritage and was unable to resist the secret black hands. Blackstone Capital has always been ruthless and does things regardless of the consequences.

Other American families did not dare to provoke too much, and the Georgian family would not pay attention to South America, so they had to withdraw.

The headquarters of Brazil's Anders Mining Company was also messed up by the Falcon Bureau, reporting some tax issues and spreading false news. At first, it only circulated on a small scale, and then it suddenly broke out because of Brazilian public opinion.

The Brazilian IRS thoroughly investigated. Originally, these families basically didn't have much clean stuff, and the melons exploded directly, even more tragically. The Caron family had too many opponents and enemies, so they beat a dog in the water. The Caron family was directly defeated. The main members of the family were directly imprisoned, their assets were frozen, and the company was sealed up.

It is impossible to imagine how weak this so-called century-old family was.

In fact, he also saw the general situation, that is, the Brazilian political situation has changed. The "International Financial Group" led by the United States conspired to undermine Brazilian interests, and the Caron family directly ran into President Vargas and his disciples leading the IRS and Ministry of Finance. The real reason behind this is that Brazil's economy has fallen into a state of collapse this year—a sharp drop in international coffee prices and a large domestic inflation, with a large amount of American capital flowing out.

International capital is good, and it is a booster for the economic development of late-developing countries. The Americans are also continuously drawing blood from the Brazilians who are in crisis. Foreign capital is fleeing wildly, the Brazilian stock market is plummeting, and a large number of wealthy Brazilians are rapidly going bankrupt.

San Jose would definitely not miss this good opportunity. A few months ago, he directly arranged for the person in charge of Plarry Foods to go to Brazil to purchase and hoard coffee raw materials and carry out bottom-fishing operations. A large amount of US dollars flowed from the United States to Brazilian banks, and Argentina's Balen Bank also stored a lot of foreign exchange, flowing in the opposite direction to Brazil, acquiring some cheap assets.

Brazilians have no good way to deal with inflation for the time being. The Brazilian currency continues to depreciate, which in turn makes Brazilian exports less competitive because Brazil's industry is not developed and does not mainly export industrial products, which is somewhat different from Argentina's situation.

… …

Speaking of the Uruguayan iron ore mine, this magnetite mine located in the Thirty-Three Department in central Uruguay no longer has major competitors. Local companies have no ability to do it. The Uruguayan government directly announced that the auction would be turned into a presentation.

The Uruguayan National Newspaper jointly reported that Blue Crystal Mining, as a joint venture between Argentina and Uruguay, has successfully obtained 12 exploration permits in Uruguay. Some exploration work has been carried out, and the "Aratirí" mining company has been established specifically for development and mining work.

This large-scale iron ore project has previously attracted widespread attention from the Uruguayan government and political circles. President Andrés Martínez, as the head of the Red Party, has met with the leadership of the Red and White parties and Uruguayan influential parliamentarians to discuss the matter.

National Party (White Party) leader and Colonia Province senior official Vicente Cedet has publicly expressed support for the project. Many Argentine heavyweights, such as Jason Starr of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Army General Andrés Carson, have also publicly announced their support for the mining. Most of the parliamentarians at the meeting emphasized the need to do a good job of compensating the occupied farms.

Blue Crystal Mining announced that, in addition to the necessary senior personnel and technical workers, most of the recruited workers and employment and taxes will be handed over to Uruguay. At the same time, compensation for farmland will be carried out at a reasonable assessed purchase price.

At the same time, it was announced that the iron ore exploration in Treinta y Tres Province met expectations and construction would begin in January 1954. The initial investment is estimated at 20 million US dollars, with a planned annual output of 10 million tons, which can be mined for 30 years. It is also possible to start small-scale mining in advance, with an annual output of 2 to 5 million tons.

Uruguayan national reports stated that Florida Province and Durazno Province, adjacent to Treinta y Tres Province, are also likely to have iron ore deposits, but the reserves may be less than 500 million tons.

The former Director-General of the Uruguayan Port Authority is currently the General Manager of Blue Crystal Mining's "Aratirí" mine. Uruguay has the right to know about the mining part.

Due to the poor infrastructure conditions in the mining area, if mining is carried out, the land and sea transportation of iron ore and the construction of wharves will be put on the company's agenda.

After receiving the news of successfully securing the Uruguayan iron ore mine, Saint-Hesse was very excited. The main raw materials of the Argentine steel industry have been resolved. With the iron ore mine, he would no longer be subject to others.

The La Plata Steel Plant can also continue to expand production. A larger upfront investment is acceptable.

This time, leaving Bahía Blanca for more than half a month, there are many things to rush back to deal with, far exceeding his expectations. Many things have also happened in Bahía Blanca.

...

"This time, being able to secure the iron ore mine with Thunder Mining is of great significance. We must mine and transport the iron ore at the fastest speed to provide it to the La Plata Steel Plant."

The Uruguayan iron ore has given the La Plata Steel Plant a shot in the arm for its future development. However, to eat this fruit, it will take at least a year and a half of construction time. This is still based on Uruguay's cooperation in railway and port construction.

Fortunately, building railways is currently not a difficult process, and the La Plata Steel Plant can produce rails. Producing sleepers is also simple, and Argentina has experience in building railways.

"This Uruguayan iron ore project is a comprehensive project, and we are also the specific operator. The steel plant needs to cooperate with Thunder Mining in the construction of ports and highways."

This iron ore project is a huge challenge for Saint-Hesse. The joint development project includes the construction of ports and railways. The Uruguayan government will provide funding. The two major export ports are the Port of Rocha and the Port of Montevideo, mainly connecting Minas, which is 200 kilometers long.

If it is connected to the Port of Rocha, a new port must be built, which can only be postponed. In fact, many iron ore mines in Uruguay have begun to be abandoned because there are too few people. The Treinta y Tres Province iron ore mine being built this time also has very few people.

"There are many difficulties and the investment is huge, but we should not only look at the current cheap international iron ore prices and not do this. Only by holding iron ore in our hands can our steel plant continue to develop."

In terms of comprehensive development, there will definitely be no losses. The tractor factory can develop some mining machinery and equipment to cope with future huge challenges. Even Leighton Industries can arrange inspections of truck manufacturing projects, which will also promote many industries. A large part of the construction funds for this huge iron ore mine can be returned through various cooperation projects.

The meeting went smoothly. After ideological work was done, the La Plata Steel Plant and the Rolling Mill also need to further upgrade equipment and raw material processes. These machinery factories, motorcycle factories, lathe factories, and aircraft factories all need very good steel.

As the scope of business involved in these factories becomes wider and wider, Saint-Hesse is also constantly creating more opportunities for them.

After this meeting, Saint-Hesse will also return to Bahía Blanca. The mayor has urged him several times, especially regarding the construction of the new port, and intends to seek his opinion, after all, Bahía Blanca is strictly speaking only an agricultural city, with only a few meat processing plants originally.

"Cohen, you must come back quickly. There are too many problems with the new port now, and we don't have any practical experience. We need you to help. There are also too many problems with construction funds."

"Okay, Mr. Mayor, I will return to Bahía Blanca tomorrow night."

After Saint-Hesse hung up the phone, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. This time, he left Bahía Blanca for so long. In addition to the mine and the church matters, he also had the intention of secretly competing with the city hall.

After all, the mayor's side did not discuss too much with him, and seemed to intend to kick him away and do it themselves, which made him a little annoyed, so he simply took the opportunity of the iron ore matter to leave for a while.

As he expected, even if they were given so many opinions, the city hall team was still unable to solve the problem on their own. Lacking huge external funds, most of the newly established companies in Bahía Blanca came from Saint-Hesse's banner. They want to attract investment in the country, but it's not that Saint-Hesse looks down on them, but that they simply don't have it. They are unwilling to leave their base camp, and it is impossible to invest in Bahía Blanca, which now looks like a desolate place.

Bahía Blanca only looks like it has good prospects. The pie that Saint-Hesse drew is actually himself. In fact, Argentina does not have too much surplus internal investment funds. Foreign capital will not invest in Bahía Blanca, which has nothing. One Buenos Aires is enough. American foreign capital and American oil capital are only limited to investing in Buenos Aires and will not consider other places at all.

That is to say, the initial start-up construction of Bahía Blanca can only rely on Saint-Hesse himself.

After Saint-Hesse further deepened his connections with Professor Pukins, Arturo, the second-in-command of the Radical Party, the director of the office, and Commander Thompson, he planned to set off back to Bahía Blanca.

The two sat in a black car, parked outside the train station. Elena held Saint-Hesse's hand tightly, as if feeling her wife's tension.

Saint-Hesse reached out and wrapped his arms around her slender waist, her belly already slightly bulging, and pulled her into his arms.

He felt a surge of tenderness in his heart, a feeling of blood connection with the unborn child in his belly. He also hoped to get a little bit of soothing comfort, like that received by a baby in its mother's womb.

"My little Elena, how much I love you!"

Saint-Hesse murmured, his voice very low, like a mosquito.

Hearing his soft confession, Elena's body trembled slightly, feeling her soul sublimate.

"I love you too, Cohen."

Saint-Hesse rested his face on her warm chest, and she leaned down and brought her lips to him.

The two did not speak again and kissed passionately for a long time.

After a long time,

"Cohen, you are very busy with work, so take care of your health and eat on time."

"Okay, I will. You also need to pay attention to the baby in your belly. Don't eat as little as you used to. You should eat more. Look at your belly, what's the difference from when you weren't pregnant?"

Saint-Hesse said with pity, stroking Elena's hair.

The two cuddled for a while, until a long whistle sounded, before reluctantly getting on the train heading south.

This trip to Buenos Aires was actually a major gain. The connection with the military has been deepened once again, and Commander Thompson has also given him a lot of help, greeting Eisen Moore, the head of the naval department in Bahía Blanca, to provide Saint-Hesse with some convenience.

In general, the Radical Party has boldly given him a lot of autonomy this time. He is confident to build up the Southern Radical Party and strengthen his faction. There are many factions within the Radical Party, and these are not prohibited.