Rise of the Argentine Empire

As the first chime of the New Year bell at the Buenos Aires Cathedral faded, Argentina welcomed 1954. Last year was a year of prosperity, and also a year of chaos; it was the best of times, and the worst of times.

Amidst an atmosphere of joy and sorrow, the striking workers tacitly refrained from causing trouble today, and the priests at the cathedral exuded a gentle and festive air.

In the homes of the wealthy, joy was everywhere, while the poor were filled with worry.

President Perón began his New Year's broadcast address from the Presidential Palace.

The enormous unemployed population nationwide was a powder keg ready to explode at any moment.

San Jose had already arranged his work in Blanca City two days prior, taking a vacation and traveling from Blanca to Buenos Aires.

On the first day of the New Year, he spent the morning at home with Elena, and in the afternoon, he and Elena went to her parents' home for dinner.

Elena's family also gathered a large group of people, some happy, some sad, and some indifferent.

San Jose, like a good boy, listened to their boasting about how amazing they were last year, almost losing himself in thought.

He sat next to his father-in-law, Dalos, who seemed to be in low spirits. San Jose glanced at Elena and had no choice but to chat with Dalos.

His father-in-law, Dalos, served as the Deputy Minister of the Argentine Ministry of Agriculture, a position that was both important and not so important. The Ministry of Agriculture could guide the national agricultural production, but it didn't have many effective measures. Several unions and agricultural associations often opposed the Ministry's policies, and foreign exports fell under the purview of the Argentine Ministry of Trade. This year was another year when Argentine agriculture suffered severe setbacks.

The two of them hadn't actually met many times. After dinner, the two grown men went to the study to start an awkward conversation.

The people in the hall continued to chat idly. Dalos was somewhat dissatisfied with San Jose, after all, his little Elena often mentioned him.

But he also wanted to hear some of the insights he had just expressed. He vaguely knew that San Jose was doing well in Blanca City.

"Cohen, this year Argentina's agricultural production is good because a factory called Maya Fertilizer Plant has produced and sold a lot of fertilizer, but the quantity is still a bit small and we still need to import a lot."

Dalos took out two bottles of soda from the refrigerator, opened one and handed it to San Jose. He looked at it, it was Mirinda soda. He wiped the mouth of the bottle and drank half of it in one gulp. With summer approaching, the sales of Praly Food Company would rise again. This year, they would advance into the entire South America.

As for the Maya Fertilizer Plant, it would continue to expand. He was very confident in creating a urea nitrogen fertilizer that was safer and more effective than synthetic ammonia.

"This soda is not bad, the orange flavor is very strong."

San Jose commented, after all, it was his own factory's product, so he had to praise it more.

"That's right, I've been drinking this soda for two years. In our country, we must drink our national soda. Coca-Cola is not good either. It is said that every time you drink a bottle of foreign soda, it will turn into bitter water for us in the future."

Dalos said proudly, after all, Argentina could produce such soda and compete with American soda companies, which was indeed quite impressive.

"Yes, yes, it is indeed very good."

San Jose suppressed a smile. It seemed that he had to restrain the soda factory, such advertisements were really embarrassing.

San Jose then chatted with Dalos about agricultural production.

"You don't know, our country's Pampas agricultural area is full of bankrupt farmers."

"Also, last year alone, we imported 12,000 tractors from the United States and Canada, losing a lot of foreign exchange. This year, several tractor companies have been introduced to build factories."

"Now there are some new types of farms appearing in the country, which seem to be good, and the yield is also very high, but the quality of the tractors they use is relatively poor, it seems to be a brand called Layton."

"We still have to support domestic tractors, even if the quality is a bit worse, it will slowly get better in the future."

Last year, the output of the Layton Tractor Factory was not high, only supplying the Sunny Farms of Future Agriculture. This year, it will face high-intensity competition, and San Jose is not very confident, after all, it is just some American tractor production lines, and the confidence comes from Kubota and Toyota's technology.

"I also have this idea, if we Argentinians don't support it, then who else will support it."

His father-in-law was also a very patriotic person, worried about the country and its people.

"This year alone, hundreds of thousands of Argentine farmers have gone bankrupt, and the city has no way to absorb so many people. It is also difficult for them to come to the city. Fortunately, this year's grain production is still very good, at least no one will starve to death. It would be great if there were more such farms and estates."

Dalos talked eloquently, these numbers were readily available.

"Wool production has dropped from 230,000 tons to 165,000 tons, and a large amount of arable land for grain crops has been converted into pastures, just because the American Korean War was profitable in the past two years, and the hateful British have harmed our country's farmers, and the Presidential Palace is too incompetent... They are messing around..."

San Jose remembered buying meat in Cordoba back then, and later learned that the price of Argentine beef was 4 times higher than in London, England.

Argentine agriculture and animal husbandry suffered heavy losses in the past two years, and now it is even more serious.

"Yes, it's really too hard, the British are not good things."

This is also the reason why San Jose has a lot of economic cooperation in France and Germany. As long as the British are unhappy, he is happy. Even the fighter jet engines of the San Martin Aircraft Factory, he plans to replace them with German ones, but he has not found a substitute, and the Sanhai Shipbuilding has also partnered with shipyards in Spain, knowing that the British shipbuilding level is still the best in the world.

"In fact, our country should not let so many people concentrate in big cities now. The capital is too big. Our country originally has few people, and if we concentrate them in the city, it will be troublesome in the future."

The end of the Korean War was another heavy blow for Argentine speculators, especially several foreign trust companies with foreign capital backgrounds. These capitalists were vampires on the Argentine people.

They once hoarded a large number of products in an attempt to supply them to the American army, and expanded Argentina's exports of meat, wool, and leather by relying on the Korean War, earning countless fortunes, and suffering the Argentine people.

Compared with San Jose's arms trade export to the French army, it is really the face of capitalists, without creating any value, but instead promoting Argentina's economic expansion.

"I didn't expect you to have such an understanding."

"I think we can educate these future hopes of Argentina through education and other means. When the next generation enters the city again, the situation will be much better, and there are too few Argentinians, much fewer than Brazilians."

San Jose said casually.

In fact, it has never been wrong for farmers to go to the city. Everyone has the right to pursue happiness, but when the city cannot bear it, it is a double loss, and also loses the future of the country.

"This is a very good idea. At present, Argentina's population is indeed a little small. So much land is concentrated in the hands of large landowners. The various policies issued by the Ministry of Agriculture have been resisted. It is useless for ordinary farmers to support the policies, they have too little land in their hands."

"It would be great if our country implemented land reform like Bolivia, which could avoid many crises."

The most successful country in carrying out land reform in the surrounding area is Bolivia. Unfortunately, Bolivia is too poor and the effect is not good, because the ultimate way is to rely on the development of productivity, industrialization. If simple equal land rights can develop, then primitive society must be the highest.

"Bolivia? Great and rich Argentina, where is there any way out for land reform."

"Actually, it's just about finding solutions. Ultimately, every farmer who cultivates the land should have their own piece of land. They only need to pay agricultural taxes. There should be no large landowners. Distributing their land can effectively solve the agricultural problem."

"That doesn't seem possible. Power will ultimately remain in the hands of the wealthy and landowners."

Rockes felt that this was too difficult to achieve and fundamentally impossible in Argentina.

"Ultimately, the solution relies on industrialization and using mechanization to support agriculture."

Saint Hesser didn't continue the topic of land reform. Without guns in hand, it's just castles in the air, impossible to achieve. It requires the forceful implementation by national law enforcement agencies.

The development of productivity is the ultimate magic weapon for solving agricultural problems. To establish a basic industrial system, one needs a sufficiently large population.

"That's one way."

Rockes seemed quite excited and continued to discuss it with Saint Hesser.

Eventually, they chatted until after 10 PM before Mrs. Rockes repeatedly urged them, and Saint Hesser and his wife were finally allowed to leave.

"Darling, what are you smiling at?"

Eliana couldn't help but laugh after Saint Hesser got into the car.

"I didn't expect Dad to chat with you for so long. He's been very troubled recently and can't get through to anyone. He often goes to the study alone after work."

"There are indeed troubles at work. Last year was a difficult year for the entire Argentina."

Eliana's baby is almost 5 months old, and it's no longer suitable to travel far.

"Darling, there are still no new hospitals in District Five. The air quality in Blanca isn't very good right now, otherwise, I would have taken you with me."

"Blanca is quite good here. Mom and Dad take good care of me at home."

Saint Hesser hired two nannies for Eliana to take care of her daily life at her parents' house. There were no major problems, and he also arranged for a group of security personnel to secretly protect Eliana in shifts.

"You must take good care of yourself and get enough rest."

"Okay."

… …

In the past year, Argentina's economic development did not decline as much as it did historically. Instead, it maintained a growth rate of 2.5%. In a bleak South America, it was unique. The main reason was the commissioning of a large number of new factories and steel plants, which curbed the decline in industry.

Beneath the prosperous surface, crises are everywhere. Argentina's textile industry still declined by 20% compared to 1951. This was even with Saint Hesser's crazy expansion of textile factories. A large number of small and medium-sized textile factories in Argentina went bankrupt. If there were no Blue Cloud Textiles, this number would be 30%.

Other industries such as leather making, paper making, glass, and ceramics also basically declined by about 20% to 30%. These were industries that Saint Hesser had not been involved in, and he was powerless to help.

Argentina's slaughtering and refrigeration industry and oil industry also declined rapidly. The number of employees at Wilson Slaughtering Company, Argentina's second largest slaughtering company, dropped from 6,000 to 2,000. The number of employees at Angro Company, the largest, dropped from 13,000 to 5,000. The three slaughtering companies in Blanca City laid off 5,000 workers last year alone. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that Saint Hesser is the savior of Blanca City. Saint Hesser created 3,000 jobs in Blanca City in less than half a year, mainly in the construction industry and transportation and trade industry.

Tens of thousands of workers were laid off. Although Saint Hesser had worked very hard to build a large number of factories, compared with the huge unemployed population in the country, it was still a drop in the bucket. It is said that the current unemployed population in Argentina is as high as 500,000.

Argentina's trade volume has dropped from 3.2 billion US dollars in 1948 to 2.4 billion US dollars last year. The bulk of it is still agricultural and animal husbandry products. Saint Hesser's companies contributed about 300 million US dollars of trade, mainly importing industrial production equipment and exporting various products.

The international situation is also changing rapidly. Soviet leader Stalin passed away, and Eisenhower became the new US president. Xinhua Xia implemented the first five-year plan, the Korean War ended, the Cuban Revolution broke out, the United States developed the hydrogen bomb, Khrushchev became the new Soviet leader, and Japan and Western Europe began their post-World War II economic take-off.

This year, with the crazy private investment represented by Saint Hesser and foreign capital from the United States, Argentina's heavy industrial development has attracted worldwide attention. There has been considerable progress in steel, machinery, shipbuilding, chemicals, and military manufacturing.

Saint Hesser made a lot of money in the United States last year and invested it in the Argentine economy through various means.

He also caught up with the trend of economic take-off in Western Europe and Japan, allowing Argentina to barely keep up with the pace of world development without falling behind too much.

The world's new round of industrial revolution has already begun, and it is already the eve of the information technology revolution.

Argentina, however, like South Korea, has to make up for its heavy industry step by step. Argentina is also aware of the importance of heavy industry and has begun to develop it, but the difficulties of the entire country have put the second five-year plan into a dead loop.

Last year, Argentina produced a total of 3.9 million tons of pig iron and 3.1 million tons of steel, supporting Argentina's industrial growth. This is an important reason why Argentina can stabilize industrial growth.

It directly surpassed a group of countries such as India, Brazil, Austria, and Canada, approaching Italy. 78% of the new production came from La Plata Steel Plant. Others were state-owned steel plants, and some were small steel plants.

Argentina's state-owned enterprises continue to be chaotic. Due to various problems, the institutions are bloated and the competitiveness is low. They can only work half the time a week, and the wages are reduced by 2/3.

The military aircraft factory is half-dead. Several military manufacturing enterprises have developed a batch of new products under the stimulation of Reign Military Industry, but they lack the allocation of funds and research and development funds from the National Ministry of Finance.

Argentina's hydrogen bomb program was completely abolished, but the National Atomic Energy Agency was retained, and a peaceful use of atomic energy program was started.

According to the latest Argentine census, the population exceeded 20 million for the first time in 1953, reaching 21.3 million, an increase of 4.15 million compared to 17.15 million in 1950. Among them, there were about 1 million foreign immigrants, and 600,000 people who were unregistered were registered as normal population, mainly located in the northeast and northwest regions of Argentina. The normal population growth was 2.55 million, which is not too outrageous.

According to this rate of growth, it is possible to grow to more than 28 million by 1960, provided that a higher birth rate is continued.

Of course, in Saint Hesser's view, the population is still too small and the growth rate is too slow, which cannot meet the normal industrial system improvement.

His plan this year is to increase the population of San Martin City to more than 400,000 by the end of the year, while expanding the scale of several factories and increasing the research and development work of the Reign Military Factory here.

The population of Blanca City will be doubled to 300,000, and Oran City will also be developed into a city of 100,000 people, so as to barely meet the needs of rapid urban development, otherwise there will not be enough workers.

In order to avoid destroying the normal population growth in rural areas of Argentina as much as possible, this requires a very large influx of foreign population. A large number of unemployed workers in the country have the opportunity to attract a part of them.

At the same time, introduce the population of the four neighboring countries of Chile, Peru, Paraguay, and Bolivia. Anyway, they all speak the same Spanish, and the labor price is cheaper, and there is no need to purchase various social welfare benefits, which can also increase the country's population.

Of course, for some high-quality jobs, such as chemical industry and steel industry, we will continue to recruit domestic workers, and at the same time introduce various measures to encourage the normal reproduction of these workers. Otherwise, Saint Hesser feels that he is somewhat guilty, after all, there are too few people, and the task of having children will be handed over to the current Argentina.

The Argentine National Football Association still refused to participate in this year's Swiss World Cup, just like the Brazilian World Cup 4 years ago.

A total of 36 national teams participated in the qualifiers this year. In addition to the host Switzerland and the defending champion Uruguay automatically qualifying, the remaining 14 teams will qualify through the qualifiers held by the major continental football federations, and finally 16 teams will participate.

This year is a year of unlimited possibilities. This year, the Peron government has embarked on the road of complete destruction and can no longer be recovered. Saint Hesser has no doubt about the anger of the Argentine people.

Saint Hesser said in the night breeze on the balcony:

"Hello, 1954, I'm here."