Rise of the Argentine Empire

Saint Heth, with his industrialization strategy and reforms in Blanca City, earned the appreciation of some influential figures above. The Radical Civic Union headquarters invited him to the capital twice, but Saint Heth temporarily declined, citing his busy official duties, especially since it was the crucial period for the election.

His series of actions had severely threatened and damaged the interests of La Pampa Province and its surrounding agricultural sectors, arousing dissatisfaction among many landowners and farm owners. Saint Heth wasn't purchasing their cattle and wool, and even bought less wheat, partly because it wasn't necessary, and partly because of the implementation of his 'baby-making' strategy, which led to large farms employing more laborers and small farms employing even fewer.

Saint Heth was establishing so-called 'sunshine cooperative farms,' growing wheat, cotton, and rice, and specifically targeting small farm owners, or simply acquiring bankrupt farms, not cooperating much with large farm owners or landowners.

The Pampas grasslands, as the essence of Argentina, also concentrated the most powerful land estates and landlords in the entire country.

These large landowners and estate owners were financially strong, with most families having accumulated very substantial wealth. Now, their wheat barns were overflowing, cattle and sheep were being hoarded for higher prices, and the foreign market had shrunk significantly, making it difficult to sell.

The European region used to be a major export destination for Argentine beef, mutton, and wheat, but now it faced competition from Australia, Canada, and the United States, and with high export taxes, it lacked competitiveness.

The harvest of wheat exceeded 1 million tons, corn 300,000 tons, and cotton was also considerable.

The import substitution strategy promoted by Blanca City, the development of export processing zones, and the city hall's interventionism had all seriously threatened the interests of these traditional factions, especially the conservative faction within them.

Not only that, but Saint Heth had also established a vast state-owned enterprise system in Blanca City, establishing a batch of city-owned state-owned enterprises, involving 17 industries such as trade, finance, commerce, and construction.

Blanca City Commercial Bank successively acquired 13 local banks, and its strength greatly increased after acquiring Buenos Aires Mortgage Bank. Now, it had established branches in 17 provinces of Argentina and had become one of the top ten banks in Argentina, and was preparing to rename itself Blanca Bank.

Blanca City First Construction Company and Second Construction Company were also among the largest construction companies in Argentina. The Blanca City Power Plant, which they built, was the largest power plant in Argentina, and in January of this year, it was reorganized into Blanca City State-Owned Electric Power Company, jointly holding 80% of Blanca City's power supply with Southern Power.

Road construction companies, Sanchez Department Store, Blanca Port Company, textile factories, candy factories, and a large number of city-owned state-owned factories were extremely complex and large in scale, and their competitiveness was also among the top in Argentina.

These city-owned state-owned enterprises in Blanca City were second only to the Da Cohen Group in scale, and were the two major pillars of finance, employing over 50,000 people.

Blanca City had a first-class capital environment and employment environment, and Blanca City also had the most powerful tax system in Argentina.

The throughput of Blanca's major ports last year was 20.74 million tons, with nearly 3,000 ships entering the port. This number was very close to that of the Port of Buenos Aires, with bulk commodities such as coal and iron ore accounting for about 60% of imports.

It was also the city with the second-highest tax revenue in Argentina.

In Argentina, both paying and collecting taxes were a major problem, which was an old tradition. Even Perón, at the peak of his prestige, failed to successfully reform taxation.

From the central presidential palace to the large and small municipalities, from tariffs to value-added tax to personal income tax, there were all kinds of problems.

The presidential palace couldn't collect taxes, ordinary people were unwilling to pay taxes, and large and small companies were evading taxes in various ways. Even the customs became a source of revenue for local city halls. The Argentine Minister of Finance had to personally negotiate tax revenue sharing. When Blanca City became a money bag, the General Administration of Customs had to cooperate with Saint Heth on an equal footing.

From taxation, it could be seen how low the degree of centralism in Argentina was. Argentina didn't have a strong source of tax revenue, so it couldn't control the provincial and municipal governments at all levels, and could only issue a large amount of currency, which in turn led to inflation.

Neighboring Brazil was much better. Two consecutive presidents were staunch reformers, and officers who had participated in World War II became the biggest supporters of the new president's reforms. Now, they even planned to relocate the capital and start anew.

Speaking of which, in Blanca City, collecting taxes was the most difficult task at first, but Saint Heth didn't give up. This was an inevitable process for Blanca City's development and growth.

Although Blanca City's expenditures had been continuously expanding, its fiscal revenue had always been in surplus.

After getting on the right track, the status and importance of Blanca City's tax department even surpassed the former investment promotion department.

Saint Heth pursued the method of 'grasping the big and letting go of the small,' requiring companies of a certain scale to operate legally and pay taxes legally, otherwise it wouldn't just be a matter of fines.

Similarly, large factories and large enterprises operating legally would also have more support policies, tax rebates, and even business guidance.

This was one of the reasons why Blanca City's large companies were becoming more and more competitive.

Therefore, although Blanca City had more tax collection items, many business owners were still willing to set up their companies here.

They could develop very quickly, and the investment promotion team would also regularly connect with these companies to help them obtain various preferential policies and establish various city hall channels, without having to spend extra on political and business relationships.

These things couldn't be obtained in other cities in Argentina. For most capitalists or business owners, making more money was the top priority. If paying taxes legally could obtain greater benefits, then why care about these taxes? Moreover, the city hall also encouraged legal tax avoidance, as long as there was no tax evasion or tax dodging.

And for various small factories, small companies, and small shops, the staff of Blanca City's tax bureau were particularly tolerant, and rarely went to inspect them, which created a relatively stable market.

Saint Heth had always believed that the more people there were in Blanca City, the better, not just for the market, but also for various talents.

With popularity, everything was easier to do, although competition also became much greater, but correspondingly, strength could also be greatly enhanced.

But these preferential policies and benefits didn't flow to the traditional farm owners, and also encroached on the interests of these farm owners through projects such as pork farming and future agriculture.

You should know that just a few years ago, there were thousands of farms going bankrupt on the Pampas grasslands every year, and they could easily acquire these bankrupt farms and then expand their scale.

Recently, they had begun to intentionally or unintentionally reach into guilds, newspapers, and invest in Saint Heth's opposition, and had deep connections with professional organizations like criminal syndicates.

The police department and defense army, which were originally controlled by Saint Heth, had recently begun to loosen up.

The La Pampa Defense Army had increased its army size to 28,000 people, steadily ranking first among local armies in terms of numbers.

Saint Heth had greatly increased military spending, improved weapons and equipment, and correspondingly expanded the army's establishment. The number had exceeded the Cordoba Defense Army, but the combat effectiveness was still much worse.

Saint Heth currently served as the commander of the La Pampa Defense Army Command, and the first person in charge of the army. At the same time, he was also responsible for the management of the coast guard, with the coastal patrol boats produced by the Blanca Shipyard, and the establishment had also expanded to 400 people.

Based on the current situation, these people were really thinking a bit too much.

… …

Blanca City City Hall Office,

Saint Heth carefully looked at the information from White Light Avenue, and the intelligence analysts from the Falcon Bureau were somewhat nervous, waiting for Saint Heth's arrangements.

"I have to say, these guys are really developing powerfully."

Saint Heth praised with considerable appreciation for these already professionalized organizations.

He couldn't help but recall the time when he was messing around with the "Brotherhood" in the suburbs of Cordoba. Compared to down-and-out households like the Byrd Brotherhood, they could only be considered a black society at best.

This Colson Syndicate was already very close to the Italian Mafia, with rich industries and a fairly complete system, truly becoming institutionalized. They also had intersections with the city hall and Blanca City's celebrities.

Blanca Royal Hotel, spanning seven or eight large bars, had five or six hundred thugs alone, and was involved in various businesses such as underground lending, casinos, and money laundering. They had also registered a batch of companies and established regular construction companies and real estate companies, making a fortune, and the amount of taxes paid each year was also quite a lot.

The annual income had already approached the scale of a medium-to-large factory, at least a million US dollars, and the money laundering business exceeded ten million.

The time node for the Colson Syndicate's development was very close to Saint Heth's development in Blanca City.

To be honest, Saint Heth hadn't paid much attention to these criminal groups in the past two years. This was unavoidable in the process of urban development.

Now it was mainly handled by the subordinate police department, while he was mainly responsible for developing the city.

The scale of the Blanca Police Department had expanded to almost 6,000 people, making it difficult to manage such a large urban population.

According to Saint Heth's estimation, the police force needed to fully manage Blanca City might have to be doubled again, but since the establishment of the La Pampa Defense Army, it had also decentralized many of the police department's functions.

Compared to Buenos Aires, which claimed to have 100,000 police officers, Blanca City's police department staff was indeed too small.

Saint Heth didn't particularly care about these so-called professional organizations, even if the scale had already developed very large.

"Let's wipe out all these people tomorrow."

He said with considerable regret.

Colson was indeed a talent. In less than 5 years, he had developed from a small gang leader to the boss of the largest syndicate in Blanca City, and had already begun to prepare for whitewashing.

Colson's opportunity began with the demolition of an old street in the Fifth District, earning his first pot of gold.

This person was still quite thoughtful in his actions, but unfortunately, a criminal was still a criminal, even if he was a rich criminal.

It was time to rectify White Light Avenue.