Rise of the Argentine Empire

After a routine organizational meeting at the provincial government building, Saint-Hesse returned home under the escort of security personnel.

The new presidential election had recently begun, and all sorts of characters were coming out of the woodwork.

Saint-Hesse had already been assassinated several times, but most attempts were nipped in the bud by the Falcon Bureau and his security team, without causing too much impact, since Blanca City was his home turf after all.

His wife, Yilena, had been brought back from the hospital to the manor where he now lived.

He had arranged for the best medical staff and nannies, and she was recovering well.

His eldest daughter, Britney, greeted him and then quietly returned to her room to busy herself with her own things, not clinging to her old father as she usually did.

Her tutor, Lina, was taking good care of her.

After returning, Saint-Hesse also took a look at his youngest son, who was sleeping peacefully and very obediently, without any major problems.

Everything was fine at home.

His two children were now being cared for by Luke, his most trusted old butler, and Anna.

Butler Luke also had some blood relation to him; Luke was brought over from the old country by Saint-Hesse's old partner, Dilute Aragon, as Aragon's maternal great-uncle, while Saint-Hesse's mother and Aragon's mother were cousins.

So Luke was also considered a relative from his mother's side of the family, and at 60 years old, he was still very healthy and quite trusted by Saint-Hesse.

Matters inconvenient for women to handle were dealt with by the assistant manager, Anna.

The cook, Anna, was meticulous and capable, managing the entire manor with Luke.

Luke had been responsible for taking care of Saint-Hesse's daily life since early on, and had always done an excellent job.

Saint-Hesse had secretly had the Falcon Bureau investigate Luke and Anna's hometown, and their records were clean.

In his youth, Luke had worked as a manor manager and head servant in the province of La Rioja, and had even served as a servant for a British manor owner.

Anna had been responsible for some domestic affairs in a large family in Buenos Aires, and was later hired by Saint-Hesse as a cook because she could cook some oriental dishes.

Speaking of Aragon, he could now completely stand on his own, mainly responsible for the streamlined Blue Delta security and the operation and management of Valentine Trading Company.

Aragon had been cultivated very well by Saint-Hesse, always steady and pragmatic, and had also had six children, including a pair of twin brothers, making outstanding contributions to Argentina's population growth.

Aragon's family had settled in Blanca City; his eldest son, Dilute Senal Aragon, was already five years old and attending kindergarten, very intelligent, and completely inherited his mother's wisdom.

The veterans of the Falcon Bureau and Blue Delta at Cohen Manor were responsible for internal security, and the La Pampa Defense Force was responsible for external defense around the manor.

The scale of this manor had long surpassed that of the manor when General Thompson was in charge of Cordoba Province, covering hundreds of acres, with a simple and restrained decoration style that did not look luxurious.

It had been arranged by Saint-Hesse like a small fortress, with a huge underground defense project, a completely private armed manor of Saint-Hesse, and its construction had taken a long time, starting when Saint-Hesse took office at the Blanca City Hall.

This place used to be a remote suburb, originally intended to be Saint-Hesse's vacation spot.

When the provincial government building moved to the Argerich district, Saint-Hesse's office was quite close to here, so he simply moved here.

General Thompson was still working in the Ministry of Defense, but was already showing a trend of being marginalized.

The Cordoba gang no longer trusted him, and now maintained contact with Saint-Hesse, with relations trending towards warming up, while Vice President José had completely lost power.

The Radical Civic Union would not choose a military man to serve as vice president, and Frondizi's vice presidential nomination was still under consideration.

The new year began, and this year was another new beginning.

Because of Yilena's recovery and the busy affairs of the La Pampa provincial government, which he could not leave, Saint-Hesse did not plan to go to his father-in-law's house in Buenos Aires, and had his subordinates send gifts on his behalf.

The challenges for the provincial government this year were even greater.

The Radical Civic Union had already begun to fully prepare for the new presidential election, and was determined to win.

The current presidential palace would not allow the Justicialist Party to participate in the election and win the presidency.

The smaller parties, such as the Socialist Party and the Republican Democratic Party, with the largest, the Socialist Party, already allied with the Radical Civic Union, meant that the new president was almost certain to emerge.

Saint-Hesse had changed from a speculative follower to an object of wooing both inside and outside the Radical Civic Union.

The La Pampa provincial electoral district also had a relatively large population, and most domestic immigrants would have the right to vote in the new presidential election.

Argentina adopted an indirect election system, which was simpler than the US presidential election.

After several constitutional amendments, now any Argentine citizen over the age of 18, regardless of male or female, with a certain level of education, could basically participate in voting after registering at the polling station.

Moreover, La Pampa Province's status had been greatly elevated, with a certain voice in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, and his father-in-law was still the Minister of Agriculture, and San Martin City had not been completely infiltrated by Cordoba.

As the designer of San Martin City, his influence was still considerable here, and San Martin City and Blanca City had established many communication channels.

Arturo Frondizi wanted to run for president and also needed a group of his own people, and high-ranking officials with real power were of course very good supporters.

The Radical Civic Union was pro-American, and the military government intended to improve relations with the United States, but at the same time remained wary of American infiltration, so this was a time bomb.

However, if Arturo succeeded in the election, he would be taking over a mess left by two or three rounds of military coups, with an economy riddled with holes.

Saint-Hesse did not choose to wait for a better offer, but chose to firmly lean towards the Radical Civic Union.

The Radical Civic Union was still a good platform that could help him achieve more things.

As the head of the Radical Civic Union in La Pampa, many people in the southern provinces also supported him, and the upper echelons of the Radical Civic Union were very optimistic about this outstanding young man.

The newly emerged La Pampa Civic Alliance secretly had almost half of its members as his people, which he personally supported, used for containment and supplementation, and the Radical Civic Union needed people who could hold their own, and the Socialist Party, the Republican Party, and the Justicialist Party also needed some trouble.

Now La Pampa Province had almost been built by Saint-Hesse into a wooden barrel, developing very rapidly, but also with various shortcomings.

Whether it was the current presidential palace or the future presidential palace, they did not need a La Pampa Province that was impervious to oil, which was too sharp and easily targeted.

A Saint-Hesse with flaws was a good high-ranking official in La Pampa.

Of course, La Pampa Province was just a small platform, and he still needed to continue to work hard to make it bigger and stronger.

As someone who had lived in a prefecture-level city with millions of people, a province with a mere 3 million people was just the scale of a fourth-tier small city.

Chickens pecking at each other, winning was not much to be proud of, and losing required more reflection.

This year's economic development focus, in addition to Blanca City, would also be the three coastal cities, which were the key investment targets of La Pampa Province.

The province had more abundant funds under its control, and the scale was also larger.

After the independence of La Pampa Industrial Bank and La Pampa Commercial Bank, they developed rapidly, from initially two banks combined that could not even beat Blanca Commercial Bank, to now either one could wrestle with Blanca Commercial Bank.

This was inseparable from the support of the provincial government, and also inseparable from the overall sluggishness of the banking industry.

The economic downturn allowed the two banks to take advantage, and many banks were squeezed out, with many bankruptcies, while the two banks had many backers, and the development of Blanca Bank and Baron Bank would be subject to certain restrictions, while the two La Pampa banks would not, and even received a lot of support, especially the state-owned banks in the south, as if treating La Pampa Industrial Bank as a savior.

… …

Many new industrial and commercial families had emerged in Blanca City.

The expanding economy of Blanca City not only created amazing wealth, but also continued to attract more immigrants with these wealth stories.

Saint-Hesse believed that Argentines were no worse than anyone else, they only lacked a stable country and a good system suitable for them.

Even someone like Bruno Abel, the boss of Bruno Electronics, could only be said to be an ordinary genius.

Since the company went public, he had been living a life of luxury, and last year's business did not grow much, which made Saint-Hesse somewhat disappointed, but he would not interfere too much, it was just a normal commercial investment.

Therefore, he decisively withdrew his investment in Bruno Electronics.

This investment of less than 500,000 US dollars eventually earned him 5.7 million US dollars, and this money was worth spending on more valuable places, such as investing in steel plant construction, or investing in Leidon Motors.

He had seen some more powerful business geniuses, who had already emerged at the age of eighteen or nineteen, and were very successful.

Blanca City now had a strong commercial atmosphere and many opportunities, including many Irish immigrants, who united and invested together, forming trading companies, opening factories, and even buying an entire street for housing rentals, doing well, and were also a group of excellent guys.

Most young people who suddenly became rich were ruined, while some young people who were steady and pragmatic had the opportunity to climb to higher levels, but there were exceptions to everything, after all, some people were destined to achieve great things.

Now Argentina's per capita income was only about 350 US dollars a year, which was just enough to buy a wheel of a Fiat car if you didn't eat or drink.

From half of the United States to now only about 1/15 of the United States, it had been falling steadily since 50 years, and inflation had sharply reduced the wealth of the Argentine people, while the per capita income of Americans had increased by 2-3 times, and the gap continued to widen, which was why many people wanted to immigrate.

Indeed, even with star cities like Blanca and San Martin, Argentina still lost many excellent immigrants. However, even more immigrants came from less developed countries, far exceeding the number of people emigrating abroad, so the population continued to grow.

For middle-class and upper-class immigrants, they had considerable savings and the skills to earn a living, so they were more willing to emigrate to seek opportunities.

As an old saying from ancient China goes, 'When the heavens want to rain, or a woman wants to marry, let them be.'

In Blanca, the average national income could reach over $400 USD. It was like choosing a general from among dwarfs. This was just the income of ordinary workers. If you were a doctor or lawyer, your annual income could easily reach $3,000 USD a year. This was the charm of Blanca: anything was possible. If you were a factory owner, you could easily earn over $50,000 USD a year.

Moreover, Blanca's economy was likely to increase by over 70% this year. The Southern Petroleum Company was nearing completion, which could contribute at least $150 million USD in revenue, and the Blanca Steel Company was also nearing completion. Many more projects would also be completed in '58, which would greatly expand the strength of Blanca and La Pampa Province, and attract more immigrants.

After all, the Southern Petroleum Company alone needed over 18,000 new employees, and the steel plant needed 25,000. Aside from the necessary skilled workers and management, Saint-Hose would not transfer anyone from the La Plata Steel Plant, but would directly recruit in Blanca.

Moreover, the wages at the steel plant and oil company were not low, with annual incomes reaching over $600 USD. This was Saint-Hose's salary when he was a soldier. When he served as a squad leader, it was far more than that.

But in Argentina today, an annual income of $600 USD was a high salary, a very good job. Moreover, the steel plant and oil company provided free housing and cafeterias, which could save a lot of money.

These people also participated in the workers' association, but under the organization of the Radical Civic Union, they carried out various reforms in a relatively moderate manner, rather than organizing radical strikes. Saint-Hose advocated for limited social security and a pension system, rather than unlimited benefits, which would cripple the entire country.

The port improvement work in Blanca was proceeding in an orderly manner, La Pampa Province's voice in the House of Representatives began to expand, and the military presidential palace was already considering completely relinquishing power and holding a new round of presidential elections.

The Enco Electric Fan Factory incident made Saint-Hose see the potential of Argentine immigrants, who were no worse than Americans.

Saint-Hose hoped to attract more immigrants, including white Brazilians and people of mixed race.

Argentina needed more people, and La Pampa Province needed more people. A sufficiently large domestic market was the foundation for the rise of a great power.

This was a major project, and Saint-Hose hoped to create more jobs and attract more immigrants.

Eventually, he wanted to connect the entire Blanca Bay.

The worst thing about La Pampa Province was that it did not have enough water resources, whether it was hydropower or water resources in general.

The place with the most abundant hydropower resources in Argentina was Paraguay and Bolivia, which used to be part of Greater La Plata. Now, the possibility of developing a high-voltage power transmission network was almost zero.

Perhaps this was a disaster for Argentina, with too many competitors and too few friends.

The United States was a competitor, Canada was a competitor, Australia was a competitor, and Brazil was also a competitor.

Even if Blanca's population reached two million, he still felt like it was a ghost town.

But it really did look like a ghost town, with construction sites and tenement buildings everywhere. Electricity was not abundant enough to keep all the lights on at night, so wasn't the darkness exactly like a ghost town?

In Saint-Hose's eyes, Blanca was still too small.

......

The Saint-Hose Provincial Government initially established the La Pampa Credit Bank, and within a few months, its scale exceeded that of the Blanca Commercial Bank. However, it was consistently unprofitable, had a lot of debt, and had huge internal risks, like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at any moment.

The La Pampa Credit Bank was originally a Frankenstein's monster. It was a major breakthrough attempt by Saint-Hose, namely to resettle some of the key personnel while carrying out administrative division reforms.

The contradiction was that the idealized resettlement clashed greatly with realistic interests, forcing Saint-Hose to revise the matter.

Saint-Hose had indeed had problems with this matter from the very beginning. The establishment of the La Pampa State-Owned Assets Committee was a complete mess.

The interests involved were enormous. The small banks that had sprung up on Yacson Avenue were the result of Saint-Hose's maneuvering. He encouraged competition rather than monopolies. The banking industry was a good industry for economic development.

A good bank should be very helpful for development.

As the highest administrative official of a province in Argentina, he could not handle this matter in the same way he handled Blanca. This was both illegal and would have a negative impact on his team.

So he handled this matter relatively cautiously.

The reason was that the La Pampa Credit Bank issued a large number of loans without much supervision or attention.

The rate of debt expansion exceeded Saint-Hose's expectations, and the credit default rate remained high, resulting in a large outflow of bank assets.

In order to appease the local municipal governments that were merged to form the metropolitan municipal government, the La Pampa Provincial Government ceded some benefits, such as a certain proportion of new municipal councilor positions, as well as the acquisition of some state-owned enterprises. One of the most important ways to handle this was to establish the La Pampa Credit Bank.

His goal was simple. The La Pampa Provincial Government had no money and could not completely rely on Balen Bank and Blanca Commercial Bank. American Sequoia could not endlessly support Argentina and become his ATM. Commercial companies needed profits to support them and performance to maintain the company.

Of course, Saint-Hose would not let Sequoia expand indefinitely, otherwise, the size of Sequoia Company might have exceeded $500 million USD long ago. This was an incredibly large number, and even Saint-Hose would have difficulty controlling it.

He used these funds to buy shares in many foreign companies, while still controlling the size of Sequoia. Keeping a low profile was the way to survive in the United States, while also trying to avoid making too many enemies. However, Saint-Hose also knew that Sequoia had already been targeted in the United States. He didn't have many such money-making opportunities himself. Some of the Argentinians he sent to the United States had already defected. Although he had dealt with some of them, life in the United States was indeed much better than in Argentina, and the prosperity of Manhattan could not be compared to Buenos Aires.

The complex holding structure he designed would one day collapse. Don't expect the big hooligan boss to have a fair duel with you.

Before that, he had to sell and transfer more assets and funds to Europe, Brazil, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, and Canada, to turn them into his other capital.

So establishing a credit bank was a supplement to controlling the Finance Department, secondly, it could raise more funds for economic development, and thirdly, it could arrange for a certain number of diverted personnel. He could not allow the size of the civil service municipal government to be too large and needed to streamline it.

After all, people won't work with you if you don't have money, so Saint-Hose established this institution, which accomplished multiple goals at once.

Most of the bank's management were local tycoons or large landowners, and the shareholding composition was very complex, with almost every city in La Pampa having equity.

After defaults, they could only acquire a large number of non-performing assets, resulting in the bank being unable to digest them and not making any money at all. Moreover, the deposits absorbed were actually pitifully low, and they still needed to borrow large amounts from Blanca Bank and Balen Bank.

Cheap credit and the credit bank's reckless lending caused some problems.

If this continued to be tolerated, it could trigger a small-scale financial crisis and damage the economic development of Blanca and La Pampa Province.

Therefore, after integrating for less than 4 months, Saint-Hose, realizing that the situation was getting more and more serious, decisively took action and established the La Pampa Province United Investment Company, acquiring these shares one by one at prices far higher than the market price.

The credit bank had long fallen into negative assets, and these guys couldn't wait to cash out and leave, so they readily signed the agreement, of course, if it weren't for the presence of the La Pampa Defense Force.

He split the credit bank's bank assets into two main bodies: La Pampa Industrial Bank and La Pampa Commercial Bank.

The headquarters of the credit bank were also moved to Yacson Avenue, and the other assets were converted into La Pampa Investment Bank. The two banks were under the jurisdiction of the La Pampa Provincial Finance Department, while the investment bank was under the jurisdiction of the La Pampa State-Owned Assets Committee.

Saint-Hose originally planned to establish an agricultural credit cooperative bank to support the development of backward rural areas in La Pampa Province, solve short-term capital turnover problems, and establish a mutual agricultural credit local bank.

This was Saint-Hose's usual method of preventing resources from being too concentrated, and it was also conducive to competition. Anyway, the banking industry was not a heavy industry, and it did not require a large scale to be more cost-effective.

Argentina was large enough to accommodate two large banks, and after the split, the local resistance was significantly reduced. How difficult it was to integrate this chicken-rib-like financial asset when the credit bank was first established.

The two banks, after the split, were able to move forward lightly and develop well, and the effect produced was greater than 1+1=2. The debt ratio fell all the way, and a large number of local assets were sold to other state-owned companies.

The credit bank incident also broke up some local opposition forces, allowing his approval rating to continue to increase.

Some non-performing assets were then handled very well. With the improvement of the development of the two banks, deposits also slowly returned and increased, and many local banks were acquired, establishing a preliminary national bank network.