Rise of the Argentine Empire

The Uruguayan military coup showed that the world was very different from what it used to be, but the overall trend would not change. From the rise to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the United States would continue to prosper, and New China would eventually be revived and become one of the world's poles again.

Eisenhower stated at the Organization of American States meeting that Uruguay's "people's coup" was the choice of the Uruguayan people, and announced military assistance to Uruguay, hoping to obtain the permission of General Andreazza, and announced an increase in military exports to Uruguay.

The Soviets strongly condemned the Uruguayan coup. Khrushchev claimed that this was a disaster for the Uruguayan people, and then continued to plant corn.

Brazilian President Oliveira expressed sympathy for the disaster in Montevideo, but domestic problems were more important. The Brazilian ambassador to Uruguay consulted with the new President Andreazza, but no consensus was reached.

Argentine President Frondizi expressed sympathy for what happened in Montevideo, but did not do much to respond. He was still negotiating with the Americans, hoping to develop Argentina's heavy chemical industry and oil industry, and finalize a cooperation treaty.

President Frondizi's most important task at present is to de-Peronize. He is preparing for a state visit to the United States, seeking a backer while getting rid of the influence of the domestic army. At the same time, he also wants to improve relations with the Justicialist Party, including meeting with former President Perón, which is also one of his plans.

The Argentine military has received some encouragement and is obviously very dissatisfied with the new president's reforms, but the internal factional struggles within the army have reached a very fierce level. The Blues and Reds have disagreements over Peronism.

The Reds are currently in the minority, advocating that the army take over the presidential palace and destroy the developing labor movement, which is quite radical.

The Blues are relatively moderate, advocating restoration and reconciliation, and are currently dominant. Saint-Hesse also belongs to the Blues, at least for now. Choosing a side is necessary, and General Thompson is one of the important leaders of the Blues, along with General Juan Carlos Onganía, who are the two leaders of the Blues.

Regardless of the Red and Blue factions in the Argentine military, almost every general has many military-run factories under them. After Perón stepped down, it has become more and more outrageous. At first, the military only interfered with local city halls and provincial governments, but now it has become involved in industry and commerce.

In the past seven or eight years, Argentina's economy has fallen into repeated recession, and national fiscal revenue has plummeted. After a brief period of centralization, the National Defense Force has become decentralized again, but the National Defense Force's military expenditure has fallen sharply, and many military projects have been closed and transferred, making the Argentine National Defense Force unable to update various military equipment.

Allowing the army to carry out independent trade, and even open various military factories, and then to open up more fields, has made the situation of the domestic army in Argentina more complicated.

The National Defense Force not only controls local administrative resources, but also controls many economic resources, becoming small warlords. The situation is far more outrageous than the Cordoba City Guard. Saint-Hesse can only guarantee that the La Pampa Defense Force will remain unchanged, but it has been innovating, so the combat effectiveness of the La Pampa Defense Force has been increasing quite rapidly.

Many Argentine generals are involved in business, greedy for enjoyment, the army does not train, and does not do its job properly, forming small factional groups, which are already a bit of a tail-wagging-the-dog trend. Fortunately, these generals do not want to be independent, but simply combine with local provincial governments to affect centralization. Argentina has a sparse population and no intention of splitting.

The first thing the army considers when participating in business is to protect its own self-interest, and losing battles becomes inevitable. In the war with Britain in later generations, in addition to the differences in national strength and weapons, the corruption of the Argentine army by business problems was also a major problem. This is the underlying gap besides the strategic difference with Britain.

The problems of the Argentine National Defense Force are actually quite serious now, from smuggling cars, cigarettes, and fuel, to reselling arms and coal, to misappropriating military equipment, to pocketing national defense funds, and even operating various red-light districts and acting as a backstage for gangs. There are all kinds of chaotic phenomena, which also affect economic recovery. This phenomenon is most serious in the provinces of Cordoba and Buenos Aires, as well as Santa Fe Province.

What is even more serious is that many Argentine military factories do not pay high taxes. Coupled with various advantages, Argentina's fiscal revenue has not increased too much when economic development returns to normal.

Fortunately, the people of the Argentine National Defense Force are not good at economic development, and the Argentine domestic army is unable to get involved in many monopolistic industries. Therefore, the scale of the military industry has not been very large. Argentina currently has a small population and backward economic development, and there are not many monopolistic advantageous industries. The oil industry itself is not developed, mineral exploration is extremely backward, the energy industry is in the remote south, the real estate has not been developed, and the telecommunications era has not yet arrived. In addition to the nationalized Rheinmetall Argentina, other military factories rely on copycatting, and the mechanical industry is not developing well.

Unlike countries such as Vietnam in later generations, which can occupy the most profitable industries, such as tobacco, telecommunications, finance, foreign trade, real estate, machinery manufacturing, port operation and construction, engineering, etc., they do whatever is profitable. The Argentine army is currently restricted by other parties, and domestic strikes are prevalent, let alone taking over those huge and unprofitable state-owned enterprises. The largest state-owned company, Argentine Railways, suffers serious losses every year, and other state-owned companies are not competitive.

Saint-Hesse himself is also a beneficiary of the army's business system, and is more deeply aware of this situation.

Other countries such as Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru did not react much. Only the President of Colombia sent a congratulatory message to Andreazza.

Too many things happened in the world in 1958, and a small coup in Montevideo did not cause too many waves.

In this year, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg established an economic union, the Venezuelan people revolted, Egypt and Syria merged to form the United Arab Republic, Iraq and Syria merged to form a federation, Khrushchev continued to serve as the first leader of the Soviet Union, the United States sent troops to arm Lebanon, and the French Fifth Republic was established.

In this year, Argentina also ushered in a truly "democratic election." Saint-Hesse also cast his vote. Arturo Frondizi became the first elected president of Argentina in 12 years. The Intransigent Radical Civic Union became the ruling party of Argentina, and three major parties briefly appeared in the country: the Intransigent Radical Civic Union, the Justicialist Party, and the People's Radical Civic Union.

In this year, Saint-Hesse, as a senior official of La Pampa Province and the leader of the La Pampa Intransigent Radical Civic Union, sat on Argentina's ship that was about to sink, like a diligent ship repairer, doing patching work, with four million people of La Pampa Province standing behind him.

In this year, the amount of American investment in Argentina has increased from 230 million US dollars in 1955 to 570 million US dollars, an increase of more than double.

In 1958, Sequoia Capital invested 120 million US dollars in Argentina through various channels, second only to Standard Oil of California, and was jointly investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.

The American Blackwater Security Consulting, LLC in New York was jointly strangled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police Department. Fortunately, the Argentine personnel among them retreated to Toronto one step ahead of time. Edward and others have already sailed to Brazil to avoid the limelight. The current Blackwater Security Consulting, LLC is an empty shell, and most of the security personnel have been replaced by retired American soldiers, one-fifth of whom are disabled.

Following reports from relevant personnel, 17 factories of the American Enco Electric Group Company were sealed and searched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the grounds of violating national security matters. After the main personnel were reviewed, they also needed to pay a fine of 6 million US dollars, and all the factory buildings were confiscated by the United States Department of Defense, but no equipment and facilities related to atomic energy were found.

Sequoia Capital in the United States was issued an inquiry by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Companies such as Salomon Brothers, Goldman Sachs, First Boston, JP Morgan, Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers successively raised questions, and General Manager Seine was taken away.

Sequoia Investment Bank had snatched a lot of business from Merrill Lynch, but the apparent profits of the two companies were actually similar. Sequoia Investment Bank had an annual profit of $14.5 million, and Merrill Lynch had $12 million. Both were among the top players on Wall Street, second only to the large American financial groups.

The reason for Seine's detention was relatively simple. Sequoia had made nearly $130 million in profits in the securities market over the past few years (not including the $100 million earned by San Jose), with total assets exceeding $1.9 billion. Its existing total assets in the United States were $670 million, and overseas assets exceeded $900 million, which had seriously threatened the interests of Wall Street's major investment banks and large families.

Of course, Sequoia Investment Bank also had some allies, but their strength was not very strong. Moreover, Sequoia Capital was suspected of illegally transferring funds, but more importantly, its backing was not strong enough, and it earned too much, with a profit margin two to three times that of its peer investment companies. It also controlled hundreds of shell companies and thousands of accounts at home and abroad for money laundering activities.

Blackstone Capital, which was stronger in the dark, did not attract much attention. Since Blue Origin merged into Blackstone, Blackstone has been expanding like crazy, a true wolf capital. With the cooperation of Sequoia Capital on the outside, the profits in the dark are very exaggerated.

Blackstone Capital has partnered with Salomon Brothers and Lehman Brothers, and it is a truly ruthless character. Its profit margin is not too outrageous, and many gangs in New York have connections with Blackstone. This is a true 'Wolf of Wall Street,' and it also has some connections with some big figures in the U.S. Congress.

San Jose also knew that Sequoia was too eye-catching, not only in its overt business but also in many covert large investments that were terrifying. Sequoia established various investment portfolios, investing with the money of ordinary people and small families. Its total assets were far more than $1.6 billion. The fund portfolio established in '58 alone was worth $500 million, not to mention various private equity funds that were not offered to the public.

In New York, the speed of capital expansion is very fast. Even if San Jose intentionally restrained it, it could not stop the greed of capital and the snowballing effect of compound interest. Sequoia had at least a 70% success rate in its investments, and even among the other 30%, there was even 10% that was only in trouble in the short term. In the long run, the investment success rate was very alarming.

Moreover, Sequoia's investment portfolio was too complicated, and the possibility of a meltdown was very high. If it were really completely dismantled, it could also form a small financial crisis.

The value of the Japanese companies invested in just the past few years may be $1 billion. Some of these revenues must be distributed, which is unavoidable. But considering Argentina's poverty and fragile economy, San Jose inevitably transferred more, which was used as an excuse by Wall Street peers.

…

December 31, 1958. The weather was getting hotter and hotter. This day was the end of the year, and the height of summer in 1959 was approaching. For San Jose, the smell of money in the air was getting stronger and stronger.

The warm and humid monsoon from the Atlantic Ocean also began to land in Bahia Blanca, bringing a brief coolness, and the pollution in the air seemed to have decreased a lot.

The new annual work conference of La Pampa Province was also successfully held. In '58, La Pampa Province's industrial development was rapid, achieving a major breakthrough. More than a dozen major industrial projects were successfully put into production, and the number of large factories with an annual output value of more than one million U.S. dollars reached 20. The number of newly established commercial entities exceeded 10,000, with an average of more than 28 commercial entities established every day.

La Pampa Province once again carried out administrative division reforms, and various cities were further integrated. The power of the La Pampa Provincial Government was more concentrated, and the total population successfully exceeded 4 million, with Bahia Blanca and the three coastal cities growing the fastest.

In the past year, La Pampa Province has made great breakthroughs in electricity, industry, education, medical care, and infrastructure construction. The overall urban environment has been greatly developed. Several new universities have opened and enrolled students, 7 hospitals have opened simultaneously, and 14 new port terminals have started construction.

In the new year, La Pampa Province has formulated a huge development plan for industrial and economic growth of 20%, seizing the opportunity for trade-oriented development, with a total investment in industrial construction exceeding 300 million U.S. dollars.

This means that the La Pampa Provincial Government will borrow on a larger scale. Industry includes the construction of various heavyweight large-scale projects, with large investments in steel, petrochemicals, machinery, automobiles, shipbuilding, and port facilities, and the integration and construction of large state-owned factories.

In the past year, La Pampa Province has tried to break through foreign relations, and relations with Brazil, Uruguay, Italy, and France have been broken through, establishing consulates and obtaining international loans.

Now it is difficult for La Pampa Province to make major breakthroughs relying solely on San Jose's own resources. Therefore, leveraging and obtaining international loans is very important. There is no need to worry about having too much debt. Only by overdrafting the future can there be a brighter future. The Germans and Japanese relied on a large amount of debt construction and American support to achieve such ultra-high-speed development. Argentina does not have an American father, but it can rely on international relations. Now, the economies of various countries are recovering and expanding, and national savings are increasing, and some good investment returns are also needed. Now San Jose has a very good reputation.

If we don't develop during this period, it will definitely be more difficult in the future. Barron Bank and Plarrie International have signed treaties with 17 banks in Europe and Brazil, and the La Pampa Provincial Government will obtain more than 300 million U.S. dollars in industrial construction loans in the coming year.

Under the direction of San Jose, the Cohen Consortium established the Bahia Blanca Shipping Container Manufacturing Plant in the Lingang Industrial Zone, specializing in the production of steel containers for the rapid transportation of goods, to meet the great outbreak of trade.

The prototypes of containers in the world have already appeared in large numbers, but they are not very perfect. As Bahia Blanca's monthly import and export trade volume exceeds 15 million U.S. dollars, containers have become important, especially for Bahia Blanca traders who export various industrial finished products.

The current bulk carriers have too many shortcomings and are not conducive to the development of Sanhai Shipbuilding. San Jose instructed Sanhai Shipbuilding to develop container freighters in order to seize some market share in the fierce international competition.

The current labor costs for cargo transportation are high. Goods need to be loaded from the factory onto trains or trucks, transported from the train to the dock, loaded from the dock onto the ship, then unloaded from the ship onto trucks, and finally the trucks are sent to the customer's warehouse.

Ordinary bulk cargo ships have a relatively high transportation risk and are prone to problems, especially for goods exported to Europe. Bulk cargo ships have high production costs, and the problem of cargo damage occurs more frequently, which is not conducive to further expanding exports. The transportation cost in Bahia Blanca is relatively high, but the profit is still acceptable.

Of course, the most important thing is that the development of Argentina's steel industry is enough for San Jose to have surplus steel to produce containers. This is actually very important. Container production requires a lot of steel, and the technical problems are not that big.

With the development of local shipbuilding, automobile, military, chemical equipment, and agricultural machinery industries, Bahia Blanca's machinery industry has expanded to a certain level, and container production is no longer a big problem.

This is the benefit of developing industrialization. Even if you cannot produce a product, but you have the relevant industrial categories, you can quickly carry out project establishment, development, and production.

Just like San Jose once successfully mastered the accurate formula for food plastics, Argentina could not directly produce it at that time. The cost was high, or it could not be made at all, and it could not be mass-produced.

The soda bottles of Plarrie Foods can only be replaced with glass. Now that small state-owned glass factory has also successfully developed into a comprehensive glass production company. The glass for Reidon Motors is basically produced by Sean Glass Company. Sean Glass also owns the second most cement plants in Argentina, second only to Sedek Cement.

After San Jose inspected various container specifications and planned to transform the lifting capacity of the port's gantry cranes, as well as the production capacity of Cohen trucks, he designated the production of 20-foot and 40-foot containers as the main focus, and maintained the ability to develop 60-foot containers. This is the mainstream container specification in the future.

And these containers can also be quickly loaded, unloaded, and transported by trucks, improving the speed of cargo transit. In trade, speed is money.

Over the past year, the automotive industry has become an important pillar of Argentina's industrial economy. There are 16 production plants throughout the country, including 9 factories manufacturing sedans and light trucks, and 7 manufacturers of trucks and passenger vehicles. 35% of the sales points are located in the province of Buenos Aires, and 15% are in the province of La Pampa.

Argentina's total oil production has exceeded 2 million tons, making it one of South America's major oil producers. The newly emerging Southern Oil Company has contributed the most to this increase, with the successful exploration and construction of several large oil fields, allowing Southern Oil to truly develop.

Furthermore, negotiations between Standard Oil of California and the Presidential Palace indicate that American oil consortiums will enter Patagonia for oil exploration and extraction, placing significant pressure on Southern Oil.

Returning to the automotive industry, Argentina presents a tripartite structure, with the provinces of Córdoba, Buenos Aires, and La Pampa ranking in the top three.

La Pampa province is home to the production bases of Argentina's two domestic automobile manufacturers, as well as a truck manufacturer: Ditterlia Automotive Manufacturing and Leyton Motors, along with Cohen Heavy Industries Truck Manufacturing.

Among these, Leyton Motors is the largest. Although it only produces one model, the Fiat 600 series, its sales are remarkably high, making it the best-selling car in Argentina. This is because other foreign car companies only began constructing factories this year, and the Fiat 600 effectively seized the market opportunity during this interim period, reaping substantial profits.

The Ditterlia family's automotive factory has been under construction for a long time, but mass production is expected to start by the end of next year at the earliest. The first batch of cars will only amount to about 2,000 vehicles, but overall, the outlook seems promising. However, San Jose is not particularly optimistic about Ditterlia Motors' ability to compete with American automobiles.

The Cohen Truck project, with a total investment of 50 million US dollars, has completed mass production of its heavy-duty truck factory with an annual output of 12,000 vehicles. Production line debugging has been completed, and production ramp-up is underway. All components can be produced in-house, and this year's annual output value is expected to reach 100 million US dollars, creating at least 15,000 to 20,000 jobs.

Cohen Truck's key products are the 5-ton 5-truck and the 10-ton 10-heavy truck, with retail prices of 5,000 US dollars and 8,000 US dollars respectively. Loan agreements have been signed with the country's five major banks.

The Cohen Heavy Industries Truck project is now operating stably, having fully absorbed the technology of Steyr trucks. However, the current maximum load capacity of 10 tons is insufficient, considering that a single container easily starts at 18 tons. It can only be described as barely adequate.

Overloading is pointless and creates more problems, as the highway standards in La Pampa province are only average.

San Jose hopes that the Cohen Truck Manufacturing plant can develop a large heavy truck with a load capacity of 20 tons, based on container specifications, by combining technology purchased from Europe with in-house research and development. This highlights a problem: Argentina lacks talent.

Even though San Jose has built six new universities in Blanca City, talent is not like a crop. Argentina's automotive industry has not yet truly developed, and competitive pressure is already mounting. Numerous foreign car companies have signed agreements with the Presidential Palace. Córdoba and Buenos Aires are the two cities most favored by car factories. Although Blanca City has a large population, few major car manufacturers choose to build factories here.

Blanca City's automotive industry is largely cultivated by San Jose, at least for now. Buenos Aires is the political and power center of the country, and Córdoba is also the second largest power center in Argentina, the core of the military, the stronghold of the Blue Party, and has a good industrial base.

Blanca City is more like a nouveau riche, lacking established recognition. Despite its large population, foreign investors see it more as a large market. Its only advantages may be its population and steel industry, but steel costs do not account for a large portion of overall expenses, and they prefer to use imported steel.

Most importantly, there is a lag in information. Foreign car factories are entering the Argentine market around the time of Perón's downfall. At that time, Blanca City was at most a medium-sized city, far from the power circle. Apart from "foolish investors" like Sequoia Capital, there is very little foreign investment.

Foreign car companies only want to seize more market share and earn more profits, without considering helping you achieve industrialization.

Cohen brand trucks sell well in Argentina and are also exported in large quantities to countries such as Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Chile. These countries are also developing and building extensively, and Cohen brand trucks are more than half the price of American trucks, so sales are very impressive.

Compared to the Leyton Motors project, Cohen Truck is not particularly exaggerated, but it has indeed contributed to Argentina's automotive transportation industry. The large-scale and prolonged Argentine railway strike has caused significant problems in domestic transportation.

La Pampa province is currently constructing highways on a large scale. Although they are called highways, the maximum speed is only 80 kilometers per hour. Nevertheless, this speed still far exceeds that of backward steam locomotives. The roads connecting Blanca City to various cities have been basically completed, and these construction plans are being carried out simultaneously, with large amounts of loans being invested in highway construction.

The Blanca City Automotive Industrial Park has been renamed Leyton Automotive Industrial Park by San Jose and has expanded from less than 10,000 acres to over 30,000 acres, occupying almost one-seventh of the Calderón District.

The benefits are also astonishing. The number of workers in the entire Calderón District has exceeded 40,000, and the number of automotive supporting companies has exceeded 200, driving the development of a large number of factories. Ditterlia Motors has also benefited from this and hopes to obtain loans from banks to expand its scale.

Originally, considering transportation and development direction issues, the Automotive Industrial Park was located on the northern edge of the New Alta District, not along the coast, and the population was relatively small, but the location conditions were also good, adjacent to the Steel Avenue of the New Alta District.

After Alta District was divided into three, Leyton Motors was assigned to the Calderón District, which is the weakest economically, has the smallest population, and the largest area. Leyton Motors has become the largest industrial enterprise in the Calderón District, bound together with the district. The Calderón District has also become an automobile city, and the Cohen Heavy Industries Truck Factory has also been packaged together, with the automotive industry and the truck industry developing synergistically.

During the administrative division split, Alta District was not simply divided into three, as this could easily weaken the original development momentum and would not have much of a driving effect. During the administrative division adjustment of Alta District, the 5 towns in the outer two counties were also adjusted together and merged.

These 5 towns themselves each had a population of only a few hundred people and did not have much development potential. After reorganization, the three districts are all quite large in area, and the economy can also be driven to develop.

Saying that there is no potential is also relative. It is very suitable for developing agriculture, but most farmers have experienced more than ten years of economic turmoil, and most have gone bankrupt. The suburban pastures and land have mostly been acquired by agricultural companies, and the economy is a world apart from Blanca City.

In the past two years, Leyton Motors has continued to develop and grow, and the Fiat 600 has achieved continuous increases in both production and sales, expanding from a scale of 30,000 vehicles to 60,000 vehicles, vaguely reaching its limit.

Currently, driven by Leyton Motors, there are hundreds of surrounding companies providing parts, and Cohen Heavy Industries has thirty.

The Fiat 600 is a good car in the true sense of the word. It is fuel-efficient, has decent power, and the quality is not bad. The special steel production line of the Blanca Steel Plant supplies better raw materials than the original Italian version. Other aspects such as the glass factory and the engine production line have been optimized very well, and even some small optimizations can be made. It can already be said to be superior to the original version, and the price is affordable.

However, the benefits will eventually run out. Leyton Motors does not have research and development capabilities. Even though two car models were established early on, it is indeed a bit difficult. Later, with the help of Audi of Germany, there was progress.

A sense of crisis has always accompanied Leyton Motors. It seems to be a car factory, but in fact, it is just a localized distributor, deeply tied to Fiat Motors.

Ultimately, San Jose purchased more than 20 models of family cars from major global manufacturers at high prices, and conducted imitation in terms of fuel efficiency, lightweighting, and other aspects, and began testing.