Rise of the Argentine Empire

Because unloading was already finished in the evening, and driving late at night didn't feel safe, José stayed in Maria Town, receiving a warm welcome from the town's mayor.

He hadn't really noticed it the previous two times he'd been here, but this town was actually quite large for Argentina. It even had a small airfield. It was also relatively far from the center of Córdoba Province, with a small local population, and the town was already in decline, making it perfect for making things happen.

Besides the flour mill, there were also a few small factories in the town, like a cement factory. Outside the town, there seemed to be a dynamite factory and a cannery.

José was somewhat interested in the cannery, after all, canned goods were his first step in accumulating initial capital, although the sales of canned goods were now far behind those of the soda factory.

Initially, they didn't have their own mold factory, so José had to personally handle the debugging at that time. The bottle molds currently in production were still designed and debugged by José himself. Well, he provided the drawings. These injection molding machines were custom-made production equipment jointly from General Electric and Siemens of Germany, and it took half a year to successfully put them into production after transporting them back and debugging the parameters.

The plastic bottle production innovatively adopted a brand-new, custom-made 'two-step' bottle blowing equipment, which allowed the production of plastic bottles to increase rapidly, while the unit production price dropped rapidly. Moreover, with the current low price of oil, the cost of plastic bottles was already far lower than that of glass bottles purchased from outside.

José's salesmen opened up the market by wooing local forces. Of course, the domestic market in Argentina was still very small, after all, it couldn't even compare to a single city in New China in later generations.

Currently, soda has begun to be exported to the two neighboring countries, Paraguay and Uruguay. Brazil will be the next important market. Little Nick in the capital is doing well, while Cross's nephew, Lucifer, has contributed greatly to developing the local market.

Give them profit sharing, establish local joint ventures, and at the same time, transfer the funds to the bank as soon as the money is received, exchange it for US dollar foreign exchange, and then invest in the US stock market, or purchase various production equipment in large quantities in the United States, transport it back to the country, and carry out international operations. At least for now, it is doing well.

The production efficiency and process waste of Sean's state-owned glass factory are relatively large, so the cost is relatively high, which affects profit output. José is already considering whether to merge with this glass factory.

Looking at the injection molding machines, more than fifty in total, producing plastic bottles day and night, José's heart was also full of excitement. This is the charm of industrialization, and these factories are all profitable, paying taxes on time every month.

And in the Maria Wharf warehouse, among the hundred containers, there are mechanical processing equipment for José's next plan. In the future, he won't have to spend a lot of money to purchase other people's machines. He will produce his own mechanical equipment, paving the way for future independent development.

In order to cultivate talents, José even wants to establish an industrial college to train talents. Now there is not much money on hand, and the investment in building a university is too large, so he can only give up for the time being. Now it's just a small fight.

José spent the whole day wandering around the town with Mayor Cavo, eating and drinking at the mayor's house. He also met the mayor's wife, who was in her 40s, holding a little girl, probably only three or four years old. The mayor's house was also quite large, a two-story building with a separate courtyard.

Then, after dinner, the two returned to the office in the town hall, and the relationship became closer and closer.

"Brother José, the development of our Maria Town is getting better and better. It's really all thanks to you," Mayor Cavo said with some emotion after taking a turn around.

At the beginning, the city selected three towns to support this new chemical plant with loans. Maria Town was the farthest away, the land was not the cheapest, and there were not even a few workers. He didn't even know why José chose Maria Town. At that time, he was not sure whether José would choose the town 140 kilometers away, instead of the satellite town of Ke City, and the plateau mountain town with a cooler climate.

Maria Town was already a small city that was beginning to age. Most of those who left the town went to Cordoba, and those who went further went to Buenos Aires. It was already declining visibly, but after the arrival of the Maria Plastic Chemical Plant.

Thinking back to when he first took over Maria Town, there were only seven or eight factories in the whole town, and there were less than two hundred workers. Things like mechanical equipment, new wharves, and main roads, there was none of that.

When I went to the province to attend a meeting, I went to ask the senior officials of the parliamentary finance bureau for appropriations. I am also a dignified, democratically elected mayor, so I can't even have appropriations, right! I wanted to improve the town's facilities. Guess what the senior officials said, there is no money, the national treasury is very empty, you can have my life, but it was no use.

As a result, José came with a loan, with a million US dollars. In less than 300 days, Maria Town had everything, main roads, new ports, beautiful big factories, and new factories were about to start up.

The number of workers in the town was increasing rapidly, their wallets were bulging, taxes were also increasing, and the number of people in the town was increasing. With a solid family background, Mayor Cavo felt that his back was straightened. Without this family background, I would dare to compare family background with the mayor of San Francisco, Cruz, at the end of this year, dream on.

"Brother Cavo, you are too polite. This matter is a win-win situation. Our factory has also received too much help from the town. It is right for us to repay the town."

José really felt that he had only done a trivial thing. No one gets up early without profit. The future of Maria Town is quite bright.

Maria Town has a cement factory, and José will definitely give priority to using it. There is river sand in the Tercero River, which can also be used to dredge the river, supporting the town's declining industries such as sand brick factories and quarries.

If Maria Town didn't have a steel factory, José wouldn't use rebar from outside. The construction of the Maria Petrochemical Plastic Factory has driven the development of the entire town.

This year, due to the drought in Argentina, wheat production has been greatly reduced, and there are also fewer cattle. Wheat also needs to be imported from Brazil, and pastures have been severely hit. Many farmers have lost their jobs. If it weren't for the construction of the petrochemical factory, and a large number of people being recruited after the construction, Maria Town would definitely go bankrupt. I heard that many small towns in Cordoba Province have gone bankrupt.

It must be said that the arrival of the chemical plastics factory this year has driven the employment of thousands of people. Saint Hesser is also preparing for a new soda factory, a mechanical equipment factory, repairing the pier, and building and renovating roads, all of which prioritize local people. The large-scale infrastructure construction in Maria Town has indeed strongly promoted the development of Maria Town.

Problems such as eating, medical care, and the education of children of foreign workers have also revitalized local restaurants, hospitals, and schools.

The town's tertiary industry has also developed along with it, such as restaurants. Moreover, Saint Hesser has been constantly stuffing factories into the industrial park, and construction has never stopped. The town's unemployment rate has dropped to a new low.

Mayor Cavo is indeed very grateful to Saint Hesser. Mayor Cavo knows that his ability is relatively ordinary. Now Maria Town can take the lead in the overall development of Cordoba Province in the regressive year of '51. Saint Hesser's contribution is indispensable.

In the two months since the chemical plant was put into operation, the monthly tax revenue of the chemical plant has exceeded the total commercial tax of the previous year, allowing the mayor's public support rate to exceed 80%, which is quite impressive.

The two were drinking tea and chatting in the mayor's office. Mayor Cavo now basically listens to Saint Hesser. As long as Saint Hesser makes a request, he will try his best to satisfy and agree. Whoever dares to disagree with Saint Hesser is disagreeing with him, Cavo!

This is the God of Wealth of Maria Town, and he must be enshrined. Moreover, Saint Hesser has no intention of interfering in the town's official affairs.

If the mayor had only had three sons and his daughter was only three years old, he would have even wanted Saint Hesser to be his son-in-law to win him over.

Mayor Cavo became more and more satisfied with Saint Hesser. Saint Hesser also occasionally bragged about some urban development views, making the mayor extremely admire Saint Hesser's knowledge and ability.

"Saint Hesser, little brother, I wonder if you are interested in taking over our town's explosives factory?" Mayor Cavo hesitated again and again, but still said it. This was also a hard-won opportunity.

"Explosives... factory, is that the kind that makes explosives?" Saint Hesser was a little surprised. It seemed that this explosives factory was developing well and would not lose money at all.

"Yes, the director of the Rhein Explosives Factory resigned more than a month ago, and the factory is now in chaos. I don't have the energy or time to manage this factory, and the equipment in this factory is relatively old. If you are willing to take over, you can get a two-year tax exemption... This is the information and report of the explosives factory. You can take a look." Saint Hesser hesitated for a moment, took it over, and flipped through it casually.

Saint Hesser knew nothing about things like explosives factories and didn't seem very interested. He braced himself and continued reading. The explosives factory currently has 13 workers, most of whom are elderly people in their fifties and sixties.

This small factory mainly produces civilian explosives, TNT explosives and TNT black explosives.

It doesn't lose money every year, but it doesn't make much money either. Last year, the factory's total turnover was 8 million pesos, about 160,000 US dollars, and the profit was 10,000 US dollars, which is actually quite considerable. However, due to equipment and other problems, it has been unable to purchase new equipment. The town's finances cannot allow the explosives factory to continue to expand. The market and talent are scarce, making it a dispensable asset.

This is also the reason why the mayor wants to sell the explosives factory or transfer it to Saint Hesser at a low price. Saint Hesser has money, people, and connections. As long as the explosives factory is still within the scope of Maria Town, it will only develop better in Saint Hesser's hands.

In fact, he was not very interested in developing an explosives factory, but when he saw that this explosives factory actually had military product production qualifications, he immediately planned to buy the explosives factory.

What Saint Hesser likes are light weapons production lines, artillery production lines, shoulder-launched rocket production lines, and even tank production lines.

But he didn't know how to start. He could only import from abroad. He didn't have a research and development team himself. He purchased a lot of mechanical processing equipment from the United States. This company called Rhein Explosives Factory happened to be a godsend. He had to take it down.

Saint Hesser said embarrassedly, "Mr. Mayor, this explosives factory seems to have many problems..."

He used honorifics, which startled Cavo.

"As long as our town can help, we will definitely help. Within my ability, I will definitely help," Mayor Cavo quickly added when he saw there was hope.

The Rhein Explosives Factory is not in the town area, but in a valley outside the town, 15 kilometers away from the town area. It is also very troublesome for workers to commute to and from work every day. It used to have its own saltpeter mine, but the mine is very small. Now it needs to purchase raw materials from other places. This is also one of the reasons why the previous factory director ran away. It is quite desolate and empty. They only go home on weekends, the salary is not good, and explosives are dangerous goods.

"How about this, Mr. Mayor, I need to take all the land around Rhein Explosives together for expansion and renovation in the future. If that doesn't work, I'll forget it. After all, it's a thankless task," he pretended to complain, but he was actually quite excited, but he didn't show it.

"Absolutely no problem, as long as you can keep all the workers, I will coordinate other things."

"Okay, then I promise, I will take over this factory," Saint Hesser said, pretending to be reluctant.

"Thank you so much, I should award you the medal and certificate of honorary citizen. I will announce this good news to the citizens of Maria Town tomorrow..., Saint Hesser, little brother," Mayor Cavo was quite excited and moved, and began to address Saint Hesser as a brother.

Mayor Cavo's family was actually a small and powerful planting landlord family in Argentina, but now the family has been in decline for a long time. The forces in Cordoba Province are intricate and mysterious. Saint Hesser, who has embraced the thigh, has also begun to transfer factory forces, away from the center of the storm. In a few years, the Peron government will step down, the national finances will go bankrupt, and Cordoba City will be one of the important forces for the military government to change the stage. Saint Hesser has also begun to prepare for his future, to do something big.

This time, being able to win over Mayor Cavo is not only because Saint Hesser is now one of the emerging powerful factory consortium representatives in Cordoba City, eating the last national loan from the Peron government, and thus developing and growing.

It is also related to the fact that Saint Hesser is a spokesperson for Commander Little Thompson. Commander Little Thompson withstood the pressure from the Ministry of National Defense and protected Saint Hesser in the process of encircling and suppressing the Byrd Brotherhood, which also showed strong strength.

This time, he has successfully established a firm foothold in Maria Town. The next step is to start raising funds to transform and upgrade the Rhein Explosives Factory into a light weapons arsenal, and consider going to Europe, the United States, or the Soviet Union to buy several light weapons production lines to provide firearms, weapons and ammunition for the Cordoba National Defense Forces.