Rise of the Argentine Empire

Saint Hethar became more and more excited as he read the economic books written by Professor Colin Das.

This deep love and strong patriotism made him very appreciative.

But there was still a problem, which was the collective farm, which seemed to be the solution to Argentina's population development, but Argentina was not a socialist country, and it was impossible to follow this path under the eyes of the United States, and even showing a little of this tendency was a crime, Saint Hethar was very ashamed.

After all, he only had one head, and he was not a lucky son like Castro, he had to have a safe disguise, and when his strength was not strong enough, he had to develop first.

This was the best choice. Now the biggest target in Argentina was President Perón. This person could not fall down for the time being. Although he had many problems, if he really fell, it would be a chaotic situation, and he would be powerless to save it.

And the concept of collective farms had been swirling in his brain, taking off.

Why not find a team to design a collective farm and carry out an Argentine version of the transformation?

Although there was now an Indian tribe helping him grow tobacco, it was only a small-scale planting of tobacco leaves centered on the cigarette factory, and the area was not large.

His ambition was not something that one or two acres of land could handle. His goal was to carry out a brand-new Argentine land reform experiment.

The more he understood this country, the more he realized that Argentina's land policy was shocking, and it was full of cannibalistic feelings everywhere. Argentine farmers fled the farmland cultivated by the land nobles and came to Buenos Aires, from one dark pit to another relatively less dark pit.

However, 90% of the people who came to the slums could not find a job and relied on state relief.

They completely lacked the spirit of ordinary Argentine civilians, giving people a lifeless feeling, like salted fish, already resigned to their fate, and the Pope became their last refuge.

Even the residents of the Buenos Aires slums who did not have jobs no longer loved to have children, which was truly unaffordable, unlike Saint Hethar's first neighbor in Córdoba, who could afford to raise children even with a simple job. This was complete and utter despair, despair with no room for development.

Although some people could find pleasure in suffering and paint some tin houses with bright colors, and some poor children were playing football and developing music careers,

When Saint Hethar was conducting research in the slums, most of the time, he could only see the numbness, pain, and despair in their eyes, their eyes were dull and lifeless, without any hope for the future, and people died helplessly every day, and were sent to the soil in the suburbs to be buried.

Argentine farmers rented land at home to grow crops for the land nobles. They had no money and no freedom, but in Buenos Aires, at least they had freedom, of course, it was just a pathetic freedom.

This was a big problem. It was better to let them return to the farms, real modern farms, farms with development and prospects.

Then, were the people who stayed in the northern provinces of Argentina better off? They were also not well off. This backward feudal colonial land noble system allowed them to arbitrarily deprive Argentine farmers of all their labor results.

Now the Perón presidential palace was also suppressing the purchase price, which was even worse, the last straw. This was still good. In neighboring Uruguay, the price of farmland rental increased three times in 10 years, and their capital, Montevideo, was even more unbearable than Buenos Aires.

… …

Put on this skin, then get rid of a few land nobles, and then recruit some peasant families to become farm workers under the company, hiring a village at a time, and all joining the agricultural company.

And the tobacco planting area was the first industrial farm of the agricultural company, the farm manor for Saint Hethar to grow tobacco.

This also conformed to the temperament of capitalists, at least they would not openly oppose it, and could occupy the high ground of public opinion.

As long as this was done successfully, it could be promoted more. As for how much money could be earned, that was secondary. This investment was not for making money.

In Saint Hethar's view, it was normal to lose money with large initial investments. If it was done well in the later stage, it would be no problem to break even.

Moreover, this farm would be a catfish stirring up the stagnant Argentine grain planting industry.

When Saint Hethar had not left the province of Córdoba and Buenos Aires, he had always thought that all the farmland planting in Argentina was the same as that around Córdoba and Maria Town.

However, when he arrived at the Lithium Triangle, he realized that this illusion was ridiculously wrong. Córdoba could already be regarded as the most advanced agricultural and animal husbandry production method in Argentina. These small and medium-sized farmers and ranchers were willing to purchase some new equipment and were also willing to invest in drilling wells to save themselves, although the provincial government of Córdoba also had support for this reason.

But other northern provinces still relied on manual planting and harvesting, and did not even use chemical fertilizers, although Argentina did not even have its own fertilizer factory.

In addition to importing bird droppings and saltpeter from Peru and Chile at the beginning, the Red Cedar Fertilizer Factory simply used inferior organic manure to fool people. The family of Sean, the former director of the explosives factory, had been cheated.

Such wealthy land nobles were even reluctant to use chemical fertilizers, unwilling to purchase agricultural machinery, and refused to adopt modern agricultural production methods. Their only demand was to continuously expand their land scale. This was the parasitic class of Argentina.

Moreover, there was another reason for Saint Hethar's entry into agriculture, which was the problem of the Rein Arms Factory and the Light Industrial Equipment Factory.

The firearms developed here and in the research institute had not been profitable for a long time, and the Ministry of National Defense bidding meeting had been delayed again. These were the only two factories with uneconomical input and output. Even if they had firearms production capacity in the future, it would be very uneconomical, so they had to re-develop new profit points, otherwise Saint Hethar would have to close them.

And developing his own industrial farm and getting some simple agricultural machinery and equipment was not too much, like hand-held tractors, agricultural motorcycles, seeders, and simple harvesters, which were relatively common and much simpler than producing cars. In his previous life, he remembered that the development of agricultural machinery groups such as Shifeng and Wuzheng was also quite amazing.

And Japan had a lot of motorcycle technology and small tractor production lines, and the difficulty of introduction was also very low. As long as the subsequent research and development kept up, fuel-saving tractors and fuel-efficient motorcycles could seize the opportunity in the face of the oil crisis in the 1970s and 1980s.

There were also electric vehicles, which had simpler technology. ABS plastic + simple steel + tires could be used to make the electric vehicle shell.

Assembling it was much simpler than fuel motorcycles,

Saint Hethar even had the idea of simply finding engineers to develop electric vehicles, but he felt that his awareness was a little too advanced. To make electric vehicles, the most important thing was to develop lead-acid batteries. This research and development difficulty was not too great, and it was much easier than lithium batteries.

Saint Hethar was very clear about the principles, various raw materials, and difficulties of lead-acid batteries, and he only needed to research and verify them step by step, but now was not the time, and he had to eat one bite at a time.

It was time for the Rein Machinery Factory to invest further. It had no future to only make firearms. It was the right way to build a tractor factory and a motorcycle factory.

And the first step was to transfer Philip to Buenos Aires and establish a heavy machinery factory to become the third machinery factory besides the Rein Arms Factory and the Maria Light Equipment Factory.

“I am Saint Hethar Cohen, connect me to Philip.”

“Boss, hello, is there anything urgent?”

“I have some things to arrange, please take note,

First, hand over the position of director of the explosives factory to Sean, and at the same time tell him that the position of director of the fertilizer factory is still his, and I will continue to add investment. The fertilizer factory will be independent in the future,

The second thing is that you should go to Buenos Aires as soon as possible,

Then hand over the work of the light industrial equipment factory to Deputy Director Dexinna Code. I will have the personnel center issue a formal transfer notice at the end of the month. This time, I will take you to do big things. By the way, you bring a few mechanical engineers over. Okay, I have finished speaking.”

“There is nothing else, so let’s do this for now.” Saint Hethar hung up the phone.

“Beep beep beep…” Philip was a little confused.

“Boss, you really have more and more presence… But if the boss wants to do big things, we definitely have to obey. These past two months, it's been either explosives or producing bottle caps, constantly repairing and patching things up. Even though the salary is so high, it's just too boring.”

Saint Hérissé knows everything about María Town. Since Sean's last reprimand, he's been determined to change and has improved a lot. He's also been extra diligent with the fertilizer and explosives factories, going above and beyond his job description. Saint Hérissé has noticed this, so he gave him another chance.

The development of María Town has been relatively slow these past two months, but it's been stable. A lot of entertainment and sports facilities have been built. Philip's abilities are obvious to all.

He's done a great job, and the heavy machinery factory needs someone with his management and engineering skills. The Rein Research Institute actually has a lot of mechanical talent, like Cicero and his team who study internal combustion engines, but they don't understand management.

So, the new heavy machinery factory needs someone who can keep things in order. Philip's performance has been consistently good, so he'll be the new factory director, and he'll also be the head of all three machinery factories.

…

At Philip's house in María Town,

Sean and Philip are chatting after work.

They're drinking soda produced by the new soda factory, and the taste is pretty good.

This is a small perk for the María Town management team.

“Sean, this time the boss has put the fertilizer and explosives factories back in your hands. You can't be as frivolous and reckless as before. You can see that the boss still values you very much. I'm going to the capital to help the boss with the big stuff.”

Philip also has some guesses, like maybe it's heavy machinery equipment, perhaps excavators or bulldozers?

The boss didn't say it explicitly, but it's obvious that this time the boss is very confident and even more imposing.

“I really didn't think enough about things before. This time I will definitely do better. I believe that no one in Argentina is more capable of investing in fertilizer than the boss. And the boss really is a very good boss. I have to stick with the boss from now on.”

Sean is also very emotional. Although he's only been working in María Town for less than a year, he's already seen the boss transform from relatively naive

to the kind of superior he is now. And this Cohen boss is generous enough, with enough tolerance and patience. As long as you can do your job well, Saint Hérissé is very generous.

“María Town is also developing better and better. Even I want to settle down here. You can do big things with the boss. I'm still young, and I want to burn brightly, otherwise it would be a waste to come here for a lifetime.”

Philip is not yet forty years old, and is in the prime of his life. Just muddling along is not his style. He doesn't lack money in Rosario. It could even be said that the money his family makes from rent every month is enough to support him.

But the feeling of emptiness and depression from not being able to find a job after many factories in Rosario closed down and laid off workers still lingers in his mind. He stayed at home for more than a year doing nothing.

He couldn't stand it himself, and went to those machinery factories every month to see if they were hiring, until Lucien recruited people in front of the factory, and he applied for the position of director of the María Mold Factory before slowly coming out of it.

“To be honest, working in the light industrial equipment factory, all I do every day is make bottle caps or manage machines for beer and beverage factories. This can be solved by a production supervisor. It really is quite boring. I hope this time, the boss can do something different.”

“Haha, everything the boss does is not simple. You didn't know it at the time, but our explosives factory was about to close down. Mayor Covo insisted on giving it to the boss.

The boss's first thing was to make fireworks, oh no, he made a mortar. I still clearly remember that day, the boss had someone carry a wooden box out of the car. I was almost scared silly. Then there was paying wages, making fireworks, and holding a fireworks display, which immediately revived the factory.”

Sean recalled that at that time, the boss was young, very bold, and very capable.

“Interesting, interesting. Now you don't know, our Rein Company, doesn't it have a gun factory? The reports sent over show that the investment is very large every month, and there are many finished products produced. Maybe the boss plans to be an arms dealer, haha.”

“Yes, the boss is really amazing. The entire María Town is developing really well now. This year, María Town's production and tax revenue in the entire Córdoba Province is estimated to exceed the third place by a lot. I heard that the boss will continue to expand the factory.”

“Philip, if you work hard with the boss, you will definitely be able to realize your dreams.”

“I wonder if I can see Argentina produce its own cars while I'm still alive. That's been my dream all along.”

Philip has a dream to work for Argentina's own car factory, but unfortunately, he can only dream about it.

“Our country's development is really ridiculously behind now. I heard that many small countries in Europe have surpassed us.”

“Yes, these times are really too difficult.”

…

When Saint Hérissé was arranging the selection of the heavy machinery factory,

he and Cicero successively looked for many professors and students in the engineering and mechanical engineering departments, which made Cicero very excited.

“Cohen, oh no, I'll call you boss from now on. Are you really planning to work on internal combustion engines? Produce motorcycles? This investment is not small.”

“Yes, I'm really investing. I plan to introduce technology and production lines from Japan's Honda Motor Company.”

Saint Hérissé said seriously that now Japan is producing materials for the Americans. If I remember correctly, the new Honda was only established a few years ago and needs investment. If I can buy some shares and cooperate, it will be much more convenient when Honda develops in the future.

“Honda Motor Company? I haven't heard of it. I know about Japan, but they are a defeated country. Will the investment go down the drain? The Americans are suppressing them very seriously.”

“Your news is outdated. After the start of the Korean War, the Japanese have come back to life. Their country's future is much better than ours. Are you interested in going to investigate together? I will arrange an investment cooperation team.”

“I'll discuss it with my teacher. Now going to Japan can only be done by boat, and the time spent on the road is a bit long. The difficulty is estimated to be quite high.”

Cicero really wanted to go and see, but he felt that the two months of travel time back and forth was not worth it. Japan can be said to be on the opposite side of the earth from Argentina. It's too far. There are no transoceanic air routes now.

“Yes, now there is no direct flight to Australia. Aerolíneas Argentinas' DC-4 only has routes to Santiago, Lima, Santa Cruz, and São Paulo. Only President Perón and the First Lady's special plane can fly to Europe.”

“Now going to Europe and the United States is by boat. I don't know when I can take a plane. It takes too long and is tiring to travel by boat.”

Now companies like Boeing and McDonnell Douglas do not have jet airliners in service. There is a company called De Havilland that I have never heard of.

Saint Hérissé finally remembered Saine in the United States at this time,

planning to have Philip and Saine go to Tokyo in two ways, and then meet, to find investment opportunities. If they can't invest, they will cooperate to purchase production lines. The two main goals are Honda's motorcycle technology and Kubota Agricultural Machinery Factory. These are the main goals.

He thought that there should be many Japanese investment opportunities now. He has already written down the names of many famous Japanese companies. The investment does not require too high a share. 10% is enough. As long as there are enough US dollars, clear out some of the US stocks, and there will be money. Moreover, Saint Hérissé has saved a lot of US dollar foreign exchange in the past six months.

There is no need for any management rights. Just invest to earn some profits. Investing in the name of the American Redwood Investment Company will definitely greatly reduce resistance.

This is the first step of the plan. The second step of the plan is still the Argentine farm plan.

It is also necessary to recruit some agricultural experts and talents in the city to formulate the goals and methods for developing the farm.

Advertise in his own 《New Argentina Daily》 and plan to formulate some preliminary industrial farm development plans.

Create his own Argentine version of the industrial farm, and add bricks and tiles to Argentina's population cause. There is strength in numbers.