Rise of the Argentine Empire

Although the glass factory issue was only temporarily resolved, with the city government's attention, it's unlikely that Zhang Pusi would dare to make any further small moves. Moreover, with the large batch of new orders from Saint Hesser, Sean Glass Factory will at least not collapse in the short term, and its situation will gradually improve.

With the assistance of Sean Glass Factory in producing glass bottles, Plarri Company once again entered a stage of rapid development. Miranda soda began to be sold on a large scale nationwide, with inventories being cleared out and selling out. Production quickly climbed to a monthly output of 300,000 bottles, and the production line began operating at overload.

There's an urgent need for new and better production lines. The return of sales funds gave Saint Hesser confidence to renovate and purchase advanced fully automated production lines, contacting mechanical suppliers in Germany, Italy, and the United States to purchase production lines.

The purchase of updated glass bottle filling machines, and filling and capping units integrating filling and capping, led to a continuous increase in the number of production lines in operation. Raw materials also began to be purchased on a large scale, establishing stable cooperative relationships.

The entire month of August was spent expanding production scale.

The new factory area also rented the surrounding area and carried out renovation and expansion work, cementing the entire underground area with concrete. At the same time, they contacted Argentina's power group to increase power supply, finally expanding the production scale several times to meet the needs.

In August, the entire Plarri factory area achieved sales of 7.5 million pesos, a full doubling compared to July. The current exchange rate is still very strong compared to the US dollar, equivalent to a monthly sales of 150,000 US dollars, which is a considerable improvement. The one-cent-per-bottle Argentine domestic soda began to sweep Argentina.

Recently, the Argentine peso has shown signs of devaluation. According to memory, it should accelerate devaluation around the time the Perón government was ousted. The speed of devaluation will be too fast in the coming years.

Around 17 years after the normal era, this exchange rate number became 350. Argentina is also about to abolish the gold standard. The country's economy is in terrible shape. The economy will not only not grow, but also regress, which is outrageous.

Argentine presidents seem to like turning on the printing press, printing banknotes to repay debts. You are not the Americans.

Moreover, this government also likes to default on debts, impose high export tariffs, and mess around with everything. Saint Hesser is considering whether to exchange pesos for gold before the gold standard is abolished, as he can't withstand such severe inflation right now.

Among Plarri factory's products, soda sales have begun to account for the majority. Canned food is still a bit behind. Sugary soda is the future!

These past few months have been a time of frantic expansion. The weather is starting to change from winter to spring, and the number of people buying soda will increase many times over. Domestic cheap soda, with good taste, is loved by everyone.

Cross estimates that annual sales will double again by the end of the year, reaching monthly sales of over 300,000 US dollars. At the same time, they are continuing to purchase more automated equipment, and self-built factory buildings have also been incorporated into the new expansion plan. The original factory buildings converted from farms are no longer sufficient due to the expansion of sales.

The reorganization of the General Staff Department has entered deep water. The next step is to promote military reform, which is not something Saint Hesser can get involved in.

Not as busy as before, Saint Hesser also felt that there was little point in staying, so he prepared to temporarily leave the General Staff Department, study hard to prepare for the exam, and get into a good university.

So he went to Commander Xiao Thompson again, asked for a long vacation, and obtained an Argentine version of suspension without pay, on the grounds that he was preparing for the entrance exam.

Commander Xiao Thompson also agreed. After all, going to school is the right thing to do. Saint Hesser is still young. If his son were still alive, he would be seventeen or eighteen years old.

……

Time flies, and a few months have passed in a flash. Plarri Factory's sales exceeded 300,000 US dollars/month in December, expanded several more production lines, and also established a meat product canning production line and a milk production line. The factory workers also reached 2,000 people, becoming Cordoba's largest food company.

The plastic bottle production plant is also about to be capped. He is a bit disgusted with the current construction technology. It takes too long. Normally, this kind of small factory building can be built in two months, but this one took almost three or four months. When will Argentina become an infrastructure maniac? But this should not be seen in his lifetime, the population advantage is not enough.

But fortunately, there were no accidents, and it also came with a small wharf, which can communicate with the Atlantic route through river transportation and transport raw materials.

The rapid expansion of the food company and the expansion of the capital pool have also given Saint Hesser greater ambitions, to continue expanding food categories, exporting to Europe and Australia, and becoming Argentina's Nestlé.

Saint Hesser used 10,000 US dollars of original capital to leverage 3 million US dollars in sales, a full 30 times, and in just over half a year, he had 5 production workshops and 17 production lines, completing the initial primitive accumulation. As long as the plastic bottle factory is strong enough, it is not a problem to expand the production and sales scale by more than two times next year.

Cordoba Plarri Food Company has also become one of the city's leading star enterprises, allowing many people to find jobs, solving a large part of the unemployment problem, and also driving the development of glass factories, packaging factories, orchards, etc., which can be described as amazing.

After a simple review, Saint Hesser realized he was standing at the forefront of opportunity. His sales teams were spread throughout the country, and a variety of new beverages were being continuously developed by Saint Hesser's team. This food company from Cordoba had captured five percent of the national soda market share.

At the end of 1950, Argentina's economy was similar to Brazil's, around 5 billion US dollars, ranking 12th in the world. The United States was in first place with over 500 billion US dollars.

Following were the Soviet Union, Britain, Germany, India, France, China, Japan, Italy, Canada, and Brazil. At least in terms of this year's Gross National Product, Argentina was still considered a relatively strong country, with Brazil's economy only slightly better.

On this territory of three million square kilometers, lived over 15 million Argentinians. This year in Argentina was peaceful and prosperous.

Saint Hesser was just a small ripple in this tranquility, still diligently preparing for his exams. Prallari Company, after being established for more than half a year, had finally completed its initial capital accumulation.

Saint Hesser presided over the company's annual meeting and formulated the development plan for the next year. The plastic bottle packaging plant belonging to Prallari Company would go into production next year, with a target sales revenue of 10 million US dollars, aiming to become one of the largest food companies in the country, enter other food categories, and open a branch factory in the capital.

This year, the most powerful company in the world was General Motors in the United States, with an astonishing profit of over 800 million US dollars, as wealthy as a country.

His subordinates mostly thought Saint Hesser was boasting, but Saint Hesser knew that the markets in Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru were about to enter summer, which would be the real period of explosive growth. Of course, internationalization was still a long way off.

Cross and Lucien, who had performed the best, received the rewards they had been promised, and other employees received some bonuses to varying degrees.

A target of 20 million US dollars might even be too conservative. The factory needed to continue to expand so that more funds could be invested in other industries in the future, such as the steel industry, the mining industry, and the shipping industry.

Saint Hesser drew elites from the sales department to establish an intelligence and public relations department and began to increase the advertising budget for the next year. Advertising was the new direction for continued sales growth, and various new canning production lines also needed to be purchased.

Saint Hesser planned to build a new large-scale production base, as the existing cowshed farm could no longer meet the needs. He needed to continue to take on debt and loans to expand.

After arranging the company's development, Saint Hesser began to prepare for his exams.

......

With only three months left to prepare for the exams, and needing ample nutrition during the preparation period to support the consumption of a large amount of brainpower, a full-time chef was essential.

Saint Hesser first took a stroll around the market and then hired a full-time chef to be responsible for cooking. At Saint Hesser's request, the chef only made nutritious meals and rented a place not far from the library in the city to cook, preparing meals for Saint Hesser every day to avoid wasting too much time on eating and cooking.

Work reports were also changed to once a week to save time.

He entered a comprehensive review phase, studying intensely every day, truly oblivious to what was happening outside.

The location of the first round of exams was the National University of Cordoba, which was not far from Saint Hesser's residence.

This exam did not require going to another city; he went directly to take the exam every day.

Coming to the inside of the National University of Cordoba for the first time, the environment was quite good. This was a university with a long history, with a tense exam atmosphere and a large number of people.

It was originally the first national university in Argentina, much older than the University of Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, Cordoba's economy was far inferior to that of the capital, lagging behind by at least seven or eight times in both economy and population.

Most of the people in the examination hall were about the same age as Saint Hesser, but most were much younger, sixteen or seventeen years old, in the prime of their youth.

The written test was scheduled for December 28th. Argentina was quickly transitioning from spring to summer, and it was becoming somewhat stuffy and hot. The sun in the sky was also becoming scorching.

The exam would last for two consecutive days. There was no air conditioning in the exam classroom, only two old-fashioned electric fans that rotated like old oxen when turned on, bringing a trace of cool breeze to dispel some of the stuffiness.

The entire classroom in Saint Hesser's exam hall had thirty or forty people, divided by major. The exam hall was relatively quiet, with only the rustling sound of people doing the questions and writing.

The subjects for this exam were social science subjects, divided into short answer questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, and multiple-choice questions. The difficulty was not high, and they were easy to understand at a glance.

The math questions were somewhat more difficult, mostly at the level of a third-year junior high school student. Saint Hesser calmly and composedly completed them.

Saint Hesser stayed at his own home for both days, even going back to take a nap at noon.

He continued to sharpen his weapon the night before the exam. After two days of exams, it was not bad, and his performance in the exam hall was relatively stable, but it consumed a lot of brain cells.

The difficulty of the questions for this professional exam was not high. They were basically questions that had been practiced and done before. He made full use of his expertise in the essay, writing it to the fullest extent and putting forward many theories and viewpoints.

Keeping up with current affairs, it must be said that Argentina's universities are still very informative, although the number of universities is small.

Saint Hesser also worked hard to answer the questions. When he walked out of the exam hall, he breathed a sigh of relief. Some people were wiping away tears and crying bitterly, while others were sighing.

Saint Hesser had a good attitude. In his previous life, he had experienced the college entrance examination, postgraduate entrance examination, CET-4 and CET-6, and the national civil service examination, so he didn't find it too difficult.

This was a guaranteed school, and the difficulty was not very high. He basically had time to spare after finishing the questions. It was just that there would be an interview at that time. The University of Buenos Aires was the most competitive.

He would have to take a two-day and two-night train to the university in the capital to take the exam, but there was still plenty of time, with the exam taking place six days later. However, he couldn't bring the chef this time. Fortunately, the food in the hotels in the capital was much better than in Cordoba.

He needed to arrive in the capital a day or two in advance and had already asked the sales department in the capital to book a hotel and wait to pick him up after he got off the train.

After the exam, he had to eat something good and have a good rest. He still had to arrange some work in the next few days.