Rise of the Argentine Empire

This time, the Saint Hesser team went to the southern provinces, not only on a ten-thousand-ton passenger ship, but also accompanied by three 2,000-ton coast guard ships refitted by the Blanca City Shipyard, responsible for protecting the safety of the Saint Hesser team.

This delegation was large-scale, a bit different from the trip to Cordoba Province, with not only a large-scale business group, but also the deputy positions and heads of departments of the 13 municipalities of La Pampa Province, seeking opportunities for cooperation and expansion.

Saint Hesser emphasized at the Viedma meeting that this was an important part of strengthening the overall civil service capacity building of La Pampa Province, strengthening external communication, and becoming the top leader of La Pampa Province required two important considerations: first, being responsible to the Radical Party and also to the people of La Pampa Province, and second, the requirement of ability, that is, having the ability to not only develop the economy well, but also drive regional development.

"In the future, the top leaders at the municipal level and the heads of provincial departments in La Pampa Province should appropriately exchange ideas within Argentina, and the heads of counties and districts and the heads of municipal departments should appropriately exchange cooperation within the province. La Pampa Province must learn to go out, even to foreign countries to study."

In addition to Saint Hesser himself wanting to move forward, he also wanted to build La Pampa Province into his talent reserve base.

The La Pampa Province team's southward trip to Patagonia was also to better win over officials from the southern provinces, whether for the next election, or to expand power, or even to develop the economy, it would be of great help.

Establishing a good trade cooperation relationship with Cordoba Province, the southern provinces are poor and weak, and also need a leading big brother. These small provinces do not have many people, and only need to develop the provincial government to develop easily. Rio Negro Province is a good demonstration.

Therefore, invitations from senior officials of Chubut Province and Santa Cruz Province also followed. The La Pampa Province team continued south to Rawson, a port city with a broad view.

The sea breeze was blowing, and on the sea, Saint Hesser stood steadily on the deck, with the surrounding three coast guard ships quietly guarding beside him, giving people a strong sense of security. The hull was painted gray, and the Argentine blue and white flag fluttered in the wind.

The La Pampa Province Coast Guard, affiliated with the La Pampa Defense Force, is responsible for coastal patrols in La Pampa Province, and is a new unit established by Saint Hesser.

Saying they are coast guard ships, they are actually just special thick decks, plus high-quality alloy steel produced by the special steel plant, and a few cannons, and that is a coast guard ship.

The coast guard ships were jointly designed and built by the Alta Military Repair Shipyard and the Sanha Shipyard in Blanca City. These coast guard ships were named Alta, Posca, and Medanos by Saint Hesser. They were copied by the Blanca City Shipyard after a large number of repairs and surveying of various types of warships in service at the Belgrano Port.

The cost of each coast guard ship is as high as 2 million US dollars, which is independently designed and developed by the Pampas Naval Research Institute, and a large number of elements are copied from the Fletcher-class destroyers sold by the United States to Argentina for design and manufacture.

Sanha Shipbuilding and the Blanca City Shipbuilding Design Institute only spent 3 months to complete all the surveying and design work. For Sanha Shipbuilding, which can build 50,000-ton or even 100,000-ton giant ships, it is not too difficult to handle a "quasi-warship".

The coast guard ships use 8,000-horsepower diesel engines produced by Argentina Diesel Company. This diesel engine is used on ten-thousand-ton giant ships, and after being改造, it is stuffed into this guard ship.

The Blanca Shipyard specially built a new dock in the Alta district, which is very close to the Belgrano Naval Port, and is specifically responsible for the research, design and manufacture of military ships.

The coast guard ships are equipped with 5 130mm naval guns and their fire control devices. The power and speed are still acceptable, and they have made great contributions in combating smuggling crimes.

The sound of the waves is not loud, and the late autumn is cool. It is the dry season, and there are not as many variable storms and tsunamis as in summer, but it is suitable for sailing at sea.

The coast is also calm, the sun is not big, and there is no pollution on the blue sea. Continuing to sail south, you can see the famous Falkland Islands, and even the Antarctic ice sheet.

The southern provinces of Argentina do not have many people, but the mineral resources, water conservancy and hydropower, and energy resources are extremely rich and have not been developed on a large scale.

The Colorado River and the Negro River are not of great navigation value due to the river flow and draft depth, but the upstream Andes Mountains are rich in hydropower resources, and the power generation value is still good.

The Pampas Canal, which is being vigorously promoted, is mainly for irrigation, industrial water and drinking water, and is not used for shipping. However, if the La Pampa Canal can be dredged and widened, and the economic development on both sides of the canal is good, it may not necessarily be used for shipping in the future.

It should be known that the ton-kilometer freight rate of inland river shipping is only 1/3 of that of railways and 1/7 of that of highways. The most valuable shipping in Argentina is still the Rio de la Plata in northern Argentina. The rivers in southern Argentina do not have good economic development on both sides and have few people, so the economic value is not great.

Moreover, if the relationship is good, it can be united around La Pampa Province. The status of Viedma and Rawson in Argentina is both medium to low.

Chubut Province is located in the central part of the Patagonian Plateau, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the east and Chile to the west. It covers an area of 225,000 square kilometers and has a population of only about 300,000, 100,000 less than Rio Negro Province, and the economy is relatively backward.

The provincial capital, Rawson, is a port city in southern Argentina, located at the mouth of the Chubut River, about 7 kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean, with a population of only 50,000, a typical small town.

Rawson was founded in 1865 and became the capital in 1900. It is a market for agricultural and livestock products such as wheat, feed, fruits and cattle, a fishing base, and has canning industries, etc.

Chubut Province is rich in resources, and the Cohen Consortium is also developing well here. The southern oil city, Comodoro Rivadavia, has better economic development, with a population of 80,000 and good oil exploitation development.

Saint Hesser reviewed some data from Chubut Province, and also hoped to help Southern Oil对抗 California Standard Oil and gain the support of Chubut Province.

He first visited Rawson and had cordial talks with senior officials from La Paz, signing more than 100 cooperation projects involving mineral exploitation, oil exploitation, oil smelting, and chemical raw material production.

The heads of Southern Oil Company and Thunder Mining have repeatedly reported to Saint Hesser that there may be super large oil fields in Chubut Province, so Saint Hesser is full of confidence in developing the oil fields in Chubut Province and building oil pipelines in advance.

The climate in Rawson is also much drier than in Blanca City, but the environment and air are very good.

Saint Hesser also consulted with senior official Juan Acosta in Rio Gallegos for two days, signing more than 50 cooperation projects and obtaining the support of senior official Acosta. The Juan family behind senior official Acosta has ruled Santa Cruz for more than 40 years.

Saint Hesser led several young military leaders to take a distant look at the Falkland Islands and began to set off north back to Blanca City.

The Falkland Islands are not a magical island, and they are not important to Argentina now. Instead, the economy is in trouble again.

The Argentine military is dissatisfied with the current presidential palace again.

He did not continue south to Tierra del Fuego further south, nor did he go to the highlands in the west. Saint Hesser estimated that it was similar to the Potassium Triangle, but the weather might be cooler.

This time, he went to the southern provinces to seek support, establish various cooperations, finalize treaties, and it would be best to win over more congressmen, and the signing of the Common Economic Treaty was also a major breakthrough.

There were almost non-stop negotiations and consultations. He was responsible for the overall direction control. Although his subordinates were responsible for specific business, it was also a huge challenge to Saint Hesser's physical and mental strength. Fortunately, everything was achieved without any danger.

For the same level of negotiation and cooperation, the main target this time is still the business group in Blanca City. There are also some business groups in other cities, but they are not large in scale, so not many came.

The business groups in Blanca City hoped to expand into a larger market through this southward journey, and also acquire the abundant resources of the south. Competition in the north with Buenos Aires, Cordoba, and Rosario was quite difficult, as each was backed by an army no less powerful than the La Pampa Defense Force.

La Pampa Province could not only develop foreign trade, but also needed to expand internal demand, as this was the foundation.

Moreover, there were many small incidents occurring in Blanca City, so he directly took a coast guard ship back first.

The coast guard ship was faster, while the remaining business negotiators continued to travel north on passenger ships.

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On the return journey, Saint-Jose also began to review official documents in the cabin. In 1958, La Pampa Province's financial surplus exceeded 24 million US dollars. Most of the state-owned factories that had been put into production had begun to make money and were turning over profits to the treasury, allowing the Provincial Government to obtain more development resources, basically a development leverage of more than ten times.

Among them, the consortium companies led by the Cohen Consortium created more than 17 million US dollars in tax revenue, state-owned companies in Blanca City created more than 12 million US dollars in tax revenue, state-owned companies in the province created more than 10 million US dollars in tax revenue, and turned over 10 million US dollars in profits. Other consortia and small and medium-sized commercial companies created tax revenue of 20 million US dollars, customs revenue sharing was 10 million US dollars, and other taxes exceeded 5 million US dollars.

Now, Blanca City was frantically breeding all kinds of problems every day, and even the prototype of a slum had appeared. Dirt, disorder, and poor conditions had already appeared in the urban area of Blanca City, while the population was still pouring in.

Driven by profit, violent crime was expanding. Human trafficking, flour trading, gun smuggling, underground brothels, and other forms of crime had emerged. Some street gangs had evolved into violent groups, illegally obtaining guns, robbing and killing people, the pink industry was developing on a large scale, and even slave trade and other problems had begun to appear in large numbers.

Many foreign workers in Blanca City became victims in search of better job opportunities, but were exploited and abused here.

These victims were often forced to work in factories where they could not obtain personal freedom, their travel was restricted, and sometimes they were not paid or were paid low wages, working like slaves.

Ships selling slaves at sea were deceived and sold like pigs and dogs, which was extremely terrible.

Saint-Jose's departure from Blanca City to the south this time also implied a bit of indulgence towards these criminal groups, and he also transferred the Defense Force away from its garrison to see how these guys would perform.

The huge increase in population had begun to drag down the city's industrial development. Saint-Jose had also been having a headache recently and was preparing to rectify and disperse the population of Blanca City, restore law and order, develop advanced industries, and focus on developing the three coastal cities.

There was no need for Blanca City to rush to a population of 4 million for the time being, otherwise it would develop into a city of crime like Rio de Janeiro in later generations, and there were already signs of this.

In addition to the automobile industry, the electronics and electrical industries and medicine and pharmaceuticals would also be key sectors supported by Blanca City.

In the automobile industry that Saint-Jose valued, in addition to several complete vehicle manufacturers, there were already more than two hundred auto parts factories. The automobile industry was becoming increasingly popular, and market demand was also very strong.

The automobile industry seemed to be full of gold everywhere. For a time, several large group giants in La Pampa Province wanted to enter the car manufacturing industry.

The automobile industry had a large output scale and a wide industrial chain driving effect, which could drive more than 100 upstream and downstream industries, thereby generating massive employment demand, promoting local infrastructure development, driving economic growth, and bringing a lot of tax revenue.

Therefore, the La Pampa Provincial Government issued various preferential policies and promulgated a series of relevant regulations on the development of the automobile industry, while also vigorously attracting domestic and foreign automobile companies, supporting new automobile factories, and was determined to compete with Cordoba and Buenos Aires for the top spot in the automobile industry.

Some truly powerful local consortia had already taken action, choosing to learn from Layton Motors, sending international inspection teams, and cooperating with foreign automobile companies. Argentina's local car industry technology was extremely weak. Saying it was manufacturing cars, in fact, the main components such as engines, chassis, and car frames all relied on foreign purchases.

In Argentina, only Ditellia Motors, San Martin Motors, and Layton Motors, the three local car factories, had a little research and development strength. San Martin Motors was backed by Argentina's largest fighter jet factory, Layton Motors was the richest, and Ditellia Motors also obtained a 15 million US dollar credit line from the three banks in La Pampa for technological research and development.

Ditellia Motors still had some strength, and Saint-Jose could not just watch it go bankrupt. He hoped to replicate the path of the rise of the Japanese and Korean automobile industries in later generations. The most important thing was to take the road of innovative development and create an Argentine national automobile brand, but foreign technology was also essential. Saint-Jose wanted to make the pie bigger.

Among the three newly established La Pampa Province automobile companies, cooperation was established with British Rover Automobile Company and Liley Automobile Company, and preliminary intentions were reached to introduce technology and some equipment to produce automobile parts and mini-cars in La Pampa Province. Applications were submitted to the La Pampa Province Automobile Industry Promotion Department to establish Rode Automobile Company, Hans Gratton Automobile Company, and Barut Automobile Company. Among foreign automobile companies, German Audi Automobile Company and French Citroen Automobile Company also planned to build automobile factories in Blanca City.

Rode Automobile was founded by Anderpes Rode, the founder of two famous companies in La Pampa Province—Barut Textile and Apparel Group and Northbell Chemical, who was already a famous entrepreneur with annual sales of more than 40 million US dollars. He had cooperated with Saint-Jose's Blue Cloud Textile Factory, and later consistently followed Saint-Jose's path of development, becoming a medium-sized company group involved in more than a dozen industries such as textiles, trade, steel, machinery, chemicals, and papermaking.

Rode truly rose to prominence by listing Northbell Chemical on the Argentine National Stock Exchange, raising a large amount of capital, and then acquiring Garcia Chemical, which was well-known in the daily chemical industry. Northbell Chemical thus became the third largest chemical group after Southern Petrochemical and Maya Chemical, with annual sales exceeding 24 million US dollars, and owning various factories for cosmetics, daily chemical products, and chemical raw materials.

A steel plant in Buenos Aires that was on the verge of bankruptcy turned losses into profits after a year of hard work, catching up with the surge in steel prices and accumulating a large amount of funds.

Recently, because it had blocked some people's wealth, assassination attempts against Saint-Jose had increased. Now, he must have a bodyguard army with him when he goes out.

Saint-Jose also discovered that the new immigrants not only brought population, but also brought various crimes, and even human trafficking, illegal detention, and possession of guns. He had no choice but to expand the authority of the Police Department again and protect his safety at all times.

On May 1, a demonstration of 100,000 people broke out in Buenos Aires, railway workers in Cordoba went on strike, and 50,000 workers in San Martin City organized a strike.

The Blanca City Police Department announced a week-long curfew in the city, and the underground of Blanca City quickly became turbulent. The army entered the city, intending to crack down on illegal and criminal activities.

Immediately afterwards, 60,000 people in Blanca City also organized a strike, traffic was paralyzed, factories were paralyzed, and Saint-Jose was facing severe challenges.

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