Rise of the Argentine Empire

During a conversation, Saint Hetherton said to the researchers at the La Pampa Petrochemical Research Institute: "Currently, our country mainly relies on introducing foreign technology to achieve economic development. In the short term, this is a shortcut to accelerate development, but in the long term, relying solely on introduction is not feasible."

"This will widen the technological gap between us and foreign countries, locking us in the low end of the industrial division of labor for a long time."

"Key core technologies cannot be bought; we still have to rely on ourselves. This is also why I am determined to establish the La Pampa Petrochemical Research Institute."

This simple conversation also pointed out the predicament facing Argentina. Will Argentina forever be a follower, or will it attempt a technological breakthrough? The latter is obviously more difficult. The world is now divided into two superpowers: the Anglo-Saxon British and Americans, and the Soviet Union. The rest of the Third World is poor and backward. Only New China has the posture of a strong country and has now begun industrialization. Although Western Europe relies on the Coal and Steel Community, the European Union still has to wait decades; it is still in confrontation now.

Of course, for Argentina to think about independent research and development now is almost as difficult as ascending to heaven. It not only lacks a foundation but also lacks talent.

Saint Hetherton also seized the opportunity of Europe's incomplete economic stability and began sending some students to Europe and importing European technical books on a large scale to enrich university libraries. He also translated advanced scientific and technological articles from England and France, leveraging close ties with European immigrants to obtain a large number of technical books from Spain and Italy.

In particular, Spain still has quite good basic technology and craftsmanship. Under the rule of Francisco Franco, Spain maintained a close alliance with the United States. Thanks to American aid, Spain's economic development remained rapid, but its relations with other countries were not good. Therefore, Franco did not make things too difficult for Argentina's goodwill and provided assistance to various Argentine inspection groups.

Starting in the 1950s, the ideas of many Spanish technocrats were approved by Franco and funded by the International Monetary Fund. Spain's economy experienced great development, becoming the second-fastest-growing country in the world, slightly lower than Japan, which was quite incredible.

Therefore, Saint Hetherton has also maintained cooperation and wooed technocrats in the Spanish region. Moreover, he sent many elite teams to the Spanish region to obtain assistance and established trade links with the Spanish region.

What Saint Hetherton valued most was establishing connections with the two major countries in the Spanish and Italian regions. On the contrary, he felt that France and Britain were unreliable. Although Britain and France had adversarial relationships, they were two peas in a pod. Spain and Italy were not as strong as France and Britain, nor were they permanent members of the Security Council, so naturally, they would not have any conflicts of interest with Argentina.

In the first half of '58, La Pampa Province's economic development was extremely successful. Just after the second quarter, the statistical gross national product for the first half of the year exceeded 1.24 billion US dollars, only 200 million US dollars short of reaching the full-year level of the previous year. Although this was partly due to Argentina's relatively active first half of the year, the growth rate had exceeded 90%, which was a terrifying increase.

In particular, the concentrated production of more than thirty new large projects, such as the Ditellia Automobile Factory, the Ditellia Petrochemical Refining Plant, the San Martin Automobile Factory, the New Cohen Heavy Machinery Machine Tool Processing Plant, the Blanca Shipyard, the Maya Chemical Synthetic Ammonia Plant Three, the Mason Pharmaceutical Joint Pharmaceutical Factory, the Blanca Copper Processing Plant, the Maya Chemical Synthetic Rubber Factory, the Blanca Steel Plant, the Hans Steel Plant, the Southern Petroleum Phase III, the Southern Energy Blanca Thermal Power Plant, the Pampas Energy Medanos Natural Gas Thermal Power Plant, the San Martin Aluminum Plant, the Philip Industrial Motorcycle Factory, the Pampas Oil Refining Plant, the Norsbel Chemical Comprehensive Chemical Plant, and the Barut Textile and Apparel Group Chemical Fiber Plant, etc., made La Pampa Province's economic growth rate in the first half of the year incomparable to any other province.

The ground stakes laid a few years ago have begun to bear rich fruit. The urban area, downtown area, and suburbs of Blanca City are all large factories.

Most of these projects have an investment scale of more than 5 million US dollars and are concentrated in the field of heavy chemical industry. The manufacturing industry based on this has also prospered. La Pampa Province's economic scale is getting closer and closer to Buenos Aires.

In addition, import and export trade is becoming more and more active, and commercial exchanges with Europe are becoming more and more frequent. From light industrial products to simple industrial products, it is active on the Atlantic route. Coal ships, iron ore ships, and industrial raw material bulk carriers from Australia are transported from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and Argentine industrial products have also entered the Australian market.

With the help of Spanish national shipyards and Italian and German shipbuilding technology, the Blanca Shipyard has begun to build and produce 100,000-ton super freighters, with an annual output of 5-10 ships. Orders from several shipping companies and cargo transportation companies have been scheduled until next year.

With the support of Saint Hetherton, an Argentine container manufacturing plant was established. "Standard containers" produced by the container plant began to appear at major ports in Blanca City, gradually replacing conventional bulk carriers for import and export trade.

Argentina itself is an immigration country and still has a certain attraction for European immigrants. As early as 1951, taking advantage of the opportunity that Western Europe's economy had not fully recovered, Saint Hetherton spent money in Europe to establish recruitment branches, recruiting a large number of outstanding engineering and technical talents, successfully establishing the La Plata Steel Plant, which gave Argentina's steel industry a spark.

The La Plata Steel Plant has also become an important source of Argentine steel technology, laying the foundation for the success of Hans Steel and Blanca Steel. Even now, the middle and upper-level managers of Argentina's three major steel plants are mostly Germans and Belgians who were recruited in the beginning.

Initially, through the La Plata Steel Plant, Saint Hetherton reaped rich rewards. He borrowed 50 million US dollars from various sources. Relying on the gimmick of becoming Argentina's largest steel plant, he mortgaged the steel plant and raised a large amount of funds through continuous mortgages.

Saint Hetherton was not in a hurry to repay the money. Instead, through the well-known Sequoia Capital, he speculated in the US stock market and futures market, gambling successfully in the United States, establishing Enco Electric, and connecting with Canada. The debts of the La Plata Steel Plant were finally resolved.

With the support of large amounts of funds from the United States, the money obtained by Sequoia was not transferred back to Argentina but was instead invested in Europe and Japan, completing the layout and reaping a large amount of funds, which slowly flowed back to Argentina through various channels.

With the support of talent, capital, equipment, and technology, and with the strong help of the city of La Plata, the La Plata Steel Plant was successfully built in just two and a half years, becoming the truly largest steel plant in Argentina. The success of the construction speed was almost a great miracle in Argentina.

Even former President Peron once provided assistance to the La Plata Steel Plant and even believed that the success of the La Plata Steel Plant was a miracle of Argentina's industrialization.

In the later period of his administration, Peron especially supported the development of domestic heavy industries such as aviation, metallurgy, and automobiles, and Saint Hetherton also received great help as a result.

Peron once said, "We must compete with developed countries in industry, otherwise we will always be a dependent country, and dependent countries have to pay a price."

By marrying his wife, Yrena, he was able to latch onto the Joseph family behind her. Although the Joseph family was not a top family in Buenos Aires, it was still a great help to Saint-Hesse, allowing him to have a relatively smooth run after running for Congress and successfully gaining recognition from the Radical Party headquarters.

In particular, the Joseph family contributed a lot to the successful campaign for the mayor of Blanca, and Saint-Hesse was completely transformed, becoming a true Argentine local power, almost a miracle for a gaucho to engage in the civil service.

With military power in hand, he truly had the right to speak on equal terms with other local warlords, instead of relying solely on General Thompson's help and protection as before. Even his most valued Rein military industry was taken away, San Martin was suppressed, and the conflict with Cordoba Province eased.

Although the La Pampa Defense Force cannot be considered a warlord, and Argentina does not have true warlords in the true sense of the word, at most they are just some quasi-warlord military leaders, still within the unified Argentine Republic.

Saint-Hesse's various reforms to the Defense Force have also given him a certain understanding of the true combat effectiveness of the army. Although the La Pampa Defense Force is currently called an army, it actually only has one division, with just over 10,000 people including administrative personnel. The rest have been demobilized and transferred to the police department or retired.

Today, the Blanca Police Department has more than 10,000 people, because most of them are experienced veterans with high military qualities, and are equipped with various light and heavy firepower, including submachine guns, artillery and other heavy firepower, and equipped with trucks, pickups, and motorcycles. In recent years, it has expanded even more and can easily cope with various complex situations, suppress rebellions, and move quickly.

Therefore, apart from sporadic riots and nationwide strikes, the public security in Blanca has actually been improving.

The Defense Force has also become an experimental force for various new weapons, conducting various military training, and its combat effectiveness is not to say that it is of first-class Argentine level, but it is also second-class.

With the support of a decent army, plus the naval base, Saint-Hesse is also a powerful figure in the region.

So it can also be said that the La Plata Steel Plant has also successfully transformed the Cohen Consortium into Argentina's No. 1 industrial consortium, and laid the foundation for Saint-Hesse's success in Blanca.

Later, the Barron Bank rose, the New Cohen Heavy Industries was rebuilt, and the Sanhai Shipbuilding also had financial backing, developed rapidly, successfully established cooperation with Spain, and finally completed its transformation.

Then Saint-Hesse's eating of Leyton Motors, Southern Oil, Maya Chemical, and the development and growth of New Cohen Heavy Industries cannot be separated from the help of the Italians. Before World War II, Italy itself was a relatively weak link in imperialism. After the war, it had a large population, high unemployment, and the Marshall Plan had not yet fully exerted its power. The Italian economy only recovered to pre-war levels.

Saint-Hesse invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Italy alone, which is almost one-twelfth of the US Marshall Plan aid. So much money is definitely not just for buying technology and equipment, recruiting various high-tech talents and establishing economic ties with Italy is also his main purpose.

Argentina itself has many descendants of Italians, so communication is also convenient. Saint-Hesse played the emotional card and sent almost all Italian personnel to Italy for cooperation, and they were somewhat connected. La Pampa Province also received affirmation in the Italian Presidential Palace's record.

In 1953, the Italian economy was far from as strong as in the 1960s and 1970s, and unemployment was still very serious. With the help of giants such as Fiat, ENI Oil, and Italian arms dealers, it successfully established the three major companies of Southern Oil, Leyton Motors, and Maya Chemical, and the chemical and automobile industries almost changed the entire Argentine industrialization process.

Until this year, 80% of the scientific researchers in these three companies are from Italy, and the persons in charge are all Argentine-born descendants of Italians. At that time, Saint-Hesse leased many Greek and Italian cruise ships, and transported European technical immigrants ship by ship.

Southern Europe was originally not as wealthy as Western Europe. Now Greece, Yugoslavia, and Turkey are also poor, and many people also go to Argentina through these international ships. There are also many Egyptians in North Africa who are engaged in low-level occupations in Blanca.

Leyton Motors, during its honeymoon period with Fiat Auto, not only established cooperation with the Fiat 600 model, but the final price of the cooperation was not the initial 22 million US dollars, but 40 million US dollars, and Fiat Auto also received a large amount of funds in advance.

Leyton Motors also obtained a lot of advanced automobile technology and equipment. Although it failed to play a role in the era when the Fiat 600 was a great success, these equipments played a huge role in the hands of Andy Laffen. Leyton Motors took off directly. In fact, Leyton Motors has a large reserve of automobile industrial design talents, and the industries involved are far more than just automobiles. Leyton Motors' machining and metal smelting factories are well-known.

After all, Leyton Motors is a large company with an annual output value of more than 200 million US dollars, and it has a large amount of profit every year. Instead of contributing to the Cohen Consortium, Leyton Motors' technical personnel have extremely high salaries under the instructions of Saint-Hesse, even higher than the salaries in Europe, so Leyton Motors' technical level is not bad, and even has the level of a second-rate European automobile factory.

Originally, Saint-Hesse was a little dizzy and let his lover Natalie Habert manage Leyton Motors, and Leyton Motors did not develop very well.

But Natalie is not without contribution. She is good at spending money and discovering the latest information, and she is very successful in earnestly implementing Saint-Hesse's strategy, recruiting a large number of engineers for Leyton Motors.

There are almost no automobile engineers in Argentina, and it is a good way to dig people from Europe, which is also the advantage of Argentina as an immigrant country.

Leyton Motors' recruitment department during Natalie's period was all over the European automobile city, and it did dig up a lot of talents, but it could not dig up top talents, but there was no shortage of mid-level talents.

Leyton's research and development of models is actually a lot, and it also burned a lot of money. Although it has not developed a successful model, it has indeed eaten a lot of technology in practice.

Because it is willing to spend money, the quality management of Fiat 600 is well controlled, and several assembly lines are perfectly implemented and copied, and the cooperation with supporting factories is also very smooth.

The quality control of the cooperative supporting factories is actually very well in place. From rubber tire factories to car window glass factories, the product quality is even better than the original Fiat 600. With quality assurance, the Fiat 600 has achieved unprecedented success.

In addition, Natalie is very good at creating public opinion and cooperates with the media newspapers under the Cohen Consortium, so that Leyton Motors has incomparable publicity advantages, and its popularity far exceeds any foreign car at the same time, and the product itself is excellent, so the Fiat 600 produced is in short supply, creating a miracle in the development of the Argentine automobile industry.

It's just that Natalie can't develop Leyton Motors into a large automobile company like Toyota Honda. Although Leyton Motors has stable profits and cash flow, and a huge talent scale, it can't produce a car developed by Argentines themselves. Although there is a reason for time, when San Martin Motors developed a lot of potential models in just less than two years, Saint-Hesse realized the problem.

Operating an automobile company requires not only public opinion and advertising, but also the ability to develop its own new cars is fundamental, but even Saint-Hesse himself does not have the confidence and confidence to operate a great automobile company. This is lack of confidence and an ironclad fact. The world's three major automobile powers in later generations, the United States, Germany, and Japan, basically have relatively solid historical foundations, and maybe only Japan is a little worse, but Japan is also a capitalist economic power that has been developing for more than 100 years.

Operating and developing an automobile factory is not operating a chemical factory or a textile factory, and it is even more difficult than a steel factory. The automobile industry is a great industry. Automobile parts include thousands of different parts, from large floors to small screws. Being able to operate the Fiat 600 model so successfully and building supporting factories has proven Natasha's excellence.

It was not until the discovery of Andy Laffen, the general manager of the San Martin Aircraft Manufacturing Department, that Saint-Hesse saw the hope of Argentina's independent automobile, and Andy did not disappoint him, and quickly came up with several potential models, concentrated his efforts, and developed a prototype in March this year.

Natasha was once again assigned by Saint Hesser to the Cohen Consortium, specifically to the second bank acquired by the Cohen Consortium: the Argentina National Savings Bank, a small bank on the verge of collapse in the suburbs of Buenos Aires.

Saint Hesser was drawn to the bank's impressive-sounding name and acquired it for less than $500,000. It was a small bank with only 13 branches and fewer than 200 employees.

Barron Bank's business had expanded significantly, attracting too much attention. The Cohen Consortium needed to diversify risks and raise more capital.

The development of several local state-owned banks in La Pampa Province also needed some support. Saint Hesser equipped the Argentina National Savings Bank with a star team and injected $5 million in capital, allowing them to utilize all the promotional resources of New Argentina Media.

Saint Hesser designed a completely new logo and decor style for the National Savings Bank, largely based on the banks of later generations. The security escort company was also top-notch, following a strategy of encircling the cities from the countryside.

It quickly gained a foothold in remote areas, attracting deposits with its impressive name, high interest rates, and enthusiastic staff.

The National Savings Bank quickly expanded, concentrating the currency in the market and providing substantial loans in La Pampa Province. Due to the concentrated land development, the provincial government and various municipal governments could leverage the sale of land use rights to collect taxes in advance, in addition to bank loans.

The land in Blanca City, La Pampa Province, was originally worthless. Several families and ordinary residents had already sold most of their land at low prices under Saint Hesser's pressure, successfully becoming the largest landowners in La Pampa Province, easily resolving the issues with these landowners, who then transformed into industrial and commercial families with substantial wealth.

During the reforms in La Pampa Province over the past few years, those who didn't listen had already met their maker, while those who did had become emerging commercial nobles. In previous years, farms were not profitable, as the land in La Pampa Province itself was relatively barren, not as good as the Pampas grasslands to the north.

Now, Saint Hesser could carry out infrastructure construction very cheaply. After the industrial plants and buildings were completed, they were rented out or sold, slowly repaying bank loans and earning a small profit. The various cities in La Pampa Province also developed as a result.

Through the cyclical cooperation of the bank and the municipal government, Saint Hesser used leverage to easily carry out infrastructure construction. The cheap and comprehensive infrastructure construction attracted factory owners from all over, using borrowed resources to create wealth and making La Pampa Province the richest place.

…

Saint Hesser had conducted talent recruitment activities five or six times, covering almost all Western European countries, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and even North Africa, with many unemployed talents going to Argentina as a result. The various important companies of the Cohen Consortium in Blanca City had established branches in major industrial cities in Europe to recruit people.

Saint Hesser built Italian residential communities in Blanca City that were more advanced than tube buildings, with much better environments. Moreover, wages were paid in US dollars, so many Italian engineers came to Blanca City to develop. New immigrants from Italy once accounted for a significant proportion of Blanca City's population, reaching a peak of forty to fifty thousand people.

During Saint Hesser's administration of Blanca City, he provided a lot of preferential treatment to new immigrants from Europe. The numerous state-owned factories under the State-owned Assets Committee were basically occupied by new European immigrants, accounting for seventy to eighty percent. There were also various schools specially provided for new Italian immigrants, with very generous treatment, which allowed these new European immigrants and technical talents to settle down.

Moreover, this policy has continued to this day. At its peak, the number of new European immigrants going to Blanca City reached a peak of as many as 200,000, making a great contribution to the early industrial development of Blanca City. People from Federal Germany, Spain, Portugal, Britain, and France have immigrated here, and more than half of these people have obtained Argentine citizenship.

Argentine local talents have only slowly been updated in the past two years. With the newly established various professional universities and research institutes, talents from Buenos Aires have been attracted, and the talent shortage has been alleviated.

The new district of Blanca City has developed rapidly, and many new European immigrants still occupy an important position. Saint Hesser has repeatedly thanked the contributions of new immigrants in public, especially the establishment of various consulates, which cannot be separated from the help of these new immigrants, and has also opened up economic channels in Europe.

The funds originally invested in Italy, Federal Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom have also long since earned back their capital. Blanca City's reputation in Europe has become more and more resounding. Irish and Welsh people are also willing to come to Argentina to find opportunities, although most of them leave in disappointment or go to the United States, there are also many who stay.

New immigrants are more valuable than immigrants from neighboring Latin American countries, but integration also takes more time. In contrast, immigrants and international workers from neighboring countries,

The La Pampa Petrochemical Research Institute is affiliated with the La Pampa Petrochemical Company and is engaged in energy technology development, mainly petroleum science and technology research, focusing on the more cutting-edge shale oil development in southern Patagonia.

Shale oil is a special type of petroleum, a petroleum resource contained in shale-dominated shale formations, including oil in the pores and fractures of mud shale, as well as dense carbonate or clastic rock adjacent layers and interlayers in mud shale formations.

The main reason is that after years of exploration, the results of southern oil exploration are not very satisfactory, and offshore exploration technology is not mature, so Saint Hesser also plans to bet on the inferior oil developed by the United States later, shale oil.

Argentina not only lacks abundant coal resources, relying on maritime transportation, but also has not made much progress in oil resources. In addition, the steel company also needs a lot of coal, and the energy shortage problem has begun to restrict the industrialization process of La Pampa Province.

Fortunately, after the introduction of foreign high-voltage 110 kV power grid technology, including a full range of power transformers and distribution transformers, the La Pampa Province power network was established, and it also began to expand outwards, starting from the neighboring Neuquén Province and Río Negro Province, after all, the two provinces have provided great support to La Pampa Province.

La Pampa Province's power and energy resources can also be imported from other provinces, and Saint Hesser had already invested in the construction of medium and large-sized hydropower stations in western and southern La Pampa Province. Now, after networking, it can already supply power to several industrial cities.

Infrastructure construction is very expensive, requires a high level of technical expertise, and has a long construction cycle. Thermal power plants and hydropower stations are difficult to build in many African countries, let alone a complete power grid.

In addition to the La Pampa power grid, Saint Hesser also established the Pampas Energy Company, establishing cooperation with Neuquén Province and Río Negro Province to develop and build hydropower stations and natural gas power plants.

Generating equipment was introduced from five major companies: Sweden's Asea Brown Boveri, Germany's Siemens, America's General Electric, Emerson Electric, and Westinghouse Electric. The already powerful Pampas Electrical Engineering Company replaced Bruno Electronics, Philips Industry specially established Philips Electric, the largest electrical company Enco Electric, Blue Harbor Electric Company, and Southern Power Company cooperated to absorb and introduce generating equipment, and have begun to imitate production.

Southern Power has also deeply involved in power plant construction other than thermal power, and has jointly developed the rich water energy resources in southern and western Argentina with Pampas Energy, especially the upstream area of the Colorado River.

The core industries of Pampas Energy Company involve coal power, hydropower, natural gas power generation, etc., and the upstream and downstream industries involve coal mines, shipping, ports, etc. It is a newly established large energy group.

The two companies jointly develop hydropower resources mainly on two rivers, the Río Negro Basin and the Colorado River Basin, and are responsible for the construction of natural gas power plants and hydropower stations in other provinces, especially Neuquén Province.

The main projects under construction in the Colorado River Basin are the Grande River Hydropower Station and the Salado River Hydropower Station, with 1.2 million kilowatts and 1 million kilowatts respectively. Among them, the Grande River Hydropower Station has completed the preliminary exploration and preparation work, and the Salado River Hydropower Station began construction before the Pampas Canal was completed, which is 3 times larger than the completed La Pampa Reservoir. The Pampas Canal basically draws water from the Colorado River Basin.

The Colorado River originates from the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains on the border between Argentina and Chile and is the northern boundary of the Patagonia region of Argentina.

The upstream section (including the Grande River) has a river length of 920 kilometers and a basin area of 25,000 square kilometers. If calculated from the tributary Salado River, the total length of the river is 1,430 kilometers.

The Colorado River flows from west to east, flowing into Blanca Bay 200 kilometers south of Blanca City, and finally into the Atlantic Ocean. After the La Pampa Reservoir Canal was built, the runoff decreased a lot, so a larger reservoir is needed to increase water storage.

The Negro River hydroelectric stations mainly include the Neuquén Hydroelectric Station and the Limay River Hydroelectric Station, with power generation scales of 1.4 million kilowatts and 1.2 million kilowatts respectively, which are larger and more complex.

The Negro River Power Station is located on the Limay River, a tributary of the Negro River, at the junction of Neuquén Province and Negro Province in Argentina. It has a total installed capacity of 1.4 million kilowatts and an annual power generation of 5.5 billion kilowatt-hours, which can meet the development of Neuquén Province while also transmitting electricity to other regions.

After Neuquén Province reached a large number of cooperation agreements with San Jose, San Jose has mobilized more than 50 large companies to develop the vast energy and mineral resources of Neuquén Province.

The Negro River is formed by the confluence of the Neuquén River and the Limay River, which originate in the Andes Mountains, near Neuquén.

It flows eastward through the Negro River Province in the northern part of the Patagonian Plateau, and flows into the Atlantic Ocean more than 30 kilometers southeast of Viedma, with a length of about 635 kilometers, including the Neuquén River, which is 1127 kilometers long.

The construction cycle of hydroelectric power stations is long, and the main task of Pampas Energy is to build natural gas power stations.

… …

La Pampa Petrochemical Company is now mainly engaged in oil refining, petrochemical equipment production, oil transportation, oil exploration, etc. It is the second petrochemical company in La Pampa Province and owns Argentina's largest state-owned petrochemical plant—the Blanca Bay Oil Refinery.

This refinery is supported by Southern Oil Company, which introduced technology and steel from Italy. From steel oil pipelines to various mechanical devices, a large part of the technology has been thoroughly understood by Southern Oil.

Southern Oil once spent almost all the foreign exchange of the Cohen Consortium and Blanca City, and borrowed a lot of money, just to develop the petrochemical industry. Facts have proved San Jose's vision. Southern Oil quickly paid off all its debts and obtained unprecedented profits, even exceeding Argentina's National Oil Company, becoming Argentina's largest oil company.

Southern Oil also brought enough capital to San Jose, allowing him to calmly implement his various development plans and ambitions, connecting a mysterious and huge international capital empire from Andes Cigarette Factory, Plarrie International, to American Redwood, to Royal Bank of Scotland.

Southern Oil's sales reached an unprecedented 100 million US dollars early on, becoming Argentina's largest company, and was later surpassed by Layton Motors, followed by La Plata Steel Plant, Maya Chemical and other companies.

Layton Motors is still Argentina's largest local automobile company. Relying on the franchise of Fiat 600, it lives comfortably. Last year, it earned 210 million US dollars, accounting for about one-half of the automobile and motorcycle industry in Blanca City, and is one of the most profitable companies under the Cohen Consortium.

The Fiat 600 and its various improved models alone earned 100 million US dollars. Layton Motors, with plenty of money, has already entered diversification. It not only produces automobiles, but also motorcycles, tricycles, trucks, and various mechanical equipment parts processing and trade services, and has 6 automobile research institutes.

This automobile company has almost developed four or five times beyond the original plan, and can also set up branch factories. From parts production to automobile assembly, there are more than one hundred supporting factories. Most of the standard parts factories are outsourced, which makes Layton Motors different from the beginning.

This automobile company was almost built by concentrating all the power of the Cohen Consortium, concentrating 90% of Argentina's automobile industry talents, plus thousands of technicians recruited from Europe, especially Germany, with the full support of Fiat and Audi, it was successful.

Last year, the total output value of the automobile and motorcycle industry in La Pampa Province was 417 million US dollars, of which the automobile industry accounted for 380 million US dollars.

The import and export trade volume is as high as 472 million US dollars, accounting for almost one-quarter of the total economic output value of La Pampa Province, and is the largest industrial sector in La Pampa Province, exceeding the steel industry and the oil industry, but the water content is still quite large.

This is still a quite amazing number, behind which is the investment of several large foreign factories. French Citroen, British Motor Corporation, Rover, and American General Motors have all established automobile assembly plants in Blanca, producing automobiles. This is also the reason for the great leap forward in the automobile industry in La Pampa Province last year. Almost half of the output value comes from foreign automobile companies, but it also appropriately stimulated the economic development of Blanca City.

Blanca City needs high-end, more profitable industries, even automobile assembly plants are acceptable.

Foreign automobile companies actually do not invest much in Argentina, basically all are assembly plants, transporting automobile parts from abroad, but it also creates some revenue, although there is no tax revenue, Blanca Free Port has a batch of automobile factories.

The reason why Blanca City can develop the automobile industry well is inseparable from the heavy industry and chemical industry that San Jose has been working hard to develop.

The steel industry provides high-quality automobile steel, the three acids and one alkali chemical industry and the petrochemical industry provide automobile rubber and gasoline, diesel, and mechanical processing plants produce various parts, bearings, etc., and the power industry provides various power energy sources, slowly creating a relatively complete automobile industrial system.

This small industrial system is imperfect, basically relying on the mode of introduction and absorption. The Cohen Consortium is also laying out with heavy chemical industry, from steel, oil to chemical industry, military industry, and shipbuilding.

Developing heavy chemical industry is difficult, but three steel plants and a dozen chemical plants have paved the way for the economy of Blanca City. This set of heavy chemical industry built at a heavy cost has shown its powerful power.

It is much cheaper for foreign automobile companies to export automobile parts to Argentina than to export complete vehicles. They only need to establish a few automobile assembly production lines, and they can reduce the price from three or four thousand US dollars to less than 2,000 US dollars.

But Fiat 600 still has a huge price advantage, so sales have not declined, but have increased a little. Layton Motors did not put all its production capacity in Blanca City in order to expand the automobile factory, but established the second factory and the third factory in San Martin City and La Plata City, which is also the reason why the automobile production in Blanca City is not so high.

Southern Oil Company has explored and exploited oil in the southern and western regions of Argentina, and launched an unprecedented competition with Standard Oil of California in the Patagonia region.

Being in such a great era, at least before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the development of Argentina can be guaranteed. As long as there is no internal chaos, the Americans, no matter how strong they are, cannot control Argentina.

… …

The Fifth Research Institute is still short of talents. San Jose tried to save the country by a roundabout route and set his sights on the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission, establishing a certain degree of cooperation with Canada in the name of peaceful development of nuclear power plants.

Argentina is not short of nuclear raw materials, but making atomic bombs is not a simple matter after all. San Jose himself also has scarce resources and cannot attract real nuclear physics research geniuses.

Moreover, the degree of confidentiality has recently decreased, so he has to carry out secondary camouflage, purge traitors, and even a series of serious leaks have occurred, which also made San Jose intend to start the pace of seizing power.

The CIA does not have much penetration in Argentina, and Argentina is not the main force. In addition, with Peron's previous farce, the United States does not value Argentines.

This problem is not serious. San Jose took the opportunity to hand over some of the information in his hand, and then established a nuclear power plant on the surface to escape the disaster.

As the economy of Blanca City expands, Blanca City, even the poor Choique County, is full of people, and the security of the Fifth Research Institute is becoming increasingly difficult to guarantee.

San Jose began to put discipline construction and talent training on the agenda. The core unit this time is the Physics Department of La Pampa University of Technology.