Rise of the Argentine Empire

Following the failure of the first wave of military coups launched by parts of the Navy and Air Force, Argentina briefly entered a period of quiet.

However, this tranquility was built upon the bones of ordinary workers in Buenos Aires.

The Church continued to gather strength, preparing for an even more violent second coup, and the military had completely broken with Perón.

Some politically astute individuals also understood that an even more intense battle was perhaps imminent, triggering a second wave of departures from the storm's center, the capital.

Some people even planned to immigrate abroad, with many heading to the United States, while others wanted to return to Europe, and their numbers were not small.

At this time, Saint-Hesse's propaganda machine began to churn.

"Go to the southern city of Bahía Blanca, where there is bread, work, and stable security, and the environment is beautiful."

"Maya Chemical Bahía Blanca Fertilizer Plant is recruiting 200 professional technicians, with the highest salary reaching over 10,000 pesos. Earning over 10,000 a month is not a dream, and accommodation and free factory canteens are provided, allowing you to save more money each month."

"The Bahía Blanca Port Industrial Zone is open for investment, with a full year of factory rent waived, 1 year of tax exemption, Bahía Blanca municipal subsidies, and a 50% tax reduction for 3 years."

"Bahía Blanca has been rated as the safest city in Argentina by the international venture capital firm Sequoia Capital for the first time, possessing the best public security environment in the country…"

"Bahía Blanca has abundant housing resources, excellent climate conditions, very affordable prices, and a friendly business environment…"

With multi-faceted promotion, Bahía Blanca became one of the important destinations for citizens fleeing Buenos Aires.

Trains departing from Retiro Central Station to Bahía Blanca North Station were packed with refugees.

Most of them were attracted by Bahía Blanca's economic construction, finding suitable jobs there, while others left in disappointment.

There were also passenger ships opened by the Praly fleet, as well as wealthy people who had their own cars.

In 20 days, Bahía Blanca gained nearly 30,000 people, which is almost equivalent to the population increase of the city in the past 50 years, and the number is still increasing.

Saint-Hesse did not comment too much on this. If conditions permitted, he would want more people, still hundreds of thousands short of the two million population target.

San Martín and La Plata also gained a significant number of new residents in this capital event.

"The Church used its power to make the capital lose at least 100,000 people, unexpectedly greatly reducing the burden."

With the influx of a large population, Saint-Hesse began to get busy, needing to make further plans.

The dozens of residential buildings that had been built, as well as the large factory dormitories in the port industrial zone, came in handy.

He had the city hall cooperate with Cohen Construction to establish a Bahía Blanca Real Estate Development Company, responsible for the construction of new residences in Bahía Blanca.

This company became the second state-owned company owned by the Bahía Blanca City Hall.

It will specialize in developing low-priced, high-quality housing, and will continue to develop if conditions permit.

After developing the city-owned state-owned companies, a large amount of real tax revenue can be obtained by the end of this year at the latest.

In addition to some real factories coming to attract investment, Saint-Hesse's companies must pay taxes normally, or even pay more.

Bahía Blanca is too poor. Without enough excess fiscal revenue, it is difficult to achieve leapfrog development. The power of a narrow-domain city is limited.

If conditions permit, Saint-Hesse plans to establish a city commercial bank controlled by the Bahía Blanca City Hall in the future.

Especially the fuel and electricity sectors, which require relatively large investments, mainly electricity. Investment and allocations from the national treasury are no longer available, and we must carry out self-rescue production.

In the south, there was very little investment in hydropower in Perón's first and second five-year plans.

Issuing municipal bonds is learning from the Federal German government. West Germany is the capitalist country that issued the most government bonds after World War II, even more than Japan.

After discussion at an enlarged meeting of the city hall and council, it was decided to issue the first batch of US$5 million in government bonds.

Facing the whole country, the main purpose is to build two large thermal power plants and meet the normal supply of tap water for 300,000 people in the next few years.

Building thermal power plants can cooperate with Southern Energy. Saint-Hesse has already built a thermal power plant in the Bahía Blanca Port Industrial Zone, and it is still too difficult to do construction by himself.

March 22, Bahía Blanca, government bond issuance investment conference,

"The purpose of our issuance of government bonds this time is to meet the huge demand for electricity in our city in the future, issuing five-year government bonds with an annual interest rate of 5%, calculated in US dollars."

This government bond plan is also calculated in US dollars after discussion. After all, if it is calculated in pesos, it would be treating people like fools. He is very confident that he can repay this government bond in 5 years.

Even if it is not enough, let Southern Energy buy the thermal power plant, which I believe they will be very happy to do.

"Respected Mayor, is it really calculated in US dollars?"

Someone raised their hand and asked. You must know that an annualized rate of 5% is not low. Assuming an investment of US$10,000, it will be US$12,700 in 5 years, and the value preservation rate of the US dollar is quite strong.

"Yes, I can swear in the name of God that all construction projects are supervised and managed by Barren Bank with formal documents, and a Bahía Blanca Thermal Power Plant is established for management."

Saint-Hesse has quite enough confidence, and he can completely do it himself. With the growth rate of the five-year plan, 80% of commercial tax revenue alone can meet this government bond in five years.

Not to mention the massive income generated after the power plant is built, as well as the various taxes generated by the city's population growth.

"Excuse me, how will this government bond be issued? And when is the sale time?"

"We will entrust the five business departments of Barren Bank in Bahía Blanca to carry out simultaneous issuance. Individuals can subscribe for a maximum of US$10,000, and companies can purchase a maximum of US$200,000 in government bonds. The official sale will start at 9 am next Monday."

Saint-Hesse is very confident in this government bond issuance. After all, this is a government bond issued with the credibility of a city, and the factory development and employment in Bahía Blanca are obvious to all.

There are still many wealthy people in Bahía Blanca. As for the time being so ample, it is also to give people time to react and do some publicity.

Even in the worst case, he will provide a backstop. Even if no one buys it, he will spend some money to buy them himself.

In fact, this government bond was discovered very successfully. It raised US$5 million on the same day when it went on sale at 9 o'clock, and many people even could not buy it.

Under the strong demands of the citizens, Saint-Hesse organized and opened the second wave of subscriptions, raising another US$3 million, finally meeting the needs of these people.

He saw these people queuing up outside the bank, depositing pesos into Barren Bank and converting them into US dollars in real time, and Barren Bank therefore charged a large handling fee.

Saint-Hesse also saw some elderly people and factory workers. There are now more than 100,000 people in Bahía Blanca.

They all took out a lot of savings to purchase this issuance of government bonds, and even many people from other cities came to subscribe.

The three major families also showed enthusiasm for this subscription, directly subscribing for almost 200,000 US dollars per family.

People like the Radical Party and the city hall, and Saint-Hesse himself also symbolically purchased 10,000 US dollars, just as a living expense for his unborn child.

In addition, Saint-Hesse also has a huge investment plan. In the next year, he will also build a medium-sized steel plant with an annual output of 3 million tons in Bahía Blanca.

And an aluminum plant with an annual output of 200,000 tons, these all have huge energy and electricity demands.

This 8 million US dollars of government bonds is 3 million US dollars more than planned. With the investment scale of Southern Energy, a total of 4 large thermal power plants can be built in Bahía Blanca, and there is no problem with the short-term electricity demand at all.

This large-scale electricity infrastructure investment plan also shocked many people, once again proving Saint-Hesse's ability to raise money, and even aroused the attention of official departments such as the Province of Buenos Aires and the National Ministry of Finance.

……

Speaking again about real estate development, this time he solved the problem of funding difficulties through loan financing.

In order to quickly develop and build and seize the population, Saint-Hesse had long ago planned to set a reasonable development standard, and carried out implementation and many people's demonstrations.

Constructing small apartments similar to Khrushchev-era buildings, or rather, closer to large dormitories and the famous 'tube buildings' of later generations, to facilitate family living.

However, these 'tube buildings' were actually closer to commercial housing, as their usable area was very large, several times larger than regular 'tube buildings'.

After thorough discussions and demonstrations at the city hall, Saint Hesser ultimately selected a five-story small-apartment simple residential area, as five stories would not require elevators.

The design life of this type of building is approximately 30 years. Each apartment has an area of 80 square meters, with three bedrooms and one living room, a small kitchen, and a separate toilet and shower room, equipped with running water. The rooms contain 1-2 two-story iron bunk beds, capable of accommodating at least 6-18 people.

These relatively comfortable buildings have relatively low costs, mainly using brick structures.

However, the cost is significantly higher than dormitory buildings, as a 30-square-meter dormitory can easily accommodate 6 iron bunk beds, housing 12 people without any issues. Moreover, there is no need to arrange toilets and bathrooms within the dormitory; only public toilets and bathrooms need to be built.

Of course, Saint Hesser would not build dormitory buildings in the outer urban areas, firstly because it was unnecessary, and secondly, for the sake of his large family planning.

After all, the 'tube buildings' could accommodate a large family: a couple, plus retired elderly, and 5-6 children, more than enough.

Moreover, the selling price of such houses was not high, and mortgage loans were available from Barron Bank.

These 'tube buildings' were mainly located on the outskirts of the Fifth District, arranged in rows, with 20 rooms on each floor, and 100 rooms in each building, all facing south.

The first batch of development consisted of 4 rows, a total of 20 buildings, forming a rectangular community that could accommodate over 10,000 people.

These houses were originally intended to improve the living environment of the residents of the Fifth District and had only simple renovations. Electricity had not yet been installed, but there was running water and toilets, and they quickly came in handy.

The Lingo Industrial Zone also had a large number of dormitories that had not yet been put into use, as they had not fully reached Saint Hesser's planned production capacity.

After this wave of activation, Saint Hesser prepared a huge 'tube building' community plan, intending to build at least 100 more 'tube buildings' within half a year.

In addition to the Municipal Real Estate Company, he also encouraged families in Blanca City to invest in real estate, as it was a very good industry.

Blanca City had cheap cement, red bricks, and the price of rebar from the La Plata Steel Plant was not too high.

The second blast furnace of the La Plata Steel Plant was about to be commissioned, and the output of the ironmaking plant would double again.

However, Saint Hesser still felt that steel was not enough. The steel production of countries like West Germany and Japan was increasing rapidly. West Germany's steel production increased from 12.12 million tons in 1947 to over 20 million tons this year, and there was a 10 million-ton investment plan to be completed before the 1960s. Japan was even more outrageous, with steel production of at least 40 million tons before the 1960s.

Saint Hesser underestimated the demand for steel in economic construction, estimating that a steel production of 20 million tons was needed to support Argentina in becoming a medium-sized power.

This was equivalent to the current 7 La Plata Steel Plants, which required the support of the state. Relying on the La Plata Steel Plant would take forever.

The old capitalist countries had a good foundation, such as the current Japanese general trading companies, emerging companies, and West German consortia, which were scarce in Argentina.

Moreover, their state capitalism and the planning of various industrial ministries in Japan were not comparable to Saint Hesser's crude plans.

… …

After the capital shelling incident, Blanca City also introduced more than 30 new small and medium-sized factories. One factory building could meet their needs, and Saint Hesser had enough factory buildings in the Lingo Industrial Zone.

Blanca City was very short of new factories, especially some small factories. One year of rent exemption and three years of halved taxes were very attractive.

Such as button factories, small hardware factories, small processing factories, small food factories, and small steel factories.

Yes, there were also small steel factories. It must be said that this 40-year-old middle-aged man named Hans Wolff was very ambitious.

He planned to invest in a medium-sized steel plant with an annual output of 300,000 tons in Blanca City and approached the investment promotion department.

Blanca City currently did not have a steel plant, and Saint Hesser also greatly admired this man named Hans.

After chatting, it was learned that he was a German, with 1 million US dollars in funds, and wanted to invest in a steel plant here because he liked the cheap tax rate and support here.

1 million US dollars was definitely not enough to invest in a steel plant. Saint Hesser also used Barron Bank to connect him. It was rare to have this kind of investment method. Barron Bank loaned him 800,000 US dollars, which was enough for the initial investment.

Of course, this Hans Steel Plant mainly produced molten iron, not steelmaking.

Saint Hesser personally attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Hans Steel Plant's blast furnace and symbolically shoveled a shovel of soil.

Saint Hesser also discovered a factory with a bit of technological content. For example, there was a wireless electronics factory that could manufacture radios, which surprised Saint Hesser.

After Saint Hesser's inspection, he discovered that this electronics factory was founded by an Argentine student who had studied abroad.

The factory had been around for two years, and its main business was producing a radio.

It looked a bit like processing with supplied materials. Many components were imported and then assembled.

Although the output was not large, it did have a bit of technical content, which was remarkable.

And most importantly, this factory was actually profitable, although not much.

The current Argentine market under blockade was so friendly, but its ability to resist risks was also relatively poor.

Saint Hesser specifically went to meet the boss of this Bruno Wireless Electronics Factory, Bruno Abel, a 29-year-old young man.

He didn't expect that this guy really had some ideas. Saint Hesser remembered that he also had an electrical company in the United States, but there was no opportunity to invest in Argentina.

In fact, Enke Electric was developing well, and it happened to be producing similar machines. He didn't know how to introduce nuclear physics science, which also gave him a headache.

After some communication, he decided to invest in this small factory with only 30 people and gave a series of supports, 2 years of tax exemption + 5 and a half years of half tax.

Such a rare seedling was too scarce to not protect it.

He immediately notified Enke Electric in the United States to cooperate and invest in this Bruno Electronics Factory. Talents were rare, and the development of the electronics industry was progressing rapidly. It was time to make some investments.

Argentina could also develop its electronics industry.

In addition to this factory, Saint Hesser also gathered powerful families in the city to encourage them to invest in industries.

For example, Lanyun Shoes needed a large amount of leather for its shoe factory, and the Martinez family had 3 beef processing plants. Therefore, with the support of Saint Hesser, the Martinez Leather Factory was established, becoming a leather supplier for Lanyun Shoes.

Pulari Foods needed a huge amount of raw materials such as flour, and the Bariloche family originally controlled and monopolized the flour processing industry in Blanca City. They also established a flour processing plant and newly invested in a grain and oil factory.

The Grey family originally dealt with wood. This time, they directly entered the furniture industry and established the Grey Furniture Factory because the number of wooden bunk beds and furniture needed for these 'tube buildings' and dormitories was too large.

Several medium-sized families also saw this huge market demand and established furniture factories. Some also established ceramic factories, daily-use ceramic factories, tile factories, and textile factories.

Because of the fall of the Guy family, some power gaps were created in Blanca City.

A family named Sachs established the Sachs Ceramic Company and cooperated with Sedek Cement to specialize in the production of daily-use ceramics.

That is, producing squatting pans and washbasins for toilets.

It became one of the fastest-growing companies in recent months.

The market demand for this was very large, and the competition was very small.

There was also the Bulda family, which became a commercial conglomerate, becoming a retail trader and establishing the Bulda Department Store.

Specializing in factory canteens and supermarkets.

Competing with him were Chinese from Cordoba, who mostly ran husband-and-wife stores.

In addition, there were companies that contracted factory canteens, which were people from the Martinez family.

These were also relatively special, and some Chinese opened restaurants.