Rise of the Argentine Empire

Saint Hércules ultimately did not receive notification from General Little Thompson.

He had no choice but to order the Director of the Falcon Bureau, Guerrero, to take charge in Buenos Aires and cooperate well with Aragon of Delta Security, and to protect the important figures in the capital.

At the same time, he prepared for the worst.

Perhaps it was time for a strategic contraction and transfer.

Such as the Church's counter-offensive.

Such as preparing for massive losses of property in Buenos Aires.

And it was not impossible to lose San Martín City.

Fortunately, these debts and loans were invested in developing the economy of Blanca City and the productivity of La Pampa Province, and were not used for real estate or anything like that.

Most people didn't notice anything, except that Barron Bank's interest rate and a deposit rate from a bank called Blanca Commercial Bank offered a monthly interest rate of up to 6% and 6.2% on peso deposits, meaning that if you deposited 100 pesos last month, it would become 106 pesos this month, and 112.36 pesos next month.

And the monthly loan interest rates of these two banks were mostly aimed at factories and the Blanca City government, and the interest rates for personal credit loans were also very low.

In the eyes of many, these two banks, one large and one small, had gone mad, as if they were doing charity. No one knew how these two banks were making money, but Barron Bank's profits were among the highest in Argentina.

This caused massive deposits to pour into these two banks, and their scale expanded very rapidly, causing many banks to follow suit.

The citizens of Blanca City also had the highest savings rate in Argentina, with San Martín City close behind.

This also allowed Blanca City to continue to use various funds for crazy expansion.

Many economic experts in Buenos Aires believed that such development had no future, but their factories were being seized by the aggressive Blanca City, which had low loan interest rates, many support policies, and formed a large-scale industry, resulting in high competitive pressure and production costs far lower than other places.

It could be said that Saint Hércules was raising Gu, cultivating Argentina's most competitive and internationally capable factories, which was why Blanca City's export volume was steadily increasing.

As for whether Barron Bank was losing money or making money, overall it was still slightly losing money, but it couldn't withstand the various overseas remittances and the profits from several profitable companies being handed over.

As for whether Barron Bank's development could last for a long time, that was a matter for the future. Nothing was more important than surviving well.

…

On January 15th, under a delicate balance, President Eduardo successfully defeated the ambitious General Aramburu and the hawks' coup attempt.

He thwarted their political conspiracy, removed General Aramburu from the position of Minister of the Army, and expelled him from Argentina.

General Little Thompson became the new leader of the Argentine hawks.

Eduardo also had to make a lot of compromises to ensure his presidential position.

American penetration into Argentina was also strengthened.

On January 22nd, Argentina and the United States exchanged military delegations and prepared to hold a joint maritime military exercise between the Argentine Navy and the United States Navy. Vice President General José attended the meeting.

On January 28th, Argentina joined the "Caracas Anti-Soviet Socialist Party Treaty" passed at the 1954 Organization of American States meeting.

On February 6th, the Presidential Palace planned to join the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

American capital began to invade the Argentine economy on a large scale, acquiring a large number of Argentine local companies and establishing Argentine branches.

The competitive pressure on Saint Hércules' companies increased unprecedentedly. Philip Industries' tractors began to face American-branded tractors with good quality and low prices.

Leiden Tractors began to lower prices and promote sales to meet new challenges.

Five large automobile companies will enter Córdoba, Argentina, to prepare to build advanced automobile factories.

The pressure on the Fiat Motors project increased unprecedentedly. If it failed, Saint Hércules would suffer heavy losses, and the SEAM automobile factory was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Argentina officially signed an agreement with California Standard Oil to develop domestic oil, and the Southern Oil Project suffered the strongest resistance.

On February 16th, the Argentine Parliament passed the first meeting vote to nationalize Leiden Military Industries, and it was passed by 80%. Leiden Military Industries started the nationalization process. This move was opposed by many people, but under the strangulation of various forces, Saint Hércules lost all ownership of Leiden Military Industries.

On February 18th, President Eduardo's office planned to abolish measures against the Church, such as abolishing the Civil Marriage Law, restoring Church schools, and re-accepting the leadership of the Vatican Church.

And there were rumors that the hawks proposed dissolving the Justicialist Party and planned to militarize the trade unions to completely disintegrate the resistance forces in Argentina.

This was opposed by most political parties in Argentina, and the contradictions intensified again. The Republican Party and the Socialist Party organized a general strike, which developed very rapidly.

The production and living conditions of Argentine workers deteriorated again.

The situation in Argentina was completely out of control, and President Eduardo's destructiveness was also very alarming.

Except for Blanca City, most Argentine companies and factories were vulnerable to foreign companies.

Under multiple blows, several new development projects of Saint Hércules fell into crisis, and he had to sell shares in some companies with unlimited potential in the United States to carry out strategic contraction.

And the Andes Cigarette Factory still created a profit of 20 million US dollars for him, although the original estimate was 30 million US dollars, and the planting scale was also expanded. The crackdown on tobacco smuggling in Chile alone lost 6 million US dollars.

American Blackwater Security Company was sold and dissolved.

The scale of the Thunder Cross security personnel was reduced from 2,000 to 300.

Only 200 people remained in the Blue Delta, and they had to develop some new businesses.

The investment plan in La Pampa Province was greatly reduced.

Sequoia cleared 19 million US dollars of General Electric stock, 27 million US dollars of DuPont stock was sold, and 11 million US dollars of International Business Electronic Machines Company stock was sold.

Sequoia Investment Bank cleared its shares in 3 major American banks, obtaining 24 million US dollars, while the acquisition price before the investment was 27 million US dollars, losing 3 million US dollars.

Saint Hércules even planned to sell shares of Honda Motor Co., Tokyo Electronic Industries and other Japanese companies, but had to suspend the sale due to the low prices.

Many promising American company stocks were mostly sold by Saint Hércules, but he also bought some new stocks, such as Miranda's counterparts Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola, and Xiangjiang's HSBC Bank.

With the support of these American funds, Saint Hércules slowly eased up and was able to redeploy.