Rise of the Argentine Empire

The various laws, regulations, and policies of Bahía Blanca also influenced the surrounding areas. The Three Provinces Alliance - the reason these provinces couldn't develop, aside from historical factors, was also their small population, which severely constrained their growth.

In fact, the environmental conditions of La Pampa Province and Río Negro Province are roughly equivalent to the Hamburg and Bremen areas of northern Germany in Europe, and the Qilu Province to Xinjin City level in New China. The Río Negro region south of Bahía Blanca also lies on Argentina's 10-degree average annual temperature isotherm, possessing a huge population carrying capacity. Of course, rainfall is slightly less due to ocean currents and monsoons.

Such a natural environment is very livable. At least in an era when air conditioning wasn't widespread, winters weren't too cold, with little snow and ice, and summers weren't as hot as tropical regions, making many immigrants from tropical areas more willing to stay and develop.

Moreover, the hot land of Bahía Blanca also represented great opportunities. As a city where foreign trade flourished in Argentina, the latest trends from around the world could become popular here within a month, allowing some new industries to take root and sprout. For example, with Maya Chemical's large-scale production of plastics, some toy factories and plastic factories nearby began to move over to develop, forming supporting industries and creating virtuous development.

September 25th,

Bahía Blanca. It was already spring, and the weather was gradually warming up.

Today was Sunday. Saint-Hosea's study was deserted, with no one visiting. His wife had taken their eldest daughter back to Buenos Aires a couple of days ago. He was too busy with official duties to leave, so he was enjoying some rare peace and quiet today.

He was sitting leisurely on a stool in his study, reading and pondering some development strategies.

"To truly reform and destroy the military government, we must use civilian officials to suppress military officers, forming a true modern party politics. At the same time, we should cultivate officers to preserve the nation's military strength, establish military academies, keep the army under the control of the presidential palace, ban private military forces and local warlords, develop official military power, and truly achieve centralization and unified governance."

Saint-Hosea was filled with emotions, searching for answers in history books and socialist books, hoping to solve the military government problem.

Outside the window, the spring scenery was bright, new buds were emerging from the grass, and some birds were chirping. The average temperature for the past few days had been basically stable above 12℃.

Most Bahía Blanca citizens would choose to go out for a spring outing. Nearby islands and small parks were all good places to go.

Along the roads in Bahía Blanca, many people were doing landscaping, laying lawns, planting greenery, and repairing fences. The city hall allocated funds to beautify the environment on both sides of the repaired cement roads with urban greenery.

Nearby winter wheat fields were starting to turn green and joint, and early rice in some northern areas could also start preparing for planting. Truly, the year's plan lies in spring.

Bahía Blanca now absorbed many new immigrants, especially rice-planting farmers, many of whom were experienced Saigon, Indonesian, and Filipino farmers. On the contrary, the number of Chinese had decreased. Farming was a hard labor, and most of the more resourceful Chinese raised money to open restaurants and grocery stores, which were more profitable. In the future, agriculture still retained some Chinese rice-planting experts who provided guidance during the growing season in the Southern Hemisphere.

The National Southern University's Department of Agronomy and the Bahía Blanca Agricultural College had also been prepared, waiting for the autumn semester to begin.

Agriculture was the foundation of Argentina's southern provinces and also a market with huge potential. In later generations, due to the country's strength, Argentina, as a major grain and livestock producer, instead became the meat on the chopping block.

South of Bahía Blanca, on the southern edge of the Pampas grasslands, the vast grasslands in the Colorado River basin and south of the Río Negro were Argentina's "Great Southern Wilderness," with huge development potential. Mechanization, irrigation facility construction, and seed cultivation all had broad prospects.

Why did the developed countries of Europe and the United States in later generations have such huge competitiveness in grain and livestock agriculture? Wasn't it because of huge agricultural subsidies that allowed them to improve various technologies without worry?

Cheap grain bankrupted Mexican and Egyptian farmers who had considerable production advantages. In the end, everyone went to plant cash crops like cotton, soybeans, and cocoa. After the country couldn't produce grain, it could arbitrarily monopolize the market and raise grain prices. South Korea and Japan also suffered from this, leading to high domestic grain prices. However, because they were economically developed and located in East Asia, backed by New China, an agricultural power, they weren't harvested too severely by the United States.

Other methods also included so-called alcohol gasoline. Neighboring Brazil was also one of them. Was ethanol gasoline really environmentally friendly? It seemed to be a little, but after changing the original grain planting to sugarcane, grain production fell, and scarcity itself could sell at a higher price. This also made the already impoverished countries of Africa and the West Indies suffer, truly eating dirt and gnawing on tree bark.

This year, Bahía Blanca also held the spring planting conference as usual, signing a large number of agricultural contracts, the scale of which even increased compared to last year. However, Saint-Hosea didn't attend this year. The person in charge of this conference had already been handed over to his confidant, Deputy Mayor Rostek Kreidmann. This old Radical Party member was in his prime. The two had been working together for more than two years and had been quite happy.

It was just that most Radical Party members weren't clear about his influence in the south.

Suddenly, a steady footstep came from the study door. Someone was knocking gently on the door, and after a while, they came in.

Seeing Saint-Hosea, Old Luke stopped and nodded, revealing a smile:

"Respectable sir, it's time for lunch."

The person who came was a forty-five-year-old gentleman with black hair and wearing black clothes, precisely his British butler, Old Luke.

Old Luke was British. When Saint-Hosea was studying at the University of Buenos Aires, he was responsible for taking care of his daily life. The cook, Anna, was also like that.

The old butler wasn't actually old. He was a great help to Saint-Hosea in life and was very loyal. When he was in college, Saint-Hosea was already a nouveau riche, so he followed the trend and hired a butler. He didn't expect it to be quite comfortable, and the two got along well.

"Okay, I'll go wash my hands first."

Saint-Hosea put down his book and raised his hand to look at his watch, only to realize it was already 12:30 PM.

After a simple lunch, he lay on the bed and slept for a while.

The driver, Brag Teo, was on standby outside the garage. At two o'clock, he was going to the Defense Army to inspect the troops' situation.

Carrying him to the La Pampa Provincial Defense Department, he had to check the training results every week. Looking at the neatly dressed troops, he also breathed a sigh of relief.

......

Under the pressure of many local and foreign forces, the city hall led by Saint-Hosea still restricted the high prices of the real estate industry, steadily controlling housing prices, preventing housing prices from becoming the citizens' contraceptive pills. Now, Bahía Blanca's housing prices were controlled very well, belonging to the bottom level among Argentina's large and medium-sized cities, only equivalent to 1/3 of Rosario's and 1/7 of Buenos Aires', and sometimes even lower.

Moreover, Bahía Blanca was developing new real estate everywhere, possessing huge reserve land reserves. New buildings were being developed in all 6 districts, and the proportion of affordable housing among them was no less than 50%, and the development of detached villas was restricted to prevent waste of land.

Bahía Blanca had a lot of public rental housing and affordable rental housing, leading the way in Argentina. Real estate companies were encouraged to develop public rental housing and affordable rental housing, and the annual housing prices must be filed, and the rental prices were also like this, limiting the annual increase to prevent housing prices and rents from becoming a pressure on citizens and foreign workers.

Moreover, Saint-Hosea also encouraged special places like "urban villages," making Bahía Blanca's housing prices and rents very friendly.

Now, the high-speed development of Bahía Blanca's real estate industry relied on high growth rather than prices. The era of real estate profiteering didn't exist, but it was indeed possible to make a lot of money because the demand was large enough.

Saint-Hosea hoped to maintain a high birth rate in Bahía Blanca and its surroundings for a period of time, at least for a period of time, as this was an element of sustainable development. He also set an example and practiced this principle.

His wife, Ilena, was pregnant again and was now more than three months along.

His lover Natalie, Nora Mesandes of Future Agriculture, and Rosa of Balen Bank had also become pregnant or were planning to get pregnant. Many women wanted to climb into Saint-Hosea's bed. Many powerful families wanted to send women to his bed, but he refused them all. He was quite cautious about managing his crotch.

Natalie, Nora, and Rosa had all been with him for four or five years, knew him well, had always remained single, and didn't have much ambition, standing steadily behind him. Only then was he willing to let go a little. Saint-Hosea didn't have much need for these things.

Moreover, Argentinian society is now relatively open to these things, at least quite tolerant, which Saint Hesser is only slowly coming to accept.

He requires every civil servant in Blanca City to raise at least three children.

This positive atmosphere has also influenced many ordinary citizens, but relying on these alone is far from enough; faster growth still depends on new immigrants and internal migration.

In addition to attracting immigrants from neighboring countries, Saint Hesser also values immigrants from the Nanyang region, such as Filipinos, Vietnamese, Thais, Indonesians, and Chinese, who can also supplement the population here, as long as they don't form cliques or cause conflicts between locals and foreign immigrants, it would be very good.

Through word of mouth, the Plarrie International fleet has even opened passenger routes specifically from Medan, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta to Blanca City, attracting new immigrants and ordinary refugees, traversing the entire South Pacific route and passing through Australia and New Zealand.

October, already the transition between spring and summer, Blanca Port, passenger port,

A new international passenger ship has just arrived at the dock. This 13,000-ton passenger ship from Saigon carries approximately 5,000 people, including nearly 4,000 refugees, most of whom come from Nanyang and have already learned a few simple phrases in Spanish on the ship.

Some people have already disembarked in Sydney and New Zealand, but most are attracted by the beautiful propaganda of Blanca City, and they will contribute to Blanca City's textile industry and other industries.

Saint Hesser has already arranged for the Saigon Chinese Association and Vietnamese Association of Blanca Port to make preparations for receiving them.

Most of these refugees have dry hair and somewhat dull eyes. After nearly 20 days of sailing at sea, arriving on the other side of the world, their feet on solid ground, they feel very unfamiliar with the environment, contrasting sharply with ordinary Blanca City residents.

This ship can almost be said to be a refugee ship, rather than a conventional passenger-cargo ship. Most people struggled to buy expensive tickets to escape their homes, traveling tens of thousands of miles.

These new immigrants have also undergone some selection. Saint Hesser's idea is to prioritize refugee families or married couples, so as to minimize the impact on social order and better integrate them into the local community, quickly making them the second generation of Blanca City residents.

In reality, there are not many ships from Nanyang like this, at most two or three per month, with numbers ranging from 2,000 to 6,000.

Saint Hesser intends to control the scale to prevent the numbers from becoming too large. Otherwise, the number of immigrants from Nanyang could increase several times over.

The impact would be too great, and it could easily cause dissatisfaction, or even large-scale conflicts. Although Blanca City can now be said to be an immigrant city and is quite friendly to immigrants, these people are, after all, not from other parts of the country, and it is necessary to control the situation well.

Currently, new immigrant families can receive some basic subsidies, such as rent subsidies and work subsidies, which can help many people get through the most difficult initial period.

Moreover, basically any newborn child born in Blanca City can enjoy the same rights as all Blanca City citizens, which can be said to be a benefit.

Saint Hesser also doesn't want to cause large-scale cultural conflicts. The best organized among these people is Chinatown, which also gives him some headaches, but with the guidance of the city hall, the problem is not too big.

Blanca City now has several Chinatowns. The Chinese are mostly engaged in textiles, clothing, building materials, construction work, catering, and department stores, and some are also engaged in slaughtering, planting, and animal husbandry.

There are also quite a few Vietnamese people, most of whom are refugees, who are engaged in construction engineering and the textile and garment industry, and some are engaged in domestic service. These industries are mostly manual labor, but they can also help them gain a foothold in Blanca City.

Saint Hesser tries to arrange funding to guarantee their basic living conditions, anyway, Blanca City has no shortage of houses and training schools.

Plarrie International's passenger ships now mostly depart from Nanyang, and then turn into cargo ships when they leave Blanca Port, carrying some bulk cargo to the Nanyang region.

Plarrie International, Plarrie Shipping, and Thunder Mining have their Nanyang regional headquarters in Medan, with branches in Jakarta, Saigon, Bangkok, Manila, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur. They import rubber, oil, and various minerals, and export light and heavy weapons, steel, machinery products, and textiles. The trade volume is not very large, maybe less than 5 million US dollars a month, which is not too much compared to Blanca City's current import and export volume of 40 million US dollars last month.

More immigrants to Blanca City come from neighboring countries such as Chile and Peru, but the ships are generally not as large as the Nanyang passenger ships, controlled at the 6,000-ton level, each carrying 1,000 to 1,500 passengers. The number of ships is higher, basically 15-20 per month, mostly distributed to various river ports to supplement the local scarce labor force.

Most of them are dressed differently and basically speak Spanish, just with different accents, but communication is not a problem.

Quickly, in a few months, they can perfectly integrate into the local community and supplement the scarce labor resources.

After labor training, they can also adapt well to the needs of the job. Blanca City has organized a large number of training schools, which is a win-win-win result.

Unknowingly, Blanca City has become a city in Argentina whose trade import and export can be compared with Buenos Aires. Many products from Mendoza Province, Córdoba Province, San Luis Province, and the south of Buenos Aires Province are also exported through Blanca City, and the Strait of Magellan in the south is becoming increasingly busy.

Saint Hesser asked the people from Thunder Motors to go to Italy again, hoping to win the automobile agency rights for Nanyang, Australia, and South Asia, which are areas that Fiat Motors is less involved in. He hopes to earn more profits. The Fiat 600 is still very popular, and it can earn high profits every month now.

Blanca City's main export trading partners are mainly neighboring countries and Europe and North America. The United States has reduced trade restrictions on Argentina, allowing some Argentine products to enter the US market.

New immigrants from Nanyang and North Africa mostly choose to enter Blanca City, rather than the original Buenos Aires, and many people have not even chosen to go to the free United States, but have come to Argentina instead.

With the promotion of various advantages, Blanca City has become a major town attracting new immigrants. War, poverty, dictatorship, and terror have made many people choose to leave their homes and seek new paradise.

Blanca City meets most people's imagination of the future, full of opportunities, employment, low cost of living, good public security conditions, gun ban, at least no need to worry about being shot to death.

Regarding the gun ban, Saint Hesser's approach is very simple. Basically, no new gun licenses are issued. Existing gun licenses are assessed every six months, and the assessment fee is no less than $50 each time, and an exam is required every year. If the assessment fails, the gun license will be revoked, the source of bullets will be registered, and a lot of other messy things, which raises the threshold for gun ownership.

Once an illegal gun possession incident occurs, if no casualties are caused, the sentence is 5 years; if casualties are caused, the sentence is 20 years or more, all property is confiscated, and direct relatives are affected.

Under various measures, Blanca City can almost be said to be one of the safest places in the world. He has raised the status of the Police Department, and being a police officer in Blanca City has become a very respected thing.

Blanca City is as beautiful as a "utopia," not at all like Argentina, and the three coastal cities basically copied Blanca City's policies, and with the support of Blanca City, they have also rapidly developed from small fishing villages and towns to become towns of ten thousand people. Fishing ports, salt production, tourism, power generation, and trade transshipment are all the development goals of the three coastal cities.

Puerto Colorado, located at the southernmost end, is developing the fastest, with a resident population of 15,000, making it the third largest city in La Pampa Province. The river-sea transportation along the Colorado River can reach many places upstream, making it very convenient to develop processing industries and aquatic product processing.

The nearby provincial capital, Viedma, is also developing at an alarming rate, with a large influx of population.

… …

In November, the Blanca City Municipal Government decided to increase the development efforts in the Bosca District, the outer third district of Blanca City, and build a real petrochemical industrial new city accordingly.

Saint Hesser formulated an overall development plan for the new district, with a target of developing 150,000 people in two years and 500,000 people in the long term. In addition to the two main enterprises, Southern Petroleum and Maya Chemical, it will also conduct national investment promotion, and has currently determined cooperation with Argentina's state-owned oil company.

In addition to building an oil pipeline in Chubut Province, Blanca City will jointly fund low-interest ten-year loans with the three major banks to help Southern Petroleum build an oil pipeline to Neuquén Province and accelerate construction.

Blanca City Special Steel Plant has established a special oil steel pipe plant to speed up the construction of oil pipelines.

Saint Hesser gives full play to Blanca City's practice of concentrating its efforts on major tasks and begins large-scale development and investment promotion, which will once again create wealth for a large number of people.

The petrochemical industry is a good industry, and both upstream and downstream can well promote the development of Argentina's industrial shortcomings.