Rise of the Argentine Empire

In the suburbs of Blanca, the number of steel mills was increasing, and the environmental pollution in Blanca Bay was becoming more and more serious, which was a rather difficult problem to deal with.

Near the three major steel mills in Blanca City, there were a large number of iron foundries and steel foundries, the air was filled with a foul smell, and the river water was black. Fortunately, this area was not in the city center, so the impact was not too great.

Environmental pollution was unavoidable. The sky in Blanca City was no longer blue. Blanca City could only take the path of polluting first. Otherwise, there would be no profit in building the steel industry at all. Even if it acquired mining companies in Australia, Colombia, Uruguay, South Africa, and other places, including the most important coal and steel for steelmaking, it could obtain a relatively low price, but the cost of shipping by Prall International was still relatively high.

Because this was not a simple international sea route, and the cost of large-tonnage ore ships was also relatively high. For example, the maximum amount of coal a ship could transport at one time was no more than 50,000 tons, and iron ore was no more than 60,000 tons. Just supplying the La Plata Steel Mill required tens of millions of tons of coal, not to mention the several major steel mills in Blanca City, the transportation volume could not keep up with the demand.

Moreover, the South Pacific route and the East Pacific route were not mainstream routes, and the transportation costs remained high. Unlike the Japanese steel industry, which could obtain coal and steel from Southeast Asia, India, and other regions, and had a large number of transportation companies in Hong Kong and other places, the golden route of the Old World could not be compared with the route of the New World. At least the freight was increased by half, not to mention the suppression from the United States. Moreover, Argentina's steel exports did not have a large nearby market. This involved the issue of the export market. Only the largest Brazilian market and other South American markets had demand.

South Africa, Brazil, and even Australia were future competitors, which also needed to be considered. The United States itself was a major steel producer, and only Europe had some demand, but it was not large. Western Europe and the Soviet Union were both major steel producers.

Therefore, the steel advantage established by Saint-Jose was not great. It was necessary to reduce costs, increase efficiency, or digest it domestically and carry out deep processing.

The statue of the harvest goddess erected on Harvest Square in the Achiri district seemed to be a satire on pollution.

The Blanca City Hall, led by Saint-Jose, unscrupulously laid out heavy chemical industries in Blanca City. A steady stream of funds poured into Blanca City from home and abroad, and a relatively complete industrial system was developed in a very short period of time.

Among them, rumors were rife that Blanca Steel Mill and Hans Steel Mill were privately invested by Mayor Saint-Jose Cohen. At that time, anyone who tried to block the construction of the two steel mills would either go to labor reform or go bankrupt directly. At that time, the City Hall directly established a Steel Office in the Investment Promotion Department, and civil servants were stationed there to speed up the construction of the steel mills.

The steel mills were the most valued by the Blanca City Hall at that time. Blanca City Commercial Bank was originally established to finance the two steel mills. 80% of the bank's loans were invested in the two steel mills, and then gradually decreased. However, the bank also slowly became tied to the large enterprises in Blanca City, helping the large local state-owned enterprises and private enterprises in Blanca City to expand their territory.

With the large-scale construction of steel mills, chemical plants, power plants, oil refineries, foundries, smelters, cement plants, pollution was already unavoidable.

The completion of Blanca Steel, Hans Steel, and Medanos Steel, the three major steel mills, allowed Blanca City's steel production to easily exceed 10 million tons, and even sprint towards 20 million tons.

Southern Oil, under the leadership of President Juan Nielsen and Exploration Department Director Dr. Duke, developed very rapidly.

Southern Oil Company's oil refining capacity was also aimed at 10 million tons. The oil refinery included various products such as ethylene, propylene, gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel/kerosene, fuel oil, and liquefied petroleum gas. With the completion of the Bosca II and III Industrial Parks, Southern Oil built 17 medium and large factories in Bosca District of Blanca City, Comodoro Rivadavia City of Patagonia Province, Rosen City, Otto City, and Añelo Town of Neuquén Province, completing the entire industrial chain construction from exploration to refining. Southern Oil's total output value will exceed 250 million US dollars, becoming the most powerful company under the Cohen Consortium.

Southern Oil's great success in oil exploration in Patagonia Province and Neuquén Province also tied it to Argentina's National Oil Company, and it conducted unprecedented competition with Standard Oil of California, dividing up the Patagonian oil exploration business. Moreover, it obtained technical support from the Italian National Oil Company, allowing Southern Oil to make great progress, and the number of employees reached as many as 37,000.

Although a company with a business scale of 250 million US dollars was already very large, it was still not comparable to an investment from Standard Oil of California, with an initial investment of 500 million US dollars, and it was still an investment from one company. Compared to the wealthy American oil giants, Southern Oil was still too weak. The Cohen Consortium's overall turnover had already reached 600 million US dollars, ranking first among Argentine consortia. This included a large number of companies such as Blue Cloud Group, Thunder Mining, La Plata Steel, Prall International, Prall Foods, New Cohen Heavy Industry, Barren Bank, San Martin Aircraft Factory, Three Seas Shipbuilding, Maya Chemical, Andes Tobacco, Southern Oil, Southern Power, and Blanca Steel.

A turnover of 600 million US dollars was not even comparable to the 30th largest company in the United States, and it was far from being comparable to the top ten consortia in the United States. The assets of the top ten consortia in the United States were as rich as a country, basically starting at tens of billions of US dollars.

Even the scale of Sequoia Investment Bank - Blackstone Group in the United States was as large as 500 million US dollars. Even though Saint-Jose had been transferring funds and penetrating Wall Street through some preemptive investments, he was already one of the top players on Wall Street.

However, Sequoia was slowly breaking away from Saint-Jose's control. Saint-Jose had to support a large number of investment companies such as Blackstone to diversify his investments. Sequoia's investment in Europe, Japan, and the United States was also expanding year by year. These were the three regions with the fastest economic growth in the post-war world, excluding the Soviet Union, New China, and India.

Currently, the most powerful companies in the world were General Motors, followed by Ford Motor, Exxon, Texaco, Chevron, Mobil Oil, and Gulf Oil Company. The business scale of these companies was tens of billions of US dollars to tens of billions of US dollars.

With the establishment of the Argentine National Securities Exchange in Blanca City, some players different from the Buenos Aires Securities Exchange slowly emerged. The number of listed companies had also reached 67. The listing restriction set by Saint-Jose was that annual turnover exceeding 3 million US dollars could be listed.

Saint-Jose hoped to establish a financial market different from the Buenos Aires Securities Exchange through the National Securities Exchange. Although this would weaken the Cohen Consortium, Saint-Jose slowly delegated power within the Cohen Consortium. Some promising young people and open families were also absorbed by Saint-Jose.

Many industries within the Cohen Consortium had great potential. Even Blue Cloud Group, which made clothing, was increasing its sales scale very quickly and was in a stage of rapid development.

The companies under the Cohen Consortium, like the unicorns of later generations, also had to delegate power. The domestic market in Argentina was changing very quickly. It was no longer what it was in the early 1950s, and it was impossible to rely on old capital forever.

Saint-Jose also helped them establish preliminary competitive advantages, which could help them take a step forward, but it was impossible to establish permanent advantages.

Saint-Jose adopted the method of focusing on the big and letting go of the small. When necessary, he might abandon some companies and sell them to trusted people, and integrate the Cohen Consortium.

With Barren Bank as its core, the Cohen Consortium controlled Barren Investment Bank, Barren Life Insurance Company, and other financial institutions. Through these financial institutions, it directly or indirectly controlled many industrial and mining enterprises, occupying an important position in Argentina's steel metallurgy, chemical, rubber, automobile, food, and other economic sectors, as well as the arms industry. Its annual turnover had reached 6% of Argentina's. Last year, Argentina's gross national product broke 10 billion US dollars for the first time, and La Pampa Province made a huge contribution to it.

While Saint-Jose was desperately expanding La Pampa Province and Blanca's state-owned companies, he maintained an equal development attitude towards private companies with great potential. These private companies were of great benefit to expanding employment and revitalizing the economy.

What followed was huge environmental pollution. An oil power plant and a thermal power plant were built in the Bosca District. A huge power plant was specially built for the secret nuclear physics laboratory for the extraction and purification of uranium ore.

The city of Blanca now has two pillar industries: steel and petrochemicals. Industries such as automobiles, shipbuilding, papermaking, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, casting, textiles, and machinery factories are also slowly developing, forming upstream and downstream expansion. The Bosca district has also built the western port of Blanca Bay, which is different from the northern steel trading port. It is also closer to the Neuquén Province and is an important transfer station for the Southern Petroleum pipeline.

The construction of the Blanca city deep-water port focuses on the development of the north, west, and south three major areas. The north has Blanca Steel and Hans Steel, the west has Southern Petroleum and Maya Chemical, and the south, which has just been developed, is mainly Medanos United Steel. The construction of a 100,000-ton deep-water port has now begun, importing a large amount of coal and iron ore, and exporting steel.

The development of Blanca city's steel industry has completely surpassed La Plata, and has therefore attracted more supporting factories.

Saint Hesser's most optimistic estimate for Blanca city is a giant city of five million people. With the steel plant, large-scale infrastructure construction has accelerated again, and the scale and distance of some factory industrial areas can be greatly expanded.

Cement roads connect the various remote suburbs of Blanca city with the central urban area and the port, which can speed up the construction of the suburbs. The laying of bridges has also become simpler. Reinforced concrete allows Blanca city to build higher buildings, wider roads, more powerful water supply facilities, larger-scale sewage systems, and larger factories.

With cheap steel and construction demand, New Cohen Heavy Industry's truck project and Rhein Tractor Factory have also established engineering machinery factories, and began to introduce various engineering machinery such as excavators, loaders, and concrete trucks, which is also a very good promotion for the development of the machinery industry.

In addition to the coastal highway, La Pampa Province is also building an inland highway, which can transport various raw materials more conveniently and cheaply. A new round of infrastructure bonds has therefore been issued in large quantities, and Blanca city has created huge infrastructure construction demand.

Some companies in Buenos Aires have also benefited from the economic development of Blanca and have carried out aggressive expansion, forming a number of competitive companies, and even forming a chaebol model similar to the Cohen Consortium. Alliances and expansions have been carried out between families, and competitiveness and scale have been greatly strengthened.

These companies and factories themselves also have certain competitiveness. On the one hand, they invest in building factories to expand production capacity, and on the other hand, they update and transform old production line equipment to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

On the other hand, they began to develop trade with Europe, Brazil, and the United States. They are much stronger than the husband-and-wife shops and one-person trading companies in Blanca city.

The technological gap between factories in Argentina and Europe is not too large, and there are some very flexible factories that were on par with the Cohen Consortium when they competed in the beginning. Now, they have rapidly expanded and developed, forming a scale.

In export trade, the proportion of manufactured industrial products has increased. Blanca city's steel is exported to Europe and Brazil in large quantities, earning a large amount of foreign exchange, and also strongly supporting Frondizi's reforms.

And in the west of Medanos United Steel Company, a company has also risen, Medanos Western Steel Trading Company, referred to as Messi Trading. This is a private trading company. At first, it only obtained the agency rights to export steel from Chile, but it quickly opened up the Chilean market. 17% of the steel from the Medanos Steel Plant is consumed by Chile, while before that, La Plata Steel Plant, Blanca Steel Plant, and Hans Steel Plant had not opened up the Chilean market.

This is a considerable achievement. Chile's steel demand has always been very large, but it is more imported from Morgan Steel Company, while Messi Steel Trading completed this feat and opened up the Chilean market.

Chile's population is growing very fast, and it already has more than 10 million people, which is not a small number.

The Argentine treasury also slowly has a little surplus, which consolidated Frondizi's rule.

For Saint Hesser, the most exciting thing is the growth of the Argentine population, which has basically stabilized at a sprint towards 30 million. In less than 10 years, it has increased by almost 10 million people, nearly 4 million new immigrants, the registered population increased due to the census (approximately 2 million), and the annual increase in newborn population.

Although the scale of the Argentine baby boom after World War II was not large, it did greatly increase the population. Argentina did not experience war, and the situation of emigrating abroad due to economic recession has improved. Immigration from Europe has been greatly reduced, and new immigrants basically come from surrounding countries. Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, and Peru have contributed many new immigrants.

In recent years, the number of new immigrants has increased very quickly, with nearly 1 million arriving in La Pampa Province. Even if they have not yet obtained a household registration, many have also immigrated to Cordoba, San Martin City, Oran, Rosario, and La Plata, which are developing rapidly. More people are going to Buenos Aires from domestic immigration.

Buenos Aires has stricter management, and the scale of employment is decreasing. The scale of state-owned enterprises and state-run factories here is larger, and strikes and factory layoffs are greatly restricted. It is not as flexible as the factories in Blanca, and the new jobs are more oriented towards citizens, so the population increase is not as high as in Blanca City.

Blanca City truly welcomes everyone and is extremely friendly. After several crackdowns on crime, its public security ranks among the top in Argentina. In addition, with the garrison of the La Pampa Defense Army, there are very few troublemakers. There are many jobs, and the prices and rents are cheap. Like a magnet, the population is rolling and increasing at a rate of 300,000 to 400,000 per year, and the administrative area expands and merges, and in one year it even increased by 600,000.

The houses that Saint Hesser built not only have tube buildings, but now there are also high-rise buildings exceeding 6 floors. These newly built high-rise buildings, with simple decoration, the construction period is basically no more than 3 months. Like planting houses, construction companies and decoration companies are in full bloom, building houses all year round, regardless of whether there are so many people.

Some media propaganda in the past few years has received positive feedback. The intensive promotion of cities such as San Martin City, Buenos Aires City, Blanca City, Oran City, and Rosario has resulted in a large increase in the newborn population.

After inflation was basically curbed, people were more willing to have children. The scale of women's education in Argentina in the 1950s did not expand too much, which is actually a good thing for Argentina's population growth.

The economic difficulties in recent years have led to very slow educational development in Argentina. Only seven or eight universities have been newly built in Blanca City. The financial difficulties in other provinces and urban areas are actually very common, which has caused the development of national education in Argentina to fall into stagnation and regression.

The urbanization process in Blanca City has accelerated. Perhaps it will not be long before the birth rate in Blanca City will plummet. Saint Hesser can only try to slow down this process as much as possible, including the free-range education propaganda method, establishing large-scale cheap nurseries, which can free up families and not worry about raising children, and establishing various parenting welfare institutions, striving to raise more children.

Saint Hesser hopes that before the arrival of the 1960s, Argentina's population can grow a little more, attract more immigrants to La Pampa Province and Blanca City, and establish a more convenient immigration visa system. Anyway, among the surrounding immigration countries, Brazil's population is exploding. Even if industrial development is very fast, the unemployment rate is still high, which is also an important source for Saint Hesser to attract immigrants.

Blanca City's several expansions of the administrative area are also preparing for population growth. Building houses has basically never stopped. No matter how many people come, they don't have to live in slums. Wherever the houses are built, the industrial area is built.