Rise of the Argentine Empire

About ten days had passed since the auction. The new team quickly stabilized the steel mill and safely transitioned operations.

After paying the back wages, many people still harbored illusions, thinking that a new boss had arrived who would shake things up.

They attempted to organize strikes and demand wage increases, but the new team demonstrated excellent crisis management skills, using a combination of divide-and-conquer tactics and carrot-and-stick approaches.

They easily dealt with the troublemakers, fired some of the more rebellious elements, and, when necessary, had the intelligence agency intimidate the rest. The steel mill stabilized and resumed regular production, temporarily sourcing raw materials from domestic steel plants.

This was Saint-Hesse's consistent philosophy: he would never allow unions to lead his factories by the nose, and the employees in his factories would always earn above-average wages compared to the rest of the country.

They would enjoy good basic benefits, focusing entirely on product development and production. This was an advantage that most Argentine factories did not have.

Currently, most Argentine factories were spending their energy on dealing with unions.

Furthermore, exports and sales were only conducted through Prarie International and the Cohen Brothers. Only Thunder Mining currently had an international department.

All factories only needed to focus on fulfilling orders, ensuring high quality, and maintaining cost-effectiveness. This would guarantee sufficient profits.

Saint-Hesse's foresight also guided the product direction, preventing deviations.

This was Saint-Hesse's unique way of controlling factories, allowing them to rapidly expand without worrying about redundant or haphazard construction. This gave Saint-Hesse enough capital to expand into new products, such as the major undertaking of a steel plant.

…

September, Brazil,

São Paulo,

It was early spring here, and the temperature was mild. Today, the daytime high was only twenty degrees Celsius.

Inside a high-end hotel in the city center,

Little Knicks, the head of Prarie International, had just woken up. He opened the curtains and looked at the scenery outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.

In the distance, two contrasting scenes unfolded: skyscrapers stood alongside the massive São Paulo Cathedral, which was still under construction.

The two bell towers had already been completed. This cathedral, which had been rebuilt 38 years ago, was nearing completion, boasting grand scale and exquisite architecture.

Further away was a sprawling slum, already taking shape. It was a nexus of vice, crime, brothels, and various other chaotic elements, seemingly unrelated to the clean and tidy city center of São Paulo.

He held a glass of ACAI juice in his hand and a flavorful piece of maca in his right hand.

He glanced at the two sleeping Brazilian beauties on the bed. Their skin had a healthy, tanned complexion, and their bodies had perfect proportions.

He had closed several major deals yesterday and had been busy all night. He rubbed his lower back, which was still a little sore. Today was a good day to relax, and perhaps he could try the grilled kidneys that the boss had mentioned tonight.

Back in February of this year, he often went to eat grilled meat with the boss. Unfortunately, Argentine barbecue had too few varieties. At that time, Saint-Hesse often told him to eat more supplements.

Brazil was Prarie International's largest overseas market because of its proximity and large population. Industries like food, clothing, shoes, beer, and soda were not considered important core industries.

Therefore, they were not subject to trade protectionism, allowing Prarie International to earn a lot of Reais here. However, some core industries were strictly prohibited from being imported, as Brazil implemented a strict trade protection policy.

São Paulo was currently the largest city in Brazil and the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere. Compared to the capital, Rio de Janeiro, it was more prosperous and synonymous with Brazilian prosperity.

It was filled with subtropical Samba charm everywhere. Brazilian beauties were now recognized as a synonym for beauty in Europe and America, and the mixed-race Brazilian girls were as generous and friendly as sunshine.

São Paulo's industry was mainly based on traditional industries such as cotton spinning, grain processing, and coffee processing, but it was developing rapidly. In recent years, the Brazilian government had invested in many large factories here.

These included a large number of industrial enterprises such as metallurgy, machinery, electricity, food, cement, chemicals, rubber, tobacco, and paper. Some private oil companies had also established refineries here. The São Paulo Stock Exchange was the largest exchange in Latin America, and there was also a futures exchange. This was Brazil's Shanghai.

The Brazilian military government was also very capable. It was said that their new government was preparing to move the capital to the Brazilian Highlands to build a new capital in order to develop the vast Amazon rainforest and the Brazilian Highlands.

Today, the Brazilian population was basically distributed in the southeast. There was a strong competitor here in São Paulo, * * S Food Company, which was now basically in a stalemate.

They occupied a large part of the market. Their development speed was still very slow, but they also showed amazing innovation and imitation capabilities, while Prarie International had even better products.

The boss's new instructions had come down. Next week, he would assemble and lead a team to London by ship to see if there was suitable steel production equipment in Europe.

This was the second team that Saint-Hesse had arranged to inspect steel plant equipment, mainly responsible for inspecting France, Italy, and Spain, striving to select the best cooperative partners.

The inspection of Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia was the responsibility of the newly established steel plant team.

"The boss's business is getting bigger and bigger. I also have to work hard and study, otherwise I won't be able to keep up with the boss's pace."

Little Knicks drove the two women away, then put on his clothes, washed up, and ate a simple breakfast.

He took out the day's newspaper and started reading, looking for noteworthy news. This was a habit he had learned from Saint-Hesse, to grasp some important news, which might lead to a new order.

In the past six months, he had taught himself Portuguese and also learned a little French. From joining the Prarie Soda Factory to establishing Prarie International, he had learned more and traveled more than in the first 25 years of his life.

Prarie International had risen rapidly and become Argentina's largest trade import and export company. This also had the support of the people in the Foreign Trade Department. Little Knicks had a lot of dealings with those people in the Foreign Trade Department.

As long as he returned to China, he would definitely have a party with them. Although at first he didn't understand why the people in the Foreign Trade Department were so easy to talk to.

As for the current situation of other factories in Argentina, the unions kept making demands, going on strike every now and then, demanding high wages and high benefits, without any export capabilities, products without any international competitiveness, poor quality, and high costs.

They had no intention of improving product quality or upgrading, etc.

Prarie International only specialized in sales, and the team was constantly expanding, recruiting many talents. The boss's goal was to establish a London branch in the second half of the year.

Such a high-quality import and export company,

In May, it attracted the attention of the Foreign Trade Department, because foreign exchange would not deceive people,

And it quickly gained the favor of the Argentine Foreign Trade Department.

The Foreign Trade Department was currently the weakest government department in the Argentine cabinet. Argentina's foreign trade was a long story.

The cabinet even intended to abolish the Foreign Trade Department and merge it into the Department of Social Development, no longer existing as a separate department.

The people in the Foreign Trade Department originally thought so too, and some had resigned themselves to their fate. After all, there was really nothing good to do in the Foreign Trade Department, so it was better to go to other departments to retire.

Prarie International Trading Company, established in February of the first half of the year, quickly broke their inherent concept that Argentina could not make good products and could not sell them at good prices.

They seemed to possess unique sales skills, single-handedly boosting Argentina's light industrial product export records. Now, with expanded scale, they sell more than just those items.

This allowed the Ministry of Foreign Trade to seize a lifeline.

They received strong support and assistance.

This was a completely different Argentine company from the past. Previous Argentine trading companies were licensed franchisees of the Argentine government, simply purchasing products from farmers, transporting primary products like beef, ore, wheat, lamb, cotton,

and corn to the three major ports, then trading them to international traders for foreign exchange in pounds sterling, completing the closed loop.

They could just lie back and win; it was a gift from heaven, a one-of-a-kind situation in the world, and they could still make a fortune.

But Prall International was completely different from those other companies. They were genuinely investing their own money in trade and even had their own fleet!

Their factories were mostly located in an ordinary small town, clearly pointing towards the Cordoba Province. Later, they expanded to northern Argentina, which was a very chaotic area.

This was quite outrageous. After investigation, the Ministry of Foreign Trade discovered that Prall International was not simple, quite extraordinary in fact. Last year, their manager was just an ordinary salesman. In February, he suddenly founded a trading company.

Then, they went to develop the markets in Uruguay and Brazil. Even before the trading company was established, they already had a market in Uruguay, and the product was actually the well-known Argentine soft drink, Mirinda. It was the first time they discovered that the Mirinda brand was produced domestically, not the American product they advertised.

It was truly inspiring to see someone in the country could make such a good soft drink, giving them a shot in the arm. Moreover, besides advertising, they were quite low-key and mysterious.

Prall International doesn't set up distribution systems abroad but directly establishes branches, highly involved in the local economy. They also directly conduct promotions, advertising, and celebrity endorsements locally, and their goods are becoming increasingly popular.

From the initial canned fruits to fruit juices and soft drinks, new export categories are added every month: coffee, beer, pineapple beer, shoes, clothes, socks, fireworks, firecrackers, mining explosives, mineral salt, and other strange products are also increasing.

The scale of trade expands every month. They accept everything, completely lacking the arrogance and laziness of Argentinians. They earn not only pounds sterling, reais, Australian dollars, and francs but also other strange foreign currencies.

They do all kinds of business. As long as it's business, they do it. If there's no money, they'll take some ore instead.

The source of the francs is even stranger; it was money transferred by the French Ministry of Defense. And the destinations of the few ships registered under Prall International's fleet were clearly in Southeast Asia.

They later learned from Little Nix after connecting with him that Prall International had a good relationship with the French, helping them transport various military supplies and grains. They were fighting a war in Vietnam.

They also shipped soft drinks, shoes, and socks, opening up a Southeast Asian route, seemingly without losing money, and even planned to add several second-hand merchant ships to earn more.

This also led the Ministry of Foreign Trade to fully support Prall International. This gentleman was truly well-connected, able to do business with the French; he was no simple man.

They also stopped further investigation. If they continued to investigate, they suspected their own lives would be in danger. With such a good helper, they could just assist directly.

This mysterious international trading company clearly had "someone behind them," and they were well-behaved and sensible, sending gifts and performance bonuses to the people at the Ministry of Foreign Trade every month. This was a "good citizen company" that must be fully supported.

The voices calling for the dissolution of the Ministry of Foreign Trade suddenly disappeared. The departments of the cabinet were all envious that the Ministry of Foreign Trade had a golden goose that could lay eggs. Normally, golden geese in Argentina were directly slaughtered.

After all, you might not be able to wait until the day it lays eggs. Now that the situation was somewhat turbulent, the Ministry of Foreign Trade was not a powerful department, and it was clear that Prall International was a "good company," so Prall International's development accelerated even further.

This was also something Saint-Jose was very satisfied with. As for whether Prall International would break free from his control, that was basically impossible. Without control over personnel, finance, and products, Prall was just a factory agent. Saint-Jose personally nurtured it to cut off the autonomy of various factories.

In addition, Saint-Jose had already sent many intelligence agents to keep an eye on Prall International.

At most, a batch of people might run away, but for a trading company, the most important thing was to have the most popular products on the market. As for connections, they were mostly built on the company's platform. As long as Saint-Jose's products remained competitive, he wouldn't lack a sales team, especially now that he had money; that was his confidence.

He could quickly start a new company. As for Little Nix's level, although it had improved, it mostly involved executing the development plans arranged by Saint-Jose. Facts proved that he executed them well, and Saint-Jose was not stingy; he was a good boss.

Little Nix originally had some ideas, especially after the trading company was established, with sales consistently ranking first in the country, and most of the time being far away from Saint-Jose in foreign countries.

He had also surpassed Lucien quite a bit, becoming quite inflated.

After experiencing many dark and dirty things in society and being beaten down by society, he had escaped many times thanks to Saint-Jose's protection. In particular, the Thunder Cross, which seemed to have suddenly appeared as a security company, helped him solve many threats, which stabilized his mind.

And during the chaos in Maria Town, Cruz also tried hard to win him over, attempting to resell products.

He also knew that his uncle, Kloss, had repeatedly told him to follow the boss, and he would definitely not be in a bad place in the future, so he extinguished his small thoughts. But if he did it himself, he would probably really understand his own level.

Kloss was Saint-Jose's first factory director and had always been treated favorably by Saint-Jose.

He had watched Saint-Jose develop from a small canning workshop to such a large scale. He was a well-connected person. People of German descent were still relatively unpopular in many places, but following Saint-Jose, this boss, he was doing quite well.

"Nix, I have always known your abilities. Otherwise, I wouldn't have let you come to work at our factory back then. Later, with the boss's support, you have achieved your current position, and your abilities have also greatly improved. I hope you don't associate too deeply with some people in Maria Town."

This was a stern warning from his uncle, Kloss. He listened to it, and he was also very fortunate that he stopped directly and did not make any major mistakes. Otherwise, the outcome would probably not have been too good. Although the boss seemed quite kind on the surface, the things he did were not kind at all.

… …

In the last seven or eight days before September 20th,

Saint-Jose relaxed and inspected La Plata for a few days, and also viewed some scenic spots and historical sites.

Incidentally, he bought a wharf in the name of Thunder Mining and also set up several safe houses for the Falcon Intelligence Agency. Thunder Cross also arranged for a group of people to be stationed there. Such a steel factory required essential security work.

He also bought several pieces of wasteland, which were for stockpiling iron ore and coking coal when the time came. On the 19th at noon, after eating, he slowly drove Nora to Buenos Aires.

La Plata can also be勉强 regarded as a satellite city of the capital. The two cities are very close, and La Plata's scale is only one-fifth of Buenos Aires, so many resources can be shared.

The second semester is about to begin.

Saint-Jose had basically mastered the knowledge and planned to develop his network of contacts this semester. Recruiting some talents would be the top priority.