Rise of the Argentine Empire

"It's Senior Dilia, I'm Cohen."

Saint Hesser turned around and saw the beautiful senior he met during the entrance exam in February, and his eyes lit up.

"So it really is you, I thought you didn't come to Buda University."

Dilia's impression of Cohen was "quite profound."

"I'm taking classes in the law department. Recently, I've become a little interested in the economic development history of our country, so I came to the special library here to look at some information."

The law department and the economics department are on opposite sides of the school. Buda University is an open campus, so it's normal not to run into each other. Saint Hesser's last semester was all about the same routine.

"Is that so? This is my specialty. I was ranked second in the economics department's professional courses last semester. Maybe I can explain it to you."

Dilia said with a smile.

"Really? Senior, you're amazing, that's great. I don't really like dealing with the economics department teachers, mainly because I don't know them."

He had already inquired with Professor Purkins in the morning and planned to visit and get to know the teachers in the economics department. Now that he has a beautiful senior to lecture him, he can forget about the economics department teachers. It wouldn't hurt to go tomorrow, anyway, he hasn't formally scheduled an appointment yet.

"Let's go to the small woods outside, you can't talk too loudly in the library."

"Okay...", Saint Hesser obediently followed behind Dilia.

The two sat on a long chair.

"Actually, when discussing capitalist economics, it's better to talk about the current United States. Our country is learning various systems from the United States, but the Germans also said a word, called the economic base determines the superstructure. The essence of our country is still developed from a colonial economy, without going through a thorough transformation, just covered with a layer of capitalist skin."

"The power of American capital is already able to influence American politics. Various trust groups, although many have been dismantled, have become even more terrifying, like United Fruit in Central America."

"I know about United Fruit, a combination of capital and warlords, manipulating the country and doing all kinds of bad things."

"Our country used to be similar, very much like United Fruit. Power couldn't reach the city, and the province didn't pay attention to you, so our country used to be fragmented. Even after decades of unification wars, most of the country's land is controlled by these land nobles."

"Is the slow population growth in our country due to this reason?"

"Population problem? I haven't considered this, maybe I can ask my teacher, but industrialization is essentially consuming and transferring population, that's what my teacher told me."

"These are the foundations of the world today. It is obvious that the Soviet Union cannot compete with the United States economically. Now the United States has controlled 90% of the world's major economies through the Marshall Plan and supporting Japan, while the United States itself occupies almost half of the world's economic scale. This is the most powerful economic empire in history."

Dilia gave Saint Hesser some popular science. He also had a smattering of knowledge about these things. She talked for more than fifty minutes, from the world situation to the economic crisis, and finally talked about some problems in Argentina.

"If one percent of the people in Argentina had your kind of understanding, why would we worry about our country not becoming strong?"

Saint Hesser finally said with emotion. In the end, the two decided to visit Professor Colin Das together in the afternoon, full name Colin Das Addison.

A well-known teacher in the economics department, graduated from Buda University, master's degree from Princeton University in the United States, and doctorate from Harvard University, an amazing resume.

...

In the afternoon, the two agreed to come to Professor Colin Das's house together, an ordinary apartment.

Saint Hesser was visiting as a student of Professor Purkins, plus Dilia's personal recommendation.

After the door opened, Saint Hesser saw a middle-aged man with messy hair, estimated to be only in his 30s, less than 40, a little surprised, this is a real big shot.

Colin Saint Hesser explained his intention, and Professor Lindas nodded repeatedly.

"Now young people are rarely interested in economics, most of them run to study law and medicine. This trend is very bad. I think these two kinds of people will be locked up in prison in the future. Can lawyers save Argentina? Can doctors save Argentina? No."

Saint Hesser was a little embarrassed for a moment, after all, he seemed to be studying law.

"If you want me to say, if our country wants to succeed, we must take the revolutionary route and learn from the Soviets. Their Tsarist Russia was about to collapse, and in just over thirty years, it became the second largest economic power in the world."

Saint Hesser listened carefully, indicating that I am a good boy, and also quite agreed with this point of view, but there are so few Argentines, if there is real chaos for a few years, it is estimated that many people will die. In Saint Hesser's view, these are all valuable human resources.

"Our country is now seriously lagging behind the world. We don't have our own industrial system, and we only rely on agricultural exports."

"We can't be a big country. It can be said that the current President Biron himself doesn't understand economics very well."

Colin Das criticized President Biron without hesitation.

Saint Hesser expressed his agreement and nodded frantically. The president and the cabinet formulate various economic development plans, even the first five-year plan and the second five-year plan, are a bit of a child's play, unfinished, welfare before wealth, not developing core steel, chemical and electrical industries, doing these useless fantasy, false, big and empty nuclear bombs and hydrogen bombs,

This greatly damages the competitiveness of Argentine companies and factories. After all, Argentina's strength is limited and funds are limited. Steel production is only 300,000 tons, while Belgium has 3 million tons, there is almost no chemical industry, and electrical appliances also rely on imports.

"Rome was not built in a day, and a country cannot become an industrial country overnight. It requires generations of effort, but unfortunately, Biron's brain is flooded, and he has offended the Americans. He doesn't even look at how much Argentina is, and last year it didn't even have two percent of the economic scale of the United States."

Obviously, Professor Colin Das has a lot of resentment towards Biron, it seems that there are some grudges.

"Moreover, our country's exports are still dominated by beef. These former caudillos still occupy most of Argentina's land. At least two-thirds of our country's farmland is abandoned!"

Colin Das once again said a shocking figure, two-thirds of Argentina's farmland is abandoned, is the situation already serious to this extent?

"Our country's economy is estimated to have no hope. Even our teacher's salary is only 60%, and my father, who is an official in the cabinet, only gets 80% of his salary, at least for now."

The salaries of Argentine civil servants and teachers are the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance. It seems that there are really problems with the treasury.

"This book in your hand is actually written by me. He has also written many books criticizing our country's economic policies, most of which have been tightened by the Presidential Palace, leaving only some in the economics department."

"In fact, this problem is very serious, and I don't know how President Biron will solve it."

How else can it be solved? Rely on the Americans, and then sell out national interests. Biron did just that, and then he was driven down.

Saint Hesser thought of the potassium triangle here. In the past two months, Saint Hesser has truly gained a new understanding of the bottom of Argentina.

"Land reform, only land reform can increase Argentina's population. The development of industry and cities is actually a contraceptive. Now everyone is running to the slums of Buda City."

"Professor, what do you think is the reason why there are so few Argentines? For example, Brazil has three times more people than us, and the growth rate is faster than us."

“It's the landowning aristocracy that's too rampant. Everyone has lost their land, letting those landowning aristocrats farm, when only agriculture can maximize population growth.

Industrialization and urbanization are just constantly depleting our population. Even if our country can develop, in the end, it can only rely on foreign immigrants, not the growth of our Argentine citizens.

This is the reason why our Argentine population growth is slow!”

Professor Corinda slammed the table, startling Saint-Hesse. Delia smiled apologetically at Saint-Hesse.

“Let's get back to the point. Actually, the reason why Argentina's industry can't develop is partly due to the inertia of agriculture and animal husbandry, but to a greater extent, it's a problem at the presidential level. There hasn't been a well-designed agricultural development system.

The concentration of land is too high. Do you know how that land came about? It was all leased to them by our country at low prices, and then it became theirs. Now, our farmers have to lease their land back from them. They can live a good life just by collecting land rent.”

“Our country relies on farmers tilling the land by hand, instead of tractors and harvesters. Most don't have them. Isn't this becoming slaves to the landowning aristocracy?

So, they desperately run to the slums, at least they don't have to be exploited by the landowning aristocracy. And did you know that our land doesn't use fertilizer, so the yield is low? The famine has been very severe these past two years because the land's fertility has declined, coupled with drought.”

“I think the Soviet collective farms are very good. Relying on the power of the entire collective to purchase agricultural means of production and then cultivate together, instead of all the profits going to the landowning aristocracy. They also did a good job of population recovery, even though they lost too many people.”

No wonder Argentina's level of mechanization is so low. These aristocrats can win without effort, so why invest in new equipment?

The fact that the Redwood Fertilizer Plant became a pig organic fertilizer plant probably means the technology wasn't good enough, right? Doesn't that mean Rain Fertilizer Plant is Argentina's first fertilizer plant? That's a bit interesting.

“It seems that we need to speed up the acquisition of land on the cigarette factory side. It's better to use it to grow tobacco than to leave it fallow.

Those big landowning aristocrats in the north, one by one, arrest nine out of ten and execute them. I guess there will still be some who slip through the net.”

Saint-Hesse thought along the professor's lines in his mind. Currently, he can't do any national reforms. He doesn't have that much influence.

But he can set up collective farms, create a few of them for experimentation. In 18 years, there will be a generation, with a family having four or five children, coupled with various medical guarantees.

This can create a lot of population. He can try it in the north of Argentina. The population problem is the first problem that must be given importance.

Bankrupt the Oran City and Salta Province local families, and then acquire their land, open an agricultural company, and then open a collective farm…

Seems feasible. It just so happens that the Thunder Cross people are very idle, working as bodyguards for the rich. It's better to kill a few of those landowning aristocrats. Of course, civilized people have to use civilized methods, bankrupting the families and sending them to prison. Start with the small families first.

If this method is correct, then it can be promoted to the whole country in the future, and then truly sweep these landowning aristocrats into the dustbin of history.

As for the factory, it definitely still needs to be developed, but we can't recruit too many local workers. We can recruit them from Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil. This is an idea that Saint-Hesse suddenly came up with after hearing this sentence. It's a bit naive, but it's not without feasibility.

The more Saint-Hesse thought about it, the more excited he became, and he almost blurted it out. No, it's not right, his thinking seems to have been led astray by this professor… Saint-Hesse calmed down and once again put the immature idea in his heart.

“Professor, why do you think our country doesn't have its own industrial system?”

“There are many reasons for that. It can be considered a legacy of history.”

“During the Second Industrial Revolution, the Electrical Revolution, our Argentina disregarded the prospects of industrial development and focused wholeheartedly on the beef trade, missing the reform that could have raised the country's status. This is the first reason.”

“During the global economic crisis in 1929, our country's exports fell by 40%, investment stagnated, and unemployment soared. The cattle industry was also unable to drag the country out of the mire.”

The prosperity gained from the back of a cow eventually rolled off the back of a cow.

“Actually, I also voted in favor of Perón coming to power, but the things he did after coming to power have not been successful. The accumulation of disappointment has turned into despair. He values his own interests too much and hasn't truly thought about our country. I'm very heartbroken.”

“Logically speaking, now is a very good opportunity to develop industry, but why does he have to offend the Americans? I can't figure it out, I've been thinking about it for three days and three nights and still can't figure it out.”

“As for the nationalization of railways and the nationalization of telephones, these can only be said to be superficial reasons. People who don't understand are happy,

But the root cause has not been resolved. We even have to import locomotives, and we can't even produce a few rails. Now telephone lines have to be imported from American telephone companies at high prices.

But this kind of nationalization is really a waste of money and offends the British. The British used to be the world's hegemon. Now, looking around, the whole world seems to be our enemy, and the union problem is also too serious. How can we develop like this?”

The professor's voice became a little depressed, not as excited as before.

“Cohen, tell me, if things continue like this, does our country still have a future?”

“Professor, I believe there will be,” Saint-Hesse said firmly, his eyes full of confidence in the future.

“Well, I'm a little tired. You can take these books and read them.”

“Thank you, teacher. Your words today have been very useful. I believe that Argentina will surely become a great country in the future.” Saint-Hesse bowed deeply.

This question and answer session lasted for more than two hours. There were many profound theories, and Saint-Hesse could only forcibly memorize them, and even considered whether he should pursue a second degree.

Walking out of Professor Corinda's house with Delia, Saint-Hesse held a box of books, and the two laughed and talked for a while.

“Senior Delia, thank you very much today. This lesson was very important.”

Saint-Hesse said gratefully.

“Today is the first time I've seen the teacher a little sad. In the past, he would scold the president, then scold Britain, then scold America, and then scold the president again. Goodbye.”

After the two said goodbye, Saint-Hesse returned to his home.

Saint-Hesse's understanding of Argentina's economy has always been somewhat one-sided.

Originally, he thought that as long as he was wholeheartedly devoted to saving the country through industry, and then slowly seized power, he could build Argentina into a great country.

But from Professor Corinda's insightful and easy-to-understand language, coupled with his own visits to the slums and the rural areas of northern Argentina, he increasingly felt his own shallowness.

“Industrialization alone is not enough. We also need to carry out agricultural reforms. Walking on two legs is the only way to make the road wider. Obviously, the scale of the Condor Cigarette Factory needs to be expanded again. Maybe we really need to set up an agricultural company.”

“Make more friends and fewer enemies. This saying also applies to national development. Even between countries, where most relationships are based on interests, we must do a good job of promoting relationships.”

“The University of Buenos Aires really hides dragons and crouching tigers. We also need to get to know more talents, and the matter of joining a political party also needs to be decided.”

“In order to make more money, we can prepare to open a few more clothing factories and shoe factories in Buenos Aires. The craftsmanship is not difficult, we only need raw materials + sewing machines + workers, plus orders to survive, and then expand the beverage factory. We need to develop more labor to have the money to buy industrial equipment.”

“Collective farms, this experiment may really be worth a try. If it has an effect, then it will be a great thing for Argentina.”

Saint-Hesse wrote down a summary on a piece of paper, which is also the direction of his efforts in the next stage, and also his ambition, to create his own small group, unite a group of people, and the fastest way is to join a political party.

Then he hugged the professor's books and began to devour them.