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El Mercurio 9 November 1930

Dickhard's new shipping company gain prestigious export contract.

Randy Dickhard's new shipping company Valparaiso Standard Shipping recently gained some prestigious contracts to trade with Asia. Freighters will move South American wares from Valparaiso to China, Japan and Korea, and then transport valuable and exotic Asian cargo back to Chile. There are several businesses in Chile wanting to trade with Asia, both import and export. Rumors say Dickhard has already signed a contract with Alejandro Silva.
 
Antonia Zepeda consolitades her holdings and signs a commercial treaty with Francisco Santa Rosa to consolidate the position of the aristocratic families of Chile, threatened by Alejandro Silva's monopolic tendencies. The Zepeda family controls not only large tracts of land, but multiple luxury industries and armament industries. The chamber of commerce and the Free Trade Organization (led by the old liberal guard) backs Zepeda's attacks on Alejandro Silva's excessive corporativism and will do their best to prevent a Silva Presidency.

In other news, Antonia Zepeda is getting married with Xavier Subercasseaux, heir to the Subercasseaux mediatic empire and great-grandson of Lorenzo Subercasseaux (radical librral politician and important diplomatic figure). The wedding is going to be the most important social event of tge season, experts say. The marriage will also mean the merger of Subercasseaux properties with the Zepeda fortunes. However, Antonia Zepeda clarified that she would "keep her maiden name in honour to his father, former president Zepeda"


Francisco Santa Riosa, I believe you are still the owner and CEO of the "Aurora de Chile", right? You are of course invited to the wedding, but I would like to petition your aid in elaborating an antimonopolic bill..

Antonia Zepeda
 
And Libertad!, both of which are the biggest liberal papers in the country! I will certainly support such a bill, and will begin working on one after I've gotten reconstruction efforts underway. And I will attend your wedding, Senorita.
 
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"If there was such a bill, my full support would be behind it. May I also offer my congratulations to Antonia Zepeda on the marriage, and I wish upon you many years of happiness.

I would like to announce I have made a personal donation of a large sum of money towards providing food,shelter etc. for those that have been displaced by the civil war, as well as to those soldiers with injuries that prevent them from finding work."
- General Carlos Ramone de Guerro of Patagonia
 
The wedding of Antonia Zepeda and Xavier Subercasseaux was the most important social event the season, as expected. The Zepeda manor recieved many distinguished guests including foreign mandataries from the South American nations in a spirit of both reconciliation with Chile and appreciation with the Zepeda family for their OTLA alliance-economic treaty that has kept South America peaceful and strong just like before the fascist government. Other important guests were Francisco de Santa Rosa, family friend and powerful entrepeneur and, just like their fathers before them, Antonia Zepeda and Francisco Santa Rosa enjoyed a glass of wine among talks about politics, economy and arts. The guest list was filled with guests with important aristocratic names, some forgotten by the masses, like Romano, Rivera and Badajoz. While the majority of the guests were aristocrats or important government officials, the press marked their presence by taking pictures with new portable photographic cameras (...)




Okay, I'm married to the Subercasseaux now. Thanks for assisting. Now let's talk politics and economics. Here we go:

Fair Competition Bill

1. Major private firms that decide to merge must request government authorization directly to the president.
2. Public industries can only be merged if congress passes a 3/4 vote on it.
3. No person can control more than 51% of the shares of a corporation.
4. Any high level executive discovered fixing prices with competitors is to face trial and the company must compensate the state.
5. An Antitrust Comitee will be formed to investigate and expose cases of collusion or excesive concentration of market shares.
6. A financial branch is to be created for the Supreme Court and the National Attorney to investigate cartels and corporate crimes.


Alejandro Silva Bill

1. Alejandro Silva must hand over his auctions and shares related to Pueblos Empresa to the state.
2. Alejandro Silva is to be compensated economically by the treasury for the re-nationalization of his enterprise.
3. Alejandro Silva will keep his shares in the NCRadio station as long as they do not exceed 51% of the radio station.
4. Alejandro Silva must create different executive branches for every media company he bought; he cannot concentrate all of the managerial staff in a single corporation according to the Fair Competition Bill.
5. Alejandro Silva is not allowed to purchase more auctions or shares related to the media industry.
6. The Supreme Court will handle an investigation to find out if Alejandro Silva is colluding himself with freighter tycoon Randy Dickhard.


I have a doubt. What exactly is Pueblos Empresa? I thought it was owned by the state, but how can Alejandro Silva own it then? I highly doubt the only communist president Chile has had created a massive private corporation.. Can Mr. Silva care to explain why is it privately owned and how did it happen?

While it worries me that Mr. Silva is concentrating our national industries under his ownership destroying free competition, it worries me even more that he is focusing on adquiring the private media: radio stations, newspapers and magazines. While it is true the media industry has been controlled by few, there has been competition between the different groups. But with Alejandro Silva owning the media we will have no difference of opinion: he will have the power to censor the major news and we will have to read underground pamphlets and turn off our radios. I believe in free markets and freedom of expression and that's why I despise Alejandro Silva: he is the ultimate enemy of both.

For the leftists: You must aprove these bills for the safety of our people. While socialists do not share my philosophical, political or economic views, they should align themselves with this national cause. While you think this is just a borgeoise conflict between the oligarchy and Silva, you fail to see the truth: The people will suffer without this bill. If Alejandro Silva is allowed to continue this madness, he will control all the media and the major private firms and he will be able to rise the prices as he sees fit, he will decide what to sell and what not to sell, he will control what we listen in our radios, he will crash small shopkeepers into ruin and he will deny the middle classes the right to rise socio-economically.

Fight this man.

Antonia Zepeda
 
I must recant my support, Senora Zepeda; my initial fears and concerns have worn off and now I see that I was merely acting on them. Senor Silva cannot create a monopoly, and even if he did, it would collapse in a short while, so long as we have a free, unrestricted market. As long as we keep competition open, it will break down any monopoly after a few years.
 
"Why is it that only Silva has to relinquish his corporate assets? If we are going to be fair about this, then Dickhard's assets have to be acquired by the state as well."

Dr. Sebastian Montenegro
 
Palomino, 1929-1930, Part 1: The Crash and the Rebellion​

With the strife in the homeland, most Chileans had little time and even less patience for news of international events. The 7th Chilean Civil War was akin to the 6th: a giant, bloody conflict involving millions that no one could avoid. Everyone had a sibling, or a parent, or a friend who was at war in the late twenties. People were desperate for word from the front: what towns had been attacked, what armies had moved where, and who had died. Radio stations devoted hours every day to reciting the lists of the fallen to millions of listeners glued to their sets. News from the rest of the world hardly penetrated into Chile.

But when the Civil War ended, the international realities of world politics came crashing back to Chile. Without so much as a high-level treason trial to occupy them (former President Fuentes having been declared too unwell to stand trial and the other high-ranking officers of the coup dead), the papers and radio stations once again talked of overseas and abroad. And overseas and abroad had changed since Chile had left it in late 1925.

The 4th American Civil War was still raging in North America, but unlike the three wars that had preceded it, the 4th had given a final and decisive advantage to the United States. Despite its economic and military strength, the Confederate States of America had never gained much recognition on the world stage because it still clung onto the dying and reprehensible tradition of slavery. Though most of the American Upper South had eventually caved to changing times and ended slavery (though all continued to deny blacks the franchise), parts of the Deep South, notably Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina, maintained perpetual slavery. Texas, Virginia, and Tennessee had banned slavery outright, while the remaining Confederate States had mandated that all people born after a certain date would be born free, thus ending slavery in the long run.

The slaveowning tradition had ultimately stunted Confederate industrial growth, which consistently lagged the rest of the developed world by population, but moreover made the nation anachronistically compatible with modern ideas. It also made the slaveholding south a hotbed for ideologies. Communist ideas, which preached enforced social equality and an end to not just slavery, but black codes, Jim Crow, segregation, and all other racial divides began to gain traction among slave and black communities in the CSA starting in the late 1880s. The spread of the Communist Manifesto was brutally and severely suppressed by Richmond, which mandated hanging for any man found in possession of any communist literature. Nevertheless, the spread of radical socialism continued through the South for decades and into the Bloody Twenties.

Meanwhile, the series of wars that had wracked the 1920's finally took their toll on the world economy. Chile, the world's third largest economy, came out of the 7th Civil War badly crippled. Hundreds of factories, roads, and businesses had been destroyed by the fighting. Additionally, when wartime policies left effect, Daniel Palomino's laissez-faire attitude towards businesses caused post-war production levels to drop drastically from pre-wartime levels. Entire industries that had depended on government subsidies, notably the canned food, munitions, and arms industries failed almost immediately. Despite a series of bloody wars and parallel shocks to the market, the 1920's had actually been a period of unrivaled and radical global economic growth. Future economists would conclude that several devastating speculative bubbles had arisen in the market. The sharp decline in Chilean production following the war was the shock that finally bust those bubbles.

On March 20th, 1929, the Chilean stock market crashed, the Santiago Exchange's industrial index losing 1000 points in three days. The New York and London exchanges followed suit, and so began The Great Depression. The results were peculiar in wartime America. The heavily export-dependent Confederate economy fell into ruins almost immediately. After years of bruising defeats on the battlefield against the numerically superior union armies, the CSA's available manpower had fallen dangerously low. The economic crisis compounded the problem with mass desertions, riots, runs on banks, and collapse of local governments. With insufficient force left to keep the slave population in check, a massive communist uprising of slaves and oppressed blacks erupted throughout the country, dwarfing the dwindling Confederate army. Starting in South Carolina, the communist rebellion ran the length of the Confederacy into Texas and down to the tip of Florida.

By May, the Confederate Congress in Richmond was presented with a choice: the Confederacy could fall to hated Bolshevism in one of the bloodiest insurrections in world history, or the Confederacy could surrender to the United States. The decision was made for them. A pan-nationalist rebellion broke out in Virginia in late April, egged on by war exhaustion and the fear of destruction by racial warfare. A pro-peace mob stormed key government buildings in early May and forced the issue. The Confederacy formally and unconditionally surrendered to the United States on May 6th. Relieved soldiers were ordered to lay down arms and return to their homes; union troops eventually succeeded in putting down the communist uprising.

Thus, the United States was reunified as a single nation and the strain of North American dualism finally came to an end, with the US leapfrogging Chile in both economic and military strength by May, 1919.


Player Actions Needed:
Second part incoming. Just wait.
 
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Palomino, 1929-1930, Part 2: The Home Front​

The combination of war and global depression left the Chilean economy in tatters. In early 1929, unemployment skyrocketed in Rio Negro to a staggering 26%. Joblessness also reached a massive 21% in shattered Santiago, with lines for charitable soup kitchens and shelters reaching for blocks. Daniel Palomino could offer little remedy for a global depression the likes of which the world had never before seen, but in his tours of a badly damaged Chile he said the same thing: this was caused by the war, and he would go out of his way to ensure that such a war never happened again. To that end, Palomino ordered a cut in the size of the land army, from 750,000 to 300,000. The bulk of the initial demobilization took three months, during which time militiamen and partisans laid down arms temporarily taken up in defense of the country. Most of the militias had returned to their homes by March, leaving Palomino to conduct structural cuts in 400,000 professional soldiers who remained. The target of 300,000 had been reached by mid-June.

However, Palomino did not (as his proponents had originally speculated) order the money saved from the military redirected into tax cuts. Instead, he ordered the largest-scale expansion of the navy in Chilean history. In Palomino's two terms of office, the navy nearly doubled in size (reaching more than 200 ships) and naval facilities and shipyards along the Chilean coast were expanded drastically. By the end of 1930, Chile had the most powerful navy in the world. When asked by his critics why he had chosen to cut the army and expand the navy, the President explained that in his opinion any threat to Chile would come from abroad, not over land. To make this hypothesis a reality, Palomino attended the Pacific Security Summit in Washington D.C. on May 17th, 1929. At that summit, Palomino and all South American countries, along with Haiti, Mexico, and the United States signed the Pan-American Security Convention, establishing a Pan-American Security Zone (essentially mutual guarantees on borders) across the entire continental Americas. The President also proved that 300,000 was a large enough army to defend against domestic threats. Palomino staged three military inventions in 1929, one in Brazil in January (against a large-scale Germanist rebellion), one in the Ecuadorian Galapagos in April (against a 30,000-man Germanist uprising), and one in Bolivia, also in April (against a fascist blackshirt attempt to overthrow the Bolivian government).

The Pan-American Security Convention came not a moment too soon. Stressed for cheap raw goods and resources to prop up their respective economies in the Depression, the UK and France again began to squabble over colonial holdings. On December 18th, 1929, the 4th Colonial War broke out between the two giants, the UK again standing alone against France's allies, by then reduced to Spain and the Ottomans in Europe. The war would prove to be an embarrassing defeat for the UK, most of whose colonial holdings were overrun by October 1930. Almost the entire Royal Navy in the channel was destroyed by France, and with invasion becoming a disturbing possibility, the UK sued for peace on November 14th, 1930, less than a year into the war. However, the war was good news for Chile. Other than the usual profiteering, propping up the failing rations, munitions, and armaments industries, the mutual destruction of the UK and France's fleets weakened both countries. In September, a Pan-American military report identified Chile as the world's greatest military power, and Palomino was still expanding the fleet.

However, the news wasn't all good for Palomino moving into the 30's. The economy remained stagnant and unemployment stubbornly refused to fall as an election year harkened. Moreover, a number of scandals regarding the treasury had rocked the administration. Rumors circulated of embezzlement and corruption by Treasury Ministry Randy Dickhard, including alleged association with monopolists and misuse of government funds on parties. Palomino's opponents in Congress began to put forward bills specifically targeting Dickhard's associates (notably alleged monopolist Alejandro Silva) in attempt to circumvent executive blocks on their investigations. These scandals and the economy gave new life to the staggering FNT and even the discredited Frente Nacional, who formed Palomino's opposition in the elections.

Fair Competition Bill

1. Major private firms that decide to merge must request government authorization directly to the president.
2. Public industries can only be merged if congress passes a 3/4 vote on it.
3. No person can control more than 51% of the shares of a corporation.
4. Any high level executive discovered fixing prices with competitors is to face trial and the company must compensate the state.
5. An Antitrust Comitee will be formed to investigate and expose cases of collusion or excesive concentration of market shares.
6. A financial branch is to be created for the Supreme Court and the National Attorney to investigate cartels and corporate crimes.
Alejandro Silva Bill

1. Alejandro Silva must hand over his auctions and shares related to Pueblos Empresa to the state.
2. Alejandro Silva is to be compensated economically by the treasury for the re-nationalization of his enterprise.
3. Alejandro Silva will keep his shares in the NCRadio station as long as they do not exceed 51% of the radio station.
4. Alejandro Silva must create different executive branches for every media company he bought; he cannot concentrate all of the managerial staff in a single corporation according to the Fair Competition Bill.
5. Alejandro Silva is not allowed to purchase more auctions or shares related to the media industry.
6. The Supreme Court will handle an investigation to find out if Alejandro Silva is colluding himself with freighter tycoon Randy Dickhard.
The Restoration of Santiago Bill:

The New Santiago Provision:

1: Santiago shall be rebuilt with a modernized city layout.
a) Widened streets shall be constructed, to better account for pedestrian and vehicular traffic of the 20th century.
b) A new Underground Railroad transportation system will be created, a clean and modernized version of the London Underground, to put pressure off of the vehicular traffic.
c) An establishment of an above-ground tram-way for alternative methods of transportation
d) An establishment of a New Santiago Park, built above the Downtown economic areas, to provide for the ascetic impulses that we lack in city life. Designs for Park sections would be open to private design
e) An open provision to allow private discourse and amendment into this great public works project.

The Capital Building Provision:

a) A new Capital Building complex will be created to replace the destruction of La Moneda
i) The Original la Moneda will be built to act as the main floor for Senate meetings and addresses
ii) A new and modernized skyscraper will be constructed to replace all non-ceremonial functions of La Moneda, housing the government.
iii) Design for the Capital Building will be open to competition and voted on by a restoration committee

The Restoration Committee Provision:

1) A multi-partisan Committee chaired jointly by a private City Planner and Government appointee will be in charge of organizing, and managing, the Restoration of Santiago Bill.


My bill is open to changes should be deemed necessary, but I believe we can all agree that after the terrible events of this Coup, we must rebuild stronger than ever. We must rebuild Santiago to become the Capital of the World, above New York and London, and we must start by Modernizing her Illustrious City of Santiago!

Player Actions Needed:
Vote on those bills. A sample ballot would appear:

Fair Competition Bill: Yes/No/Abstain
Alejandro Silva Bill: Yes/No/Abstain
The Restoration of Santiago Bill: Yes/No/Abstain (you can object to individual provisions if you must)

Also declare your candidacies for President or declare as agitators. Sample declarations appear:

I'm running for President on the Liberal/Republicano Nacional/FNT/Comunista ticket!

I'm agitating.
 
Fair Competition Bill: No
Alejandro Silva Bill: No
The Restoration of Santiago Bill: Yes

I support Senor Palomino, should he choose to run for a second term. However, his interventionism in other nations, and his grand expansion of the navy is of great concern to me.
 
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"I believe in all fairness, that if this is a capitalist nation with a free economy, I have every right to buy and sell my shares, I also have every right to take control of a corporation if I have the money to. Its my opinion that the Zepeda and de Santa Rosa families are just scared of competition, and also I will not be running for President, I consider Senor Palomino the best choice. Another major thing, just before leaving office, Ernesto F. Fuentes was horrified at the prospect of Liberales taking over the Pueblos Empresa, so he transferred all state shares to himself, he then later transferred them to me. Lastly, I only want co-operation, and don't you notice that by me founding more and more corporations, there is more jobs...."

~ Alejandro Silva, Chief Executive of Pueblos Empresa, Silva Transportes, Silva medios de Comunicación and Silva Grupo de Noticias
 
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Fair Competition Bill: No
Alejandro Silva Bill: No
The Restoration of Santiago Bill: Yes


"I shall be joining the Liberales, I find myself the best in their party."
 
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Fair Competition Bill: Yes
Alejandro Silva Bill: Yes
The Restoration of Santiago Bill: Yes

I'm running for President on the Republicano Nacional ticket!

"These past three years have vindicated the failure of laissez-faire as an ideology. With it we have seen only industrial collapse, economic depression, and moral decay in the government. I will change that. I will ensure that the state has the power to protect both economy and the morality of Chile. My policies are State Capitalism, Protectionism, Pro-Military, Secularism, Full Citizenship. With these policies I will defend Chile from decay, stagnation, and collapse; not only that, but I will make it stronger. I have come to reclaim the mantle of honour that is the Presidency from those who have done disservices to it. The Caudillo has returned."

Admiral Dr. Sebastian Montenegro
 
Fair Competition Bill: No
Alejandro Silva Bill: No
The Restoration of Santiago Bill: Yes


"Originally I had said I would back any such bill, but after seeing the contents of your bill I have realised that the bill is inviting Socialism, and is in itself restricting free markets, as you are preventing Alejandro Silva from freely purchasing shares. A monopoly will not be created as long as we continue to encourage free trade. I would like to back the Restoration of Santiago Bill with a sum of 500,000 peso from my own pocket.

It is a sad day to see that our economy is struggling and that there is unemployment running rampant, and the industry has not done well under Laissez Faire. I believe that sometimes, the market needs a bit of help, so I now believe in Interventionism, and I have put forward 300,000 peso into aiding in the rebuilding of factories,homes, whatever is needed to stimulate the economy.
- General Carlos Ramone de Guerro of Patagonia
 
Fair Competition Bill: Yes
Alejandro Silva Bill: Yes
The Restoration of Santiago Bill: Yes


The last thing the workers need is a corporate monopoly.

- Alejandro Farìas, Socialist Mayor of Arica
 
Also, I wil Run for President on the FNT Ticket!

My policies are not changed: Free Trade\State Capitalism\Secularism\Pacifism\Full Citizenship

I'm also willing to compromise with the moderate liberals, in order to create a social-liberal coalition.

- Alejandro Farìas