Chapter 12: The Healer's Empire
The shipping manifests told a quiet but revolutionary story. From the private docks in Ghent, crates bearing the sigil of Delcroix Biologique departed weekly, then daily, bound for Marseille, Lisbon, London, and eventually across the Atlantic. Inside each container: stabilized penicillin, antimalarials, wound treatments, and a new class of anti-inflammatory compounds that Victor's team had perfected just months before.
By autumn of 1921, hospitals in Paris and military clinics in Poland were requesting standing orders. A Romanian prince sent personal thanks after the drug saved his daughter's life. The Vatican requested shipments to its mission hospitals in East Africa. Delcroix's medicine had become a quiet lifeline to a fractured postwar world.
And every franc earned came back to Léopoldville in steel.
Victor watched from a bluff as the first steel came pouring from the small blast furnace in Katanga. The facility had begun as an ore-washing plant but had since expanded under his direction into a fully integrated steelworks. Trucks now carried iron ore from Delcroix-owned mines, while coal arrived in sleek new barges fitted for container transport.
"This is Congolese steel," he said aloud, holding a freshly rolled rod in one gloved hand.
Elise stood beside him. "The world isn't ready for that sentence."
Victor smiled. "Then we'll teach them to be."
The logistics system that had begun as a dream was now a reality. Every two weeks, a Delcroix freighter left the Congo laden with ore, rubber, and medical supplies. Every return trip brought fuel, machinery, chemicals, and food. The standardized containers made customs a formality, and turnaround time in Ghent had dropped to a quarter of the previous record.
The impact in Belgium was immediate.
Newspapers reported on the "Delcroix Miracle." Government ministers asked for briefings. Investors lobbied for access. But what caught Victor's attention most was the wave of emigration requests.
Farmers, engineers, and young professionals—all looking to escape postwar stagnation. They saw in the Congo not a colony, but an opportunity. And Victor welcomed them.
With more people came more capability.
He expanded his operations in education. First a primary school in Léopoldville. Then a French-language technical school in Katanga. But the crown jewel was the Delcroix Institute of Sciences—Congo's first university-level campus, constructed near the river on a plateau overlooking the jungle.
Modern lecture halls. Electric lighting. Housing for students. And most critically: a state-of-the-art research facility outfitted with equipment far beyond what European universities could afford.
Victor sent letters personally to professors and researchers in Brussels, Paris, Zürich, and even Boston.
"Come teach here. Conduct research in facilities funded by the most profitable pharmaceutical venture of the decade. I will give you stipends, freedom, and—should you choose loyalty—insight into discoveries that have not yet happened."
Some scoffed. Others hesitated.
But the bold came. A German biochemist. A Belgian bacteriologist. A French engineer with a background in high-frequency power systems. Within six months, the faculty of the Delcroix Institute had become one of the most eclectic and ambitious in the world.
Victor opened the school's first term with a single sentence:
"We do not study the past here. We build the future."
Chapter 13: Valuation
Delcroix Biologique:
Monthly gross revenue: 2.4 million BEF
Net profit margin: 58%
Export markets: 17 countries
Valuation (conservative estimate): 160 million BEF
The penicillin monopoly had expanded to include synthetic analgesics, new antimicrobial compounds, and experimental treatments. Demand had outpaced production capacity, driving up prices and creating months-long waiting lists for larger shipments. Analysts in Brussels began calling it a "controlled pharmaceutical gold rush." The limited output only enhanced its mystique—and its value.. Hospitals across Europe relied on Delcroix shipments. With no comparable competition, prices remained high and demand insatiable.
Delcroix Maritime and Freight Company:
Fleet: 3 ocean-going vessels, 2 river barges, 1 under construction
Ownership of two port facilities: Ghent (partial), Léopoldville (informal authority)
Average export volume (monthly): 600 tons of ore and finished products
Valuation: 30 million BEF (and growing rapidly)
Victor's investment in containerized shipping had already begun to pay off. Turnaround times and security were unmatched in the region, allowing him to control both cost and pace.
Delcroix Mining and Metallurgy:
Holdings: Copper, cobalt, iron, manganese, lithium, and preliminary uranium sites
Steel production (monthly): 1,500 tons
Land under control: ~12,000 hectares
Valuation: Estimated at 50–80 million BEF, with future potential exceeding 200 million once expanded
Delcroix Education and Scientific Trust:
Facilities: 12 primary schools, 3 secondary schools, 1 university
Annual budget (privately funded): 1.2 million BEF
In-kind assets (labs, equipment): 5–7 million BEF
Though not a profit center, the educational arm served as a magnet for talent and innovation. It also shielded Victor from political scrutiny, framing his empire as one of progress and uplift.
Liquid capital and investments:
Foreign stocks (US and Swiss markets): ~25 million BEF (unrealized gains)
Victor's early bets on American industrial giants, selected with uncanny precision, had exploded in value. Leveraged positions in General Motors, RCA, and Standard Oil saw triple-digit growth, amplified by margin accounts carefully timed with market cycles. His foresight turned what was originally a modest diversification into a booming reservoir of international capital. Swiss bankers called it one of the most profitable foreign portfolios of the decade.
On-hand cash and assets in Belgium: ~3 million BEF
Credit lines extended from major banks: ~12 million BEF, with another 8 million approved pending valuation updates
In early December, Victor created the Delcroix Development Fund, a legal holding company headquartered in neutral Switzerland. The fund consolidated his controlling interests in all his enterprises: biomedical, logistics, metallurgy, energy, and education. Shares were privately held, with Victor as sole beneficiary and managing director.
The move provided him not only with fiscal cohesion but also political leverage. European banks and investors could now assess the whole of his operations as one vast, diversified industrial conglomerate.
With projected earnings, rising export volumes, and stable logistics, the fund was valued by Swiss auditors at:
Total estimated net worth of Victor Delcroix (end of 1921):
275 million Belgian francs
Equivalent in 1921 US dollars:~7.9 million USD
(Equivalent to over 120 million USD in modern terms, adjusted for inflation)
Victor closed the report and stood by the window. Below, the river shimmered with moonlight and the sounds of construction echoed faintly into the night.
He had begun with a vision, a sickness, and a single glimpse of a better world.
Now, he held something more than money.
He held momentum.
And with it, the power to remake history.
Chapter 14: Foundations of Permanence
The clatter of tools and the buzz of generators had become the steady rhythm of Léopoldville's transformation. In every direction, scaffolding rose, bricks were laid, and concrete set. But for Victor Delcroix, true permanence came not from steel or stone—it came from systems, from people, and from legacy.
He had wealth. Now he needed roots.
The first order of business was the creation of a central administrative corps—men and women who could manage, grow, and protect the growing lattice of industries and services under his name. He founded the Delcroix Administrative College, a hybrid institution that taught accounting, logistics, legal theory, colonial governance, and—uniquely—strategic planning based on case studies from Delcroix companies.
Graduates were offered immediate employment in Léopoldville, Ghent, or Katanga. The best among them were given access to restricted research libraries containing technical projections and limited glimpses into Victor's private archives.
He called them his "planners," and they were loyal by design.
In Katanga, the steel foundry expanded to include alloy refinement. Victor introduced manganese-based alloys for rail production and began experimenting with high-carbon formulations for industrial tools. With advice drawn from his memory of mid-20th-century metallurgy, the plants began producing equipment far superior to any in use elsewhere in the colony.
Simultaneously, a new cement plant opened on the banks of the Lulua River. Made from local limestone and clay, its output was essential for the next phase: permanent housing, hospitals, and water treatment plants.
Victor passed a directive: no more temporary barracks. All Delcroix company housing was to be built for families, with sanitation, ventilation, and gardens. The future would not be forged in squalor.
Education scaled with industry.
Dozens of primary and secondary schools opened near Delcroix mines and logistical hubs. Scholarships were offered to promising Congolese students. Multilingual instruction became standard: French, Lingala, Dutch, and even English.
The Delcroix Institute of Sciences, now fully staffed, expanded its curriculum. A new faculty of engineering opened. A biology lab was inaugurated with one of the most advanced microscopy suites in Africa. In a gesture that stunned academic Europe, Victor published the first bilingual research journal entirely produced in Léopoldville.
Professors from Geneva and Boston arrived under contract. They were promised not only funding, but access to restricted seminars where Victor shared fragmented glimpses of "hypothetical future technologies." What they learned there, they could not unlearn.
One physicist stayed behind after just one session. He called it "intoxicating."
In the final days of December, Victor sat with Elise and Gérard in the administrative compound's meeting room. A map of the Congo covered the table, marked with pins, lines, and shaded zones.
"Every village near our holdings has access to a school," Elise said. "The first class of administrative graduates will be ready by April."
"The cement kilns are ahead of schedule," Gérard added. "So are the manganese rail supports."
Victor nodded. "Then we continue."
He looked down at the map, at the lines connecting port to rail, school to mine, river to foundry.
"We're no longer building for growth," he said. "We're building for permanence. For sovereignty."
Outside, thunder rolled. Rain would come.
But the foundations were already set.
Chapter 15: Investment and Ascent
The ledger was thick with movement. Credits in, payments out, loans turned to factories, and profits reinvested before they cooled. Victor Delcroix reviewed the pages every Sunday—one day a week to measure the empire not in dreams, but in francs.
Delcroix Biologique, his most lucrative pillar, had reinvested over 8 million BEF in the past six months. A second fermentation line was under construction in Katanga at a cost of 3.1 million BEF, with stainless-steel tanks imported from France and an on-site power station being erected for 1.4 million BEF more. Staff housing and a new medical training wing brought the total to 5.7 million BEF for the Katanga expansion alone.
Monthly revenue had reached 3.2 million BEF, with an operating margin that hovered near 60%. The real constraint was not demand—it was production speed. Each additional batch sold before it left the facility.
Delcroix Mining and Metallurgy had received 12 million BEF in infrastructure spending. The second blast furnace installation in Katanga cost 4.2 million BEF, including rails and upgraded furnaces for higher purity steel. New shafts for copper and lithium cost another 5 million BEF to survey and equip, including imported drilling equipment from Switzerland.
A manganese alloy plant, specialized for rail and engine components, was projected to cost 3.5 million BEF and would begin construction in February.
Victor's long-term goal was clear: 2,500 tons of refined steel per month by the end of 1922.
Delcroix Maritime and Freight invested 2.6 million BEF into the final phase of its container ship construction in Ghent. Each vessel cost just under 1.2 million BEF, excluding cranes and retrofit docks. A new logistics center was underway near Matadi, at a cost of 1.8 million BEF, including the first experimental container rail terminal in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Education and Research saw the most ambitious growth. The Delcroix Institute's expansion cost 2.2 million BEF, with additional funds allocated for advanced laboratory instrumentation (600,000 BEF) and scientific archives (300,000 BEF) sourced from rare academic collections in Europe.
The construction of six new primary schools and two vocational secondary schools in the copper belt region cost 1.1 million BEF, most of it spent on modular buildings, training local teachers, and producing textbooks translated into French and Lingala.
Scholarships for top students from mining families were privately endowed by Victor at 150,000 BEF per year.
As of January 1922, Victor's total reinvestment into Congo's infrastructure, industry, and education had surpassed 25 million BEF in the prior twelve months.
It was more than some European governments spent on their colonies in a decade.
Standing before a chalkboard lined with numbers, Victor circled three of them:
5.7 million BEF for medicine in Katanga
12 million BEF for metal and mines
3.3 million BEF for transport and freight
Underneath, he wrote a single phrase:
"Spend like you mean to last."
Growth without roots was noise.
But this was music.
The Congo was changing, and with every investment, it became less a colony—and more a cornerstone.