The Marquess of Salamanca | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Full name | José María de Salamanca y Mayol |
| Born | (1811-05-23)23 May 1811 Málaga, Spain |
| Died | 21 January 1883(1883-01-21) (aged 71) Carabanchel Bajo, Spain |
| Spouse | Petronila Livermore y Salas |
José de Salamanca y Mayol, 1st Marquess of Salamanca, 1st Count of Llanos,GE (23 May 1811 – 21 January 1883) was a Spanish businessman and politician. He served asFinance Minister of Spain and briefly asde factoprime minister in 1847.[1]
Prominent during the reign ofIsabella II, he was responsible for an extension to the city ofMadrid; theSalamanca neighborhood of that city now bears his name.[2] He had an adventurous life with many ups and downs,[1] being Spain’s wealthiest man during a significant period of his life and one of the largest fortunes in the world at one point.[2] His prominent associates includedMaria Christina of the Two Sicilies,queen mother andregent for the young Queen Isabella.[1] As a businessman, he undertook many projects that shaped modern Spain: railways, construction of entire neighborhoods, banking and investments; at the same time, he was associated with no small amount ofpolitical andcorporate corruption.[3]
Salamanca studied philosophy and law at the Colegio de San Bartolomé y Santiago inGranada, finishing his studies in 1828.[1] It was probably in Granada that he first met groups opposed to theabsolutist regime ofFerdinand VII, includingMariana Pineda,[2] who became a martyr for the Spanishliberals when she was tried and condemned to death in 1831.[4][5][6]
Shortly after his return to his nativeMálaga, the liberal generalJosé María Torrijos was detained for an attempted coup. Salamanca was probably involved in the coup;[3] he went to Madrid in an unsuccessful attempt to seek a royal pardon for Torrijos.[7] His revolutionary ardor was calmed for a time and, thanks to his father's friendship withFrancisco Cea Bermúdez, thePresident of the Council of Ministers (effectively, prime minister), he was made mayor ofMonòver, (province of Alicante) in 1833.[1]
That year Ferdinand VII died, bringing to power his wife, Maria Christina, as regent for the three-year-old queen Isabella II.[citation needed] The revolutionary movements of the regency era first propelled the future marquess onto the national scene. In 1835 he was named mayor ofVera (province of Almería); while there he married Petronila Livermore y Salas.[1] After serving as mayor of Vera, he was chosen to represent the province of Almería in the Revolutionary Government atSeville.[citation needed]
In 1837 theMutiny of La Granja de San Ildefonso forced Maria Christina to restore the liberalConstitution of 1812, which was elaborated into the newProgressiveConstitution of 1837.[citation needed] Salamanca was electeddeputy forMálaga in the newCortes, which brought him to the capital,Madrid to serve in this office.[1]
Once in Madrid, Salamanca developed a great inclination toward business, which would bring him both great successes and great difficulties. After serving briefly as a judge in a Madridcourt of first instance,[1] in 1839 he obtained the officialmonopoly on salt, and began also to invest in theBolsa de Madrid (Madrid Stock Exchange).[1][8] He became a prominent figure in the highest circles of Madrid society. Among his associates over the next few years wereNazario Carriquiri, theMarquess of Marismas del Guadalquivir,Gaspar Remisa,José Buschenthal,Agustín Muñoz and theRothschilds' agents in Madrid,Daniel Weisweiller andIgnacio Bauer.[9] His possession of the salt monopoly, however, gained him the enmity, for the time, of GeneralRamón María Narváez.[citation needed]
As well as achieving such prominence (if not always honor and success) in business, his political star was also on the rise. On 28 March 1847 he was namedFinance Minister of Spain in the government ofJoaquín Francisco Pacheco;[1][9] when the government fell in October of that year, he was briefly thede facto president of the Council of Ministers (that is, effectively,de facto prime minister), but was displaced byFlorencio García Goyena, as parliament began investigating the alleged financial irregularities of his ministry.[1]
Salamanca had been saved from his own disastrous stock speculations whenFrancisco Serrano Domínguez convinced Isabella II to make him Minister of Finance.[9] Queen Isabella soon sacked the entire council of ministers, establishing a new government under General Narváez,[1] the third time in four years that Narváez had been president of the Council of Ministers.[citation needed] As Salamanca's favors to his friends became public knowledge, he consorted with various generals who were plotting to overthrow the government.[9] Narváez's solidification of power sent Salamanca into exile in France, where he remained until 1849.[1]
Five years later, he was in exile again,[1] characterized as abestia negra ("black beast") by the new Progressive government that swept to power in June and July 1854 on the wings of unrest, ending thedécada moderada and beginning thebienio progresista.[citation needed]
There had existed until the celebrated 28 June [1854] a limited partnership for the exploitation of allagios [discrepancies in exchange rates], of all the business affairs for which the country had to pay with its blood. Captained by [Maria] Christina and her manager Salamanca, monster of immorality; she was, as the vulgar like to say, his figurehead. To introduce themselves into the Spanish railway business and to pounce upon it like a pack of hungry wolves was a thing no one admired, because it was not admirable.[10]
— La Ilustración (newspaper), 24 July 1854, at the outset of thebienio progresista, after Salamanca had gone into exile.
Long before the end of thebienio progresista Salamanca was back in Spain,[9] and in 1856 when Moderates regained power, Salamanca returned to favor and was given the title ofsenator for life.[1]
_01.jpg)
During the 42 years of his life that Salamanca spent in Madrid, Salamanca had a major career as a financier and businessman. It is for this that he is most remembered. He was a founder of theBank of Isabella II (1844) and theBank de Cádiz (1846)[3] Upon returning from his first exile he earned close to 300 millionreales by renting out the state salt monopoly for five years. This amount was twice what he had earned since obtaining this monopoly. Not for the first time, he restored his relations with Narváez. Narváez andAgustín Fernando Muñoz, Duke of Riánsares (second husband of the queen mother Maria Christina) came to be his partners in a number of subsequent business ventures.[citation needed]
Salamanca was credited with development of the neighborhood of Madrid that wasnamed for him.[3] This was the first phase of the expansion of Madrid proposed byCarlos María de Castro.[citation needed]. One of his last business ventures was a similar expansion ofSan Sebastián in 1881.[3]
Salamanca also invested in railways, beginning the construction of the line from Madrid to Aranjuez. On 24 December 1845 theSociedad del Ferrocarril de Madrid a Aranjuez (Madrid-Aranjuez Railway Company) was established[9] with a capital of 45 million reales.[11] This time his partners were the bankerNazario Carriquiri and theCount of Retamoso, Maria Christina's brother-in-law.[citation needed]
The construction of the line caused Salamanca some economic difficulties, and coincided with the financial crisis of 1846, not to mention Salamanca'sfailure at the Bank of Isabella II and a fall from grace that sent him into exile in France for 16 months.[9] The line was successfully completed and began service on 7 February 1851.[1] Queen Isabella II presided over the opening of the line and more than a thousand invitees enjoyed a generous party at Salamanca's personal expense. Three months later, the line was bringing in 50,000 reales every day.[citation needed] On 13 August 1852, Salamanca sold the line to the state for 60.2 million reales, then rented it back for 1,500,000 reales a year.[12]
Today, that route is part of the line from Madrid toAlcázar de San Juan, where it divides into a route toAndalusia and one to theSpanish Levante. A Sunday tourist train, theTren de la Fresa ("Strawberry Train") keeps alive the nickname earned by the Madrid-Aranjuez line in its early years. The present-day Aranjuez station is located at a small distance from the original terminus immediately at theRoyal Palace of Aranjuez.[citation needed]
Salamanca also invested in railways from Madrid toIrún,Córdoba toMálaga, and from Aranjuez to theMediterranean;[9] his investments were not limited to Spain. They extended throughout Europe andthe Americas, including theAtlantic and Great Western Railroad inNew York State,Pennsylvania, andOhio: hence the name of the small city ofSalamanca in western New York and itssurrounding township.[13]
In autumn 1844, theBolsa de Madrid—Spain's largest stock exchange—saw a series of enthusiastic sessions. Optimism reigned at the stability provided by the government of Narvaez. However, after several days of analysis, Salamanca began tosell short in a seemingly clumsy strategy.[citation needed]
Taking advantage of his privileged position in public affairs, Salamanca knew that several generals were considering a coup. He also knew that Narváez was maintaining a correspondence with some of them, intending to get them to drop the plan.[citation needed]
When the news arrived that GeneralMartín Zurbano had risen up in rebellion inNájera, Salamanca and his associates announced it to sow panic. The stock exchange, sensitive to any abrupt change in public affairs, plummeted, and Salamanca profited by some 30 million reales in a single day. Fernando Muñoz and General Narváez each received 2 million.[citation needed]
(...) It is very "salty", and although I was much enraged, I am weak, I want ... but do not say it because then I come to propose a business where we're going to give Spain many millions.[14][This quote needs a citation]
Where the law has most failed is on the routes that have been granted to Señor Salamanca, and the reason is because this man is associated with a powerful man who has too much and too fatal an influence on the matter.[15][This quote needs a citation]
— GeneralManuel Gutiérrez de la Concha, Marquess del Duero (Progressive), in the Spanish Senate, referring to Salamanca's friendship with Fernando Muñoz, the queen's step-father-in-law.
Founded in 1844, it was to be an institution more or less on a par with theBank of San Fernando.[citation needed] It was founded with capital of 100 million reales,[16] which it distributed generously as credit among Spain's emerging capitalist investors.[citation needed]
Although the bank was never a financial success, Salamanca used its capital to make purchases, such as 71-block lot purchased from María Luisa de Borbón, paid for with a check for 1 million reales drawn on the bank. When the time came that the check had to be made good, Salamanca turned to Queen Isabella, who owed money to the bank. However, she insisted on paying the debt with her shares in the Madrid-Aranjuez railway, shares for which she had paid 4 million reales, but which were by this time practically worthless.[citation needed]
The bank was ultimately rescued by being merged into the Bank of San Fernando, forming the basis for theBank of Spain.[9]
From 1860 onward, Salamanca's career began to decline due to a series of unsuccessful undertakings. He was already far past his financial prime when the queen named him Marquess of Salamanca in 1863 and Count of los Llanos in 1864; the latter title made him aGrandee of Spain.[2][3] Not long after this he was forced to sellhis Madrid palace, one of the most elegant and best built of the era.[citation needed] The building at what is nowPaseo de Recoletos n.º 10 is owned today by theBanco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and is used for art exhibitions.[17]
However, he was not without other palaces. He owned the Palacio de Vista Alegre inCarabanchel Bajo, the Palacio de Buena Esperanza enCarabanchel Alto, and another in Aranjuez. He also owned extensive land inLos Llanos, the Palacio de Mitra inLisbon, ahôtel particulier in Paris, and he rented a palace in Rome, each with an army of servants.[2]
After theSexenio Democrático (the years 1868–1874, including the years of theFirst Spanish Republic),[citation needed] in 1879 he won the right to build theCanal del Duero[3] to bring potable water toValladolid, which did not succeed in restoring his fortune.[citation needed]
He died at Carabanchel Bajo in 1883, 6 million reales in debt.[citation needed] In the course of a life of luxury and sybaritic extremes,[18] José de Salamanca had been a lawyer, conspirator, mayor, judge, banker, underwriter of public works, theatrical impresario, director of businesses, engineer, agriculturalist, livestock rancher, government minister, senator, deputy, marquess, count, and Grandee of Spain.[2]
There are streets named after Salamanca inTalayuela,Navalmoral de la Mata,Torremolinos, andCastellón de la Plana. InSan Sebastián there is a street called the Paseo de Salamanca in his honor. In Madrid, a neighborhood and a plaza bear his name. The plaza was designed by municipal architectPablo Aranda, who also designed the pedestal for his statue in the plaza.[citation needed]Salamanca in western New York and itssurrounding township were named after him.[13]
El marqués de Salamanca[19] ("The Marquis of Salamanca") is a 1948 Spanish biopic about him.The marquis is played byAlfredo Mayo.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
