Juan March

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is March and the second or maternal family name is Ordinas.

Joan March
Joan March Ordinas (circa 1931), photo published by Estampa magazine.
Born
Joan March Ordinas

(1880-10-04)4 October 1880
Santa Margalida, Spain
Died10 March 1962(1962-03-10) (aged 81)
Madrid, Spain
Other namesJoan March i Ordinas
SpouseLeonor Servera
ChildrenJuan March y Servera
Bartolomé March y Servera
Signature

Joan Alberto March Ordinas (4 October 1880 – 10 March 1962) was a Spanish business magnate, arms and tobacco smuggler, banker and philanthropist.

Closely associated with the Nationalist side during and after the Spanish Civil War, March was the wealthiest man in Spain and the sixth richest in the world.[1] Throughout his life, he accumulated labels such as "the Rockefeller of Spain"[2] or "the last pirate of the Mediterranean". At his death in 1961, Time called him "the Iberian Croesus".[2]

Born into a humble family of peasants in Mallorca, he was expelled from school at an early age and began helping his father with his pig farming business while smuggling tobacco from Spanish Morocco. During the Mediterranean Theatre of World War I, March was involved in an international affair after he gave supplies to a fleet of submarines of the Austria-Hungary in his island of Cabrera. This action cost him the expropriation of the island by the Government of Spain acting on behalf of Winston Churchill, at the time First Lord of the Admiralty. In 1916, he founded Trasmediterránea, an important shipping company that strengthened March's maritime outreach. He gained political protection from Primo de Rivera and established Banca March to finance part of his business ventures, including Franco's coup d'état and most of the Nationalist effort. For a short period of the Second Spanish Republic, he was jailed due to financial irregularities and illegal activities, including tobacco and arms trafficking. He managed to escape prison by bribing a Civil Guard and fleeing to Gibraltar.[3]

In 1955, he set up his eponymous foundation of philanthropy and sciences, similar to the Rockefeller or Carnegie foundations. Around the same time, an elderly March uttered his famous "I am so rich, that I do not even know how rich I am".[4] He died in March 1961 from sustained injuries caused by a road accident in Madrid.

The March family under his patriarchy had a strong influence in the financial, social and cultural aspects of European affairs in the 20th century, and it played an almost equally important role as the Rothschild family.[5] Today, the Marches are among the richest in Spain, reported to be worth over US$5 billion.[6]

  1. ^ BBC: El soborno que evitó que Hitler le arrebatara Gibraltar a los británicos y controlara el Mediterráneo – 7 October 2018
  2. ^ a b Time: Business Abroad, Iberian Croesus – 14 April 1961
  3. ^ El País: Juan March, la historia de un banquero sin ley – 24 April 2011
  4. ^ The Guardian: Spain's strongest bank a family affair – 29 July 2010
  5. ^ VozPópuli: Rothschild y March, dos fortunas en busca de un perdón – 10 May 2015
  6. ^ El Mundo: Familia March Delgado. Los más ricos de 2020 en España