Manuel Agustín Heredia

Manuel Agustín Martínez Heredia

Manuel Agustín Martínez Heredia (born May 4, 1786 in Rabanera de Cameros , † August 14, 1846 in Málaga ) was a Spanish industrialist and promoter of the industrial revolution in Spain .

Life

Originally born in Rabanera de Cameros, a small municipality in the autonomous community of La Rioja in the north of Spain, at the age of fifteen he came with his family to the south of Spain where he worked as a salesman in Vélez-Málaga .

Manuel Heredia started his first business project in Gibraltar in 1808 . He opened a wholesale business selling dried fruits and wine during the Revolutionary War. In 1813 he married Isabel Livermore Salas , sister of José María de Salamanca y Mayol , Marquis of Salamanca.

In 1826 he founded the La Concepción company in Marbella , the first ironworks with a blast furnace in Spain. The second ironworks, La Constancia, in Málaga followed in 1933 . In 1840 Manuel A. Heredia was already the largest employer in Spain and the first industrial hardware dealer . His steel company ( Siderurgia ) employed around 2000 people in Andalusia alone .

In addition to the steel industry, he was also the owner of two soap factories and operated a fleet of 18 merchant ships between Spain and America. He was also involved in an insurance company for workers and founder of the Banco de Málaga . The Banco de Isabel II Foundation, which he founded , particularly supported the Spanish Roma families (Pueblo gitano) in Andalusia who worked in his companies. The foundation built workers' housing estates. A few months before his death, he founded the textile company Industria Malagueña with Pablo and Martín Larios .

He was made a senator shortly before his death in August 1846 .

literature

• C. García Montoro: Málaga en los comienzos de la industrialización: Manuel Agustín Heredia (1786–1846). 1978.
• Fernández Álvarez y Portillo: Siderurgia malagueña en el siglo XIX. MAH