page_title: Miguel Martínez de Pinillos Sáenz
section_title: Other business activities
hierarchical_section_title: Miguel Martínez de Pinillos Sáenz / Other business activities
caption_attribution_description: Español: Gaviotas en las salinas de Isla Cristina
context_page_description: Miguel Martínez de Pinillos Sáenz was a Spanish entrepreneur. He is known mostly as a ship-owner, who operated a Cádiz-based fleet of merchant vessels on Mediterranean and Atlantic routes. He is recognized also as a locally known conservative politician, briefly serving in the Cortes as a Carlist deputy.
context_section_description: Though his business focus was on merchant maritime transportation, Martínez de Pinillos remained engaged in a number of other economic activities, most of them inherited from his father; in historiography he is referred to also as „comerciante”, „industrial” and „terrateniente”.
  His industrial activities were related to evaporation-based salt exploitation. He was the owner of Unión Salinera; the company was dealing in all types of salt business, including crushed salt for industrial and commercial purposes and refined table salt for home use. It was based on licenses to exploit extensive salt ponds at the outskirts of Cádiz; one, named "La Tapa", was located in El Puerto de Santa María, others, named "San Félix", "San Miguel" and "Dolores", were located in Rio Arillo. Martínez de Pinillos owned also salt installations on Rio Guadalete. Exact scale of the business is not clear, though it was significant at least on the Andalusian scale; Unión Salinera for years advertised in the local press and they operated own railway facilities, including an industrial spur along the Cádiz – Seville line.
  In the neighboring province of Seville Martínez de Pinillos possessed land estates totaling 2,625 ha, all located along the banks of the Guadalquivir near Villanueva del Rio. By Northern Spanish standards they were massive; also in Andalusia their size rendered Martínez de Pinillos one of the major terratenientes, though not among the largest ones; the largest national holdings exceeded 50,000 ha and in the Cordoba district alone there were around 15 landholders with estates exceeding 2,500 ha. As late as in the 1970s the estate, almost undiminished in size and at that time owned by Martínez de Pinillos’ daughter, was the 5th largest holding in the Seville province and the 8th largest holding in the entire Ribera de Guadalquivir.
  Already in the late 19th century known in the local press as „conocido comerciante”, later on Martínez de Pinillos emerged as tycoon of the provincial economy, his wealth translating into position in a number of corporative bodies, institutions and pressure groups. In the early 20th century he entered the local Cádiz Cámara de Comercio; entrusted with lobbying with central authorities in Madrid, later on he grew to vice-president of the Chamber, elected also vice-president of the Cádiz Liga Marítima. In 1936-1942 he was president of Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Cadiz. He is not known to have performed any official duties in local administration, though during his Cortes tenure he occasionally represented the Cádiz ayuntamiento in some business dealings. His combined income rendered him one of wealthiest men in the area and the second taxpayer of the Cádiz province. His 1930 contribution to the fiscal office was 17,831 pesetas; at that time annual budget of a 50,000-inhabitant Spanish city was around 1m ptas.
caption: Andalusian salt ponds
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