page_title: Erasmo Janer Gironella
section_title: Conservative to Carlist (1864-1876)
hierarchical_section_title: Erasmo Janer Gironella / Conservative to Carlist (1864-1876)
caption_attribution_description: English: Tirso de Olazábal
context_page_description: José Erasmo Janer Gironella was a Spanish entrepreneur and politician. As a businessman he is considered a member of the textile-industry-related Catalan bourgeoisie, which enjoyed peak of its power in the mid-19th century; Janer represented this group during its declining phase. Politically he earned his name as a Carlist and headed the Catalan branch of the party between 1902 and 1910.
context_section_description: As heir to the former mayor of Barcelona and son to one of the most potent men in the city Janer was destined to become a public figure, yet political preferences of his ancestors are not entirely clear. Historians note that as tycoons of new bourgeoisie the Janers and the Gónimas were Liberals, while the Gironellas were even related to the revolutionary exaltado version of Spanish liberalism. One source claims that during the First Carlist War his father joined the liberal Barcelona juntas while another one states that in the mid-1840s he was a Traditionalist, which might point to not an unusual conservative evolution of certain section of the Moderados. One author notes that Janer himself sort of neared Traditionalist outlook during his academic years, yet his first public engagements did not demonstrate such a penchant. In the late 1850s and early 1860s he was noted for engagement in various institutions related to local business, recorded as member of Instituto Agrícola Catalan and an insurance company La Providencia or sitting in the board of Asociación de Socorros y Protección a la Clase Obrera y Jornalera and in Junta de Patronato of his Barcelona borough. One source claims he initially practiced as a lawyer.
  In the mid-1860s Janer was first noted running for public office, as propietario and haciendario competing for the concejal post in the Barcelona ayuntamiento; there is no confirmation of his success. It seems that during final years of the Isabelline monarchy he neared the entourage of the then capitán general of Catalonia and the Conservative politician, Juan de la Pezuela; Janer used to address him in public homage letters and was nominated by Pezuela to the last Isabelline city council, where he was sitting as the youngest concejal until the body was dissolved during the 1868 revolution.
  One author claims that Janer passed from Conservative to Carlist position when faced with the revolutionary developments of the late 1860s. Some sources maintain he fielded his candidature in elections to the Constituent Assembly of 1869 and indeed in 1871 he was already reported as nominated by the regional Carlist junta as their representative in the Cortes elections from Sant Feliu de Llobregat, the bid which proved unsuccessful. In 1872 Janer became president of Círculo Católico-Monárquico in Barcelona and entered the provincial party executive, noted as member of the Barcelona Junta Provincial Católico-Monárquica. In the council he was sitting with his father-in-law, Manuel Milá de la Roca, and forged the lifelong friendship with the junta leader and later Catalan Carlist leader, Luis de Llauder y Dalmases. Following outbreak of the Third Carlist War Janer found himself the target of Republican persecutions and had to flee the city a number of times. Eventually with his family he sought exile in France and settled in Saint Jean de Luz. According to one source he joined a small team, led by Tírso de Olazábal and busy procuring arms for the Carlist troops; it is likely that taking advantage of his wealth, Janer contributed financially.
caption: Tirso Olazábal
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