Miguel Martínez de Pinillos Sáenz (1875–1953) 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.

Family and youth

The Pinillos originated from La Rioja and were first noted in the 16th century; one of its representatives, Martín, got his first name incorporated into the family surname.Martínez de Pinillos entry [in:] blasoneshispanicos service, available here Many of their members served either in the Spanish administration or in the military;Guillermo E. Pinillos Llontop, Naviera Pinillos, [in:] Solar de Las Calderas service 2012, available here because of their overseas duties, the family became very branched with some of its descendants noted in history of various Latin American countries, notably CubaClaudio Martínez de Pinillos y Ceballos, see Martínez de Pinillos entry [in:] blasoneshispanicos service, available here and Bolivia.Pedro Martínez de Pinillos, see Municipio de Pinillos, Parte general del plan de desarrollo municipal, available here Miguel's great-grandfather, Antonio Martínez de Pinillos Marín, was the last one who lived in La Rioja. His son and Miguel's grandfather, Miguel Martínez de Pinillos y Sáenz de Velasco, though born in Nieva de Cameros moved to the South and settled in Cádiz. In the 1830s he engaged in maritime business as owner of a ship serving the Spanish West Indies; in the 1840 his business grew to a fleet of vessels.Juan Carlos Diaz Lorenzo, Los vínculos de la Naviera Martínez de Pinillos con el puerto de Santa Cruz de la Palma, [in:] De la mar y los barcos service 2009, available here

In the 1880s the enterprise was taken over by Miguel's son and also Miguel's father, Antonio María Martínez de Pinillos Izquierdo (1843–1926);see Antonio Martínez De Pinillos Izquierdo entry at MyHeritage genealogical service, available here under his management the enterprise reached its golden age. Antonio modernized the fleet by switching to steamers and operated new regular routes both on the Atlantic and on the Mediterranean, opening a base in Santander and trying to serve also Northern Europe and the Far East. His company, first named Pinillos, Sáenz y Cia. and since the 1890s Pinillos, Izquierdo y Cia., together with its major competitor Trasatlántica became key player on the Spanish transatlantic routes.Diaz Lorenzo 2009 Serving as councillor in ayuntamientoEl Noticiero Gaditano 30.01.26, available here and with members of other Martínez de Pinillo branches acting as top local officials, Antonio became the provincial business mogul; the family grew among the most prominent ones in Cádiz.Sebastian Martinez de Pinillos served as alcalde, president of the dipuatcion and Cortes deputy in the early 20th century, Álvarez Rey 2009, p. 441

As the Martínez de Pinillos and the Izquierdo families used to intermarry, also Antonio married Aquilina Sáenz y Izquierdo.Pinillos Llontop 2012 It is not clear how many children the couple had, though Miguel was the only son.El Correo de Cádiz 16.09.12, available here, Conde de Villanueva thread, [in:] Heraldaria service 2009, available here None of the sources consulted provides information on his early schooling; he intended to join the navy, but in his teens he was sent to England to receive commercial education in London.Díaz Lorenzo 1990, referred after Vida Marítima service, available here He remained in Britain until his adult years and returned to Cádiz in the early 1890s.Díaz Lorenzo 1990, referred after Vida Marítima service, available here In 1900El Guadalete 09.02.00, available here he married Trinidad Toro y Gómez.Pinillos Llontop 2012 Living in the family residence at Plaza de Mina,now turned into a museum, see Juan Alonso de la Sierra Fernández, Francisco Reina Fernández-Trujillo, La casa Pinillos, nuevo espacio expositivo para el museo de Cádiz, [in:] Proyectos y actuaciones 84 (2013), available here the couple had two children: Antonio and Carmen Martínez de Pinillos y Toro, both born prior to 1919.Pinillos Llontop 2012 Antonio was supposed to take over the family business until he died in a car accident in 1951.ABC 30.10.51, available here It was his daughter and Miguel's granddaughter, María Carmen Martínez de Pinillos Ceballos, who went on running the company as Naviera Pinillos. The enterprise remained in family hands until the early 1990s; at that time it was taken over by Grupo Boluda,ABC 17.01.09, available here, Naviera Pinillos entry, [in:] buques.org service, available here which keeps maintaining the brand.ABC 27.06.00, available here

Ship-owner

Upon completing his education in England Martínez de Pinillos returned to Spain and engaged in the family business run by his father; it is not clear what roles he performed in Pinillos, Izquierdo y Cia. At that time the family enterprise was at its peak, but in the years to come it went into gradual decline. Spain's loss of overseas holdings dramatically reduced demand for transatlantic communication in the 1900s, a series of massively tragic naval disasters shattered the company image when Príncipe de Asturias and Valbanera sank in the 1910stwo passenger liners serving the Latin American routes and operated by the Martínez de Pinillos company were lost with massive loss of life; in 1916 Príncipe de Asturias sank off the Brazilian coast with 457 victims; it was the worst maritime disaster in Spanish history up to 1919, when Valbanera sank on the Caribbean Sea with 488 victims; the latter was the worst Spanish maritime disaster until 1939 and the post-war crisis hit the company hard in the early 1920s; as a result, Pinillos, Izquierdo y Cia shut down in 1921, selling its assets to Compañia Transoceanica de Navegación.Pinillos Llontop 2012

In 1923 Miguel Martínez de Pinillos decided to re-launch the business, this time setting up his own company named Lineas Pinillos.Naviera Pinillos entry, [in:] buques.org service, available here He did not resume grand oceanic activities and switched to a less ambitious, but pragmatic format.Díaz Lorenzo 1990, referred after Vida Marítima service, available here Lineas Pinillos engaged in tramping and coasting trade, the latter both as cabotage and grand cabotage. In terms of geography the company focused on the Canary Islands.Naviera Pinillos entry, [in:] buques.org service, available here In terms of cargo type, it specialized in fruits – mostly bananasLas Provincias 14.08.28, available here - and coal. Until the late 1920s its most typical operations were exports of fruits from the Canary Islands to Britain and return cruises to Spanish ports with the load of British coal.Díaz Lorenzo 1990, referred after Vida Marítima service, available here The vessels operated also on other routes along the Atlantic Northern African coast and across the Mediterranean, calling at Moroccan, French or Italian ports.

Martínez de Pinillos was gradually assembling a fleet of merchant vessels. His default strategy relied on purchasing new ships from Spanish and foreign shipyards, mostly in the Vascongadas (Ardanaz from Baracaldo and Euskalduna from Bilbao) and in Scotland (Robert Duncan & Co in Glasgow and Caledon in Dundee), though occasionally coming from other manufacturers like the Norwegian Verksted Kristiansand.Naviera Pinillos entry, [in:] buques.org service, available here To suit his tramping and cabotage pattern of service he focused on small to mid-size vessels; while in the early 1900s an average cargo ship size was 4,000 DWT,George Bruce, Ian Garrard, The Business of Shipbuilding, New York 2013, , p. 2 most vessels which joined Lineas Pinillos were around 2,000 DWT. Though initially Martínez de Pinillos purchased late-generation steamers powered by triple expansion type engines with some 900 hp, since the mid-1920s he switched to modern diesel propulsion, offering around 1,700 hp. By 1925 the fleet consisted of 4 ships: Rio Arillo, Duero, Celta and Vasco;Díaz Lorenzo 1990, referred after Vida Marítima service, available here in the late 1920s and the early 1930s it was joined by 4 sister vessels built in Bilbao: Ebro, Sil, Turia and Darro; designed as reefer ships, they already reflected the new company strategy to focus entirely on transport of fruits and other similar cargo.detailed discussion of the ship design and performance in Motonaves refrigeradas Ebro y Sil, [in:] Vida Maritima service 2007, available here

Other business activities

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”.Álvarez Rey 2009, p. 441

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.Tradición 01.07.34, available here 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.Juan Peris Torner, Ferrocarril de la Unión Salinera – Salinas de La Tapa, [in:] Ferrocariles de Espana service 2012, available here

In the neighboring province of Seville Martínez de Pinillos possessed land estates totaling 2,625 ha,Álvarez Rey 2009, p. 442 all located along the banks of the Guadalquivir near Villanueva del Rio.Rafael Mata Olmo, Transformación en regadío y evolución de la gran explotación agraria: el ejemplo de la Depresión del Guadalquivir, [in:] Agricultura y sociedad 32 (1984), p. 211 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 hatheas late as in 1919 duque de Peñaranda possessed 51,000 ha, Antonio Manuel Moral Roncal, Aristocracia y poder económico en la España del siglo XX, [in:] Vegueta 7 (2003), p. 157 and in the Cordoba district alone there were around 15 landholders with estates exceeding 2,500 ha.see La gran propiedad rústica a mediadod del siglo XIX, available here, pp. 80-81 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.Mata Olmo 1984, p. 211