Joan March

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. Throughout his life, he accumulated labels such as "the Rockefeller of Spain" or "the last pirate of the Mediterranean". At his death in 1961, Time called him "the Iberian Croesus".

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 Austro-Hungarian navy on his island of Cabrera. This action cost him with 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 Miguel 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 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.

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". 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. Today, the Marches are among the richest in Spain, reported to be worth over US$5 billion.