Luis Figueroa y Casaus

Luis Maria Jose Marcelo Eduardo Figueroa Casaus (11 May 1781 – 1853 ) was a Spanish soldier, businessman, and merchant. An afrancesado, he supported King Joseph Bonaparte and then fought for Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo as a commander. He was then exiled to Marseille, where he took a series of decisive steps to consolidate himself as one of the great merchants of the city and anticipate the Mediterranean lead trade. The surname Figueroa makes up the most important saga of businessmen linked to Spanish mining and metallurgy of the 19th century. The successor of the Heredia house Tomás (1819–1893) lost the main bases of the era due to a languid life, where little by little their activity faded away. The evolution of the Figueroa, however, was the opposite since Ignacio, who was 45 years old when he succeeded his father, unlike Tomás, who was only 27, was more aware of the negotiations due to having participated in all the remodeling that took place during the 1840s.

Legacy The port of Marseille became the capital of European lead until 1860 and the Figueroa house ended up controlling most of the supply of Spanish lead, originating from both the Southeast and the Linares Basin starting in the middle of the century. Based on this hegemony, an industrial emporium was built around this commercial plaza. Adra's investments and the control of the Alpujarra lead trade through the port of Marseille would become the pillars of one of the greatest fortunes in Spain.

Figueroa made a considerable fortune investing in mining companies dedicated to lead extraction in Andalusia. His companies would be inherited by his only son Ignacio, who received an education in Paris, and, after working for a time as the representative of the interests of his father in Spain, settled in Madrid in 1845. Ignacio was the father of Maria Francisca, José, Gonzalo, Álvaro (the Count of Romanones), and Rodrigo, spawning one of the most influential families in Spain during the Restoration period.

Within the metallurgical core that has resurfaced in Marseille since 1840 and is made up of eight factories, the Figueroa house produced at the beginning of the 1950s more than 40% of the manufactured lead and 50% of the silver obtained by the industries of the city.