Empresa y familia. Actividades empresariales de la sociedad "Villarroya y Castellano" en Aragón (1840-1910)

Resumen

This paper studies the business activities developed by one of the most important mercantile companies in Aragon during the second half of the 19th century: "Villarroya y Castellano". This firm, constituted and run by bankers through family links, undertook for more than seven decades a diversified investment policy in those sectors which by that time offered the best productive opportunities in Aragon. Thus, in the mid-19th century they were present not only in the industrial development of the flour, paper and metallurgic sectors, but also in the purchase of a large number of lands and urban lots. In the late 19th century they were the leading protagonists of the impulse of the industrial expansion in Zaragoza, wich was focused on the sugar sector and others, such as the chemical and paper sectors. One of the family branches integrating this society, Castellano family, counted upon a permanent parliamentary representation during the Elizabethan and Restoration periods, through some relevant members of the family like Tomás Castellano Sanz, Tomás Castellano Villmoya and Tomás Castellano Echenique.