He took an interest in shipping and in 1850 he founded the "Compañia de Vapores Correos A. López" which began operations with a 400-ton hybrid sailing ship-sidewheel steamer.

[6] Around that time Antonio López moved to Barcelona and married a Catalan lady, Lluïsa Bru Lassús, with whom he had four children.

[8] At the prompting of Jesuit Tomás Gómez Carral Antonio López agreed to finance the construction of the Comillas Pontifical University, but he died in 1883 in Barcelona in the very year of the groundbreaking ceremony.

King Alfonso XII made a eulogy of Antonio López following his death, saying that "Spain has lost one of the men who has given it the greatest service."

[11] On March 4, 2018 the monument was finally removed after a campaign denouncing the involvement of Antonio López in the slave trade.