In business he is known mostly as co-owner and manager of numerous mid-size companies from the Catalan hydroelectricity sector, which controlled large part of the power grid based on the Llobregat and the Segre basins.

[1] One branch settled in Manresa, where they formed part of emerging bourgeoisie; in the 18th century the Gomis were running metalworking facilities in the city,[2] yet it is not clear whether they were Joaquín's ascendants.

[32] Gomis' best known relatives are his brothers, moderately recognized in Catalonia: Enrique as a manager in the electricity business and Luis as a Catholic priest, publisher,[33] author[34] and educator.

[51] He was elected as one of 4 Carlists,[52] thus commencing a string of almost 15 years of service in the ayuntamiento; he was later repeatedly voted into the town hall on various lists, though usually this of a right-wing alliance Candidatura Manresana, e.g. in 1911[53] or 1915.

Unlike in other Catalan locations the Anarchist and Republican revolutionaries failed to take over the town hall and destroy railway tracks; there were no fatal casualties recorded in the city.

At the turn of the decades Gomis was already emerging among the regional party leaders, though scholars do not count him among the elite of Catalan Carlism, composed – apart from Llanza Pignatelli and Batlle Baró – of politicians younger than him: Pedro Llosas, Miguel Junyent, Lluís Argemí, Lluís Pericàs, Bartomeu Trias, Dalmacio Iglesias, Llorenç M. Alier, Marià Bordas or Daniel Serres.

[79] However, local Carlist youth from Manresa viewed him with suspicion as the man stained by collaboration with "caciquisme radical-conservador", rotten corrupted networks of the restoration regime,[80] especially that in fact Gomis negotiated electoral deals with Antonio Maura.

In 1908 they set up Elèctrica Gomís and started to sell electricity; one of their first customers was the Montserrat Abbey[91] and later its funicular,[92] while in the coming years they became suppliers to the neighboring area.

[98] In 1923 the Gomis integrated their business in Fuerza y Alumbrado (FASA), to be quoted on Barcelona and Madrid stock markets; with annual production of 1.75m kWh it was a minor player which served some 30 locations.

[100] Later the Gomis brothers made first incursions into the Cadí-Moixeró area, their eyes set on small Llobregat tributaries the Bastareny and the Pendís; negotiations about purchase of some 1.650 ha went on with no success.

[105] The Gomis business strategy was this of systematic growth by means of minor steps, either takeovers of similar smaller companies or building of own small installations.

[106] The present-day scholar underlines "extrema prudencia de la familia propietaria", which involved takeovers via front-companies, technically diversified ownership[107] and staying clear of publicity.

[108] It reportedly resulted from modus operandi typical for Catalan bourgeoisie and interdependence of the energy market, but also from personal threads like caution ensuing from textile-related origins of the Gomis business, religiosity of the brothers, and their technical incompetence, as they relied on a close circle of professional engineers.

[115] He did not count among protagonists of national or even regional Carlist politics, though the 1933 luxury album which celebrated 100 years of Carlism mentioned him as "jefe carlista del Distrito de Manresa".

[116] His contribution to the movement was financial; in 1934 Gomis invested large sums in the company issuing El Correo Catalan, the regional party mouthpiece,[117] and entered its Consejo de Administración.

[118] In 1936 he ran for the Cortes from Barcelona city district on the joint list of Front d'Ordre;[119] with 151.018 votes[120] he was among most-voted Carlists nationally, but failed to obtain the mandate.

In early summer, once the regional jefe Alier resigned, local juntas suggested Gomis as member of the ruling triumvirate; the post eventually went to Tomás Cayla.

Since the early days of the Republic they were engaged in labor conflicts with workers of their hydro-energy conglomerate, be it in 1931[122] or in 1934, when Sindicat Regional de Llum i Força went on strike in CAME.

[129] Following the Nationalist triumph the Gomis returned to Catalonia; in the mid-1940s Joaquín was president of the board of Fomento de Prensa Tradicionalista (FPT)[130] and its daily, El Correo Catalan.

[131] When faced with conflict between the intransigent anti-Francoist Catalan leader Mauricio de Sivatte and more cautious Jefe Delegado Manuel Fal Conde, Gomis sided with the latter.

[133] In 1953 he became president of Prensa Castellana SA, a company which issued a Madrid daily Informaciones;[134] it was another Carlist media enterprise posing as commercial entity, as the party was seeking ways to remain present in tightly censored public life.

[135] He was not noted in any political institutions of the regime and in public limited his activity to charity,[136] culture,[137] vice-presidency[138] and then presidency[139] in Camara Americana de Comercio, Catalan press life[140] and religion.

[142] There is little known about the Gomis-owned grid during the civil war; as both brothers sought refuge abroad, the power and distribution installations must have been operated by local committees or sindicates.

As they maintained good relations with the regime the works were heavily subsidized, especially that brothers cultivated personal links to local administration, e.g. in the Lerida province.

In 1943 the plan to build a power plant was officially declared "absoluta necesidad nacional"; however, owners of neighboring estates protested and amidst a spate of civil lawsuits and compensations the installation was not launched before Joaquín's death.

[158] The Oliana project was the last one that Joaquín Gomis was engaged in; he did not live to see it completed, as the installation, crowned by 95-metre dam and producing 90m kWh per annum,[159] was pompously opened 2 years after his death.