José María Martinez de las Rivas (29 September 1848 – 13 April 1913)[1] was a Spanish pioneer businessman in the industrialization of Biscay, promoting shipbuilding, steelmaking, mining exploitation, and house building.

[6] After studying in Bilbao, Martinez de las Rivas began his business-oriented training in 1860, traveling first to Madrid and then to London to gain experience in the wine exporting house of one of his uncle Francisco.

[6] He began to divide his life between Great Britain and Spain, working as a mediator for the English iron industrialists who needed the ore from the mines of the Basque Country.

[2] Together with an English shipowner and politician named Charles Mark Palmer (1822–1907) from Newcastle, Martinez de las Rivas won the contract for the construction of three battleships for the Navy in 1888, after beating several rivals in a competition.

[4] On 1 June 1889, the contract was signed, and on 30 October of the same year, the Martínez Rivas Palmer Collective Company was registered in the Bilbao Mercantile Registry, dedicated to shipbuilding for the State, as well as for individuals.

[4] Finally, on 20 April 1892, the company suspended payments, and this was followed by dismissals, which were followed by workers' protests, which were followed by bitter political controversies, and as a result of all this, the Council of Ministers of 12 May 1892 ordered the apprehension of the Nervión Shipyards.

[2][3] Martinez de las Rivas died in Madrid on 13 April 1913, at the age of 65,[1] when he was one of the richest men in northern Spain and his fortune was valued at that time at about 16 million pesetas.

[6] From that moment, the heirs of the Martínez Rivas House began to fragment the business unit to get rid of the lots that had belonged to them, and just eight years later, What had been one of the most powerful industrial networks in Spain no longer existed.