Closely associated with the Nationalist side during and after the Spanish Civil War, March was the wealthiest man in Spain and the sixth richest in the world.

[2] Born into a humble family of peasants in Mallorca, he was expelled from school at an early age and began helping his father with his pig farming business while smuggling tobacco from Spanish Morocco.

During the Mediterranean Theatre of World War I, March was involved in an international affair after he gave supplies to a fleet of submarines of the Austria-Hungary in his island of Cabrera.

This action cost him the expropriation of the island by the Government of Spain acting on behalf of Winston Churchill, at the time First Lord of the Admiralty.

He gained political protection from Primo de Rivera and established Banca March to finance part of his business ventures, including Franco's coup d'état and most of the Nationalist effort.

For a short period of the Second Spanish Republic, he was jailed due to financial irregularities and illegal activities, including tobacco and arms trafficking.

Later, he collected 18th century French furniture, and Baroque, Impressionist, Modern, and contemporary art, including works of Murillo, Goya, Velázquez, Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Miró, Kandinsky, Brâncuși, Léger, Dalí, Fontana, Rothko, Klein, Francis Bacon, and many others.

BTLP was a utility company which provided power and streetcar services in Barcelona; originally incorporated in Canada, it was mostly owned by Belgian investors.

That was not viewed with any great alarm by the bondholders since BTLP had plenty of pesetas and would pay the interest arrears whenever the currency restrictions were relaxed.

The Belgian government appealed to the International Court of Justice but to no avail, the final resolution coming in 1970, eight years after March's death.

At one point, one of the chief villains of the story complains of the difficulties of operating in the United States, where the police are honest and the press interferes.

[7] The Fundación Juan March is today one of the most important foundations dedicated to the development of cultural and scientific enhancement in Spain.