Pascual Madoz

Pascual Madoz Ibáñez (17 May 1806 – 13 December 1870) was a Spanish politician and statistician.

In early life Madoz was settled in Barcelona, as a writer and journalist.

He saw some service against the Carlists; was elected deputy to the Cortes of 1836; took part for Baldomero Espartero, Count of Luchana, and then against him; was imprisoned in 1843; went into exile and returned; was governor of Barcelona in 1854, and minister of finance in 1855; had a large share in secularizing the Church lands; and after the revolution of 1868 was governor of Madrid.

Madoz was distinguished from most of the politicians of his generation by the fact that in mid-life he compiled what is still a book of value: a geographical, statistical and historical gazetteer or dictionary of localities in Spain and its overseas possessions, Diccionario geográfico, estadístico y histórico de España, y sus posesiones de Ultramar (Madrid, 1848–1850).

[1] In Pamplona there is a street, Calle de Pascual Madoz, named in his honor.