The 150th anniversary of the first Spanish train in the Iberian Peninsula is being celebrated in 1998. Its developer, the Mataró-born Miquel Biada i Bunyol, carried out the difficult venture of linking by railway Barcelona to his hometown. He did it with enormous conviction, effort and capacity of work. With this venture he put his capital in danger, but at the same time he managed to persuade other investors to help him building the railway. His progressive spirit went over the lack of understanding of the time and nowadays he is considered one of Catalonia’s most admired indianos of the 19th century (Spaniards who returned to Spain having made their fortunes in Latin America).

Born in 1789 into a large family of Mataró, he was the son of a master builder of that town. He studied at the Escolapios school and afterwards, apparently sponsored by his brother, he studied to be a pilot. In the spring of 1808, when still very young, he experienced the horrific attacks of the French army over his town. He went to America in the middle of the hostilities. Catalan people had recently obtained permission to do business there, thanks to the free trade decree ordered by Carlos III in 1778.

He settled in the city of Maracaibo, where he worked as a shipowner and shipping agent, but he was soon involved in the Venezuelan Independence War. Loyal to the interests of Spain, he was responsible of actively fighting the pro-independence politicians Miranda and Bolívar. Between 1810 and 1813 he made several expeditions in defense of Spain (to Coro, Guaranao, Puerto Rico and Jamaica).

He went back to Mataró and married Teresa Prats in August 1815, when he was 26 years old. They had a boy the following year. After a short period in Mataró, he returned to Venezuela, where, thanks to general Murillo, it seemed that peace was about to come. In fact, Bolívar agreed terms for an armistice with the Spanish forces in 1820. But when Biada left Maracaibo in order to announce the truce to the neighbouring towns of Riohacha, Santa Marta and Cartagena, the city declared itself in favour of independence. Taken in, he preferred to sink his own fleet rather than giving it to the enemy.

After those events he returned to Catalonia, and his second son was born in Mataró in 1823. But since his aim was America he embarked again with his family, this time to Cuba.

He settled with his wife and children in the city of Havana, where his third son was born in 1825. There, Biada could do his business again thanks to agriculture and trading. According to his books, he transported goods such as sugar, wood and tobacco. General Tacón appointed him captain of one of the ten companies of volunteers he recruited to guarantee security on the island. In 1837 the first train of the island was opened. That day, Miquel Biada decided to promote a railway between Barcelona and Mataró. With those intentions he went back to Catalonia in 1840. Before leaving he was appointed as Caballero de la Cruz de Isabel la Católica in appreciation of his personal and economic services to the war of Venezuela.

As soon as he arrived in Barcelona, Biada explained his project to prospective shareholders. But he didn’t find understanding in those times when the Industrial Revolution hadn’t arrived yet to Catalonia. Then he travelled to London, where he was able to attract English capital thanks to Josep Maria Roca’s contacts. English investors agreed to finance fifty per cent of the project only if the remainder of the capital was Catalan. Being supported by English capital and being given the railway concession by the Royal Court, Biada finally won the Catalan investors to his enterprise. He knew that his project was very innovative and one that needed decissiveness and great efforts in order to be carried out. His rousing speech at the Saló de Cent in Barcelona town hall (1844) was very famous. Some of the Catalan shareholders, who had still not made up their minds, had not made their investments yet and most of the public opinion was reluctant to support him. Finally, in 1846 the company was legally set up and the works started with English technology and engineers. The first train was opened in October 1848 but Miquel Biada, weakened by the effort, had died on 2 April that year in his hometown. It was very talked about in the press of the time.

When General Tacón was governor of Cuba, the "Royal Promotion Board of Havana" promoted a railway which was to link the agricultural area of Güines to the port of Havana. In order to carry out the project, a board of directors was created. Its members were the Count of Fernandina, Joaquín Gómez and Miquel Biada. The venture was financed by private shareholders. The day they opened the first stretch of the railway, Biada, pleased with the results, thought of doing the same in Catalonia. He said to General Tacón "when I go back to my country, I will link Barcelona to my hometown in less than one year".

Biada went back to Catalonia in 1840. Then he devoted all his energies to explain his project of linking Barcelona to Mataró by railway. The stagecoach service was poor and unsafe due to the presence of bandits, and the journey was too long and uncomfortable. Biada said that the train was a safe and fast means of transport and that it would make trade easier. As in other countries, the train would involve progress. Unfortunately, most of the Catalan people at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution did not trust the project.

Faced with the problem of not finding any shareholders in Barcelona, Biada went to England. There he met Josep Maria Roca, a Catalan businessman settled in London, whom he had already contacted by letter. Roca promised to get English investors to put up 50 per cent of the capital. Roca would also be responsible to ask the Spanish government the concession for building the railway. He did so in June 1843, by submitting a foundation plan. It was endorsed on 13 August 1843, even though official notice was not received until 30 November that year.

Supported by the English (who put up 5,000 shares), Biada persuaded the Catalans. Out of the 5,000 shares that had to be financed by Spanish capital, he managed to place 1,160 among Catalan investors. Furthermore, his friends in Puerto Rico and Cuba bought some shares financed by himself. The price or each share was 2,000 reales (one real was equivalent to a quarter of a peseta), thus the company’s capital was one million duros (a duro is a five peseta coin).

Finally, the first shareholder’s meeting took place on 31 July 1844 at the Saló de Cent in the Barcelona town hall. The company was set up and Biada was elected director. In the meantime, Roca signed in Paris a contract with Joseph Locke, the engineer in charge of building the railway.

The notarial deed for setting up the company was signed on 6 June 1845, as well as the articles of association and the board of directors’s makeup. Biada was named treasurer. There appears Roca’s representative transference of the railway concession to the new company.

On 27 July a new shareholder’s meeting was held in order to approve the setting up deed. They decided the company’s name was to be Gran Compañía Española del Camino de Hierro de Barcelona a Mataró y Viceversa (The Great Spanish Company for the Iron Track from Barcelona to Mataró and Vice Versa) and that its headoffice would be at Porxos d’En Xifré, 6. The shareholders put up 5 per cent of their shares for starting up the building of the railway. A royal decree published that same day in Madrid allowed the beginning of the works.

The budget added 950,000 duros and was sent to the government on 5 November in order to be approved.

The first step was buying the lands. The company had a concession declared "socially useful", according to the government, so they could had recourse to the "law of forced expropriation of the year 1836". Negotiating compensations with the 170 affected landowners was a long and difficult task.

In the general ordinary meeting held on 15 January 1847, they agreed to hire a company called Mackenzie and Brassey, which had 1,200 shares of English capital. The contract was signed before a notary -Ferran Moragas Ubach- on 18 October 1847. Mr Robson -Mackenzie and Brassey’s representative- ratified the contract before the same notary the following month. Robson arrived in Barcelona on 18 June 1847 and started supervising the building of the railway, under the orders of engineer Locke.

That same year, two commisioners of the company travelled to England to buy the necessary machinery, using English capital. They bought four engines to the Jonness and Potts company, 62 carriages to Wright (30 first class ones, 30 second class ones, and two luxury ones), as well as 30 coaches (18 for third class and 12 for goods). Furthermore, they bought two very long coaches for the transportation of particularly bulky items. The wood would arrive from the Baltic (Russia) by sea. In order to reduce the cost, the stations were to be built by Spanish companies, so they were auctioned and sold to Spanish building firms. Iron material necessary to build the stations (such as iron columns, revolving platforms, etc) was bought in London to Devauz and Co.

Even though in 1847 the building of the railway progressed very much, the company faced a big financial problem since only 3,210 out of the 5,236 Spanish shares were present and only 2,112 out of these were paid. Therefore, the company could rely only on 50 per cent of Catalan capital. On the other hand, the English had paid all their debts on shares. Spain was in a difficult period and investors were reluctant. In order to ease the crisis, on 27 June the board of directors asked the Spanish government for a trato de favor through Banco de San Fernando, the official government bank, which had already given one to the Madrid-Aranjuez railway. But the request was refused.

Furthermore, Mr Randall -an English shareholders’s representative- travelled to Spain and, having seen that the Catalan shareholders did not keep their word, threatened to take all the English capital away. The situation was disastrous: in Spain there were more projects to build a railway (at the time the Madrid-Aranjuez and the Langredo-Gijón lines were being built as well), but most of the projects had failed. Biada’s project seemed to be fallen through.

Another problem was to be added to the financial ones: the suspicion of both the uneducated and the educated people towards the works done:

On the one hand, terrific rumours were spread about the consequences of building the railway: that its jolting would cause nervous disorders, that the smoke would bring lung’s illnesses, that it was a monster that ate children to work, that the sparks of its fire would provoke fires, etc. Popular imagination reached the point of beleiving that the horses that made the train work were locked up inside the engines.

Apart from all that, influential people started to criticise the enterprise voraciously saying that the railway would not resist downpours. They said, for instance, that there were not enough gutters and that they were too narrow, or that the sand-made embankments would fall down, and that one bridge or the other would not resist the floods. Some of the seaside enbankments were said to be destroyed by the waves in a storm. Criticism was supported by the owners of the stagecoach service, who regarded the train as a fierce competitor.

In order to drive criticism away, in October the board of directors asked Mr Locke to do an exhaustive examination of the works done. Engineer Locke guaranteed the firmness of it all and ascribed criticism to the lack of understanding due to inexperience.

The new board of directors, appointed at the meeting of October 31, 1847, asked the government once again for a trato de favor through Banco de San Fernando, but the request was refused again.

Biada’s conviction dispelled all rumours. To solve financial troubles -which were definitely serious at that point- he called the main shareholders to an extraordinary meeting at the Saló de Cent. His vehement and ardent speech was decisive to persuade the audience of the greater efforts and decissiveness needed to carry out the project. The suspicious shareholders, which had not made their promised investments yet, urged now by Biada’s confidence and enthusiasm, agreed to buy all the available shares. They immediately paid 10 per cent of their value. Biada also compromised his personal fortune.

Biada’s convincing speech at the Saló de Cent saved the enterprise. It came to public notice to the extent that, from that moment on, the railway relied on the unconditional popular support.

At that time, works had reached a very advanced stage: most of the 44 bridges, and almost all of the enbankments and gutters had already been built. The Montgat tunnel and a fair amount of the stations were almost finished.

It was during the last months of 1847 that Biada fell ill, probably as a consequence of the exhausting activity he had developed. His nephew, Onofre Viada, took his position as Director.

At the end of January, 1848 the woods for building the rail arrived by sea, only five months before the proposed date for the opening: June. Despite his poor health, Biada payed good attention to the continuing works. During those months the rails were placed on the previously built embankments. Then, the railway enemies destructed during the night what the workers had done during the day, so night shifts were set up and Biada himself covered the route to prevent plunder. That was the reason why his health got worse and he caught pneumonia. Retired in Mataró, he died on 2 April, 1848 having made his testament. In his testament he stated that he was conscious that it was thanks to his perseverance and extraordinary efforts that the railway enterprise could be carried out. Many people went to his funeral in Mataró, among them many important people from Barcelona.

The documents of the time are proofs of the admiration that Biada’s contemporaries had for him. They considered him as the railway promoter and admired his unselfishness and patriotism. They knew that he did not do it for his own gain but for the country’s good. Also his effort, perseverance and extraordinary capacity of work were much praised.

Miquel Biada’s mausoleum. Picture taken in 1948

Family tree of Biada’s descendants

Antonio and Miguel Biada Sala the day of the railway centenary

Biada family at the beginning of the 150th anniversary (October 28, 1997)

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This website was created by Toni Biada Salat, descendant of Miquel Biada