Because the literature of European economic history has paid little attention to traditional electricity systems, the interest in studying Fensa lies in analysing the different types of companies, which helped to shape the development of the Spanish electricity sector prior to its present oligopolistic structure. This case provides insight into two issues. First, we learn about the behaviour of the second-generation companies (those that based their production on a controlled hydropower regime), which, despite their limited size, made their commercial specialisation (supplying the dynamic industrial market of Guipúzcoa) their main comparative advantage. Second, we analyse the behaviour of those companies which at this time, as distribution companies and/or subsidiaries of the large Spanish companies (Iberduero), were an instrument of the policy of integrating regional markets.

This work focuses on the origins of the Fierro Group. Ildefonso Fierro (1882–1961) was one of the most prominent businessmen of Franco's regime. Fierro's case study presents two features that distinguish it from other Spanish family firms founded in the first half of the twentieth century: its high degree of diversifcation and its peculiar financial history. Prior to the commencement of the Franco dictatorship, Fierro had managed to form a diversifed family business and had bought a bank to finance his industrial activity. This article analyzes how he achieved this and compares his path with that of the Japanese Zaibatsu.

The study of the Irati hydroelectric company aims to show some of the business strategies behind the first stages of the development of electricity in Spain and, in turn, pose new questions regarding the factors and conditioning elements of the country's regional industrialization processes. In fact, this firm represents one of the many possibilities electricity brought to non-industrialized Spanish regions at the start of the 20th century. The electricity generated by its falls explains the creation of Spain's largest integrated industrial complex built up around the initial processing of timber (saw-mills and chemical distilling) and its commercialization (railways), along with the sale of its energy surpluses on the most important market in the region of Navarre. Furthermore, the analysis of this latter activity allows us to offer an explanatory model that is both an alternative and a complement to the classical model —that provided by the largest firms—concerning the progressive incorporation of the traditional electrical markets into the integrated markets of the major Spanish companies.

This article has two objectives: to analyse a leading businessman, José Martínez Rivas, a distinguished leader of Biscayan industrialization, and to apply economic theory to his case for a better understanding of Spanish business history. The business life of Martinez Rivas and the evolution of his fortune has been reconstructed with archive sources. The article is divided into three parts. The first section examines the origins and first years of his main business activities. A second section describes the evolution and results in each of these. A third and final part, applies Schumpeterian entrepreneur theory to Martinez Rivas' business initiatives. The conclusions summarize the main contributions of this work and open a door to further related research and the theory applied.