Simón Iturri Patiño
Simón Ituri Patiño ( born June 1, 1862 in Cochabamba, † April 20, 1947 in Buenos Aires ). The Bolivian tin baron was considered one of the richest men of his time.
He married Albina Rodríguez Ocampo (* 1873, † 1953) in 1889, her children were Graziella, Elena, Luzmilla, René and Antenor Patiño Rodríguez.
Growing up in poverty, started the mestizo as a mining apprentice. Later he was an employee of a small trade for mining equipment. A customer had no money to pay for, and offered him a deed on a mine. Out of pity he took part, to the displeasure of his boss, who fired him. The first worthless appearing Mine turned out to be "gold mine " because Patiño discovered a tin ore vein. With great skill, he then built quickly out of the business. As early as 1924 he owned 50 percent of national production and controlled the European processing Bolivian tin, its large deposits have been exploited since 1899. Simón I. Patiño ran a vertical economic integration of the tin industry. In 1919, he gained control of the company William Harvey & Co., Ltd.. in Liverpool. On June 5, 1924, he founded the British capital " Patiño Mines & Enterprises Consolidated Inc." headquartered in Delaware. With this he acquired in 1929 William Harvey & Co.. , 1934, he gained control of the Consolidated Tin Smelters Limited, which was formed through the merger of William Harvey, Cornish Tin Smelting and Eastern Smelting and produced 40 percent of the tin. He eventually controlled eight Zinnproduktionsorte. While other tin barons as Carlos Victor Aramayo and Mauricio Hochschild spent the most time in Bolivia, Patiño lived mainly in Europe.
From 1926 to 1947 he was the Bolivian ambassador in Paris, and from 6 to July 15, 1938 Delegate of the Government of Germán Busch Becerra at the Conference of Evian. After his death, were nationalized during the Bolivian revolution of 1952, large parts of its assets.
Its built in the style of eclecticism retirement home, the Palacio Portales, he never referred for health reasons. The magnificent villa can be visited in Cochabamba today.