Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company (BTLP) (locally known as in Spanish and in Catalan, "The Canadian") was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

utility company that operated light and power utilities in Catalonia,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It was incorporated on September 12, 1911 in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

by Frederick Stark Pearson. The company was developed by Belgian-American engineer Dannie Heineman. It operated in Spain but was owned mostly by the Belgian

holding companies A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own stock of other companies ...

SOFINA and SIDRO and became the subject of the important

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

case, Belgium v. Spain (1970). Pearson died in the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania.

1919 strike

In 1919, a conflict between a BTLP subsidiary, , and eight office workers escalated into a 44-days

general strike A general strike is a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coalitions ...

called by the Anarcho-Syndicalist National Confederation of Labour halting Barcelona and 70% of the Catalan industry. A success for labour, the strike ended with a law establishing an 8-hour workday throughout Spain, the liberation of imprisoned workers without a pending process, wage increases for workers and half-wages for the month spent striking.

Juan March

Juan March was a Spaniard from

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

in the

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago forms a Provinces of Spain, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain, ...

who had begun his career as a smuggler and had become an industrialist and banker. He fled Spain after the government of the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII. ...

tried to arrest him. In 1936, he financed a right-wing and military coup that culminated in the three-year

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. March was widely known for involvement in lucrative illegal activities, for bribery and political influence, and for bending the law whenever he saw a benefit. This was exemplified in his 1948 takeover of the Barcelona Traction, Light, and Power Company (BTLP) for a small fraction of its real worth. BTLP was a utility company which provided power and streetcar services in Barcelona; originally incorporated in Canada, it was mostly owned by Belgian investors. BTLP had come through the civil war largely undamaged, and was quite profitable. Its assets were about £10,000,000 (about $500,000,000 in 2010). However, for the convenience of some of its foreign investors, BTLP had issued some bonds denominated in pounds, and the interest on these bonds was payable in pounds. The Spanish government had imposed currency restrictions: BTLP was unable to exchange its Spanish pesetas for pounds, and so could not pay the interest. This was not viewed with any great alarm by the bond-holders; BTLP had plenty of pesetas and would pay the interest arrears whenever the currency restrictions were relaxed. However, March scented an opportunity. Agents secretly acting for him quietly bought up the bonds (about £500,000). Then in February 1948, they appeared in a Spanish court, asserted that BTLP was in default on the bonds, and demanded immediate relief. The judge agreed and awarded ownership of all BTLP's assets to them (in fact to March). BTLP's foreign investors appealed, but got no relief from Spanish courts. The Belgian government appealed to the

but to no avail: the final resolution coming in 1970, eight years after March's death.

Lawsuit

The government of Spain under Franco in the 1960s placed restrictions on foreigners doing business in Spain. The Belgian stockholders in Barcelona Traction lost money and wanted to sue in the

, but in the court Judge Fornier ruled on the side of Spain, holding that only the state in which the corporation was incorporated (Canada) can sue. The decision in ''Belgium v. Spain'' is important in

public international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

because it demonstrates the importance of protections of corporate nationality in nominal ("paper") terms over effective nationality ('' siège social'') where the ownership effectively resides. Unless a principle of law permits a country to espouse a national's claim in the ICJ, there cannot be an espousal. The case is also important as it demonstrates how the concept of

diplomatic protection In international law, diplomatic protection (or diplomatic espousal) is a means for a state to take diplomatic and other action against another state on behalf of its national whose rights and interests have been injured by that state. Diplomati ...

under international law can apply equally to corporations as to individuals. It also expanded the notion of obligations owed (in relation to everyone) in the international community.

Acquisitions

* (1912) * (1911–1913) * (1912) * (1912) * (1923) * (1923) * * * (1930) * (1933) * (1935) * (1941)

References

ICJ case summary
{{Authority control Energy companies established in 1911 Energy companies disestablished in 1948 1970 in international relations 1970 in Spain Francoist Spain Belgium–Spain relations 1911 establishments in Ontario 1948 disestablishments in Spain Transport companies established in 1911 Transport companies disestablished in 1948 Canadian companies established in 1911 Defunct electric power companies of Canada Defunct electric power companies of Spain Trams in Barcelona

1919 strike

Juan March

Lawsuit

Acquisitions

See also

References