This important Catalan industrialist married R. Segimón, the widow of a man who had made a fortune in South America. The couple commissioned the architect A. Gaudí to build a block of flats in Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona. So it was that in 1905 work began on Casa Milà, which was to be nicknamed La Pedrera (The Quarry, 1906-1910; Passeig de Gràcia, 92 - Provença, 261-265).

In the political field he was a member of the committee that presented the draft of the bases of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya, a body bringing together Catalonia's four provincial councils, to the Spanish prime minister Canalejas in 1911. He was later among those who supported the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. He published a book under a nom de plume criticising universal suffrage and the Autonomy Statute, and supporting dictatorships.