Diego Portales
| Diego Portales | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
June 16, 1793 Santiago, Chile |
| Died | June 6, 1837 (aged 43) Valparaíso, Chile |
Diego José Pedro Portales y Palazuelos (June 16, 1793 – June 6, 1837) was a Chilean statesman and entrepreneur. As a minister of president José Joaquín Prieto Diego Portales played a pivotal role in shaping the state and government politics in the 19th century, delivering with the Constitution of 1833 the framework of the Chilean state for almost a century. Portales influential political stance included unitarianism, presidentialism and conservatism which led to consolidate Chile as a constitutional authoritarian republic with democracy restricted to include only upper class men.
While deeply unpopular during his lifetime the murder of Portales in 1837 during a mutiny has been judged a decisive factor during the War of the Confederation by switching Chilean public opinion to support the war against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation.
Diego Portales was born in Santiago, the son of María Encarnación Fernández de Palazuelos y Martínez de Aldunate and José Santiago Portales y Larraín, a superintendent of the royal mint. He did his primary studies at the Colegio de Santiago, and in 1813, attended law classes at the National Institute. As the men of his family had all become successful merchants, Portales also eventually assumed the position of a merchant, taking part in his prosperous and distinguished family's occupation.
On August 15, 1819 he married his cousin, Josefa Portales y Larraín. He had two daughters with her, both of whom died within days of their birth. His wife died also very soon in 1821. He never remarried after that, but took Constanza Nordenflicht as his mistress, with whom he had three children.
In July 1821, he resigned his job at the Mint and went into business. He opened a trading house, Portales, Cea and Co., based in Valparaiso with a branch in Lima, Peru. He bid and obtained the management of the government monopoly on tobacco, tea, and liquor (known in Spanish as estanco). In exchange for the monopoly, he offered to service the full amount of the Chilean foreign debt. Nonetheless, in the anarchy that was regnant in Chile at the time, there was no means of enforcing a monopoly because the government could not regulate sales of tobacco, tea, and liquor, and the company eventually went bankrupt. So his contract with the government was voided and the Chilean government was found to owe Portales 87,000 pesos. Out of this unsuccessful business venture, the only remnant was the name eventually applied to his political followers, who in time came to be known as the estanqueros (monopolists.)
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