Called variously “The Andean Rockefeller” or “The Tin King,” Simón
Iturri Patiño is pretty incontestably the greatest industrialist Bolivia ever
produced. Born in Cochabamba in 1862, Patiño was from humble origins and worked
as the conductor of a mountain mule train until becoming a collector for a
mining company, from which he was promptly fired after accepting a land deed in
exchange for an unpaid debt. Forced to pay the company the sum he had let slide
and personally stuck with the seemingly worthless lot, things looked grim for
Patiño until 1900, when he struck upon a rich vein of tin that would come to be
known as La Salvadora, or “The
Savior.” In the years that followed, Patiño would scoop up mines left and right;
by 1924, the former collector owned 50% of the national production of tin, and
controlled much of the European refining process besides.
Something of a controversial character (as wildly successful
industrialists often are), Patiño is both respected and reviled in his native
country, which, due to health considerations, he left for good in 1924. Having
passed away in Buenos Aires at the age of 85, he was buried in the mountains of
his native Cochabamba.
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