- Gardoqui
= Gardoqui Family of Bilbao, Spain =
Wealthy Basque proprietors of the 18th-Century House of José Gardoqui and Sons ("la Casa de José Gardoqui e hijos") of
Bilbao , Spain. [ [http://um.gipuzkoakultura2.net/pdf/09%20BASURTO.pdf Román Basurto, "Linajes y fortunas mercantiles de Bilbao del siglo XVIII", 4 Revista de Estudios Marítimos del País Vasco 343 (2003).] ] [Reyes Calderón Cuadrado, Empresarios españoles en el proceso de independencia norteamericana: la Casa Gardoqui e hijos de Bilbao (2004).]The most famous member of this family was
Don Diego de Gardoqui Arriquibar (1735-1798), who was the first Ambassador of Spain to the United States and Spanish Finance Minister in 1792, after the death of Don Pedro López de Lerena, Count of Lerena.The House of Gardoqui loaned a large amount of money to the United States during the Revolutionary War (as much as 70,000 pesos). [ [http://www.schillerinstitute.org/newspanish/InstitutoSchiller/Literatura/Sinarquismo/CarlosIII/04-participa_espana.htm William F. Wertz and Cruz del Carmen Moreno de Cota, "La España de Carlos III y el Sistema Americano: La participación de España en la Revolución Americana" (2001).] ]
The firm also "supplied the patriots with 215 bronze cannon - 30,000 muskets - 30,000 bayonets - 51,314 musket balls - 300,000 pounds of powder - 12,868 grenades - 30,000 uniforms - and 4,000 field tents during the war." [ [http://home.nps.gov/applications/tuma/Detail.cfm?Personal_ID=18848 National Park Service, Diego de Gardoqui: Personal Information.] ]
There was a Catholic Cardinal in the family: Francsco Antonio Javier de Gardoqui Arriquíbar (1747-1820). [ [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bgaar.html See entry at Catholic-Hierarchy.org] ] [ [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1816.htm#Gardoqui See entry in Biographical Dictionary.] ]
ee also
*
Spain in the American Revolutionary War References
External links
* [http://www.npg.si.edu/event2/legacysym.htm# Current Exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery "Legacy: Spain and the United States in the Age of Independence, 1763-1848" (from September 27, 2007 to February 10, 2008).]
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