All those who know the history of Joan March, object of several biographies, know that he could have gathered his fortune through tobacco smuggling and weapons dealing, just as well as through his extraordinary intelligence. If we agree that Joan March was a smuggler, we won't be revealing anything to anybody who knows the rise in fortune of the financier. Evidently it's not the same to agree it as to prove it. Now, however, that can be done.
The historian Pere Ferrer - author of the Joan March book Els inicis d'un imperi financer (1900-1924)- like Carles Manera, Professor of Economic History at UIB has agreed that "for the first time in the history of Mallorca documents have appeared which detail accurately bribery payments relating to the business of smuggling tobacco".
This type of account is difficult to find in books "because those who paid the expenses connected to smuggling were always camouflaged by various means. They are never shown in the explicit way in which they appear in the documents that have just been found", stated Manera. The Professor considers that the these account books prove that the author, Joan March Ordinals, "had a great confidence in himself and the impunity he enjoyed. He didn't worry that someone would find and read these books and discover bribery and corruption".

Joan March was born in Santa Margalida, a town on the island of Mallorca where, at the time, smuggling, especially of tobacco, was very common.
Therefore it doesn't seem strange that the Company belonging to the father and uncle of March would also be involved, to some extent, in this activity. However, it is strange that in the account books whole sections are devoted to detailing the revenues and the expenses involved in this business.
This means that we can now study with accuracy "the price of corruption at that time", said Professor Manera.

In the chapter of "Tobacco Expenses 1902" can be found "payment to sergeant - 150 pesetas and payment to Civil Guard - 11.25 pesetas". This has been authenticated by the experts as "proven corruption of the authorities".
We should bear in mind that an employee of the time received - as detailed in the same books in the section on agricultural work - one peseta for a days work (i.e. for 12 hours of work) and on one occasion a Civil Guard received a payment of 150 pesetas.

But even more curious items can be seen, like the payments to spies (the word "spy" is actually written in the books), some worth 50 pesetas.

In a chapter titled " Falucha San Pablo", a ship belonging to the March family, it emerges that it was to be used by them to transport smuggled cargo.

But there's more! Joan March, let us remember, was devoted during his life to politics.

He knew perfectly well that the relationship between money and power and that power was imperative in order to become rich. His father, Joan March Estelrich, was mayor of Santa Margalida from 1899 to 1902. Surprisingly in the elections of 1903, March Brothers incurred expenses of more than 700 Havana cigars.

Pere Ferrer, Doctor of History, remembers that "during the Spanish Restoration period which lasted from 1876 to 1923 with the arrival to power of General Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, a change from the conservative party to liberal took place ". The elections were scarcely democratic because cliques like Joan March's relatives bought the votes of their assosiates and they paid spies to get information on their political opponents.

Finding this type of payment in accounts at the start of the 20th Century constitutes a real revelation for the historians who have consulted these documents which are even more important because Joan March actually wrote most of what they have seen.