John Diston Powles

John Diston Powles (c. 1787–14 September 1867) was an English businessman. In the mid-1820s he was heavily involved in the promotion of South American mining companies, and enlisted a young Benjamin Disraeli to write pamphlets promoting these mines, particularly those in Chile.^[1] Powles was involved in the creation of the St. John d'el Rey Mining Company in 1830 and served as its first chairman.^[2]

Powles died at Elstree in 1867.

Notes

1. For general background, see Malcolm Deas, "Powles, John Diston (1787/8–1867)," in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (Oxford: OUP, 2004). For the Anglo-Chilean Mining Association, see Claudio Veliz, "Egana, Lambert, and the Chilean Mining Associations of 1825" in The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 55, No. 4. (Nov., 1975), pp. 639.
2. Marshall G. Eakin, "Business Imperialism and British Enterprise in Brazil: The St. John d'el Rey Mining Company, Limited, 1830-1960" in The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 66, No. 4. (Nov., 1986), pp. 706

References

• Deas, Malcolm. "Powles, John Diston (1787/8–1867)." In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
• Eakin, Marshall G. ""Business Imperialism and British Enterprise in Brazil: The St. John d'el Rey Mining Company, Limited, 1830-1960." In The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 66, No. 4. (Nov., 1986), pp. 697-741.
• Veliz, Claudio. "Egana, Lambert, and the Chilean Mining Associations of 1825." In The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 55, No. 4. (Nov., 1975), pp. 637-663.