end of the Royal Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas

Abstract

The Real Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas (the Royal Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas) was the largest commercial monopoly company in Spain and was led by Basque businessmen from 1728. This research will explain two scenarios: the elucidation of the end of the Real Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas, its internal economic crisis and the fate of a good part of its officials in the Venezuelan province. The second scenario explains how these officials become a new plutocracy and clashed with the traditional criollo power, the Mantuanos.