Historical Organization
Real Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas
Real Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas
Details
Organization Timeline
Crown charter establishes the Guipuzcoan Company’s Venezuela trade privilege
📅 25 September 1728A royal cédula established the Real Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas and granted it privileged trade between Spain and Venezuela. The company later helped organize the colonial export economy,...
Governor’s campaign against Andresote offers a reward for his killing
📅 11 February 1732While seeking to capture the maroon leader Andresote, governor Sebastián García de la Torre issued a proclamation declaring him a traitor and offering 600 pesos and pardon to whoever killed him. The...
African-descended cultivators from Barlovento march against the Guipuzcoan Company
📅 19 April 1749Thousands of cultivators and residents, many described by the Venezuelan chronology as being of African origin, entered Caracas with Juan Francisco de León and reached Chacao. They demanded the end of...
De León’s mass petition reaches Caracas’s central square
📅 20 April 1749Juan Francisco de León and a large crowd reached Caracas’s Plaza Mayor and asked the city council to judge whether the Guipuzcoan Company had benefited or harmed the royal treasury. Their demands...
Caracas council publicly criticizes the Guipuzcoan Company
📅 22 April 1749At De León’s request, the Caracas council held an open meeting attended by 97 people and unanimously signed a critique of the company. The council blamed it for shortages and high prices of Spanish...
Juan Francisco de León surrenders after the anti-monopoly revolt
📅 9 February 1752Juan Francisco de León surrendered to Spanish authorities and gave testimony in the Caracas city council chamber. The surrender followed the 1749–1752 movement against the Guipuzcoan Company and its...
Authorities send De León and his son to prison in Cádiz
📅 28 March 1752Governor Felipe Ricardos ordered Juan Francisco de León and his son Nicolás sent to the La Carraca prison in Cádiz. Other supporters were executed or imprisoned. This punishment extended the...