[1] The antecedents of the Carreras business began trading in the eighteenth century (the company's products and advertising materials consistently bore the motto 'Established 1788'), and forebears of the founder’s family were Spanish apothecaries.

The founder of the business was a Spanish nobleman, Don José Carreras Ferrer, who fought in the Peninsular War under the Duke of Wellington (1808–1814).

During the early years of the 19th century, Carreras began trading in London at a time when cigars were increasing in popularity and Don José became a pioneer in his field.

[2] However, although the business prospered it did not become a major concern until his son, Don José Joaquin, began to specialise in the blending of tobaccos and snuff.

By 1852 Don José Joaquin Carreras had established himself near Leicester Square at 61 Prince's Street W1, and in 1853 was granted a warrant as the sole supplier of cigars and tobacco to the Spanish Legation in London.

In 1860 Carreras became the founder committee member of the Tobacco Trade Benevolent Association, and soon opened another shop, this time in the Arcade in London's newly developed Regent Street W1.

Baron's progress was watched with interest by Mr. Yapp who was by then running the Carreras business but who was keen to make cigarettes a paying venture.

On 6 June 1903, Carreras became a public company with Yapp and Baron as directors and, under the leadership of Bernhard Baron, heralded the beginnings of competition for the Imperial Tobacco Group and the new American maker, James Buchanan Duke, who was also capturing large slices of the British market with Ogden’s Guinea Gold, the first Virginia cigarette made in England.

The original Carreras prospectus was heavily criticised in the City press, but within a short time, the shares were fully subscribed, particularly by members of the tobacco trade, who saw potential in the new venture.

[citation needed] Bernhard Baron would walk amongst his employees daily, enquiring after their families, and his son, Louis, and his grandson, Maurice, also made regular visits to the factory floor.

During the last six months of 1904 three brands made their debut, including Black Cat, the first cigarette in the United Kingdom to contain coupons that were redeemable for gifts.

In 1913, Carreras acquired the business of Alexander Boguslavsky and opened a showroom at 55 Piccadilly W1 which still retained many of its privately occupied houses and clubs.

[3] Cast at the Haskins Foundry in London, these versions of the Egyptian god Bastet were each eight feet six inches tall and stood guard over Arcadia Works until 1959 when Carreras merged with Rothmans of Pall Mall and moved to a new factory in Basildon, Essex.

The Baron family, which had held a controlling interest in Carreras since the early 1900s, decided to sell their shares in 1958 but, before doing so, were responsible for two major projects of the Company.

It was decided to transfer the manufacturing plant to the new town of Basildon in Essex as the Arcadia Works in Mornington Crescent had become uneconomic and mass production techniques were being carried out on different floor levels.

In November 1958, with the sale of the Baron family shares, Carreras merged with Rothmans of Pall Mall which by now had markets in some 120 countries around the world.

The second was Carreras’ decision to move manufacturing to the large, modern factory in Basildon which could provide much-needed production capacity for Rothmans with its expanding international trade.

Carreras's Regent Street store was visited by royalty from many lands and as early as 1866 he received Royal Warrants from the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

The hand-written sales ledgers of this period show accounts held by nobility, statesmen, men of letters, and high-ranking service officers.

Shortly afterward, Carreras began using Barrie's endorsement in his advertising, and Craven Mixture benefited as sales at home and abroad increased rapidly.

The cat spent hours curled up asleep in the window of Don José’s Wardour Street shop, well before the turn of the 20th century.

This was a series of forty adventure stories with titles ranging from “A Fight with the Spaniards”, to “The Gunpowder Plot”, “Who Was the Man in the Iron Mask?” and “The Revenge”.

During the First World War Carreras sent gift parcels to the British troops which included French phrase books inside cigarette packs.

By now, coupon trading was fiercely competitive and the Black Cat gift catalogue offered gramophone records, gardening equipment, gentlemen's razors, automobile accessories and wirelesses.

To increase sales of this brand of cigarettes, and to offer a cheaper price, there was the introduction of the Flip top 20 pack a design submitted by Frederick Willis.