The specific aim of the Basque company, acting almost autonomously with tasks of military nature at their own command and expense, was to break the de facto Dutch monopoly on the cocoa trade in the Captaincy General of Venezuela.

The government of Gipuzkoa in particular came up with a proposal for the re-establishment of commerce with Venezuela that would suit the Basque interests and those of the Spanish king alike.

[2] The Guipuzcoana Company was the only body entitled to sell European goods in Venezuela (or Caracas) Province and to export Venezuelan agricultural products to Spain.

The company began operating in 1730—four ships departed from San Sebastián (Donostia) taking on board a crew of 561 and 40–50 cannons.

The vessels were hailed with frontal hostility by the Venezuelan Creoles, a refusal to sell cocoa to the company, and an uprising against the newcomers and the local Spanish garrison, until control was re-established.

He returned with a cocoa overload 5.5 percent higher than his actual capacity, not counting the space occupied by other effects, such as food, water, ammunition, etc.

The company's control of the major ports of La Guaira and Puerto Cabello meant that it effectively monopolized the legal trade of the other Venezuelan provinces.

In addition, the company's strict control of much needed manufactured imports naturally created a lot of resentment in a region which depended on these.

[6] The rebellion was led by Juan Francisco de León, a Canary Islander just replaced as Corporal of War (1749), but the Spanish Crown could not shrink from protecting its own interests by supporting the company, and quelling the uprising that very year.

Another outcome was the foundation in Bergara of the Royal Basque Society of Friends of the Country by a group under the leadership of Xavier María de Munibe e Idiáquez, Count of Peñaflorida, in 1765.

Its model expanded to the Spanish heartland prompting the establishment of the "Sociedad Económica de los Amigos del País"—a type of Enlightenment think tank.

One of the most active proponents of the move was François Cabarrus, 1st Count of Cabarrús, a prominent company stockholder hailing from a merchant family in Bayonne, Labourd, who was increasingly involved in Spanish finances and politics.