[1][2] In his youth, Figueroa moved to Seville to study law, but he soon abandoned this idea and decided to follow in the footsteps of another Extremadura native, Manuel Godoy, and joined the Royal Corps Guards as a cadet.
[2] Figueroa's determination in the military field was also very present in his business and commercial activity because in a short period of time, he took a series of decisive steps to consolidate himself as one of the great merchants of Marseille.
[2] In 1819, Figueroa, together with the Marseille businessman Antoine Protin, began negotiations with the government of the Trienio Liberal for the execution of some purchase contracts for the mineral and metal that were stored in the lead deposits of the state whose products were destined to extinct the high Public Debt.
[2] In 1826, Figueroa, in partnership with the Catalan banker living in Madrid, Gaspar de Remisa, completed his first business in Spain, selling lead from the “Arrayanes” hatchery in the province of Jaén, when the mining sector was still the property of the State.
In the 1840s, after the short-lived attempt to organize a large metallurgical company with the participation of Guerrero, Manuel Agustín Heredia, and the Figueroas, the three trading houses controlled almost 75% of the metal shipped from Adra (17,000 tons), destined almost entirely to Marseille.
[2] In Sierra de Gador he built some foundries, the most important being those he put into operation in Adra, where he spent long periods of time in what he called La Luisa and Orchards.
[2] The financial strength of the Figueroa family was the key to resisting one of the most important business crises, which occurred in 1848, coinciding with a revolution in France that left commercial activity in Marseille paralyzed for months.
[6] Ignacio was the father of Maria Francisca,[1] José,[7] Gonzalo,[7] Álvaro (the Count of Romanones), and Rodrigo,[1] spawning one of the most influential families in Spain during the Restoration period.