17th and 18th centuries: America

The conquest of America provided a great economic boost for the Province. On one hand, it gave many of its inhabitants a direct opportunity to get rich. On the other hand, it opened up an enormous market for the main Gipuzkoan industry: iron and its derivatives. But it was the arrival of new foodstuffs from America that revolutionised Gipuzkoa’s agriculture by allowing more people to be fed and more baserris to be built.

Later on, in the midst of the economic crisis which affected all of Europe, monopolistic trade with America through the Royal Gipuzkoan Company of Caracas supplied an alternative and a driving force for the development of the territory: shipbuilding, the import and export of goods, privateering, etc.