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This paper offers some evidences about the circulation of capital between Venezuela and Spain at the end of the eighteenth century through the case study of the Spanish merchant Esteban González de Linares (1751-1802). Our sources are private nature: an accounting book and 335 letters. These documents show a wide variety of channels to the transfer of capitals from Venezuela to Spain, both at large operations and small deliveries. González de Linares became, during his stay in Caracas (1785-1791), an important agent in the transfer of savings from the colony. The scarcity of silver and gold in Venezuela during this period justifies that the transfer of capital did promote the export of groceries (cocoa, indigo) and the development of financial markets (orders and bills of exchange). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bruno Zaldo Rivera (Pradoluengo -- España, 1836-1916) represents an example of the emigrant who triumphed "haciendo las Americas" [making it in the Americas]. In this paper, a man is profiled who, with hardly the most basic studies, and thanks to his endeavors and perspicacity, was capable of benefitting from the opportunities, both in economic and in social spheres, from his beginnings as a small-time merchant in the Mexican emporium of Veracruz, to his election as a senator of Spain. The investigation demonstrates his entrepreneurial versatility and his generosity in the form of innumerable donations and foundations. The analysis of his initiatives as a real-estate promotor and successful banker, and his social and political relations, explain his accession to a group within the high society of the Spanish Restauration. Finally, it will be shown how art, in all of its expressions, was subsumed as an instrument for the consolidation of his prestige and for the preparation of his image as a distinguished gentleman of the Nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]