 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.It was initially based in San Sebastián and received its royal decree on September 25, 1728, by Philip V of Spain.Its creation was part of the larger Bourbon Reforms to control unlicensed trading, especially in tobacco, which existed along the Orinoco River and mostly benefited the foreign, Dutch, English, and French traders, who were preferred by the landholders of Canary Islander descent as trade partners.