Earlier chapters have looked at the merchant group of Buenos Aires in an attempt to discern universal patterns of group origin, recruitment, training, marriage, and kinship. This chapter provides a comprehensive view of an individual merchant's life, the life of his family and that of his firm.

Gaspar de Santa Coloma's economic position, commercial career, and trade patterns make him perhaps the very best merchant to study in detail. He was a moderately successful man, an example of the ‘typical’ porteño merchant. He figured neither among the few merchants of fantastic wealth nor among those who failed dismally in commercial life, but rather within the upper-middle group of wholesalers. In addition to his moderate success, Santa Coloma is an excellent candidate for close study as his commercial life spanned the entire vice-regal period. His business records run from 1778 to 1815, the year of his death, and even beyond. We can therefore trace, with some degree of success, the career of one merchant and one mercantile firm throughout the entire vice-regal period. The patterns of Santa Coloma's trade also make him one of the more interesting merchants to study for he was involved in trade with Spain and with several provinces of the interior.

Don Gaspar de Santa Coloma was born on 6 January 1742 in Casería del Campo, Campijo, a small town near Arciniega in the Basque province of Alava.