Throughout the biography and thinking of Camilo Torres, who belonged to one of the impoverished aristocratic families of Popayan at the end of the XVIII century, this article studies the way, in which the enlightened inhabitants of New Granada, mostly clerics and engineers, army officers and merchants - were worried about the economy mainly motivated by the rhetoric of the Illustration and botanical studies. Many undertook the founding of companies that had poor commercial success, even though their main objective, was to methodically take advantage of the natural resources. That they believed to be unlimited to generate export agricultural products.