The Lares merchant class of the 1850s and 1860s was by no means rigid in its composition. The spread of coffee cultivation provided opportunities for a continual flow of Spanish immigrant merchants to the municipality. The poorly developed transportation system connecting the rural barrios to the town frequently prompted competing merchants to open branch stores in the major producing zones.22 Recently arrived nephews, cousins, or younger brothers directed rural operations supplying farmers with credit, consumer goods, and warehousing facilities during the harvest.23 Young men from Soller and Palma de Mallorca, or Barcelona, came to Puerto Rico as dependientes of established firms. Later they often went into business for themselves after accumulating a little capital and mastering the mechanisms of the local economy. Sometimes they became more prosperous than the firms they had served as employees, as was the case with Juan Alcver.