This article is a critical analysis of Luis Eduardo Nieto Arteta´s book El café en la sociedad colombiana, which emphasizes the contributing arguments of the author regarding the formation and consolidation of the internal market; more specifically, the article focuses on the manner by which Colombia was inserted in the world economy and how the country participated in the external market during the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth. Finally, this essay refutes the explication offered by the author concerning the origin, consolidation and national project of the Antioquenan elite during this period.