The role attributed by historiography to the Canary Islands during the 16th century has consisted of situating them as an intermediary place in the trade between North Africa, the Atlantic and Northern Europe. However, through the study of the Castelyn-Hickman sugar company, we show that the Canary Islands were key to the mercantile strategy of the London merchant elite in the second half of the 16th century. Through new data from Spanish and English archives, we connect the socio-economic context of London with the creation of this mercantile company by Edward Castelyn and Anthony Hickman in the 1550s.