Jefatura de Hacienda notes - The paper currency of Chihuahua

Jefatura de Hacienda notes
Jefatura de Hacienda notes
At first Mercado borrowed from the banks, businesses and prominent individuals to pay his
troops but finally, having used up all other resources, he decided to issue notes drawn on the
Jefatura de Hacienda and supposedly guaranteed by the Tesorería de la Federación. The orde
r was printed as a stop-press
(
alcance
) to the 25 November
Periódico Oficial
, the last that the federals published, so it could also be used as a poster. It stated that the
Jefatura had issued
billetes o vales al portador
for 50c, $1, $5 and $10, to make up for the lack of banknotes and silver coins. The issue would
be of forced circulation, and redeemable in quantities of 20, 50, 100 or more pesos by cheques
or giros encashable at the Tesorería de la Nación in Mexico City{footnote}
Periódico Oficial
, 25 November 1913. On the reverse of the 50c note it states that (
Estos cheques son admitidos por las oficinas públicas de este Estado.
Este cheque y todos aquellos expedidos por esta Jefatura pueden canjearse por letras de
cambio sobre México en esta misma oficina con objeto de que el tenedor obtenga el valor de
ellos en uno solo.
La autorización para girar fué dada en cablegrama, confirmada en oficio núm. 3,046, fecha 23
de septiembre del corriente año por el C. Tesorero General de la Federación.
Chihuahua, noviembre 20 de 1913.- Confrontado. El Oficial 1o. E Hernandéz){/footnote}.
These notes were being printed by the state printing office and the El Norte press when, as
soon as the 50 centavos value was released, an uproar ensued.
In his report to Huerta, Mercado said that the Tesorería refused to acknowledge the notes and
businesses therefore closed. Without funds, with desertions increasing and in face of a real risk
that his troops would begin to sack the shops, Mercado decided to retreat to
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Jefatura de Hacienda notes
Ojinaga{footnote}Luis y Adrian Aguirre Benavides, Las Grandes Batallas de la Divisíon del
Norte
, México, 1964{/footnote}. In the
memoirs that he later wrote to defend his actions Mercado gave a slightly different version.
There he recalled that a delegation of businessmen called on him and told him that the
Chamber of Commerce had decided to close the principal stores, "since what he intended was
nothing short of a diplomatic looting that in a short space would leave businesses with neither
money nor goods. As soon as his notes were issued they would drive out the remaining good
money and leave the merchants with only his own worthless paper, useless in dealing with
American and European firms". He therefore had to cancel his plan of issuing the
notes{footnote}Salvador Mercado,
Rec
tificaciones Históricas
, 1913-1914, México, 1916{/footnote}.
It is a matter of dispute, therefore, whether the 50 centavos note, dated 20 November and
signed by José G Rochin as Jefe de Hacienda and C. Pérez Ojeda as Contador, did in fact
reach circulation.
José G Rochin:
C. Pérez Ojeda: In a case of 'out of the frying pan, into the fire', Ojeda went on to be Jefe de
Hacienda in Sonora and was besieged again in Guaymas. He appears as a signatory on the
emergency notes issued in that city in 1914 (see
The Huertistas in Guaymas in
The Paper Money of Sonora)
Even if the notes were issued, they will have only been in use for eleven days until 1 December
when Mercado abandoned the city.
Almada{footnote}Francisco Almada, La Revolución en el Estado de Chihuahua, Chihuahua,
1964{/footnote} states that the Jefatura de Hacienda received, via Ciudad Juárez,
documentos o vales
to the value of $1,200,000, though he had been unable to find out if all of these were put into
circulation. Certainly, he reports, the holders of such notes lost everything. It is probable,
however, that Almada was confusing the Jefatura de Hacienda issue with
Orozco's bonds
and the
Caja de Ahorros notes
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Jefatura de Hacienda notes
.
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