An early issue
A report in January 1898 stated that 50 shopkeepers (comerciantes) in Mineral del Chico had complained to the state governor that a casa comercial forced workers to accept paper fichas that could only be spent in its storeEl Popular, México, 19 January 1898.
This probably refers to an arrangement whereby a mining company gave its workers chits to be used in a particular store (an outsourced tienda de raya) rather than the store giving out chits in change. Hence the complaint of so many other shopkeepers who were losing out from the monopoly.