La Compañía Metalúrgica de Atotonilco El Chico

Atotonilco El Chico was the former name of Mineral el Chico, a town about fifteen kilometres north of Pachuca.

The mine had been the property of the Mancera family, one of the richest in Mexico, since 1840 and the Compañía Metalúrgica itself was founded by Gabriel Mancera García de San Vicente, in 1889.

Vales azules

It issued a series of primitive notes based on stereoscope plates, dated February and March 1915. The company referred to these as vales azules (blue notes).

The total issued was $16,473.00^{AHMM, Sección Compañía Metalúrgica de Atononilco El Chico, Luis Herrera y Lasso, vol. 78, exp. 54 letter Pérez Duarte, Pachuca to Herrera Lasso, Mexico City, 4 January 1916}.

These carry the signatures of Guillermo Mancera and Constantino Pérez Duarte.

Guillermo Mancera Pérez was born in Pachuca in June 1872.

Constantino Pérez Duarte was born in Pachuca on 11 March 1886 and was an alumnus of the Instituto Científico y Literario del Estado de HidalgoPeriódico Oficial, 16 December 1898and studied engineering at the Escuela Nacional de Ingenieros. He married Maria Luisa O’Gorman Meade on 25 January 1912The Mexican Herald, 26 January 1912. By 1912 was described as a mining expert. He was the chief metallurgist for the Compañía Minera "Las Dos Estrellas" from 1911 until 1914, and from 1914 to 1919 he was Director of the Compañía Metalúrgica Atotonilco El Chico. He was a technical consultant to the Secretaría de Hacienda from 1924 until 1935, in 1931 being the Jefe of the Departamento de Minas at the SecretaríaEl Informador, 14 March 1931 and a technical adviser to the London Economic Conference in 1933 and to the Pan American Conference, in Montevideo, in 1933. From 1935 he was general manager of the Compañía Minera The Golden Girl. In 1945 he wrote La situación de la industria minera for the Cámara Minera de México and in 1954 was Subsecretario de la Economía Nacional. He died in Mexico City on 17 April 1956.

Cartones

On 27 May 1915 governor General Alfredo J. Machuca agreed to a request from the company to issue $4,000.00 in vales of 5c, 10c and 20c. Machuca stipulated that the company should deposit a similar amount in the Tesorería General del Estado, but the company issued their vales without making any deposit^{AGN, Fondo Gobernación Periodo Revolucionario, caja 93, exp. 36, folletos 8 Secretario general L. de la Vega to [    ], Pachuca, 20 August 1915}. These cartones were printed by the Tipografia Artistica in Pachuca, and are known datestamped May 1915.

The total value of cartones issued was $946.30^{AHMM, Sección Compañía Metalúrgica de Atononilco El Chico, Luis Herrera y Lasso, vol. 78, exp. 54 letter Pérez Duarte, Pachuca to Herrera Lasso, Mexico City, 4 January 1916}.

Cheques

The Tipografia Artistica also produced a series of higher value notes (50c, $1 and $5).

These also carry the signatures of Constantino Pérez Duarte, now identified as Director, and Guillermo Mancera as Cajero. On the reverse of the notes it states that they would be redeemed in El Chico or Mexico City in multiples of $20 (Este cheque se pagará a la vista, a su presentación, en las oficinas de la Cía. en México, o en el Mineral de El Chico, siempre que el monto de los cheques presentados sea de veinte pesos o múltiplo de esta cantidad, pues el pago en la forma de cheques se hace en vista de la extrema escasez de billetes de pequeña denominación.).

On 15 June 1915 the company's offices in Mexico City wrote to Constantino Pérez Duarte that it had received the models of cartones and cheques and wanted to know how much he had issued, as it had no data. It understood that it needed to make a further issue^{AHMM, Sección Compañía Metalúrgica de Atononilco El Chico, Copiador de Cartas, 3 August 1914 – 21 March 1916, vol. 88, exp. 5}.

The total value of printed cheques issued was $30,095.00^{AHMM, Sección Compañía Metalúrgica de Atononilco El Chico, Luis Herrera y Lasso, vol. 78, exp. 54 letter Pérez Duarte, Pachuca to Herrera Lasso, Mexico City, 4 January 1916}.

Withdrawal

On 9 September the Secretaría de Gobernación stated that the government should ensure the company makes a deposit in the Tesorería General and, above all, fix a period for withdrawing this issue^{AGN, Fondo Gobernación Periodo Revolucionario, caja 93, exp. 36, folletos 8}. On 2 December the board of directors, meeting in Mexico City, agreed, in accordance with the state government’s notice that these cheques should be withdrawn as soon as possible, to ask the government to issue notices recalling the notes^{AHMM, Sección Compañía Metalúrgica de Atononilco El Chico, Copiador de Cartas, 3 August 1914 – 21 March 1916, vol. 88, exp. 5 letter Herrera Lasso to Pérez Duarte, 13 December 1915}. Pérez Duarte replied that as the government had not insisted on the matter he felt it more prudent to wait for some indication on its part^{AHMM, Sección Compañía Metalúrgica de Atononilco El Chico, Luis Herrera y Lasso, vol. 77, exp. 40 letter Pérez Duarte to Lasso, 17 December 1915}.

According to reports El Chico sent the following notes to the head offices in Mexico City to be amortised ^{AHMM, Fondo Norteamericano, Sección Compañía Metalúrgica de Atononilco El Chico, Copiador de Cartas, 3 August 1914 – 21 March 1916, vol. 88, exp. 5}.

  
However, a letter of 4 January 1916 has the following summary ^{AHMM, Fondo Norteamericano, Sección Compañía Metalúrgica de Atononilco El Chico, Luis Herrera y Lasso, vol. 78, exp. 54 letter Constantino Pérez Duarte, Pachuca to Luis Herrera Lasso, Mexico City,4 January 1916}:

suggesting some confusion around 29 December.

On 4 January 1916 the company wrote to Luis Herrera Lasso in Mexico City that after the government’s circular was published they were pressurised to give a sum equivalent to the amount of vales issued to the Tesorería del Estado and, as almost all the other companies complied, handed over $21,917.80 (though they later realized that the amount still to be redeemed was $23,917.80). The Tesorería had asked for someone to check the notes and an employee of the Compañía Minera de San Rafael was to do the task for both companies. Once checked and perforated the notes would be handed over in return for monies from the companies’ accounts. In order not to have to change their submission they set about redeeming $2,000 of their vales. So the current state of affairs was:

They had already redeemed more than $600 of the $2,000 outstanding^{AHMM, Fondo Norteamericano, Sección Compañía Metalúrgica de Atononilco El Chico, Luis Herrera y Lasso, vol. 78, exp. 54 letter Constantino Pérez Duarte, Pachuca to Luis Herrera Lasso, Mexico City,4 January 1916. The titles in the table has been corrected}.