Private issues (Guadalajara)

In October 1914 it was reported that some small businesses, because of the lack of small coins, had issued fichas with which to make change. As these could only be used in the same establishment, it seemed that the government would take steps to stop the practice^{El Reformador, Tomo I, Núm. 64, 15 October 1914}. However, in June 1915 a newspaper could report that it had received complaints about the paper money issued by cantinas, shops and even hawkers in the market. Although people had done this to overcome the shortage of small change, the practice was illegal and the public were not obliged to accept such paper or cartones^{El Presente, 6 June 1915}.

M. Ascencio Morales

The Mercado Corona is located in the centre of Guadalajara, one block from the Municipal Palace and bounded by the calles Hidalgo, Santa Monica, Zaragoza and Independencia. Its construction began in 1888 by order of Governor Ramón Corona, who was assassinated before the inauguration of the market on 15 September 1891, which is why the city council decided to name it Mercado Corona. The market was in the neoclassical style and had a well-lit dome with Italian windows that let in sunlight that was reflected in a polychromatic way on the central fountain surrounded by flower stalls.

On 15 November 1910, a rocket fired from the Plaza de Armas shattered a window of the market and started a large fire that almost completely destroyed the market. The incident required the need to rebuild the market. However it suffered two more fires in 1919 and 1929, so it was constantly modified.

M. Ascencio Morales ran a booth selling groceries on the corner of calles Independencia and Zaragoza.

Salon Azteca

This establishment was run by Agustín Robles.

Teodoro Campos Kunhardt y Assoc.

A 50c note^{[image needed]}.

Tienda de Antonio Bayardo

A brown cartón for 10c^{[image needed]}.

Compañía Hidroeléctrica e Irrigadora del Chapala, S. A.

From 1892 the production of electricity in Guadalajara was dominated by businessmen of Spanish origin and by Barcelonnettes whose main investments had been in the clothing trade and in the textile industry. It was natural their interest in generating energy for their factories and in electrifying the trams that led to their workers. For a time, another protagonist in Guadalajara was Enrique Schöndube, who obtained around 1897 a concession on the Santiago River, immediate to Guadalajara and that at various points offered the possibility of taking advantage of its waters in electricity generation. Schöndube formed the Empresa de Luz y Fuerza Eléctrica de Las Juntas and in 1902 he would have made a great deal by obtaining 190,000 pesos from the Compañía Industrial de Guadalajara, behind which were Barcelona investors, for the facilities of Las Juntas and the concession for the use of water.

However, in 1903 the Banco Central Mexicano established in Mexico City the Electra company, bought the Compañía de Tranvías de Guadalajara (from the local businessman Francisco Martínez Negrete Alba), then bought the Compañía de Luz Eléctrica de Guadalajara (whose main investor was José María Bermejillo, Spanish and brother-in-law of Martínez Negrete), and took over the electrical department of the Compañía Industrial de Guadalajara in 1907,changing its name and becoming the Compañía Hidroeléctrica e Irrigadora de Chapala S. A. around 1909. Of the total of its shares, 78% corresponded to the Banco Central Mexicano, about 5% were owned by Fernando Pimentel y Fagoaga and the rest was divided among other businessmen close to the same circle.

The company was constituted on 13 July 1909 as a joint stock company, with a capital of $14,000,000, and subscribed by prominent capitalists of Mexico City and Guadalajara, such as Manuel Cuesta Gallardo, landowner and politician from Jalisco; Enrique Tron, merchant and representative of the Banco de Londres y México; Fernando Pimentel y Fagoaga, banker and representative of the Banco Central Mexicano; Diego Moreno, landowner, owner of the haciendas of Guaracha (Michoacán), los Naranjos (Colima) and the hacienda of Buenavista (Jalisco); and the businessmen Jesús Salcido y Avilés and Hugo Scherer junior. Emilio Pinzón and Porfirio Díaz hijo were also shareholders. Cuesta Gallardo, one of the most important shareholders of this company, contributed the concessions that the Porfirista government had granted him to take advantage of waters, demarcate lands and promote irrigation and draining works at Lake Chapala, which he managed to accumulate thanks to the good relations he maintained with Porfirio Díaz. The company developed a power plant at El Salto de Juanacatlán 30 kilometres south of town.

In 1910, the Compañía Hidroeléctrica e Irrigadora de Chapala had taken control of the four large hydroelectric plants in the Guadalajara area, on the Santiago River, which had been built in the previous years by Bermejillo, Schöndube and others: El Salto, Las Juntas, Puente Grande and La Experiencia, which together produced 35,000 horsepower annually. With this production, around 20,000 horsepower was supplied to the lighting and tram services of Guadalajara, as well as to many of the industries of that city, in several of which the same shareholders had interests. In this way, there were 15,000 horsepower that it was necessary to offer, which easily explains the interest in Aguascalientes, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí, where according to a national newspaper the company had already signed contracts to distribute energy in January 1910.

The company increased its capital by absorbing the Nueva Compañía de Tranvías, Luz y Fuerza de Guadalajara, also known as "La Electra". This had been formed in 1905 when the local electricity company and several horsecar operators combined. Thus the company had a monopoly on these public services.

A streetcar and trailer about to turn from calle de Hidalgo onto avenida Chapultepec about 1910

This company had a shareholders' meeting and a board of directors that met in Mexico City, where it had its official domicile. Its president and representative was Fernando Pimentel y Fagoaga, while the manager and deputy manager were the French Emilio and Eugenio Pinzón.

These are coupons for a single fare, without a denomination, and sold in strips of 20, numbered 1 to 20, with the facsimile signature is of Eugenio Pinzón, the sub-gerente.

Eugenio Pinzón was from the French community in Guadalajara, so when the tram company went on strike in 1914 they demanded that Pinzon be expelled from the country. On 5 October 1917 Eugenio was part of a group of businessmen who founded the newspaper, El Informador. Emilio and Eugenio alternated the post of manager, so by December 1917 Eugenio was manager of the company as well as president of the “Círculo Francés de Guadalajara”El Informador, 20 December 1917.

However, Delgado^{Ricardo Delgado, Las Monedas Jaliscienses durante la Epoca Revolucionaria, Guadalajara, 1938} writes that at the end of 1915 the public in Guadalajara and the neighbouring towns began to use these as small change, with each coupon representing five centavos.

In December 1915 it was said that the company was considering withdrawing its bonos because of their poor state. The company was the winner because it did not exchange or make good any bono that had deteriorated^{Boletín Militar, Tomo III, Núm. 333, 1 December 1915}.

Again in February 1916 it was reported that the company would recall its bonos which would make the lack of change even worse^{Boletín Militar, Tomo V, Núm. 391, 8 February 1916} but the next day the managers wrote to say that because of the effect on the public in agreement with the competent authority they would not be recalling their planillas para pasajes^{Boletín Militar, Tomo V, Núm. 392, 9 February 1916}.

The Drogueria Alemana (German Drugstore)

The Drogueria Alemana was run by Carlos Ibarra. On 19 June 1915 he ordered the following $2,000 in cartones, modelo 5266, from Juan Kaiser for a total cost of $97.75.

In April 1916 an American stationed in Guadalajara told the following tale, of an event that was replicated throughout Mexico.
“The German Drug Store, (probably the largest drug establishment in the city) just opposite the Consulate, on San Francisco Street, closed its doors about a week ago, on account of the following: A customer offered in payment of a purchase a bill which the proprietor refused to accept. The … customer reported the matter to the Presidente Municipal, who fined the druggist five hundred pesos for having committed the offense. When the druggist offered in payment of said fine exactly the kind of paper money which he had refused to accept from the said customer, the said Presidente Municipal did then and there decline to accept such money – which so disgusted the druggist that he at once closed his place of business! The proprietor of the German Drug Store is a Mexican and fearing to fare yet worse from the operation of the edict^{Carranza threatens establishments closing up or suspending operations, Querétaro, 31 March 1916}, he is just now reopening his store"^{Will B. Davis, Experiences and Observations of an American Consular Office during the recent Mexican revolutions, 1920}.

"El Fenix"

At the beginning of the 20th century there was a demand for glass bottles from the tequila distilleries so the Ramírez and Urzúa brothers, merchants from the Altos de Jalisco, established the first factory in front of the jardín de Analco. Later, they liquidated their businesses and invested the proceeds in a hotel and a pharmacy. The five-storey Hotel Fénix, on avenida Ramón Corona, designed by architect Guillermo de Alba, was one of the first skyscrapers in the Mexican Republic. It opened its doors on 12 July 1912.

During WW1 the Ramírez and Urzúa company was put on the United States’ “Enemy Trading List” as being Germanophile, but the owners managed to persuade the American Embassy in Mexico City to remove them from the list^{El Informador, 27 April 1918}. It was still advertising as La Ferreteria “Fenix” in April 1920^{El Informador, 3 April 1920}.

The Drogueria y Ferreteria "El Fenix” issued 10c and 20c notes dated 11 May 1915.

These carry the name of the owners, Ramírez y Urzúa.

Botica Levi

The Botica Levi produced round cartones for its main branch in 1914, to deal, as they state, with a shortage of change.

These were apparently printed by Juan Kaiser, though they are not listed by Delgado.

Hotel Francés

The Hotel Francés is the oldest lodging establishment in Guadalajara, having started in 1610 as the Mesón de San José, a short-term shelter for traders. It has gone through many incarnations through the years.

The cantina of the Hotel Francés issued a 5c note, with the name of Enrique Villa.

La Fraternal

La Fraternal was a cantina on the corner of Avenida Colón and Tequsquite^{Jalisco Libre, 29 September 1906}.

A 10c note, placed here because of the similarities in design.

La Imperial

A 5c note.

Restaurante “Valdez”

A 10c note with the name of Francisco Valdez

Cantina y Restaurant "Faust"

This restarant in the avenida Colón, owned by M. Caire, has $5 note^{[image needed]} printed by Imprenta y Libreria Font y Velasco. The Caires were part of the French community.

Cantina “La Fuente”

A 10c note dated May 1915 with the stamp of Tomás R. Rosales. Rosales had two outlets, in Mexico City and in Guadalajara, with the exclusive agency for tequila of Aurelio López from the fábrica of San José del Refugio, Amatitlán.

By August 1919 he had lost the agency.

This La Fuente is a different one to the current well-known cantina (with the bicycle) which was opened by Florencio López in 1921.

Cantina “La Metralla”

A cantina called “the shrapnel” probably dates from the Revolution. A 20c note with the names of Manuel Romero é hijo

Circulo Recreativo "Excelsior"

We know of 5c and 10c notes dated 21 and 22 August 1915.

Empresa de Kioskos

A 5c note with the name of Rotter y Franco

Depósito de Carbón y Lena

This was run by Salvador Martínez Frías.

Leopoldo López Zavala

On 19 May 1915 Leopoldo López Zavala, owner of two bars, asked the Presidente Municipal whether he could issue boletos of one and three centavos for his customers to use, attaching samples for consideration.. He was refused but told he could issue cheques^{AMGuad, Hacienda 1915, exp. 11}.

Celso Vergara

On 22 November 1915 a José M. Silva wrote to J. E. González, the Subsecretario interino, that he had $45.50 in cheques issued by Celso Vergara. He had presented them to Vergara who refused to redeem them as the time limit had expired. Then he presented them to the Tesorería Municipal which said that they no longer had funds from Vergara. So he was asking the Governor to order the Tesorería Municipal to exchange them. González passed the message on to the Presidente Municipal who replied, on 24 December, that none of his offices had information on cheques issued by Vergara^{AMGuad, Hacienda 1915, exp. 145}.