El Banco Nacional de México
There always seems to have been problems with currency in Sinaloa. In December 1878 a newspaper articleEl Combate, 19 December 1878entitled ‘MONETARY CRISIS’ documented the difficulties encountered in Mazatlán due to the lack of cash, even for retail transactions. ”There are plenty of bearer vouchers (vales al portador de firmas de primera), but there being no proportional quantity of silver to cover them, as soon as they are presented for collection, they are already beginning to encounter difficulties in their circulation, and the natural consequence can be nothing other than the diminution of transactions. It is time for the Ministry of Finance to study without passion this inconvenience, which recognizes no other cause than the absurd collection of export duties on all the pesos that are introduced into the ports, without the mints being obliged to mint the small amount necessary for circulation.”
On 13 May 1882 the local Congress empowered the government to authorise a bank in Sinaloa, to be called the Banco del Estado de Sinaloa. So governor Mariano Martínez de Castro began negotiations and on 18 January 1883 agreed a contract with the Banco Nacional Mexicano to set up a branch and agencies in the state. However, this came to nothing because of the banking crisis and the fact that the newly merged Banco Nacional de México prioritised other areas of the country.
The Banco Nacional de México was finally established in the state in 1889 with a branch in the port of Mazatlán, situated on the corner of Constitución and Olas Altas, under its manager, Antonio Pratts. For ten years it was the only one offering credit in the region until the Banco Occidental de México and the branch of the Banco de Londres y México appeared on the scene.