Cámara Nacional de Comercio

Obviously by early 1914 there was a scarcity of low values coins in Tabasco so the local Chamber of Commerce issued 20c and 50c notes dated 15 April 1914.

On 9 May it added a 25c note.

(images courtesy of Miguel Zea)

The 20c and 50c are well designed notes with a variety of motifs including a vignette of the state coat-of-arms, a background of micro-lettering, a red seal of the TESORERIA Y ADMON. GRAL. DE RENTAS DEL ESTADO – TABASCO and a statement that they were of voluntary circulation and guaranteed by a deposit in the Chamber’s treasury. On the reverse it stated that the vale would be accepted without difficulty or discount by all the casas comerciales and that an office to exchange the notes for banknotes in multiples of five pesos had been established in the Drogueria y Botica “La Palma”. The 25c note is of a simpler design, and has the imprint of the printers, La Universal.

They had the printed signatures of Juan Ripoll as Presidente, Simón Garcés Alemany as Tesorero and Eligio N. Granados as Secretario.

Juan Ripoll Deyá was a consejero of the Banco de Tabasco and signed some of its notes in 1903. By 1908 he was managing partner of M. Ripoll y Cía, Sucs.
Simón Garcés Alemany was a chemist who ran the “La Palma” where these notes were to be exchanged. In July 1909 he got approval from the Health Department (Consejo Superior de Salubridad of the Secretaría de Gobernación) for his anti-snakebite preparation “Ofidina de la Australia”Diario Oficial, 14 August 1909 which he sold in his shop. In 1911 he was appointed French consul in San Juan Bautista. He was elected treasurer at the AGM on 24 March 1913 for a two year periodSemana Mercantil, 14 April 1913.
Eligio N. Granados had been secretary of the Cámara Agrícola de Tabasco El Eco de Tabasco, 8 November 1908. He was elected secretary at the AGM on 24 March 1913 for a two year periodSemana Mercantil, 14 April 1913.

Presumably these were issued during Huerta’s time, but they were later reused when the revolutionaries had taken over the capital. Notes are known with a red overprint on the reverse ’EJERCITO CONSTITUCIONALISTA / TABASCO / GOBIERNO PROVISIONAL / San Juan Bautista, Diciembre 31 de 1914’ and the printed signatures of Carlos Greene Ramírez as Gobernador, Rodolfo Moguel as Tesorero General, and Fernando Aguirre Colorado as Secretario General.

Carlos Greene Ramírez was born in Cárdenas, Tabasco in 1883. He made enough in the logging business with Policarpo Valenzuela to be able to buy the hacienda San Pedro. He joined the revolution in 1913 and took part in various actions against the federal forces. Carranza named him Gobernador Preconstitucional y Comandante Militar of the state from 1 November 1914 to 2 February 1915. He was governor again in 1919 and 1920 though he had to fight opposing factions and finally was forced to renounce the governorship and leave the country. He returned to revolt against Obregón in 1921, and then joined de la Huerta’s rebellion, being killed in combat on 2 December 1924.
Rodolfo Moguel was was born in Ocozocoatla, Chipas, in 1869 and had moved to Tabasco by 1883Periódico Oficial, 11 November 1911. Formerly a businessman who in 1901 had a concession to develop a short railway from Tabasco to Tamulté de las Barrancas La Patria, 12 October 1901, by August 1911 he was Visitador de Administración for the Maderista state governmentPeriódico Oficial, 6 September 1911 and in September was elected a deputy to the state congressPeriódico Oficial, 28 October 1911. In 1912 he was also a regidor for San Juan BautistaPeriódico Oficial, 23 December 1911.
Fernando Aguirre Colorado was born in Huimanguillo, Tabasco in 1879. In 1902 he founded the club antirreeleccionista Melchor Ocampo in his home town, a precursor of the revolution in Tabasco. On the assasination of Madero he and others in Huimanguillo rose in revolt, and finally captured the state capital on 2 September 1914. Aguirre Colorado served as a local deputy, a federal deputy, Presidente Municipal of Huimanguillo and governor of the state. He died in 1966.

Another issue?

On 29 March 1915 because of the absolute necessity for small change Carranza authorised the government of Tabasco, to authorise in turn the Comercio of the state to issue fractional currency, as long as it was in denominations of 5c, 10c, 20c and 50c, and the issuers had deposited a similar amount in the Tesorería General as a deposit.

So in May 1915 the Carrancista government in listing the different types of paper currency in circulation included as ‘Papel moneda de circulación legal’ the fractional currency that the Comercio of the states of Guerrero, Chiapas, Tamaulipas, Puebla, Hidalgo and Tabasco, had issued with the authorization of the local government, in virtue of the authorization conceded by the Secretaría de Hacienda on 29 March 1915^{Periódico Oficial, Puebla, Tomo XCVI, Núm. 13, 18 May 1915: Periódico Oficial, Chiapas, 29 May 1915}.