and work animals, and carrying the farmer until his crops could be grown and harvested; the larger associations guaranteed negotiable certificates, issued by the bank on the produce in warehouses, pending its sale; the bank also took charge of marketing sugar cane, the growers delivering their cane at the proper stations and receiving immediate fixed payment, supplemented by dividends after the goods was marketed.[1]
During Madero's administration, Governor Vales of Yucatan instituted a commission for the regulation of the henequen market, the object of which was to create a fund with which to buy enough of the henequen to break the power of the speculators. This plan failed to gain the confidence of the planters, and during the reaction under Huerta was used as an excuse for exorbitant taxation.[2] Carranza sent General Alvarado to Yucatan as military governor. He modified the plan of the henequen commission by issuing to each planter who signed a contract, a bond representing his pro rata share in the capital of the commission fund. In a few months all the planters signed up and the speculators disappeared. Later the commission was strengthened by legal provisions which made it obligatory for planters to sell to it for a fixed price with profits after re-sale to be divided pro rata or added to the fund. The commission was also empowered to supervise plantations, limit or increase production, control transportation and create a mutual insurance scheme.[3] During the World War, Yucatan gained a monopoly of henequen and became very prosperous. While all the rest of Mexico was flooded with paper money, issued by the
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