Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/105

Rh put out in 1913-16 is estimated to have had a face value of over $2,000,000,000 Mexican. The Carranza issues alone totaled about $1,250,000,000 as follows:

The record of the effects of the paper money issues upon the economic life of the nation reads like pages from the Arabian Nights, As long as the money, issued in large quantities, had any appreciable value, those who could command gold and who were in a position to profit by a rapidly falling exchange were able to build up fortunes in a way little short of fantastic.

Wages remained nominally at their former standard for a time and then adjusted themselves but slowly to the new money values. Large debts could be paid off with money the current value of which in gold was as low as five per cent of its face. When the government took over the banks, it found itself caught between its own decree that its paper must be accepted for payment of all obligations and the fact that the loans and mortgages of which it had taken charge could be paid off in the same money.

Real estate purchases from sympathizers with the old régime or persons despairing of the reëstablishment of