When the smash came, there was an Association of Henequen Growers which had been begging in Yucatan and in the Supreme Court of Mexico for a chance to take back their business. As the financial difficulties and the financial needs of Alvarado’s henchmen increased, the Reguladora had all but given up paying any money to the haciendas where the henequen was produced. The mule that lived on sawdust up to the day he died is a fable of ancient times, but even under such loudly acclaimed “socialism” as that of Yucatan something has to be paid for a product which is produced and exported. The growers had all but reached the end of their resources, and Alvarado offered them only paper money, which he would or could not change into gold drafts. So just before the crash, to satisfy the clamor, Alvarado took his way to Mexico City and royally presented the Reguladora to the Association of the Producers of Henequen. The hacendados had hardly had time to look over the ruins when those financial interests which had loaned money on hemp that was to sell around 20 cents a pound foreclosed on those 250,000 bales in New York and New Orleans, placing thereon a value of 5 cents a pound. Alvarado was safe in Mexico City preparing to visit New York in an effort to get a loan of a few hundred millions for the government of Carranza. The hacendados held the sack, and watching the sack was a group of financiers, including the Equitable Trust Company of New York, the Royal Bank of Canada and the Interstate Trust Company of New Orleans, the latter the Dinkins concern through which most of the loans on the henequen had been placed. Down in Yucatan the hacendados had their farms back, the Indians were returning at night to look things over and see whether the “socialists” had retired far enough for them to return in safety to their comfortable “slavery”--but nobody had any money. When Alvarado left, the hacendados had inherited the Reguladora offices, and had opened its money vaults. These vaults, photographs of whose gold stocks had been circulated by Alvarado to sustain his paper currency, were quite empty. The haciendas were in terrible condition, and there was no way of getting funds with which to rebuild and replant them. The only hope was for capital from outside--Alvarado’s “socialism” had passed on its way. Of the possible sources of rescue, the chief was in the group of unhappy banks in New York, New Orleans and Montreal, which were already in the henequen business with their 250,000 bales of foreclosed stock. The second hope was the International Harvester Company, which needs henequen in its business. The hacendados chose the banks, and the Equitable Trust Company, the Royal Bank of Canada, the Interstate Trust Co., and the Comisión Reguladora (which still existed in name if not in spirit) formed a company, and taking the four initials, called themselves the Eric Corporation.