Poor Relief, Social Control and Health Care in 18th and 19th Century Portugal

This chapter discusses Poor Relief, Social Control and Health Care in 18th and 19th Century Portugal. During the first half of the 18th century the health care and relief for the poor practised in Portugal were the same as those established in the 17th. The institution of dowries is one of the issues which most clearly shows the real objectives of relief: not the relief of economic destitution but the control of behaviour. Hostels were one of the mechanisms used by the ecclesiastical, civil and family authorities to control the destinies of women. Visiting prisoners was one of the works of charity of Catholic doctrine. Thus, spiritual and material aid to the imprisoned was a task which had always been undertaken by the Misericordias. The Royal Hospital received more than 2000 patients. From 1818 onwards the ceiling of a thousand admissions per year was exceeded. In Coimbra the demand for hospital care was always greater than that available institutionally.