Between Givers and the Poor: Managing Charity in the Portuguese Empire

Pinto Sara ()
Additional contact information
Pinto Sara: ITCEM - Transdisciplinary Research Centre «Culture, Space and Memory», University of Porto, ‎Porto, Portugal

New Global Studies, 2018, vol. 12, issue 2, 175-194

Abstract: In the 16th century the Portuguese monarchy established its key charity institution: the Misericórdias. Created to perform the fourteen Works of Mercy, these laic brotherhoods were financially sustained by testamentary legacies and proved to be a very successful mechanism of providing assistance – spiritual and material; becoming the midway between the wills of givers (privileged men and women that looked for spiritual redemption and forgiveness of their souls) and the poor and sick. As the Misericórdias started to spread within the Empire, soon they became a well-functioning network that connected a truly global charity system. They played a role in empire formation as they started to perform as banks, transferring funds, assuming debts and conceding credit. This article analyzes the roles that Misericórdias played, not only in establishing charity but also in establishing the Portuguese’s global empire.

Keywords: Misericórdias; Portuguese Empire; bequests; credit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/ngs-2018-0032 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:nglost:v:12:y:2018:i:2:p:175-194:n:5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/ngs/html

DOI: 10.1515/ngs-2018-0032

Access Statistics for this article

New Global Studies is currently edited by Nayan Chanda, Akira Iriye and Saskia Sassen

More articles in New Global Studies from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().