Moral Economy of Healthcare. Hospital Consolidation in 16th Century Granada

Abstract

During the last third of the 16th century, the Spanish Crown promoted different initiatives to rationalise and centralise hospital services in Castile. Our aim was to characterise the contemporary significance and extent of this type of reform. One reform that was repeatedly proposed and eventually ended in failure was attempted in the city and archbishopric of Granada; its investigation constitutes the specific objective of this study. Prelates Juan Méndez de Salvatierra and Pedro de Castro acted decisively against the innovations planned by agents of the Crown. Pedro de Castro blocked reforms independently proposed by Joan Alonso de Moscoso and Fernando Niño de Guevara, Bishop of Guadix and President of the Chancellery, respectively. The client-centred approach of hospital healthcare alongside the defence of ecclesiastical hospital institutions by the archbishopric, made hospital consolidation unfeasible. The Hospitals of Juan de Dios and Santa Ana, which represented mendicant charity and counter-reform piety, respectively, were key pillars of this resistance against centralization.