The Crown, the gold and the spiritual pasture: on the logic of collective action at the hospices in Minas Gerais in the XVIIIth Century

Abstract

The hospices in the modern times were used as a place to welcome and to accommodate religious people and peregrines offering shelter during their walks and missions. For the volatile character of the gold, the king D. João V had forbidden the establishment of these religious houses in the Minas zone. However, after the requests made from the local Camaras (Townships), the King finally authorized the building of the hospices in Minas Gerais. In this article I analysed the documentation of the hospices produced by the Camaras and the Conselho Ultramarino with the focus on understanding the change in the King’s decision to prohibit, but after to authorize those buildings in Minas Gerais.