Previous studies have explored myriad issues, from the running of hospitals, diseases treated in sanatoriums, the circulation of supplies and medical knowledge around the Philippines, and the leading role of merchants from New Spain in supplying medicines. The state of medical treatment in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period has received moderate historical attention. 1749), the physician and administrator of the Royal Hospital, as well as a professor at the University of Santo Tomas, at the helm of managing medical supplies. The new agreement positioned Miguel de la Torre (d. 5 The new requirement, in response to the 1714 letter, transformed the circulation of medical provisions, reshaping the rules governing the supply of medicines and appointing new actors in leadership positions in the medical trade. The new strategy transformed a two-centuries-old system for providing medicine by relieving the New Spanish lessees and designating a Spanish inhabitant in Manila to be responsible for distributing all medicine required to cater for the Spanish population on the islands. Thus, in a letter dated July 6, 1714, the monarch permitted the Council of the Indies to find a more practical approach to improving medical treatment in Manila. In response to these complaints, King Philippe V (1683–1746) dictated that a more practical solution might be found to provide remedies to the Philippines. He complained about the higher prices of medicines and their long, and sometimes irregular, arrival time from New Spain onboard Manila galleons. 2 In his missive, Ramírez emphasised that drug provision was a critical feature of the problem and must be resolved as soon as possible. In his opinion, the king was required to intervene due to the lack of infrastructure, foodstuffs, liturgical objects, and medicines that prevented him from promptly carrying out his evangelistic and medical duties in the archipelago. 1 This monk subtly appealed to the king for his intervention in improving health care. 1751?), the chaplain at the Royal Hospital for Spaniards (Hospital de Españoles, hereafter the Royal Hospital) in Manila, penned a letter to the king of Spain informing him of how precarious and appalling the care of the sick Spaniards in the Philippines was. Furthermore, this new agreement signified a period of improvement in the conditions of the Royal Hospital for Spaniards in Manila and a new era in the manufacture of medicines in the Philippines that would last throughout the first half of the eighteenth century. Examining the causes, this study argues that this monopoly contract represents a unique royal strategy in the Philippines, in concordance with the Bourbon dynasty’s ambition to improve the medical care of Spaniards in the eighteenth century. This article maps the factors that motivated the Spanish Crown to modify a two-centuries-old medicine provision system led by New Spanish merchandisers and establish a monopoly contract ( asiento) to administer and prepare all necessary medical treatments. Although colonial medicine has gained prominence in current historiography, little is known about New Spain’s role in providing remedies to the Spanish population in the Philippines. This article outlines the establishment of a monopoly contract for medicines in Manila.
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