Los Procuradores de la Real Chancillería de Valladolid y su Montepío. Dificultades y problemas de una fórmula de previsión y sociabilidad forzada

Abstract

The Enlightenment fostered the disappearance of trade and professional guilds to make way for new forms of a secular nature that were charitable funds for dependents or «Montepíos». The professionals of the royal courts instituted these forms of social welfare, established primarily for the aid of widows and orphans. These new partnerships lacked the socio-religious status of the previous formulas, yet did not take on the spirit of social culture of the subsequent mutual aid associations. These absences contributed to their short existence, but it was actually the economic factor that led to the disappearance of many «Montepíos». Attorneys and Agents of the Royal Chancery founded a «Montepío» in 1780 which had trouble surviving even before the end of the decade. The measures embraced to overcome the economic failures and human defections say much about the shortcomings of this method of forced sociability.