The Medicine Monopoly Contract in Manila: A Perspective on Medical Provision and the Circulation of Medicine in the Early Eighteenth Century

Abstract

This article outlines the establishment of a monopoly contract for medicines in Manila. 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 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. 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. 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.