| Summary: | This text examines the effects of the royal regulation on increasing the incentives to the Lisbon Misericórdia to acquire public debt instruments (“padrões de juro”). It focuses on the analysis of the credit activity of the brotherhood before and after the royal charter of January 31, 1775, by which the Misericórdia was forbidden to lend money to particular individuals. It puts forward the hypothesis that the royal decree might have had a crowding out effect, that is, a shift in lending toward the crown. Data reveal that the Misericórdia expanded its participation in the public credit market due to this charter, particularly between 1782 and 1792, when it bought a significant amount of debt either in the primary (directly to the Exchequer) and in the secondary market (to private individuals).
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