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To contain and control: work organization and poor government in the... 175

model of the factory based on the certainty of production times, work
discipline and separation of spaces .
12
The Poor House settlement started from the philanthropic activity of
the chapel master of the Cathedral of Mexico City Fernando Ortiz Cortés
who, in 1760, proposed to the viceroy Joaquin de Montserrat Marquis
de Cruillas the foundation of the institute . The figure of Ortiz Cortés
13
is emblematic for Poor House since the canon spent his whole life
erecting the institute and equipping it with resources necessary for the
functioning. Only in 1763, Ortiz Cortés managed to purchase land near
the Concepcion Convent in Mexico City and begin building what was to
become the Poor House. In April 1764, Ortiz Cortés submitted to
Charles III the request for the approval and the royal protection of the
institute without however succeeding in obtaining it before his death
which occurred in 1767 . The works were completed by the
14
ecclesiastical Don Andres Ambrosio Llanos y Valdés canon of the
metropolitan cathedral, which, in succession to Ortiz Cortés, also
lavished part of its personal heritage to complete the building .
15
The Poor House was completed and inaugurated on 19th March
1774 while the direction was assumed by the same patron Llanos y
Valdés . It is interesting to note that at the time of its foundation,
16
according to the ideas of the two founders, the Poor House was born
as a shelter for the poor and vagabonds, with the possibility for the
needy to enter and exit freely, thus interpreting the dictates of Catholic
doctrine. However, very soon, with the entry of the state into the
management of the institution, the Poor House would have become an
instrument for forced labour, “labour indoctrination” (based on tasks
skills and time and space regulations) and imprisonment, with the
idea of detaining and rehabilitating the poor and vagabonds .
17

12 P. Miller, N. Rose, Governing economic life, «Economy and Society», vol. 19, n. 1,
1990, pp. 1-31; E. P. Thompson, Time, Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism, «Past
& Present», n. 38, 1967, pp. 56-97.
13 S.M. Arrom, Containing the poor. The Mexico City Poor House cit., pp. 43-45.
14 Agn, Cédulas Reales, vol. 108; vol. 87, exp. 4.
15 S.M. Arrom, Containing the poor. The Mexico City Poor House cit., p. 44.
16 Agn, Cédulas Reales, vol. 108, exp. 81; Agn, Bandos, vol. 10, Exp. 18.
17 S.M. Arrom, ¿De la caridad a la beneficencia? Las reformas de la asistencia
pública desde la perspectiva del Hospicio de Pobres de la Ciudad de Mexico, 1856-
1871, in C. Illares and A. Rodríguez (edits.), Ciudad de Mexico: instituciones, adores
sociales y conflicto politico, 1774 - 1931, El Colegio de Michoacan and UAM, Mexico,
1997, pp. 21-53.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Aprile 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)