The Medicalization of the Economy in Early Modern Spanish Political Discourse

Abstract

This article explores how early modern Spanish political authors applied the discourse of medicine to the economic and fiscal arenas during times of severe economic crisis, as the ill workings of the economy were conceptualised as a disease that needed urgent remedies in accordance with prevalent medical practices. After discussing how the metaphor of the monarch as physician of the realm was used in their works to diagnose national diseases, the focus falls on two case studies: on the one hand, the likening of taxation to bloodletting, and, on the other, the notion of restorative gold. It will be thus seen how the medical and the economic intertwine indivisibly in a shared figurative language to address fiscal policies and taxation practices.