Portuguese royal policy actively enforced racial hiring quotas in medicine, not just tolerated them.

Evidence

A special bursary was established by King Sebastian of Portugal in 1568 (subsequently confirmed by King Philip II of Portugal in 1604 and 1606) to grant bursaries to thirty students of ‘Old Christian’ stock to study medicine and surgery at the faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra. An edict issued by the Crown in December 1585 instructed all municipalities, charitable institutions (misericórdias) and hospitals to immediately oust any New Christian doctor when an Old Christian medical practitioner was available and willing to accept employment with them. This racial preference was expanded in 1599 to include doctors employed by the supreme royal law court (Casa da Suplicação) and the appellate law court (Casa do Cível). — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 391

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the modern pattern of state-enforced employment discrimination; echoes the Crown-confirmation dynamic seen in the Champagne Fairs where state backing legitimates private exclusionary institutions.