The licensing of unhealthy, uncomfortable or dangerous establishments in the nineteenth century and the procedures’ ground-plans of the Coimbra district

Abstract

This article traces the origin and legal transformation of the Portuguese law created to regulate the installation of unhealthy, uncomfortable or dangerous industrial establishments in the nineteenth-century. It also evidences the importance of this regulation for the history of administrative licensing procedures, given the petitioners’ obligation to submit the building ground-plans with the application. The drawings of the Coimbra district, existing in the Archive of the University of Coimbra, are used as an example of its practical application.