The Burgher and the Whore: Prostitution in Early Modern Amsterdam (47 page)

From Remark H

[p.
95
] Who would imagine, that the Virtuous Women, unknowingly, should be instrumental in promoting the Advantage of Prostitutes? Or (what still seems the greater Paradox) that Incontinence should be made serviceable to the Preservation of Chastity? and yet nothing is more true. A vicious young Fellow, after having been an Hour or two at Church, a Ball, or any other As- sembly, where there is a great parcel of handsome Women dress’d to the best Advantage, will have his Imagination more fired than if he had the same time been Poling at
Guildhall
, or walking in the Country among a Flock of Sheep. The consequence of this is, that he’ll strive to satisfy the Appetite that is raised in him; and when he finds honest Women obstinate and uncomatable, ’tis very natural to think, that he’ll hasten to others that are more compliable. Who wou’d so much as surmise, that this is the Fault of the Virtuous Women? They have no Thoughts of Men in dressing themselves, Poor Souls, and endeavour only to appear clean and decent, every one according to her Quality.

I am far from encouraging Vice, and think it would be an unspeakable Fe- licity to a State, if the Sin of Uncleanness could be utterly Banish’d from it; but I am afraid it is impossible:The Passions of some People are too violent to be curb’d by any Law or Precept; and it is Wisdom in all Governments to bear with lesser Inconveniences to prevent greater. If Courtezans and Strumpets

were to be prosecuted with as much Rigour as some silly People would have it, what Locks or Bars would be sufficient to preserve the Honour of our Wives and Daughters? For ’tis not only that the Women in general would meet with far greater Temptations, and the Attempts to ensnare the Innocence ofVirgins would seem more excusable even to the sober part of Mankind than they do now: But some Men would grow outrageous, and Ravishing would become a common Crime. Where six or seven Thousand Sailors arrive at once, as it often happens at
Amsterdam
, that have seen none but their own sex for many Months together, how is it to be suppos’d that honest Women should walk the Streets unmolested, if there were no Harlots to be had at reasonable Prices? For which Reason the Wise Rulers of that well-order’d City always tolerate an uncertain number of Houses, in which Women are hired as pub- lickly as Horses at a Livery-Stable; and there being in this [p.
96
] Toleration a great deal of Prudence and Oeconomy to be seen, a short Account of it will be no tiresome digression.

In the first place the Houses I speak of are allowed to be no where but in the most slovenly and unpolish’d part of the Town, where Seamen and Stran- gers of no Repute chiefly Lodge and Resort. The Street in which most of them stand is counted scandalous, and the Infamy is extended to all the Neighbourhood round it. In the second, they are only Places to meet and bargain in, to make Appointments, in order to promote Interviews of greater Secrecy, and no manner of Lewdness is ever suffer’d to be transacted in them; which Order is so strictly observ’d, that bar the ill Manners and Noise of the Company that frequent them, you’ll meet with no more Indecency, and gen- erally less Lasciviousness there, than with us are to be seen at a Playhouse. Thirdly, the Female Traders that come to these Evening Exchanges are always the Scum of the People, and generally such as in the Day time carry Fruit and other Eatables about in Wheel-Barrows.The Habits indeed they appear in at Night are very different from their ordinary Ones; yet they are commonly so ridiculously Gay, that they look more like the
Roman
Dresses of stroling Ac- tresses than Gentlewomen’s Clothes: If to this you add the aukwardness, the hard Hands, and course breeding of the Damsels that wear them, there is no great Reason to fear, that many of the better sort [p.
97
] of People will be tempted by them.

The Musick in these Temples of Venus is performed by Organs, not out of respect to the Deity that is worship’d in them, but the frugality of the Owners, whose Business it is to procure as much Sound for as little Money as they can, and the Policy of the Government, who endeavour as little as is possible to encourage the Breed of Pipers and Scrapers. All Sea-faring Men, especially the
Dutch
, are like the Element they belong to, much given to loudness and roaring, and the Noise of half a dozen of them, when they call themselves Merry, is sufficient to drown twice the number of Flutes or Violins; whereas with one pair of Organs they can make the whole House ring, and are at no other Charge than the keeping of one scurvy Musician,

which can cost them but little: yet notwithstanding the good Rules and strict Discipline that are observ’d in these Markets of Love, the
Schout
and his Officers are always vexing, mulcting, and upon the least Complaint removing the miserable Keepers of them: Which Policy is of two great uses; first it gives an opportunity to a large parcel of Officers, the Magis- trates make use of on many Occasions, and which they could not be with- out, to squeeze a Living out of the immoderate Gains accruing from the worst of Employments, and at the same time punish those [p.
98
] necessary Profligates the Bawds and Panders, which, tho’ they abominate, they desire yet not wholly to destroy. Secondly, as on several accounts it might be dangerous to let the Multitude into the Secret, that those Houses and the Trade that is drove in them are conniv’d at, so by this means appearing unblameable, the wary Magistrates preserve themselves in the good Opin- ion of the weaker sort of People, who imagine that the Government is always endeavouring, tho’ unable, to suppress what it actually tolerates: Whereas if they had a mind to rout them out, their Power in the Admin- istration of Justice is so sovereign and extensive, and they know so well how to have it executed, that one Week, nay one Night, might send them all a packing.

From Remark Q

[p. 208] As soon as their
East India
Ships come home, the Company pays off the Men, and many of them receive the greatest part of what they have been earning in seven or eight, and some fifteen and sixteen Years time. These poor Fellows are encourag’d to spend their Money with all Profuseness im- aginable, and considering that most of them, when they set out at first were Reprobates, that under the Tuition of a strict Discipline, and a miserable Diet, have been so long kept at hard Labour, without Money, in the midst of Danger, it cannot be difficult to make them Lavish as soon as they have Plenty.

They squander away in Wine, Women and Musick, as much as People of their Taste and Education are well capable of, and are suffer’d (so they but abstain from doing of Misschief ) to revel and riot with greater Licentiousness than is Customary to be allow’d to others.You may in some Cities see them accompanied with three of four lewd Women, few of them Sober, run roar- ing through the Streets by broad Daylight with a Fidler before them: And if the Money, to [p. 209] their thinking, goes not fast enough these ways, they’ll find out others, and sometimes fling it among the Mob by handfuls. This Madness continues in most of them whilst they have any thing left, which never lasts long, and for this reason, by a Nick-name, they are call’d
Lords of six Weeks
, that being generally the time by which the Company has other Ships ready to depart; where these infatuated Wretches (their Money being gone) are forc’d to enter themselves again, and may have leisure to repent their Folly.

In this Strategem there is a double Policy: First, if these Sailors that have been inured to the hot Climates and unwholesome Air and Diet, should be frugal and stay in their own Country, the Company would be continually oblig’d to to employ fresh Men, of which (besides that they are not so fit for their Business) hardly any one in two ever lives in some Places in the
East Indies
, which would often prove a great Charge as well as Disappointment to them. The second is, that the large Sums so often distributed among those Sailors, are by this means made immediately to circulate throughout the Country, from whence, by heavy Excises and other Impositions, the greatest part of it is soon drawn back into the publick Treasure.

elkanah watson, a young american

Elkanah Watson (1752–1842), an American merchant, was sent to Paris in 1779 to carry dispatches to Benjamin Franklin. Before going back in 1784, he made an extensive tour of England and Holland. This passage from
A Tour of Holland
(London, 1789), describes his visit to an Amsterdam music house (
speelhuis
).

On our return, being curious to see the amusements of a spillhouse, we were conducted to the most celebrated one. But my stars! what a scence [
sic
]!—I have never heard Amsterdam mentioned but these spillhouses were esteemed a principal curiosity; they are licensed by the police for the pro- tection and safety of modern women—and are noted for the regulation they are under. I could not however endure the sight five minutes—my feelings were too sensibly attacked—the smoke was so thick, and the com- pany so vulgar, that I was glad to decamp after having satisfied my curiosity. In entering we were obliged to pay for a bottle of vinegar, (called wine) whether we had it or not; and then we crowded through a gang of smoking jack tars, boors, and vulgar citizens, to the other end of the room; where I was much diverted to see a strapping negro fellow dancing a jig with one of the spillhouse ladies, and an old man playing upon a violin.The dancing was curious enough—they seemed to dance, or rather to slide, heavily upon their heels, scaling about the room, without the least order or anima- tion. Indeed they seemed to me like a couple of artificial machines set in motion.

But alas! in casting my eyes about me, I was sickened to the soul with an idea that darted across my brain.There were about forty or fifty of these de- voted wretches seated round the room—they looked like so many painted dolls, stuck up for sale: The scene carried with it an idea of entering a butch- er’s slaughter house, where the calves and sheep are hung up for the highest bidder. Alas! poor human nature, how art thou fallen below the beasts of the field!—Enough of spillhouses.—Good night.

appendix 2
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Trials for Prostitution in Amsterdam by Decade,
1650
–
1749

P (Prostitutes) = number of cases against women on charges of prostitution

B (Bawds) = number of cases against women accused of being brothel-keepers or procuresses M (Men) = number of cases against men accused of organizing prostitution or profiting from it

R (Recidivists) = percentage of cases in which the accused had been found guilty on at least one previous occasion

appendix 3
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Dutch Currency of the Early Modern Period

The basic unit of calculation was the guilder (
gulden
), although it was rarely used as a coin. The coins commonly in circulation were as follows.