From the “more reasons developing countries today are doing better than the West did then” department:
As many as one in five young women were prostitutes in 18th-century London. The Covent Garden that tourists frequent today was the centre of a vast sex trade strewn across hundreds of brothels and so-called coffee houses. Fornication in public was common and even children were routinely treated for venereal disease. A German visitor observed a nation that had overstepped all others “in immorality and addiction to debauchery”.
English society expected, even encouraged, men to pay for sex. Prejudice barred women from all but menial jobs. Prostitution at least offered financial independence: a typical harlot could earn in a month what a tradesman or clerk would earn in a year. For a few beautiful and savvy women, the gamble paid off. Lavinia Fenton, a child prostitute, married a duke. But most prostitutes were destined for disease, despair and early death.
The sex trade transformed Georgian London. Rich brothel-keepers fed a construction boom that spawned thousands of elegant villas in Soho and Marylebone to house up-market courtesans.
That is The Economist reviewing Dan Cruickshank’s The Secret History of Georgian London.
Fortunately, things have improved since the 18th century; no more than one in ten of my London friends are harlots. Then again, I don’t know any Tories…
2 Responses
I do not think the aim of the Economist piece is to say developing countries today are better than the West was ‘then.’ The point is that, in time, a rise in women’s income will reduce prostitution.
The Economist states that “Mr. Cruickshank’s readers are left to ponder whether the main reason for [prostitution’s] decline was a diminution of demand or greater economic opportunities for women.†Of the two, economic opportunity does more to explain the relative decline. If it were demand-side, why would there be such things as sex tourism and human trafficking? Just yesterday, in the “improved†Britain, three men were arrested for their role in trafficking women into brothels in Worcester, Kidderminster, Birmingham, Cheltenham and Leamington Spa (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hereford/worcs/8323368.stm).
I am surprised you didn’t take a broader view on this issue. Perhaps it is too dark to always think globally. Then again, it is reality, so we might as well place things in their proper context.