"Prostitutes of "Political Institution

One of the stories making the rounds in France during the second half of the eighteenth century was that Louis XV's mistress, the Marquise de Pompadour, hit on a terrific plan for alleviating a fit of royal boredom. The rumor had it that the Marquise suggested police inspectors collect records of debauchery for the king's amusement. In 1747, when Madame de Pompadour's protege, Nicolas Rene Berryer, became General Inspector, the police did undergo a reorganization that included an intensification of its control over prostitution in Paris. Prostitution would be tacitly tolerated as long as it operated only out of brothels, and as long as the brothel proprietors furnished written records to the police about their employees and clientele. Prostitutes without protection from a brothel or an important client, or without proof that they were employed actresses, faced up to three years in prison. The penalty for a proprietor's failure to cooperate with the police comprised both public exposure and imprisonment

Institution · Political science · Politics · Sociology · European Political History Analysis · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Law

• Fashion in the Mercure

  Reed Benhamou•Eighteenth-Century Studies•1997

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