“The Great Leviathan of Leachery”: Mandeville’s Modest Defence of Publick Stews (1724)

Abstract

As early as 1714 (in “Remark H” of the Fable of the Bees) Bernard Mandeville wrote:

I am from encouraging Vice, and think it would be an unspeakable Felicity 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 teh Honour of our Wives and Daughters? … 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-ordered City always tolerate an uncertain number of Houses in which Women are hired as publickly as Horses at a Livery-Stable.¹