In examining the relationship between sex and commodity, the most obvious link between the two is of course the prostitution trade itself. It would then seem not so surprising that Malheureux and Cocledemoy would describe a trade based upon the exchange of money for sex within these terms of commerce. What is surprising though is Cocledemoy’s atypical evaluation of the trade as an “honorable” one. Though his speech is clearly comical, it does serve to sensitize the audience to the daily life of a whore, depicting her in an unusual but not entirely fallacious light. For one, his disproportionate praise of the bawd, in the very least, reminds us that prostitution is not simply a form of sexual deviance, but for these women, an actual profession. Freevill underscores this point, after Malheureux so adamantly condemns the trade : “What would you have them do? Would you have them get their living by the curse of man, the sweat of their brows? So they do. Every man must follow his trade, and every woman her occupation” (I.i.92-5). Here, Freevill demonstrates his sympathy for the poor bawd who has no choice but to claim her piece of the economic pie by selling her one and only tradable asset – her own sexuality.

However, we cannot overlook the fact that for some of these women, prostitution was more than simply a life they were forced into; it was a trade, a business, and indeed a profitable market, where one could work her way up from a common whore to an expensive whore patronized by the highest members of society. It’s important to keep in mind that it was not only males objectifying female sexuality as a commodity to be bought; the prostitutes themselves also considered their sexuality as their “ware” and their services a “craft” to be perfected and sold to the highest bidder. This is evidenced by the effort many young bawds made to improve “their skills”. For example, just like in many of the other “twelve companies” (or livery guilds) that Cocledemoy mentions, the “novice” bawds would often learn the skills of their trade through training manuals.

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Through training manuals and the advice of older whores, “the girls were taught sexual techniques: how to give the maximum of satisfaction for the minimum of effort. They were also trained in crisis management: how to deal with difficult or dangerous clients, and how to get away when violence seemed unavoidable. One important aspect of the training was the maximizing of the take – getting the client to pay for extras, whether sexual services or exotic food and drink.” [20]

In the image above, a bawd is practicing her skills "maximizing the take" by stealing money from her client's purse and passing it off to her brothel master.

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