As early as 1413, city authorities in Amsterdam decreed that ‘whores are necessary in big cities and especially in cities of commerce such as ours’ and for that reason ‘the court and the sheriff of Amsterdam shall not entirely forbid the keeping of brothels’. For centuries thereafter, laws banning prostitution were lax, and enforced only occasionally. As the number of international visitors to the city soared, scores of brothels opened for business, catering to both local customers and horny tourists keen to visit the famous Red Light District.
