Prostitution in Huso
So i've got something that's not primarily a world focused on sex but i want to work out some NSFW details regarding prostitution. For some context the setting draws a lot of inspiration from things like the Russian Civil War and Warlord Era China, with a variety of dieselpunk and fantasy additions to it. The city of Huso was until a few years ago within the Astresi Empire, a sprawling imperial state trying to catch up with the more industrialised powers with a majority human population but an elven ruling imperial family and much of the upper nobility being elves. Recently though after a major defeat in a war a faction in the provincial armies seized the imperial capital, forcing the Emperor to flee, and declared the new Astresi Republic, the republicans currently control Huso, and represent the most powerful over all faction but they must compete with a socialist revolutionary movement, the remaining imperial loyalists, peasant rebels, local ethnic separatists and regional warlords. That said onto prostitution.
Registration
Legally to conduct prostitution one has to be formally registered with Huso city officials. At the present only an unmarried woman can register, with eunuchs also being allowed under old imperial law but not republican, those considered migrants into the city from a rural location not being allowed to register under the old law but being able to do so under the new one. Those who register pay an annual flat tax for as long as they practice prostitution, cannot legally marry after that point, even if they are no longer engaged in prostitution and additionally its said some members of the National Provisional Assembly want to propose those on the list should be sterilised
For some registration is simply the best way to make money in a difficult situation.. However the imperial legal system allowed for a system of debt peonage established for a fixed term as colleterial for a loan, though not strictly legal some poorer families would pressure their unmarried daughters to take a loan the family needed in her name. With it being legal for a contract to be made that the woman be required to become a registered prostitute and work for a brothel the lender owns if the debt cannot be paid, allowing a family could acquire a larger or lower interest loan than if someone else in the household placed themselves as the collateral.
New republican law outlaws the formation of new peonage contracts but allows pre-existing contracts to run their course.
Legal conduct
Legally a prostitute can work independently or for a brothel. Doing so independently she may struggle as authorities rarely bother to assist her if her customers refuse to pay her and are often unenthusiastic about investigating cases where independent prostitutes are assaulted or killed by prospective customers.
A brothel provides some degree of protection against this but comes with its own problems. In addition to surrendering a cut of her profits for the owners a prostitute may have a contract that means if her manager orders her to offer her services to a customer she cannot refuse without facing steep fines.
There is very much a hierarchy of brothels.
Under the old Imperial Law any woman of at least 1/8 elven blood may only sell her services as a prostitute for a man of at least the same amount of elven ancestry or more or both face punishment. This is no longer the case under Republican Law but its still the common that women of elven blood are associated with the highest end brothels, enduring the prostitutes have a wide variety of fine clothes and beauty products, are trained in making formal conversation, playing instruments, singing, reading poetry, playing games of strategy and cards, as well as fine facilities with comfortable rooms and well kept gardens. At this top end those in these brothels may well spend several numbers with a man entertaining him, going with him to a party etc before she and/or her manager will permit him to pay an extortionate amount to sleep with her.
As one progresses down imitation brothels mainly staffed by beautiful human women are a little bellow the level of the old elven ones, before the revolution these focused on the rising class of human business owners, well to do professionals, and so on who were becoming as wealthy as, if not more than, the traditional elven nobility but could not lay with the highly prestigious elven women. These often tried to copy the true elven ones in terms of clothes and training in the past but particularly as the legal definitions that divide the two classes have been dissolved some have sort to define themselves in new ways. Discussing not just classical elven poetry but the latest modern literature, having foreign women of other races on their staff, having unusual forms of entertainment like watching women wrestle. Often their clothing and rooms seek less to draw on old traditions now and more to invoke the latest fashions. Generally the prices are slightly lower still than the true elven brothels but still beyond the reach of the average person.
Then as one goes down into lower levels the prostitutes are likely to have less kinds of training, less fine clothes, lay with more customers and charge lower prices.
Although not actually legal Republican Army officers under General Duen who controls the city and the surrounding area often end up heading into brothels, skipping queues and demanding the managers make a prostitute sleep with them for free lately. Those who make trouble often get arrested or property seized on trumped up charges and high level republican authorities, desperate to keep Duen and his men's loyalty, have done nothing about it
.Illicit prostitution
Illegal rings are not so uncommon, with it not being unheard of for particularly the local municipal authorities to take the odd bribe to turn a blind eye to brothels run by the "Shadow Socities" as criminal organisations are often referred to, in Huso the biggest is The Red Ribbon Society.
Although they may need to give up a larger portion of their profits these prostitutes have the advantage that they organisation can arrange for bribery such that they won't need to register and throw away future marriage prospects whilst still having the protection of the organisation against anyone who would abuse or cheat them on the job. Though few of Shadow Societies straight up kidnap people a good few engage in predatory loan shark operations that like the old imperial system continue to operate based on being secured against a woman working as a prostitute for the society if her family cannot pay back a debt, being required to work until the cost of the debt is recouped.
Historically a fair portion of the market the Red Ribbon Society and co has gone been forms of sex work not permitted by Imperial and Republican authorities. Uncastrated male prostitutes have often worked at a Red Ribbon house whether their clients are straight women or gay men where this is generally illegal. Prior to the revolution elven women sometimes worked there selling themselves to wealthy humans who desires the exclusive tastes normally bared to them, and after the revolution those who still have a thing for eunuchs come there.
A lot of groups like the Red Ribbon Society use other businesses to launder money and conceal their prostitution operations such as bath houses, clothes washing businesses, massage parlours and the like.
Independent prostitutes acting without a licence run a risky gamble, such individuals usually aren't going to make their majority of their money that way, they just occasionally risk selling sex to someone they know personally to make a little extra money on the side. Going any further without an organisation to back them up risks both abuse from prospective clients and arrest by law enforcement.