Strict controls on illegal prostitution, which are now advertised in almost every Dutch city, were absent in seventeenth-century Amsterdam. Although prostitution had been banned in Amsterdam since 1578, it was tolerated in practice.
The busiest period for Amsterdam prostitutes was in the summer and late summer, when many East Indiamen in particular were in the city. Many ships of the VOC then returned or were just about to leave. The crew, with well-stocked purses, then sought entertainment ashore. After all, those horny sailors had to indulge their lusts somewhere. And preferably not to the honorable women and daughters of the bourgeoisie.
For example, in 1698 a German traveler thought that without Amsterdam prostitution 'no man could protect his honest wife from the lust of the sailors, whose blood has been heated by the Indian sun and who have lost all shame by passing the equator. .'
Sailors and prostitutes depended on each other. They often came from the same social class and were dancing, singing and drinking in gambling houses and whorehouses. Arrested prostitutes repeatedly stated that their suitors were East Indiamen.
But it wasn't just a party. Condoms were only available on a small scale in the eighteenth century. Sexual diseases were lurking. Syphilis, or Spanish smallpox, was especially feared. Cure was impossible and the disease was often fatal.
Everyone knew that sailors and prostitutes were spreaders of venereal diseases. But how good bourgeois men got their STD was rather kept secret.