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Child prostitution flourished under the Victorians, and the trade in virgins was especially profitable. In 1885, the age of consent for a girl was 13 years and there were brothels in London that openly catered for men who liked very young girls. Neither those who bought nor those who sold saw anything wrong with taking the virginity of a child - indeed, in the days before antibiotics, having sex with virgins was one way of avoiding sexually transmitted infections. Virgin trade follows the controversial campaign of reformer William Stead to stop rich men from preying on impoverished young girls. A lucrative trade Bought or abducted from her parents, a young virgin could be worth a high price. Rebecca Jarrett, the reformed prostitute who helped Stead expose the trade in children, said of one client whom she had provided with a young virgin: 'A gentleman paid me £13 for the first of her.' That would be the equivalent of more than £900 in today's money. Such sums gave the men who could afford to pay them total power over the girls. In response to his critics, the Conservative MP Cavendish Bentinck said, cynically: 'It is nonsense to say it is rape, it is merely the delivery as per contract of the asset virginity in return for cash down.'
But the privilege of powerful men like Bentinck was being undemined. The increasingly influential middle classes were beginning to rebel against the idea of child prostitution. Reformers such as the Salvation Army were lobbying for the Criminal Law Amendment, which would raise the age of consent to 16. One such campaigner was William Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. He took his crusade into the heart of the Victorian underworld. He talked to prostitutes and said: 'The deep and strong impression which I have brought back is one of respect and admiration for the extraordinary good behaviour of the English girls who pursue this dreadful career.'
Stead then concocted a daring plan. Helped by reformed prostitute and procuress Rebecca Jarrett, he arranged to buy a 13-year-old girl, Eliza Armstrong, from her mother. He and Jarrett maintained that the mother knew she was selling her daughter into prostitution. Jarrett took Eliza to a local midwife to have her examined and certified as a virgin, then delivered her to a London brothel. Posing as a rich libertine, Stead went to the brothel and had the girl drugged and brought to him, supposedly so he could rape her.
Stead published the story in a series of articles, entitled 'Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon', in the Pall Mall Gazette. There was immediate uproar. The presses rolled day and night as people clamoured for copies of the paper, paying up to 10 times their face value. Thousands of people joined the moral reform movement. A petition was sent to the House of Commons and there were rallies all over the country. For a while, Stead was the hero of the hour, the champion of England's young girlhood. But he had powerful enemies, including Cavendish Bentinck. Soon the tide turned. Stead and Jarrett were arrested on a charge of abduction and indecent assault, and sent to prison. But the Criminal Law Amendment Bill was passed.
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