Hey, I'm a undergraduate student of European history and I could use some help with a paper I'm trying to write. This is my first time working with primary sources.
The topic is prostitution in Madrid during the reign of Joseph Bonaparte. ¿How did France's occupation of Spain affect the practice of prostitution, if it did? (crime, legislation or public opinion)
The angle: The French Revolution changed people's views of their rights, liberties and their relation the state (for example, Civil Constitution of the Clergy, conscription and price controls). Prostitution was regulated in France under Napoleon.
Problem: I am having a hard time finding primary sources to use for this topic.
Can anyone recommend a possible source I could use? For examples: the writings of a writer or reporter that lived in Madrid during the Peninsular war, laws that where passed during the time, newspapers, police documents, autobiographies, medical documents (possibly of the military), etc.
I have tried Spain's online historical archive, http://pares.mcu.es/ but I'm not sure how I should go about my search (cant' find what I'm looking for).
Things I wish to keep in mind (if anybody has suggestion for these topics please mention them): -laws regarding prostitution in Spain before the Peninsular war -women's legal and illegal labor market (working conditions and pay)
[I can read Spanish but not French]
I might suggest a slight revision to your project:
Measuring how prostitution was affected in Madrid may be difficult, as it's hard to find records on prostitution outside of court cases (which aren't usually readily available outside of a local archive).
You might, however, look into how prostitution changed in Catalonia, specifically in the territories that were directly annexed as French départements in 1812-1814. This might yield better results because after 1804, it was mandated that prostitutes needed to be registered with the state and submit to health inspections. Many historians of prostitution consider these efforts as laying the foundations for later extensive systems of regulation.
I'm less aware of Spanish-language sources in this context and I know you mentioned that you can't read French, but there has been plenty written in English on state regulation of prostitution and many of these works mention the code civile regulating prostitutes. Runing a Google Books search on "prostitution & napoleon" turns up several things. That might be a good place to start.
