 The earliest law to explicitly ban prostitution was in the Civil Code of 1734, where procuring and brothel keeping were punished with whipping, imprisonment and forced labor, and prostitution at a brothel with forced labor.From 1724 onward, unmarried women in Stockholm, with no certification asserting that they were supported by a legal profession, a personal fortune or by a sponsor guaranteeing their economic support, could be arrested for vagrancy and placed at the "Långholmens spinnhus" to prevent them from supporting themselves "indecently", which was frequently used against prostitutes.High class courtesans, who did not prostitute themselwes at a brothel, but met their clients at the theater or Opera and received them in 
their own home or theirs, were protected from the police by a certificate of sponsorship by a client, or by having an official legal profession on paper, usually as an actress or singer.