Prostitution houses were often run like the company stores that operated at mines or other large-scale industrial enterprises. The prostitutes were expected to purchase their clothing and other necessities under their madam's account at a local store, for example, with the madam then extracting a measure of interest on the purchase. Madams generally required their girls to purchase their own dresses, the quality of which again depended on the quality of the house where they were employed. Women working in "cribs" or shabby bordellos invariably settled on simple cotton dresses that provided uncomplicated access, whereas women working in classier establishments dressed in fine silks cut in the latest fashions....

Another feature of the prostitution economy bears comparison to the company store economy. Instead of operating on a purely cash basis, many houses and brothels used tokens-brass coins specific to an establishment-so that madams could better keep accounts, with less ambiguous customer transactions. A customer who bought a brass coin or token was entitled to a specific liaison with a woman, for example. In this way, cash was exchanged for "house money," much in the way that gamblers even today must purchase house chips to sit at a casino’s poker table. At the end of the business "day," the madams inventoried the coins to balance the books.

-from pages 5 & 6