The Boot and Shoe Trades in London and Paris in the Long Eighteenth Century

limited, not in number but in value. Light ladies' shoes, for instance, had a very
short life. George il's daughters were allowed a new pair of shoes every week at
the cost of six shillings a pair. It was not an extravagance if we consider that
they were allowed only a dozen pairs of stockings every two years. 24 The Baron
de Schomberg was spending not more than 0.75 per cent of the value of his
wardrobe on shoes, while the lower classes were spending an average of 3-4 per
cent. 25 Shoes cost in Paris from 4 to 6 livres, a shirt 10 livres and a gown 30 to
40 livres. Much more expensive were buckles, rather than shoes. The low
amount spent on shoes by higher classes seems to be confirmed by shoemakers'
bills. The Earl Spencer during his Grand Tour of 1726 spent on shoes in Paris no
more than 45 francs out of a total of 3,500 francs spent during the months June
to August. 26 Lord Sunderland, nearly a century later in 1810, spent £6 and 2s on
shoes out of a total of £194 for the entire housekeeping.27
Consumption assumes particular value when we are able to relate it to the
cost of living and in particular to family or personal budgets. In 1762 Boswell
reported in his Journal that £200 pounds per annum were necessary to live as a
gentleman. Of this amount:
I would have a suit of clean linens every day, which may be 4d. a day. I shall call
it for the year £7. I would have my hair dressed every day, or pretty often, which
may come to £6. I must have my shoes wiped at least once a day and sometimes
oftener. I reckon this for the year £1. To be well dressed is another essential
article, as it is open to everybody to observe that. I allow for clothes £50.
Stockings and shoes I reckon of the year £10.28
In Boswell's case from 3 to 5 per cent of his total income was spent on shoes
(and their cleaning). If we consider clothing only, the total amount spent on
shoes was from 10 to 15 per cent. The same percentage can be observed for a
Parisian wage earner of the 1770s. Even a middle-class intellectual such as
James Beattie was spending no more than one per cent of his income in shoes. In
I. Brooke, Foot-wear. A short history of European and American shoes (London, 1972), p.
80.
D. Roche, The culture of clothing, cit., p. 211.
BL, Manuscripts Collection, Add. Mss. 61445, f. 122.
27 Jbid Mss. 61677, f. 124.
In Boswell's London Journal, 1762-1 763 (London, 1950), pp. 335-6. Cit. in B. Lemire,
Fashion 'sfavourite, cit., p. 165.
100