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

Table 4.2 - Specialisation in boot and shoe retailing in London, 1730-1850
men women men and men, women Iiiil hit hoots boot & shoe
Total oiil' onl' women an(l oiil mi! and and
children shoes others
1734k 2 1 1 1
1740s 6 1 I 2 3 I
1750s 5 I I I 3 1
1760s II 3 4 3 3 5
1770s 7 2 I 1 1 2 2 2
1780s S 2 I I 2 2 4
1790s 5 I I 2 I 2
1800s 9 I 1 1 3 5
1810s 3 1 1 2 1
1820s 7 2 5 2
1830s 11 5 3 7 3
1840s :5 i 1 3 I 2 2
Total° 5 5 II 1 5 22 36 19
Source: Boot and shoemakers trade cards at Guildhall Library, Prints Department and British
Museum, Prints and Drawings Department.
Even if the sample is limited and there could be a discrepancy between what was
reported in the card and the real variety of goods sold, some general assumptions
can be made. There seems to be a first period from the 1750s to the 1780s when
shoemakers increased their specialisation either producing boots only or shoes
only. The same can be said about male only or female only production. The
market was becoming large enough to allow an increasing grade of
specialisation. The second phase from the early 1800s to the end of the period
considered (continuing in the late nineteenth and twentieth century) shows a
tendency to provide generic shoe shops with men's and women's and children's
shoes, as well as boots, slippers galoshes and so on. In this case an explanation
has to be found both in the expansion in the dimension of the business and the
possibility to be supplied, partially or totally, from warehouses or country
producers. Again it seems that a 'modem' shoe market is appearing at the end of
the eighteenth century.49
See J. Swann, Shoemaking (Merlin Bridge, 1982), pp. 9-11.
184