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

homes, to make by hands." 96 Following the experience of London, the
intensification of production caused a 'degeneration' of the system. Production
was no longer a prerogative of the small artisan earning his living producing for
merchants and middlemen.97
Table 5.9 - The development of Northampton boot and shoe
manufacturing, 1818-1852
year B&S manufacturers Boot and shoe Workforce F
and factors
makers*
1768
1774
1784
1790
1796
1818
1820
1826
1830
1837
1852
12
21
27
31
37
103
173
128
130
146
197
301
379
587
671
596
349
2,609
5,405
6,259
* Including clickers, leather cutters, closers, blockers, heel makers, last makers, clog makers
and pattern makers Data are respectively for 1831, 1841 and 1851.
Sources: W. Griffen, 'The Northampton boot and shoe industry and its significance for social
change in the borough from 1800-1914' (Unpublished MA thesis, University of Cardiff, 1968),
p. 50; V.A. Hatley, Shoemakers in Northamptonshire, 1762-1911. A statistical survey
(Northampton, 1971), pp. 22-3. The original sources used comprise the 1831, 1841 and 1851
censuses; trade directories and estimations of employees in the sector from militia lists.
A large scale outdoor system similar to the London sweated system came into
existence: "in the houses of the working classes, one or more rooms are occupied
by machinists and fitters, and in these the feminine portion of the community
vary the operations of putting on quarters and seaming linings with excursions to
J.T. Day, 'The boot and shoe trade', in M. Berg, ed., Technology and toil in nineteenth
century Britain (London, 1979), p. 171.
J. Greenfield, 'Technology and gender division of labour in the boot and shoe industry,
1850-1911', cit., p. 30.
240