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

the kitchen to see how the dinner is cooking.. It was through this system that
Northampton shoemaking prospered. In the 1830s William Parker, one of the
leading Northampton shoe manufacturers had an annual production of 20,000
pairs of boots and 60,000 pairs of shoes. One third of his production was sold in
Manchester while the rest found its way through London. This period of
expansion coincided with the setting up of premises outside the county. During
the 1830s and 1840s several Northampton shoe manufacturers established
branches in other British towns. Messrs Hallam and Edens, for instance, in 1840
had wholesale and retail establishments in Liverpool, Manchester, Stockport,
Leeds, Sheffield and Nottingham. In 1850, George Moore, another Northampton
shoe manufacturer, had branches in Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and
Belfast.99
Centralisation and mechanisation of production found in Northampton a
natural space of application. The introduction of the sewing and Blake machines
at the end of the 1850s confirmed the pivotal role of the town in shoemaking.
However we have not to be tempted to see only continuity between what we can
define a 'pre-industnal' experience and industrialisation. New forces were in
action. A series of protests against the introduction of machinery in 1857-59
allowed the expansion of production in Leicester. 10° While Northampton was
suffering from having a long tradition in shoemaking (and an increasingly
organised workforce), Leicester could only benefit from a new sector in a
Boot and Shoe Journal, 23rd October 1886, . 1.
V.A. Hatley, 'Some aspects of Northampton's history, 1815-51', Northamptonshire Past and
Present, 111-5 (1964), p. 247.
'°° On the protests against mechanisation see V.A. Hatley, 'Monsters in Campbell Square! The
early history of two industrial premises in Northampton', Northamptonshire Past and Present,
VI - 1 (1966), pp. 51-9; M.J. Haynes, 'Class and class conflict in the early nineteenth century:
Northampton shoemakers and the Grand National Consolidated Trades' Union', Literature and
History, V (1977), p. 80; N.P. Garrod, 'The Northamptonshire shoe industry and the strike
against the introduction of machinery into the trade in 1857-8-9' (Unpublished MA Thesis,
Loughborough University of Technology, 1978); P. Horn, 'Child workers in the Victorian
countryside: the case of Northamptonshire', Northamptonshire Past and Present, Vfl - 3 (1985-
6), pp. 173-85 and for the second protest in the 1 890s see E. Brunner, 'The origin of indutrial
peace: the case of the British boot and shoe industry', Oxford Economic Papers, 11(1949), pp.
247-59; J.H. Porter, 'The Northampton boot and shoe arbitration board before 1914',
Northamptonshire Past and Present, VI - 2 (1979), pp. 93-100 and K. Brooker, 'The
Northampton shoemakers' reaction to industrialisation: some thoughts', Northamptonshire Past
and Present, VI —3 (1980), pp. 151-9.
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