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

shoe manufacturing. York maintained a long-time tradition in shoemaking, while
Bristol had a flourishing boot and shoe production in export markets.'°4 Finally
Norwich maintained a tradition in women's and children's shoemaking that
arrived to the twentieth century.'°5
5.5 Innovation
The boot and shoe trade can be considered as an example of the low
technological innovation of the clothing sector at least till the mid of the
nineteenth century.'°6 As from fig. 5.12 it appears that only after 1855 and the
introduction of the sewing machine to sew uppers, technological innovation
played an important role in the sector. The creation of bottlenecks gave stimulus
to the mechanisation of different stages of production arriving to a complete
mechanisation of shoe manufacturing only at the end of the nineteenth
century.'°7 As Peter Mounfield noticed we should be careful in dismissing the
pre-1850 patents as non-important. He identifies in four patents issued between
1790 and 1853 very important moments in the evolution of the sector. 108 In 1789
the American Charles Weinenthal invented a machine for sewing shoe uppers
that in 1790 was replicated by the Englishman Thomas Saint.' 09 In 1809 the
American David Meade Randolph patented a simple version of riveting boots
and shoes.' 1° This invention, although forgotten for more than 40 years, was
103 C.P. Sargent, 'A geographical study of the boot and shoe trade of England' (Unpublished
M.Sc. Thesis, University College London, 1931), fig. 1.
104 Important was also the presence of Clarks in Street in Somerset. See G.B. Sutton, 'The
marketing of ready made footwear in the nineteenth century. A study of the firm C. & J. Clark',
Business History, VI - 1 (1962), pp. 93-112; J. K. Hudson, Towards precision in shoemaking, C.
& J. Clark Limited and the development of the British shoe industry (Newton Abbot, 1968); B.
Lehane, C. & J. Clark 1 825-1975 (Street, 1975).
105 W.L. Sparks, The story of shoemaking in Norwich from the earliest times to the present
days (Norwich, 1949); E. Fowler, A hundred years in the shoe trade, 1862-1962 (Norwich,
1962); K. Holmes, Two centuries of shoemaking. Start Rite, 1 792-1992 (Norwich, 1992).
106 The boot and shoe maker's assistant (London, 1853), p. 3.
'° F.Y. Golding, The manufacture of boots and shoes (London, 1902); The modern boot and
shoe maker (London, 1919).
108 P.R. Mounfield, 'Early technological innovation in the British footwear industry', industrial
Archaeology Review, II (1977-78), pp. 129- 42.
'°9 Pat. no. 1,764 (17th July 1790). See also F.F. Ledger, Put your foot down (Melksham, 1985),
p.111.
"°Pat. no 3,207 (215t February 1809).
243