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

Chapter 6
Competition, 1815-1850
"Le Commerce et 1 'Industrie ne peuvent se développer qu 'a l'abri de l'ordre et de lois;
les guerres, les grandes commotions arrêtent leur essor".
6.1 Introduction
Emile Pereire, A messieurs le membres de la Commission.. Paris, 1830.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the London shoemaking trade was
no longer the unquestioned leader in Europe. This position - achieved and
maintained during the eighteenth century - was challenged by the rise of Paris as
a new and dynamic European shoemaking centre. 1 The French revolution
provided new cultural and material stimula that influenced fashion and had a
considerable impact on footwear. Notwithstanding the climate of political
uncertainty dominating France, Paris maintained - and perhaps even
strengthened - its role as city of taste and fashion. The geographical
complementarity between the production of new political, philosophical and
social ideas and the creation of new mode in clothing, objects and decor, created
a series of opportunities for the flowering of the Parisian consumers' trades. This
chapter aims to analyse the relationship between the Parisian and the London
shoemaking trades during the first half of the nineteenth century.
While in the eighteenth century London and Paris were two separate but
rather similar pre-industrial shoemaking centres, in the early nineteenth century a
divergence between the two came into existence. The innovations that quickly
changed products and producers in Paris had a relevant impact on the London
trade itself. It is therefore necessary to understand the economic transformations
that set London in direct competition with Paris. Starting with an examination of
'M.D. George, London life in the eighteenth Century (London, 1925), pp. 198-205; J.P. Roux,