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

France was clearly becoming a frightening competitor for British shoemakers
and London and Paris were at the centre of such commercial competition.
During the late 1820s and for all 1830s and 1840s large quantities of shoes were
imported not only from Paris, but also from Calais, Dieppe, Le Havre and
Boulogne. These provincial towns of Northern France were not far from Britain,
had established commercial contracts with the British Isles and a local
shoemaking tradition. They specialised in particular in the production of cheap
footwear. In 1837 John Devlin Dacres, shoemaker in Tottenham Court Road and
writer on the history of shoemaking, decided to visit France to directly examine
the French shoemaking trade. His first stop was not Paris, but just across the
Channel in Calais, at the time a small town. According to Dacres, Calais was
with Dieppe and Le Havre, one of the main centres of production of low quality
and cheap shoes for export. His second stop was Boulogne that was one of the
main French towns producing footwear for the British market. Here in particular
the two brothers Gradelles, McDowel, an Irishman, and an anonymous London
shoemaker were producing 2-3,000 pairs of boots a year for the British market.'3
Finally Dacres arrived in Paris where more fashionable and more expensive
products were manufactured by famous shoemakers such as Concanon, Lehocq
and Melnotte.' 4 Concanon, described by Dacres as "a mere adventurer" produced
from five to six thousands pairs of boots a year for export and a considerable
quantity of shoes that were purchased "by the proud and wealthy both of
England, Ireland and Scotland". 15 Concanon was at the time moving his
production to Britain and had opened a shop in London, following the example
of at least another four Frenchmen, among whom the famous Lehocq and
Melnotte.' 6 Dacres was only beginning to recognise the presence of a
phenomenon that had developed during the previous decade. Large quantities of
shoes entered Britain and damaged the local shoemaking trade. In the Parish of
13 J.D. Dacres, The boot and shoe trade of France, as it affects the interests of the British
manufacturer in the same business. . . (London, 1838), PP. 23-4.
'4 J. Swann, Shoemaking (Merlin Bridge, 1986), p. 15.
15 J.D. Dacres, The boot and shoe trade of France, cit., p. 13.
16 Ibid., pp. 13-15 ; J. Swann, Shoemaking, cit., p. 15.
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