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

the manufacture of English sole leather, in which alone our superiority over the
foreign tanner was conspicuous, has now declined from the twofold causes of
an insatiable demand for military consumption and an injudicious system of
excise.56
The low price of leather in France was not the only advantage of continental
shoemaking. A second issue at stake was the trade-off between the quality of
leather used in the production of boots and shoes and its price. A decrease in
leather quality could be a solution to bridge the price gap of boots and shoes
between France and Britain. Moreover traditional skills in currying and tanning
were different from place to place. In 1816 a certain Price, a currier in St.
Martin's Lane, was saying that tanning was "very respectable" in France, but
was in the same nation "very imperfect". 57 Francis Bruin, a London tanner
considered in 1824 that "the London hides are perhaps the worst (because) they
are more damaged in the flaying than the continental hides and skins".58
England had superiority only in leather used for soles. This situation of high
cost/low quality of leather continued during the 1 820s and the shoemakers,
helped by tanners and curriers, were able to achieve the withdrawal of the duty
on leather only in 1830. This caused a decrease in the price of "coarse and
fine leather"6° in England. However the Select Committee on Import Duties of
1840 reported that "yet boots and shoes are quite as high in price as they were
previously, and the next is that the price of boots in London is much greater
than the price in Paris" 61 As Devlin Dacres reported in 1838, the quality of
British leather too did not improve, while French leather had increased its
quality since the Revolution. 62 The Rapport du Jury sur les produits de
I 'industrie francaise reported that:
The Times, 13th May 1816, P. 3, col. d.
56
Parliamentary Papers, Command Papers - Report of Committees, 1816, no. 386, vol. 6, p.
7, micro 17.28.
58 Jbid p. 24.
C.H. Mander Waterland, A descriptive and historical account of the Guild of Cordwainers,
cit., p. 100.
60 Parliamentary Papers, Report from the select committee. Select committee on import duties,
together with the minutes of evidence (London, 1840-45), p. 13.
61 Ibid., p. 13.
273