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

Pères (later also in London in Regent Street). 16 Their high-class shops made an
early nineteenth-century commentator say that "Le luxe des boutiques des
cordonniers ne cede en rien a celui des magasins de nouveautés".17
Table 7.1 - Shoemakers in Paris in 1827
Cordonniers Marc hands Total inhabitants
Arr. no. no. % no. %
per shop
1 55 52.3 50 47.7 105 6.5 430
2 115 55.8 91 44.2 206 12.8 302
3 61 40.9 88 59.1 149 9.2 275
4 59 36.8 111 63.2 160 9.9 284
5 34 23.9 108 76.1 142 8.8 385
6 41 22.2 143 77.8 184 11.4 388
7 52 31.7 112 69.3 164 10.1 335
8 23 38.3 37 61.7 60 3.7 967
9 21 33.8 42 66.2 62 3.8 656
10 64 36.5 111 63.5 175 10.9 393
11 60 43.4 78 56.6 138 8.6 344
12 27 39.1 42 60.9 69 4.3 962
Total 612 37.9 1002 62.1 1614 100 407
(average) (average) (average)
Source: Almanach des maItres et marchands, fabricans, cordonniers et bottiers de Ia yule de
Paris... (Paris, 1827).
The development following the end of the Napoleonic Wars has already been
examined in the previous chapter. We should just mention here that by 1830 the
French shoe industry was already larger (although probably not yet as modern)
than its British counterpart. France produced in the 1830s more than 100 million
pairs of shoes a year for a total value over 300 million francs in wages. In
England shoe production gave work to 265,000 journeymen for a total value of
200 million francs (about 8 million of pounds) in wages.' 8 A quantitative
comparison, however, can be a misleading way of looking at the British and
' 6 Almanach des Modes. Premiere Année (Paris, 1814), pp. 131-2.
17 M. Prosper Lemoine, Mémoire justificatif pour M. Lemoine, préposé pour le placement des
ouvriersfabricans en cuirs de Ia yule de Paris... (Paris, 1818), p. 2.
18 Dictionaire Universel du Commerce, de Ia banque et des manufactures (Paris, 1838), vol. i,
296