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

espoke production was a widespread rejection of mechanised production for the
upper part of the footwear market. In opposition to the British idea that
mechanised production allowed high productive standards, in France anti-
mechanisation factions lamented how footwear produced with the use of
machines (sewing machine, closing machine, etc.) were mediocre and concluded
that such productive methods "on ne s 'applique qu 'a produire beaucoup".37
7.5 A quantitative analysis
7.5.1 The Parisian shoe trade in the 1850s
Most Parisian shoemakers were localised in the se. ond, fourth, fifth and
sixth arrondissement. In the sixth arrondissement a large number of enterprises
were localised in Temple and Porte St.-Denis (table 7.2). The most important
producers were in the fifth arrondissement and in particular in Rue St-Denis (15
of them), rue de la Grande-Truanderie (8), rue St.-Sauveur (7). Another
important centre was in the area of the Halle. 38 Most of the big businesses were
localised in the first, second, third and seventh arrondissements. 39 Similar to
what happened in London in the course of the nineteenth century, in Paris
production moved eastwards to the nineteenth and twentieth arrondissements
and in particular to Belville. Other centres of were Villemoisson, Arpajon,
Savigny-sur-Orge, Bicêtre and Maison-Alford.4°
36 A. Cottereau, 'The distinctiveness of working-class cultures in France, 1848-1900', in I.
Katznelson and A.R. Zolberg, eds., Working-class fonnation, cit., p. 126.
37 Mechanisation was fostered in France by the invention of pegging by a certain M. Duméry in
1844. As in Britain several attempts were made for improving pegging, but the result was
'disgracieuse'. Procès des chaussures a vis et des machines a visser. Système SL et lemercier
(Paris: 1860— BN 8-FM-584).
38 M. Rudoiphe, 'L'industrie parisienne de Ia chaussure', Bulletin de la Société d'études
Historiques, Geographiques et Scientifiques de la Region Parisienne, no. 102-3 (1959), p. 4.
Statistique de la ville de Paris (Paris, 1848), pp. 227-8.
4°M. Rudolphe, 'L'industrie parisienne', cit., pp. 6-7.
301