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

the similarity of the ancient regime, we can see a clear divide between London
and Paris in the nineteenth century.
The second element that makes the present findings even more unclear in their
nature is the difference between French and English historiography. While in
Britain in recent years we have seen the emergence of a body of studies on the
London economy in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century, in France the
situation seems to be less positive. 57 For the London economy the focus of recent
research has been on a diversified set of problems. Classic labour studies have
been integrated and developed by analyses of business structures and practices,
on entrepreneurial variables and the social and cultural climate in the Capital
during the nineteenth century. 58 For Paris, the kaleidoscopic studies by Roche
concerning the eighteenth century, have not been transposed into the nineteenth
century. There is still a focus on labour that derives from the governmental
sources used.59
57 Thid., pp. 262-3.
D. Green, 'The nineteenth-century metropolitan economy: a revisionist interpretation',
London Journal, XXI - 1 (1996), pp. 9-26; M.J. Daunton, 'Industry in London: revisions and
reflections', London Journal, XXI - 1 (1996), pp. 2-8.
M.D. Sibalis, 'Shoemakers and fourierism in nineteenth-century Paris: the Societe
Laborieuse des Cordonniers-Bottiers', Histoire Sociale - Social History, XX - 39 (1987), pp. 29-
49; A. Cottereau, 'Problèmes des conceptualisation comparative de l'idustrialisation: I'exemple
des ouvriers de Ia chaussure en France et en Grance-Bretagne', in S. Magri and C. Topalov, eds.,
Villes ouvrieres, 1900-1950 (Paris, 1989), pp. 41-82.
312