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

integrating economic rationality, social attitudes and cultural values. Cultural
history and cultural studies are important influences in this thesis . It has to
be underlined the difficulty of joining together very different disciplines. There
has been a certain anxiety to see how culture and economy can clash producing
barriers and divisions between scholars.
Last but not least, the importance ofv'history of costume, clothing and
fashion. Footwear is a very neglected field in history of clothing and fashion. I
hope this thesis contributes to filling such a gap. I have tried to accomplish this
through two different perspectives. Firstly the integration between 'economics'
and 'fashion'. Rejecting a vision of fashion as a simple 'folly', this thesis has
explained economic factors in fashion changes and in attitudes to consumption.
I have tried to show, for instance, how consumer credit was a fundamental
variable in explaining the productive structure of the trade. In this case account
books reveals much more than figures. The second area of experiment has been
the integration of historical research and material culture. 2 The use of the
Northampton Boot and Shoe Museum Collection and the Royal Ontario
Museum Costume and Textile Collection in Toronto have allowed me to look
at history through the different lens of material culture. The objects or artefacts
(what historians call products or goods) have been used as a source in my
historical research. This has been particularly evident in chapter 6 that analyses
the competition between London and Paris in the first half of the nineteenth
century. Historical elements such as parliamentary papers, petitions and private
accounts explained only part of a very complex economic situation. The use of
artefacts has allowed me to compare 'on the ground' shoemaking in the two
cities, discovering a series of qualitative elements that classic historical sources
would have overlooked.
3 (2001), pp. 425-60.
2 For an explanation of the approach used see: C. Bates, 'Wearing two hats: an
interdisciplinary approach to the millinery trade in Ontario, 1850-1930', Material History
Review, LI (Spring 2000), pp. 16-25.
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