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

extensive literature on guilds in France and England. Two themes have been
considered here. The first relates to the power of the State in organising the
economic world through institutions such as guilds; the second is the decline of
guilds and the destiny of the associated trades. 3 Finally, chapters 6 and 7 have
been based on the important, although not extensive, literature on the
comparative development of France and Britain in the nineteenth century. In
this case the aim has been to pinpoint the focal differences between Paris and
London.
It is important to underline the influence of other historiographical
approaches that converge through the entire thesis. I tried to be aware of the
particular nature of the economic environment taken into consideration. What
is an urban space and its historical evolution have been basic concepts in the
construction of this thesis. Historical geography and urban history have played
a significant part in researching not just historical but also spatial precision. I
have drawn very much from the historical literature on consumption, retailing
and production within urban spaces. My interest has then been focused on the
relationship between the particular urban space of metropolises such as London
and Paris and the so-called provinces. The historical explanation that sees the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a period of migration of productive
activities to the provinces has been critically examined for the boot and shoe
trade. In this thesis I have argued that the relationship between metropolis and
province is neither straightforward nor unilateral. London remained for a
longer period than previously thought as the business mind behind the trade.
The same can be said for Paris where only the transformation of the sector
through mechanisation meant a re-location of production.
An amended version of this chapter has been published as 'The shaping of a family trade:
the London Cordwainers' Company in the eighteenth century', in I. Gadd and P. Wallis, eds.,
Guilds, society and economy in London, 1450-1800 (London, 2001), pp. 141-59.
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