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

E
60
50
40
30
20
10
Figure 1.1 - Hides and skins charged with duty in England and
Wales, 1720-1820
0 -- -
1720 1730 1740 1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 1800 1810 1820
Source: B.R. Mitchell, British historical statistics (Cambridge, 1988), p. 707.
year
The period between 1790 and 1815 saw an increase of 60 per cent of the leather
supplied and more than 500,000 workers were employed in the sector during this
period. However, the return to peace in 1815 created a deep crisis. 9 In 1838 leather
manufacturing had become the fourth sector in the British economy after cotton,
wool and iron. The following years presented a further restriction of the leather
market. In 1852 Braithwaite Poole in his Statistics of British Commerce estimated
that the leather produced in Great Britain accounted for 36,000 tons and valued not
more than £18 million - 2.3 per cent of the national product.'° The French market
was much smaller compared to the English one. In 1820 the French production,
export and import of leather was only worth 36 million francs. However, just 30
W. Page and W. Ashley, eds., Commerce and industry. A historical review of the economic
conditions of the British Empire from the peace of Paris in 1815 to the declaration of war in 1914
(London, 1919), pp. 11-12. If the price was on average Is. 6d. per pound the total value of 'raw'
leather was £4,875,000 that was circa 1/3 of the total value of leather manufacture. Leather
manufacture, therefore, accounted for nearly £15 million. J.R. MacCulloch, A statistical account of
the British Empire... (London, 1839), vol. i, p. 708.
'° B. Poole, Statistics of British commerce... (London, 1852), p. 35.
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