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

were tanning, currying and oil dressing all English and Welsh leather.' 7 Slightly
more than fifty per cent of them were tanners, 47 per cent were curriers and 2.5 per
cent were oil dressers. This contrasts with the hundreds of thousands of
shoemakers who had small scale businesses scattered around Britain.
Table 1.1 - Number of licensed leather producers in England and Wales, 1808-1818
Year Tanners Curriers Oil dressers Total
1808 1,725 1,580 189 3,494
1809 1,741 1,617 176 3,534
1810 1,737 1,639 188 3,564
1811 1,756 1,657 168 3,581
1812 1,766 1,665 161 3,592
1813 1,754 1,644 160 3,558
1814 1,699 1,647 150 3,496
1815 1,671 1,688 154 3,513
1816 1,619 1,591 139 3,349
1817 1,598 1,664 131 3,393
1818 1,577 1,614 120 3,311
Source: British Parliamentary Papers, 1818 (110) - XIV (micro 19.75).
This is confirmed from the figures provided by the Sun fire office registers. If we
compared the capital insured by tanners and dressers and by shoemakers in the
1770s, we can understand also the different scale of the activity (table 1.2). While
most shoemakers had small businesses, tanners and dressers had to invest
considerable capital.
Table 1.2 - Comparative analysis of the capital insured by tanners, dressers
and shoemakers in 1770s
Capital insured ()
100 or under
101-500
501-1000
1001-2999
3000 or over
Total
Tanners and dressers
% Cumulative (%)
17.9 17.9
42.8 60.7
20.5 81.2
14.3 95.5
4.5 100.0
100.0
Shoemakers
% Cumulative (%)
52.9 52.9
40.9 93.8
5.8 99.6
0.4 100.0
0.0 100.0
100.0
Source: D. Barnett, London, hub of the industrial revolution. A revisionary history, 1775-1825
(London, 1998), pp. 67 and 163.
'' Differently from shoemaking, leather commerce was a highly capitalised activity. British
Parliamentary Papers, Commons Journal(1816), p. 42.
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