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

important centre for tanning and currying (see chapter 5)•19 Once leather was
bought, it had to be stored in a cellar with the possible risk of being damaged and
therefore becoming unsuitable to produce shoes. It seems that this risk was
considered by eighteenth-century shoemakers as minimal compared to the gains
derived by buying leather when prices were low. The analysis of shoemakers'
inventories shows consistent amounts of money invested in stock of leather.
1.3 Localisation of leather production
Campbell, writing in 1747, reported that leather tanning was "generally
performed in the Country" and added that the tanned leather was "sent up to
London, and bought by several Classes of Leather-Dressers at Leadenhall
Market". 2° In the course of the century London became the main centre of leather
production and manufacture as a result of the metropolitan meat consumption and
the consequent supply of skins and hides. 21 In 1763 there were 15 tanneries south
of the Thames in Bermondsey and Southwark, increasing to 49 in 1822 after the
boom of the leather trades during the Ilapoleonic wars. 22 In 1801 the leather trade
was concentrated in Bermondsey (1 tannery and several feilmongers), The Grange
(between Bermondsey and Walworth - 3 tanneries), Tanner Street (near Bridge
Road - 3 tanneries, 4 leather dressers and several felimongers) and Page Walk
(near Old Kent Road - 3 tanneries). 23 Such concentration south of the Thames was
not only related to the presence of an extensive shoe market just north of the river
in the City. It was the meat market to influence the localisation of most of the
leather processing activities south of the river. 24 Bermondsey provided a place
where rents were relatively low and there was space to expand businesses.
Moreover, the regulation of the City of London forbid the setting up of leather
' 9 PRO, B 3/467; B 3/965; B 3/1059; B 3/3826; B 3/4129; B 3/5286 and B 3/5325.
20 R. Campbell, The complete tradesman, cit., p. 216.
21
L.A. Clarkson, 'The leather manufacture', in G.E. Mingay, The agrarian history of England
and Wales, cit., p. 467; J. Burnby, 'The leather industry in Enfield and district', Edmond Hundred
Historical Association Occasional Papers, LI (1998), p. 19.
22
j Statham, 'The location and development of London's leather manufacturing industry', cit.,
pp. 57-63.
The Sun Fire Office Insurance reports that 36 per cent of all London curriers and tanners were
located in Bermondsey. D. Barnett, London, hub of the industrial revolution, cit., p. 68.
24 L.A. Clarkson, 'The English leather industry in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (1563 to
1700)' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Nottingham University, 1960), p. 114.
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