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

1.5.1 Productivily
An increase in productivity in leather production could be achieved by
technological advance, in particular in tanning and currying.' The process of
tanning was not only expensive, but also particularly long. Till 1808 only vegetable
bark was allowed to be used in tanning and the leather act of 1563 prescribed that
sole leather should be tanned for at least twelve months, while shoe upper leather
had to be tanned for at least nine months.47 Common practice was to tan leather
from 14 to 15 months. 48 In France as in Britain, resistance to innovation could be
hard to fight. Even if a process for rapid tanning was discovered before the
Revolution it did not become common until the 1 830s. 49 Even more difficult to
explain is the resistance of the boot and shoe trade in adopting inventions applied to
other leather trades or leather processing activities. In 1786 John Bull, a glover of
Worcester, invented a machine for embossing or crimping leather. This machine,
although applicable also to shoes, was used only in glovemaking. 5° This is not the
only case of a late or missing application of technological advance from the leather
to the boot and shoe trade. The process of varnishing leather, for instance, was
invented in the 1780s, but it was used only in coachmaking till the 1830s.5'
National differences could be extremely acute and create different attitudes
towards innovation. John Burridge was the inventor of a new process for tanning
leather for shoes that allowed a gain of 5 to 6 pounds of leather per hide. 52 His story
is reported in the files at the Archives Nationales de France. After some fruitless
attempts in finding recognition in Britain for his invention, he decided to patent it in
France, asking assistance .froiii the French ambassador in London. The main reason
leading Burridge to patent his invention in France rather than in Britain was the
On the subject see R. Thomson, 'The nineteenth century revolution in the leather industries', in
S. Thomas, L.A. Clarkson and R. Thomson, Leather manufacture through the ages (Proceedings of
the 27th East Midlands Industrial Archaeological Conference, October 1993), PP. 24-33.
" L.A. Clarkson, 'Development in tanning methods during the post-medieval period (1500-
1850)', in ibid., pp. 13-14.
48 W.O. Henderson, Industrial Britain under the Regency. The diaries of Escher, Bodmer, May
and de Gallois, 1814-18 (London, 1968), p. 147.
Annuaire general du commerce et de I'industrie, de la magistrature et de l'administration
(Paris, 1840), pp. lix-ix.
° St. Cripin: a weekly journal devoted to the interest of boot and shoe makers (6th February
1869), P. 5.
' Ibid. (11th December 1869), p. 11.
52 j Burridge, The tanners key to a new system of tanning sole leather (London, 1824).
39