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

colonies in Latin America. France was also importing more than 3 million francs
worth of leather manufactured mainly from England and the German States (table
1.10).58
Portugal
Spain
Turkey
French Colonies
Kingdom of Sardinia
German States
Holland
Austria
England
Other Countries
Total
Table 1.10 - Import of raw leather into France, 1787-1789
Country
Value
(in French Francs)
3,064,000
2,901,800
2,789,600
1,593,000
689,700
288,800
283,700
170,100
89,200
290,200
11,851,000
Percentage
25.8
Source: H. Depors, Recherches sur l'état de l'industrie des cuirs en France pendant le XVIIIe siècle
at le debut du XIXe siècle (Paris, 1932), p. 28.
Considering French leather export, the data available for the nineteenth century
shows how France became an important leather goods exporter only when its
supply of internal raw leather started increasing (fig. 1.4). We will see in chapters 6
and 7 how France started from the 1830s to export increasing quantities of shoes,
but also how these shoes were mainly made of silk. It was only after 1850 that
France acquired an important role in the international leather market.
The art of tanning and currying leather: with an account of all d(fferent processes... (London,
1774), p. 136.
58 JA de Rubigny de Berteval, Observation économiques, cit., p. 8.
41
24.4
23.5
13.4
5.8
2.4
2.3
1.4
0.7
2.5
100