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

60000.000
50.000.000
40.000.000
30.000.000
.2 20.000.000
10.000.000
Figure 1.4 - French Leather manufacture export, 1832-1865
(five year moving average)
0 ,-. ..-_______
1830 1835 184(1 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865
year
Source: Stat istiques de Commerce de Ia France, vols. 1832 to 1865.
Importation could increase only minimally the total amount of leather available.
Much more common was to import cattle. The main measure to preserve the
national stock of leather was to restrict leather exports and possibly leather goods
exports. It was in fact common opinion that the high cost of leather in England was
caused by export. Massie was writing in the 1750s that it was not
a Secret, that great Quantities of non-manufactured English Leather have been
annually, and for many Years, exported, to all or most of the Countries with which
Great Britain carries on any Trade; or, that the Prices of Shoes, Boots and British
Leather Manufactures in general, are at this Time, and have been for a Number of
Years, much higher they were thirty Years ago.59
J. Massie, Consideration on the leather trades of Great Britain... (London, 1757), p. 3. Italics
and capital letters are reported as in the original. Massie suggested that the high cost of leather did
no influence the overall consumption of shoes, but its quality. If we consider that especially
labourers' and low class shoes were made of leather during the eighteenth century, it is
understandable how this situation was affecting those with lower incomes: "those valuable People,
the Manufacturers and Labourers of the Kingdom, who cannot pay high Prices for Shoes, &c. must
yet pay dearer, or give as much Money for and indifferent Pair of Shoes as would formerly have
bought a very good Pair". Thid., p. 3.
42