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

trade. 92 The quarrel (discussed in more detail in chapter 2) pointed out one of the
problems related to the raw material market, that is to say the boundaries between
the shoemakers' and curriers' or tanners' occupations. Were curriers allowed to cut
hides and sell them to shoemakers or journeymen shoemakers? Or was the cutting
of hides and skins (already in the form of leather) a constituting task of the
shoemaker's trade? An act of Parliament of 1739 established that all shoemakers,
leathersellers and curriers could deal freely in all kinds of leather at any town or
market. 93 However it also confirmed that different trades could not exercise similar
tasks. This decision affected the shoemaker's trade because it changed not the
overall system or quantity of leather in the market, but the rules regarding buyers
and sellers. Still in 1784 it was confirmed that "No Tanner shall exercise the Trade
of a Currier, Shoemaker, Butcher, or other artificers using or exercising the cutting
or working of leather."94 It was only between 1813 and 1816 that a Parliamentary
Select Committee discussed the opportunity to abolish such an act, leading after
1830 to the abolition of any legal separation between different leather producing or
manufacturing trades.95
Contrasts between shoemakers and tanners could be present also for their
different interests in fiscal and excise measures. As early as 1694 metropolitan
tanners sent a petition to Parliament in order to prevent an increase of id per pound
of duty on the leather export. They supported their request saying that England had
"great quantities of Russia and Turkey Leather imported (of which there is little
notice taken) that is now become a great wear in Shoes and Several other Uses".96
Different was the opinion of shoemakers who petitioned Parliament supporting an
increase of the duty. Shoemakers were accused by tanners to conspire for a
decrease in the cost of leather and "make the exporter pay".97
E. Mayer, The curriers and the City of London. A history of the Worshipful Company of
Curriers (London, 1968), pp. 123-34.
C.H.W. Mander, A descriptive ad historical account of the Guild of Cordwainers, cit., p. 89.
' Report from the committee on acts relating to tanners, curriers, shoenakers and other
artficiers... (24 Geo III, c. 19) (London, 1807), p. 3.
J. Statham, 'The location and development of London's leather manufacturing industry', cit.,
pp. 81-2.
Petitions and Addresses to Parliament, Reasons humbly offered to the High Court of Parliament
against laying a duty of one peny per pound upon tann 'd Leather, etc. (London, 1694).
Ibid. Similarly in 1700: Laws and Statutes, Act for Laying a Duty upon Leather for the Term of
Three Years and Making Other Provision for Answering the Deficiencies... (London, 1797) and
Laws and Statutes, William III; VIII. & IX. Will. III. c. 21; A Clause in the Act for laying a duty on
Leather and Skins (London, 1700). Petitions and Addresses to Parliament, To the High Court of
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