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

The presence of these contrasts allows us to understand the role played by
Leadenhall market. 98 It has to be considered the result of a natural need for a
transaction market, rather than the outcome of a controlling power of the State in
organising and shaping the leather sector and all its transactions. As we have
observed, there surely was a fiscal interest that manifested itself at the moment in
which hides and skins were sold. However, the State was unwilling to implement a
complex legislation concerning the leather system. An emblematic case is the
situation concerning searchers and sealers. For all the eighteenth century the Lord
Mayor and the Court of Aldermen in association to the Mayors, Bailiffs and Lords
of Fairs and markets were appointing each year searchers and sealers of leather.
However, a pragmatic British idea predominated. The Committee on leather in
1807 underlined, in fact, how "It appears that in most parts of the country these
Regulations are obsolete and disregarded; that, except in Bristol and a few other
principal markets, Searchers, if at all appointed, are only pro formâ". 99 In
Leadenhall, for instance, it was only in 1790 that searchers became operative, as a
direct need to control the leather quality in a moment of high demand.'°°
With the Napoleonic wars, leather became, as we saw for France, an important
and scarce material. There was the need to impose quality control on leather. In
1803 an act was passed (the so-called 'Flying Act') empowering the Cordwainers'
Company, together with Curriers' and Butchers', to control raw hides and skins in
the City of London, and to inflict fines in cases where damage had been done in
removing the hide or skin from the carcasses of the animals.'°' The Flying Act
established that all hides within 5 miles from the City of London had to be carried
to Leathenhall market in order to be sold. Eight inspectors were appointed by
Cordwainers, Curriers and Butchers. This system of control had a double function:
if on the one hand it allowed the monitoring of the quality of leather, on the other it
Parliament, some Considerations humbly proposed before reviving of the Acts for Transporting of
Leather (London, 1700).
98 The primary London leather market was Leadenhall. This market was operative from 1403 to
1833. Smithfield specialised in hides and was active till 1880. For sheep skins the most important
markets were Brackfnars Road, Southwark Bridge Road and Whitechapel. J. Statham, 'The location
and development of London's leather manufacturing industry', cit., p. 83.
Report from the committee on acts relating to tanners, curriers, shoemakers and other
art ificiers..., cit., p. 6.
'°° I decided not to examine the problems faced by the leather market during the period 1805 to
1815. On the subject see: Observations on the evidence relating to the duties on leather: taken
before the committee of the House of Commons... (London, 1813), pp. 9-34.
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