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

saddlemakers and others who were part of the same chain of production. In
particular, there were several cases of curriers, leather-sellers and cobblers
working illegally as shoemakers, but only occasionally did the Company decide
to intervene.18
2.2.2 The Parisian Compagnie des Cordonniers
The Parisian Compagnie des Cordonniers presented apparently opposite
problems but with some similarities. Paris did not grow as much as London.
Although the populous Faubourg Saint-Antoine was not controlled by the
Parisian corporative system, it represented an exception in a situation where the
Parisian guilds were still powerful.' 9 As already noticed with reference to the
leather market, the role played by the French State in organising and controlling
the guilds has been considered by historians as a negative factor that limited the
potential of the French economy. In Britain guilds were normally independent
from political pressures and were often using their power to obtain privileges
from a state reluctant to actively interfere in economic affairs. In France the
state acted in an opposite way when attempting to control the entire economic
system. It is thus important to understand the actions of the French state over the
Compagnie des Cordonniers and the shoemaking trade. It was a Statute of
161420, that established the internal structure of the company, with a syndic, a
doyen, two maItres visiteurs, other visiteurs, two jurés du cuir tanné, two jurés
de la chambre, four jurés de la visitation royale and twelve petits jurés
nominated each year in the presence of the Procureur du Roi (table 2.1).21
Company from provincial guilds and societies of Cordwainers... c. 1732', additional folios.
W.M. Stem, 'Control v. freedom in leather production from the early seventeenth to the
early nineteenth century', The Guild/ia!! Miscellany, II (1968), pp. 438-42.
19 M. Sonenscher, 'L'impero del gusto: mestieri, imprese commerci nella Parigi del XVIII
secolo', Quaderni Storici, XXIX —3 (1994), p. 657.
20 A. Carlier, Histoire des cordonniers, p. 3.
21 Statutes confirmes par Louis XIII. & présentés audit Roy & Nosseigneurs de son conseil
privé (Paris, 1614).
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