LEATHER WORKING
The dressing of skins and preparation of leather must have been one
of the most widely diffused industries in medieval times, even if it
is a little exaggeration to claim that it was a by-product of most
villages.[605] Two different processes were employed, ox, cow, and
calf hides being tanned by immersion in a decoction of oak bark, while
the skins of deer, sheep, and horses were tawed with alum and oil, and
the two trades were from early times kept quite separate, tanners and
tawyers being forbidden to work skins appropriated to each other's
trade. A certain concentration of the industry must have been brought
about in 1184, when orders were issued that no tanner or tawyer should
practise his trade within the bounds of a forest except in a borough
or market town,[606] the object being to prevent the poaching of deer
for the sake of their skins. Market towns had the further advantage of
being well supplied with the raw material, as butchers were compelled
to bring the hides of their beasts into market with the meat, and the
tanners had the sole right of purchase, no regrater or middle-man
being allowed to intervene, while on the other hand the tanners were
not allowed to buy the hides outside the open market.[607] Towards the
end of the sixteenth century it was said[608] that 'in most villages
of the realm there is some one dresser or worker of leather, and ...
in most of the market towns three, four, or five, and many great
towns 10 or 20, and in London and the suburbs ... to the number of
200 or very near.' Casting back, we find at Oxford in 1380 there were
twelve tanners, twenty skinners, twelve cordwainers, or shoemakers,
and four saddlers,[609] while in 1300 there were at Colchester forty
householders employed in the various branches of the leather trade.[610]
Originally, no doubt, the leather dresser worked up his own leather,
and as late as 1323 it would seem that at Shrewsbury cordwainers were
allowed to tan leather,[611] but in 1351 the tanners and shoemakers
were definitely forbidden to intermeddle with each other's craft, and a
series of regulations, parliamentary and municipal, served to separate
the tanners, the curriers, who dressed and suppled the rough tanned
hides, the tawyers, and the various branches of leather-workers.
The stock in trade of the tanner was simple. The inventories of the
goods of half a dozen tanners at Colchester in 1300 are identical in
kind though varying in value;[612] each consists of hides, oak bark,
and a number of vats and tubs. In the case of the tannery at Meaux
Abbey[613] (the larger monastic houses usually maintained their own
tanneries) in 1396 rather more details are given. There were in store
cow and calf leather, 'sole peces, sclepe, clowthedys, and wambes'
to the value of £14, 10s. 4d., 15 tubs and various tools, such as 3
'schapyng-knyfes' and 4 knives for the tan; 400 tan turves (blocks of
bark from which the tan had been extracted), and 'the tan from all the
oaks barked this year.' The raw hides had first to be soaked, then
treated with lime to remove the hair, and then washed again before
being placed in the tan vat. Consequently leather-dressers settled
'where they may have water in brooks and rivers to dress their leather;
without great store of running water they cannot dress the same.'[614]
In 1461 William Frankwell, when making a grant of a meadow at Lewes,
reserved the right to use the ditch on the south side of the meadow for
his hides,[615] and complaints of the fouling of town water supplies
by leather workers were not unusual.[616] The process of tanning was,
and for the best leather still is, extremely slow; the hides were
supposed to lie in the 'wooses' (ooze, or liquor) for a whole year,
and stringent regulations were issued to prevent the hastening of the
process, to the detriment of the leather. The bark from which the tan
was obtained, and which was so important a feature of the process that
'barker' was an alternative name for tanner, had to be only of oak, the
use of ash bark being forbidden; nor might lime or hot liquor be used,
the imbedding of the vats in hot beds of old tan being prohibited.
Hides, both raw and tanned, ranked with cloth as a leading article of
trade, both home and foreign;[617] and, like cloth, tanned leather was
early subject to examination by searchers, appointed either by the
craft gild or by the town authorities. As a rule the searcher's seal
was affixed in the market, or at the particular 'seld' or hall where
alone leather might be sold, but at Bristol in 1415 the searchers were
empowered to examine the hides at the curriers' houses before they were
curried.[618] The curriers, whose business it was to dress the 'red'
hides with tallow,[619] rendering them smooth and supple, were not
allowed to dress badly tanned hides.[620] Several grades of tanning
were recognised, the most lengthy and thorough workmanship being
required for leather intended for the soles of boots and rather less
for the uppers. When forty-seven hides belonging to Nicholas Burle, of
London, were seized in 1378 as not well tanned, he admitted that they
were not fit for shoeleather, but urged that he intended to sell them
to saddlers, girdlers, and makers of leather bottles: a mixed jury of
these various trades, however, condemned the hides as unfit for any
purpose, and they were forfeited.[621]
Although there was thus an efficient control exercised over tanned
leather, the tawed soft leathers used by glovers, pointmakers,
pursemakers, saddlers, girdlers, coffermakers, budgetmakers,
stationers, etc., seem for the most part to have escaped supervision,
with the result that at the end of the sixteenth century the markets
were flooded with counterfeit leathers.[622]
{ Oil, as { Buff } of the first and
{ { Shamoys} best sort.
'All Tawed leather is { or with Alum
dressed with { and Oker as { Bull, Ox, Steer, Cow,
{ the hides of { Horse, Stag, Hind,
{ Buck, Doe, Calf, Dog,
{ Seal, Sheep, Lamb,
{ Kid.
'The leather dressed with oil is made more supple, soft and spongey,
and is wrought with a rough cotton, as bayes and fresadoes are, the
cotton being raised in the fulling mill where cloth is fulled, and
serveth for the more beauty and pleasure to the wearer.
'The leather dressed with alum and oker is more tough and "thight,"
serving better for the use of the poor artificer, husbandman, and
labourer, and a more easy price by half, and is wrought smooth or with
cotton which is raised by hand with a card or other like tool, and as
the alum giveth strength and toughness, the oker giveth it colour, like
as the oil doth give colour to Buff and Shamoys.
'And this diversity of dressing, with oil or alum, is to be discerned
both by smell and by a dust which ariseth from the alum leather....
'All Shamoys leather is made of goat skins brought for the most part
out of Barbury, from the "Est countries," Scotland, Ireland, and other
foreign parts, unwrought, and is transported again being wrought. And
there is much thereof made from skins from Wales and other parts within
the realm.... Being dressed with oil it beareth the name Shamoys, but
being dressed with alum and oker, it beareth not the name or price of
Shamoys, but of Goat skins.'
'Shamoys[623] is made of goat, buck, doe, hind, sore, sorrell,
and sheepskins. The true way of dressing is in "trayne oyle," the
counterfeit is with alum and is worth about half.... Shamoys dressed
in train oil can be dressed again three or four times, and seem as good
as new, but dressed in alum it will hardly dress twice and will soon be
spied. And when Shamoys dressed in alum cometh to the rain or any water
they will be hard like tanned leather, and Shamoys in oil make the
cheapest and most lasting apparel, which the "low countrie man and the
highe Almayn" doth use.'
Frauds in the preparation and sale of leather were of frequent
occurrence, and in 1372 the mayor and aldermen of London ordained
penalties for the sale of dyed sheep and calf leather scraped and
prepared so as to look like roe leather. At the same time the leather
dyers were forbidden to dye such counterfeit leathers, and also to use
the brasil or other dye provided or selected by one customer for the
goods of another.[624] With the same object of preventing frauds the
tawyers who worked for furriers were not allowed to cut the heads off
the skins which they dressed, and were also liable to imprisonment
if they worked old furs up into leather.[625] Further penalties for
false and deceitful work, especially in the making of leather 'points
and lanyers,' or laces and thongs, were enacted in 1398.[626] With
the growth of capitalism during the reign of Elizabeth the control
exercised by the Leathersellers' Company became almost nominal, some
half a dozen wealthy members of the company getting the whole trade
into their own hands. By buying up the leather all over the country,
they forced up prices; having, moreover, a practical monopoly of tawed
leathers they were able to make the glovers and other leather workers
take the dressed skins in packets of a dozen, which contained three or
four small 'linings' or worthless skins.[627] They also undertook the
dressing of the skins, and cut out the good workmen by scamping their
work and employing men who had only served half their seven years'
apprenticeship.[628] They also caused dogskins, 'fishe skynnes of
zeale,' calf, and other skins to be so dressed as to resemble 'right
Civill [_i.e._ Seville] and Spannish skynnes,' worth twice as much.
These skins were dressed 'with the powder of date stones and of gaule
and with French shomake that is nothinge like the Spannish shomake,
to give them a pretie sweete savor but nothinge like to the civile
skynnes, and the powder of theise is of veary smale price and the
powder of right Spannish shomake grounded in a mill is wourth xxx^s
the c^{lb} weight, which shomake is a kynd of brush, shrubb, or heath
in Spayne and groweth low by the ground and is swete like Gale[629]
in Cambridgshire and is cutt twise a yeare and soe dried and grounded
into powder by milles and dresseth all the Civile and Spannish skynnes
brought hither.'[630] To remedy these frauds there was a general
demand that tawed leather should be searched and sealed in the same way
as tanned, and in 1593 Edmund Darcy turned this to his own advantage
by obtaining a royal grant of the right to carry out such searching
and sealing. This was opposed by the leather-sellers, on the grounds
that it would interfere with the sale and purchase in country districts
if buyer and seller had to wait till the searcher could attend, and
that the proposed fees for sealing were exorbitant, amounting to from
a ninth to nearly a half of the value of the skins. They also said
that if a seal were put on, it would almost always be pared away,
washed out, or 'extincte by dying' before the leather reached the
consumer.[631] Upon examination the suggested fees were found to be too
large, and a table of the different kinds of leather and their values
was drawn up, and fees fixed accordingly:[632]—
WHITE TAWED VALUE FEE
Sheep skins 7s.—3s. the doz. 2d., 1d.
Kid and fawn 4s. 6d.—1s. 8d. " 2d., 1d.
Lambs 4s. 4d.—1s. 8d. " 2d., 1d.
Horse[633] 5s.—2s. 6d. each 2d.
Dogs 4s.—1s. 6d. the doz. 2d., 1d.
Bucks 4s.—3s. 4d. each 8d. the doz.
Does 2s. 4d.—1s. 8d. " 8d. "
Calf 12s.—4s. the doz. 6d., 3d.
Goat 2s. 6d. each—3s. 6d. the doz. 6d., 2d. each.
OIL DRESSED VALUE FEE
Right Buffe[634] 33s. 4d.—15s. each 7d.
Counterfeit Buffe 13s. 4d.—7s. " 7d.
Right Shamoise 30s. the doz. 7d.
Counterfeit " 14s. " 7d.
Sheep " 8s. " 3½d.
Lamb " 6s. " 3½d.
Right Spannish skins[635] 30s. " 7d.
Counterfeit Spannish skins of goat
and buck 3 li. " 7d.
Counterfeit Spannish sheep skins 12s. " 3½d.
Right Cordovan skins 40s. " 12d.
Seal skins dressed 40s. " 7d.
Stagge skins,[636] English, Scottish,
as big as buffyn, dressed like
buffe 12s. each 6d.
Stag skins, Irish, dressed like buffe 3 li. the doz. 12d.
Buck and doe, dressed like buffe 40s. " 12d.
Calf skins, in like sort 16s. " 7d.
A number of trades, such as glovers, saddlers, pursemakers, girdlers,
and bottlemakers, used leather, but the most important class were the
shoemakers. They in turn were divided into a number of branches, at
the head of which stood the cordwainers, who derived their name from
having originally been workers of Cordovan leather, but were in actual
practice makers of the better class of shoes.[637] At the other end
were the cobblers, or menders of old shoes. Elaborate regulations were
made in London in 1409 to prevent these two classes trespassing on one
another's preserves.[638] The cobbler might clout an old sole with new
leather or patch the uppers, but if the boot required an entirely new
sole, or if a new shoe were burnt or broken and required a fresh piece
put in, then the work must be given to the cordwainer. A distinction
was also drawn at a much earlier date, in 1271,[639] between two
classes of cordwainers, the _allutarii_ and the _basanarii_, the
latter being those who used 'basan' or 'bazan,' an inferior leather
made from sheepskin. Neither was to use the other's craft, though the
_allutarius_ might make the uppers (_quissellos_) of his shoes of
bazan: to prevent any confusion the two classes were to occupy separate
positions in the fairs and markets. In 1320 we find eighty pairs of
shoes seized from twenty different persons, thirty-one pairs being
taken from Roger Brown of Norwich, and forfeited for being made of
bazan and cordwain mixed.[640] Fifty years later, in 1375, a heavy fine
was ordained for any one selling shoes of bazan as being cordwain,[641]
and a similar ordinance was in force at Bristol in 1408.[642] By
the London rules of 1271, no cordwainer was to keep more than eight
journeymen (_servientes_), and at Bristol in 1364 the shoemakers were
restricted to a single 'covenant-hynd,' who was to be paid 18d. a week
and allowed eight pairs of shoes yearly.[643] In the case of Bristol,
however, no limit is stated for the number of journeymen, who were paid
by piecework, the rates being, in 1364, 3d. a dozen for sewing, and
3d. for yarking; 3d. for making a pair of boots entirely, that is to
say, 1d. for cutting and 2d. for sewing and yarking; 2d. for cutting a
dozen pairs of shoes, namely 1d. for the overleathers and 1d. for the
soles, and a further 1d. for lasting the dozen shoes. The rates of pay
were still the same in 1408, though there are additional entries of
12d. for sewing, yarking, and finishing a dozen boots and shoes called
'quarter-schone,' and 7d. for sewing and yarking, with an extra 1½d.
for finishing a dozen shoes called 'course ware.'[644]
The sale of the finished articles was also an object of regulations:
in London in 1271, shoes might only be hawked in the district between
Corveiserstrete and Soperes Lane, and there only in the morning on
ordinary days, though on the eves of feast they might be sold in the
afternoon.[645] Leather laces also might not be sold at the 'eve
chepings.'[646] Possibly it was considered that bad leather might be
more easily passed off in a bad light, but the idea may simply have
been to prevent the competition of the pedlars and hawkers with the
shopkeepers. At Northampton, in 1452, the two classes of tradesmen
were separated, those who had shops not being allowed to sell also in
the market.[647] Northampton had not at this date begun to acquire
the fame which it earned during the seventeenth century as the centre
of the English boot trade, but regulations for the 'corvysers crafte'
there had been drawn up in 1402,[648] and much earlier, in 1266, we
find Henry III. ordering the bailiffs of Northampton to provide a
hundred and fifty pairs of shoes, half at 5d. and half at 4d. the
pair.[649] These were for distribution to the poor; and similar orders
in other years were usually executed in either London or Winchester:
no particular importance can be attached to this single order being
given to Northampton, as presumably any large town could have carried
out the order. So far as any town can be placed at the head of the
shoemaking industry, the distinction must be given to Oxford where the
cordwainers' gild was in existence early in the twelfth century, it
being reconstituted in 1131,[650] and its monopoly confirmed by Henry
II.[651]