Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/350

336 village shoemakers, or cobblers, or cordwainers; (2) a period which extended, roughly, from the latter part of the fifteenth century through the first half of the nineteenth, and in which, under a system of division of labor, women became an important factor in the industry; (3) the modern period which has witnessed the introduction of machinery and the establishment of the factory system, and in which women's labor has become increasingly important.

Of the first period little need be said. Boots and shoes were made by the village shoemaker who kept a shop or went from house to house repairing and making shoes for the family once a year. Sometimes he procured a little leather and made it into shoes which were bartered at a neighboring store, and it gradually became customary for storekeepers to carry a few ready-made shoes for sale.

In the latter half of the eighteenth century more of this ready-made work was done and a considerable wholesale trade developed. During the revolutionary war the domestic industry was able to furnish shoes for the continental army, and southern planters began to depend on Massachusetts to supply the brogans which were worn by the negroes. By 1795, 300,000 pairs of ladies' shoes were produced in Lynn, and it was estimated that 200 master workmen and 600 journeymen were employed there. From 1800 to 1810 the population of Lynn is said to have increased 50 per cent., an increase attributed to the growing opportunity for employment in the boot and shoe industry.