American machinery and European footwear: technology transfer and international trade, 1860-1939.(footwear industry)

The footwear industry underwent a tremendous growth in the United States during the nineteenth century. The increase in production was noted mainly on the home market but was also accompanied, as from around 1880, by a heightened presence of American footwear in foreign markets. Consequently, by the beginning of the twentieth century the US had taken its place amongst the leading world exporters. The foreign expansion of American footwear began to slow down a few years later, however at a time when the European footwear industry, which had been most affected by competition from the US, was undergoing extensive modernisation and picking up considerably in terms of international competitiveness. This article analyses the so-called 'American invasion of Europe' and its effects on the footwear industry. Special attention is paid to the influence of technology change on international trade from an angle not far-removed from the evolutionary approach. (1) We aim to show that: the American exporting success story was directly linked to the technological gap that opened up between the American and European industries; the modernisation of the European footwear industry, and the subsequent improvement in its competitiveness, was mainly a result of the technology transfer from the US; this technology transfer was carried out mainly by one American multinational company, the United Shoe Machinery Company, whose actions were a key factor in speeding up the diffusion of innovations within the European industry; and the adoption of the new technologies and the speed and scope of this adoption were not due as much to the 'technological capabilities' of each country as to the profitability that the companies managed to gain from these innovations.

II

Until the mid-nineteenth century, the footwear industry remained a predominantly manual activity which involved the use of hardly any machinery. It is true that some important modernisation had already taken place within the sector during the first half of the century, such as the use of new tools, standardisation of lasts, increased division of labour and the use of a new method to attach the sole to the upper: the pegged shoe. It was then that the first machines were also introduced to prepare and cut the leather for the upper and sole. (2) However, it was the 1850s that were to bear witness to the most significant technical innovations that would truly lead to mechanised production.

Most of this new technology was being developed in the US, by utilising the capacity of the machinery industry and the shared technological characteristics of different industrial sectors. This process was further boosted by the scale of domestic demand for footwear and the relatively limited availability of skilled workers. (3) The contribution from Europe on this front, mainly from the UK, Germany and France, was relatively insignificant and simply involved adapting American models to their own needs, with a few, very rare, exceptions. Not even the UK, where some key innovations for the shoe industry had been achieved in the first half of the nineteenth century, was able to resist the technological know-how developed on the other side of the Atlantic. (4) The main contributions of the US to the mechanisation of the shoe manufacturing process during the first half of the nineteenth century are summarised in Table 1.

This new technology spread quickly within American industry. By 1860, mechanical processes were already being widely used for the preparation of the upper as well as for the cutting out and preparation of the sole. The McKay machines for attaching the upper to the sole were also becoming more generally used during the 1860s and at the beginning of the 1870s. As a result, by 1867 there were already more than 700 of these machines installed in American industry, a number that would exceed 1,000 eight years later. The Goodyear sewing system was firmly established during the 1880s and 1,500 machines were installed by 1890. Its success was confirmed in the following decade, by the end of which there were 3,000 of these machines in operation. Just as widely accepted was the lasting machine, which had 2,900 units on the factory floors in 1899 and an annual output of 80 million pairs. (5)

The major effect of the diffusion of these technological innovations was an extraordinary increase in labour productivity and, as a result, a dramatic decrease in labour costs. Whilst, in 1850, more than 15 man-hours were needed to manufacture one pair of average quality Goodyear men's shoes, the machinery available in 1900 produced a 90 per cent saving in time and in the corresponding labour costs. (6) The increase in output per work unit was particularly noticeable in the preparation of the parts for the upper and its attachment to the sole (see Table 2). Furthermore, mechanical manufacture improved the quality of low and middle cost shoes considerably, compared with the same model of hand-made shoes.

Technological advances made during the first third of the twentieth century could not keep up with such a spectacular rate of improvement, probably owing to Wolf's law. (7) Once the main manufacturing processes had been mechanised, efforts were basically concentrated on perfecting the existing machinery in order to increase speed and accuracy. This machinery was also adapted to produce different styles of shoes, in response to ever-changing fashions. A wide range of auxiliary equipment began to appear on the market for different tasks. These advances reduced the required work per output unit by ten per cent between 1900 and 1923 but only 12 per cent between 1923 and 1936 (see Table 2). During the first two decades of the twentieth century, the increase in productivity was largely owed to the new lasting machines. During the 1920s and early 1930s, however, no single technological advance had such an effect.