Or, More Uncertainty and Its Effects
From The New-York Times December 25, 1860
THE SHOE TRADE IN MASSACHUSETTS.
The Boston Traveller has been investigating the effect which the political panic has had upon the shoe trade. At Natick the depression is most serious. 1,000 workmen, out of 1,200 have been discharged, and 600 of these remain at Natick doing nothing, while the rest have gone to their homes in different parts of New-England. In South Natick four manufacturing firms, S. WALCOTT & CO., D.D. MOODY & BROTHER, JOHN W. COTTON & CO., and CROSBY & WOODBURY, have all failed, their aggregate liabilities being nearly $300,000. These failures have all taken place within a few weeks, have thrown about 300 men out of employ, and stopped the manufacture of about 225 cases per week. Shoes which were made for 17 to 20 cents per pair are now made for 16 cents. In Lynn, where ladies’ and misses’ shoes are manufactured, of the 3,000 workmen employed in the busiest seasons 1,000 are out of employment altogether, while 1,200 are working only part of the time. At Marblehead, Danvers and Haverhill the same stagnation prevails. To speak generally of the trade in these prominent places, (says the Traveller,) we remark that orders from the South and West come in occasionally, but the manufacturers are generally afraid to fill them during the present crisis. There seems to be no disposition on the part of Southern customers to repudiate debts, though some have failed and others asked for extensions.
1) Ironically, The Lynn shoe strike of February 1860 won higher wages in Massachusetts shoe factories.
2) Apparently, the Army of Northern Virginia’s lack of shoes as a cause of the Battle of Gettysburg is overrated. Nevertheless, the South’s industrial base was nowhere near as strong as in the North. Over the course of a 4 year war that seems like it really mattered.
