Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-04-17
LIE LEATHER ~ sHOE TRADE.

There is great complaint Of the high price Of lSsth
CT throughout the United States. The same is the
case, we see in England. The boot and shoemakers
OF London recently held meeting, and after declar-
ing that the price of leather is from Rfy to eighty
per cent many estimating it at even higher figure
than that more than it was year ago, resolved to
advance the price Of their manufactures. The Lon
don Sun says:
1.-THE scarcity and consequent high cost Of leather
are chiefly attributed by the trade to the enormous
consumption Of the article during the war, when at
She same time no raw hides were imported into this
country from ST. Petersburg; to the greatly inereas
ed quantities Of leather now being exported to the
United States to the mUrrain among cattle in South
America whence we have been accustomed to derive
large supplies Of raw hides to the expectation Of
boots and shoes in incredibly large quantities to the
Australian colonies since the gold discovery and to
decrease IN the supply Of leather we have hereto
fore received from France, resulting from the extern
sive substitution Of leather for wooden shoes among
the lower classes in the French provinces"
One Of the largest leather dealers in Philadelphia
alleges, in published letter, that the high price Of
leather is not caused by spectators, and adds:
''In confirmation of this Ineed only state that at
the prese 1t moment five thousand sides could not be
furnished by all the commission houses in Philadel
phia and Baltimore put together, If one dollar
pound we're offered for it. If it were a speculative
movement il is reasonable to suppose that large
shipments would soon be made from other countries
to meet the demand but far is this from being the
case, large orders are now in New York from Eng
land for leather 1t is equally certain that there is
no reorganization Of stock in the tanneries indeed,
the tanneres have been so anxious to get their stock
into market early that they wOud scarcely allow 1t
to get dry. For several years past the quantity Of
leather sold in New York, Philadelphia and Balti-
more has varied very little in quantity, amounting in
the aggregate to about four millions Of sides per an
num- while the population Of the country has been
increasing very rapidly, and the consumption Of
leather whit"
The scarcity Of hides and leather he attributes to
the constantly disturbed revolutionary state Of the
South American republics, and further adds:
civil here remark that the advance en- hides has
been MUCH greater than leather, for while the ad-
vance on the latter has been one hundred per cent,
II has been three hundred the former from &c. to
SIC since 1913. In England and on the Continent
Of Europe hides higher than here and there are
BUYERS from England now in New York, shipping
hides to that country and at New Orleans there are
large orders for heavy slaughter hides from France.
The New York Tribune says the boot and shoe mar
ket is growing into activity southern dealers being
tbs principal buyers, with a good demand from the
local trade The sales are generally very sstisfac
tory to jobbers prices being nearly up to the stand
ard that the high price of material calls for.