ABSTRACT
The leather interests, particularly in America, contributed greatly to this position, because they suffered in a full measure from the conditions of the time. The collapse of the post-war boom saw Alfred Booth and Company more deeply committed than ever to the making of leather and its allied products: and as a consequence, the firm's role in the next quarter of a century was that of an international manufacturer rather than of merchant. When the war ended, Alfred Booth and Company found itself committed to a wide variety of industrial projects of one kind or another, each a promising field, but each with a pre-emptive right upon its capital. American cattle hide leather thus gained at the cost of imported goatskins. The most important factor, however, in maintaining the activity of the great tannery at Philadelphia was the finding of an assured market for part of its output.
