ABSTRACT
The firm of Wade and Company, in which Alfred Booth and Company have a substantial interest, produces Glace kid and suede with an output of some 1,600 dozen skins weekly. Like others of its kind, Alfred Booth and Company originated in, and still retains many of the more pleasant features of, the ‘old industry’—a ‘curious blend of discipline and good nature, fairmindedness and competition’. In England, the most important feature of this process of change has been the withdrawal from shipowning. In America, the firm has ceased to be manufacturers with the sale of the Surpass Leather Commany's factory and the Densten Felt and Hair Company, and has reverted to its former occupation as suppliers of leather and raw-stock for the American light leather industry. Developments in the English leather business have been paralleled by the growth of the Unit Construction Company, which is now the largest element in the Booth organization.
