The Cloth Industry in Stuart England
The Cloth Industry was a very important factor of life in the time of Stuart England and was only rivalled by the coal production industry. In fact, during the early years of King James I reign, many people built their wealth upon the production of cloth. The centre of cloth production at the time was London and the city was responsible for over 75% of the countries cloth exports. Aside from London, the other big players in the cloth industry were the West Country, West Riding and East Anglia.
The years from 1603 and 1614 in particular were a period of immense growth for the cloth trade. The whole of Europe was generally free from any major conflicts at this time and many trade markets were ripe for the picking. London alone on the average, exported 100,000 clods of cloth during the course of a year and this number grew to a very respectable 127,000 clods in 1614. However as all good things do, they were bound to come to an end and by the end of 1614 the market for cloth had lessened severely. Much of this decline was due to James I and he received widespread criticism for this event and the subsequent detrimental effects it had on the economy throughout the entire country.
It is important to realize that during this time period, much of the cloth products destined for export to other countries were un-dyed and undressed. The responsibility for dying and dressing these products were mostly left to the Dutch. The processing involved in getting these cloth products ready for the world market increased the value by as much as 100%. Because of this, many people in England, William Cockayne in particular, supported the move of the processing procedure back to England, with the Crown taking a share of the profits. This way, more jobs would be opened up for the English people and society as a whole would benefit.
James fully supported this business proposal and eventually gave it his approval. He began to systematically lessen the privileges that were previously granted to Merchant Adventurers and in their place, established the King's Merchant Adventurers and placed William Cockayne at the leadership helm, giving him license to export suitably processed cloth products. In return, William Cockayne gave the King a commitment to export 500,000 clods of finished cloth, which would fetch an estimated ₤300,000 for the Crown's coffers. Needless to say, James was intrigued by this offer and he gave Cockayne his full approval to proceed.
Unfortunately, Cockayne proved to be an extremely incompetent businessman and the scheme was doomed to failure shortly after it began. As it turned out, he lacked the financial means necessary to get the project off the ground as well as the equipment necessary in the processing of the cloth. What little he did manage to produce, he could not ship to the foreign markets for lack of shipping. The effect of this on the cloth industry was disastrous and many people became bankrupt. This led to the way to mass unemployment and the riots that grew into a political crisis that eventually took over England.
Original Authors: Doods Pangburn
Edit Update Authors: RPN
Updated On: 26/02/2007
