Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Cockayne's Scheme
- Classic case of ill-conceived
government intervention in the economy
- William Cockayne wished to break into the lucrative
Merchant Adventurers' trade in unfinished
broardcloth without staking the large capital required
- Backed up his bribes to courtiers and
King with plausible arguments
- If the finishing stages in the cloth making process
were completed in England, then employment
would be created and more money produced
- Increased customs revenues if finished
rather than unfinished cloth sold abroad
- Scheme relied of false assumptions of English
dominance of wool and cloth production
- Was a high cost industry and new
centres were starting up in the lower
wage areas of western Europe
- Cloth production was seasonal
- Without any reforms, tampering with the trade
was likely to be dangerous