William Cockayne
Sir William Cockayne (Cokayne) (* 1561 ; † October 20, 1626 ) was a British trader and politician.
William Cockayne was a London trader who was a councilor and, in 1619, Lord Mayor of London . In 1614, when he was on the City Council of London and also governor of the Eastland Company of English merchants , he developed the plan that dyeing and dressing of fabrics should take place in England before they were exported to Germany and the Netherlands. The export of white, unprocessed materials should be strictly limited. This was to maximize the profits of the English wool industry, then England's most important industry.
Cockayne convinced James I to give him a monopoly on the export of fabrics. Although this plan was intended to increase the profits of the English cloth merchants in general, Cockayne's own in particular. However, with the omission of Dutch traders, the royal customs duties were increased. Cockayne's 1614 plan ( 'Cockayne project' ) turned out to be a fatal flaw when Dutch traders refused to buy the more expensive finished fabrics. Also because the taste on the mainland did not correspond to that of England at times, the plan led to decades of sales losses on the part of the English cloth merchants.
On June 8, 1616, King James I proposed him to Knight Bachelor .
literature
- Astrid Friis: Alderman Cockayne's Project and the Cloth Trade. Copenhagen 1927.
- BE Supple: Commercial Crisis and Change in England 1600–42: a study in the instability of a mercantile economy. Cambridge 1959.
Individual evidence
- ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 2, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 158.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cockayne, William |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cockayne, Sir William (full name); Cokayne, William |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British trader and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1561 |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 20, 1626 |