whose charter expressly empowered them to export such cloths, of which, indeed, their trade in all probability mostly consisted. At the same time he granted to Alderman Cockayne a patent giving him the exclusive right of dyeing and dressing all woollen cloths. But the States of Holland and the German cities immediately met these proceedings by prohibiting the importation of all English dyed cloths. "Thus," says Anderson, "was commerce thrown into confusion, Cockayne being disabled from selling his cloth anywhere but at home; beside that his cloths were worse done, and yet were dearer, than those finished in Holland. There was a very great clamour, therefore, raised against this new project by the weavers now employed, &c., so that the king was obliged to permit the exportation of a limited quantity of white cloths; and a few years after, in the year 1615, for quieting the people, he found himself under the necessity of annulling Cockayne's patent, and restoring that of the Merchant Adventurers." The prohibition by the Dutch and Germans, however, of the importation of English woollens dyed in the cloth had, in the mean time, set the clothiers of England upon the new method of dyeing the wool before weaving it, and thus producing the kind of fabric called medley-cloth, formed from threads of different colours. This discovery is assigned to the year 1613. Either from the effects of the derangement occasioned by Cockayne's patent, or from other causes, the woollen trade a few years after this date appears to have fallen into a declining state. In 1622 a commission was issued by the king to a number of noblemen and gentlemen, directing them to inquire into the causes of the decay, and the best means of effecting the revival, both of this and other branches of the national commerce and industry; in which his majesty declares that both the complaints of his subjects at home, and the information he received from his ministers abroad, had assured him that the cloth of the kingdom had of late years wanted that estimation and vent in foreign parts which it formerly had; that the wools of the kingdom were fallen much from their wonted values; and
