Some thousands of skilled hands found employment in Holland in this work.

James, always impecunious, determined in 1608, on the proposal of a certain Alderman Cockayne, to grant Cockayne a patent for the creation of a home-dyeing industry, reserving to the crown a monopoly for the sale of the goods.

The Adventurers complained of this as a breach of their charter; and, after much bickering, the king in 1615 settled the dispute by withdrawing the charter.

Cockayne now hoped that the company he had formed would be a profitable concern, but he and the king were doomed to disappointment.

The Estates of Holland refused to admit the English dyed cloths, and their example was followed by the other provinces and by the States-General.