This paper examines how exogenous trade shocks shape state intervention in technology adoption, using the case of Swiss spinning during the French Wars (1792–1815). Economic historians often consider the Wars, and in particular the Napoleonic Blockade on British manufactured goods, as a turning point for Continental Europe’s cotton sector. Against authors who emphasize the negative impact of the Blockade on raw material supply, some economic historians claim that it protected domestic spinning against competition. In their views, Napoleon’s protectionist measures acted as a catalyst for the technological catch-up of continental industries. The period is also frequently described as a moment of experimentation in state intervention in production, with long-lasting consequences for European political economy. However, the literature documenting these economic and political dimensions has largely focused on France, Ghent, and other industrial regions in Germany, with limited attention to the territories that now form Switzerland. In this paper, I suggest that examining these territories reveal a complex interplay between market dynamics following the shock and domestic political intervention aimed at fostering technology adoption. First, I argue that the Wars did have a sheltering effect like elsewhere in Europe. Thanks to the Blockade, the newly established spinning firms were able to charge higher prices, offset rising raw material costs, and invest in machinery between 1800 and 1815. Second, I show that the Wars had distinct implications for the Swiss political economy of cotton. The recurrent raw material shortages fostered the growth of a northern-oriented network that integrated trade and production. Swiss producers, previously dependent on France, increasingly turned to markets in Germany and Britain. This emerging network was not solely the result of spontaneous adjustments by merchants and manufacturers, but also benefited from a clear, albeit indirect, impulse from political institutions. The Swiss case therefore provides an example of public intervention in the process of mechanization in a small, decentralized alliance of territories. It also contributes to the understanding of the geopolitical repositioning of the Swiss Confederation after the Congress of Vienna and the growing influence of Britain on its economy and politics.