Virginia Company

views updated

Virginia Company

The Virginia Company was formed in 1606 to restart English colonial ambitions in North America after the failure of the Roanoke colony in the 1580s. Its aims were broadly similar to those that had motivated the first settlement attempts at Roanoke a generation earlier. Among those aims were the discovery of a short route to Asia (the Northwest Passage); to ease English dependence on imported goods from Europe by growing and shipping produce from America; to provide raw materials such as timber or precious metals that were valued in England; to provide an outlet for a surplus population in England; to reestablish the English claim to North America in the face of French and Dutch interest in settlement; and to prove that the Americas were not a Spanish or Catholic monopoly.

The Virginia Company was a joint-stock company, with investors sharing the risks and the potential profits of colonization, and was closely modeled on the East India Company that had been founded just six years earlier. Although many of those investing in the Virginia Company were merchants with a strong commercial drive for profits, leading politicians and nobles eager to promote English imperial ambitions were also shareholders. The initial charter granted to the Virginia Company in 1606 actually distinguished between two groups of investors, one based in London and the other in Plymouth. Each was given a distinct geographic area to settle in: The London Company was allocated the land between 34 and 41 degrees North, whereas the Plymouth Company was allocated land between 38 and 45 degrees North. Although the Plymouth Company made a short-lived attempt to colonize in what later became New England in 1607–1908, the main colonization effort made by the Virginia Company was that of the London Company in Chesapeake Bay.

The Virginia Company of London was led by men such as Sir George Somers (1554–1610), who had experience fighting the Spanish in the Caribbean; Richard Hakluyt (1552–1616), whose Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation had raised the profile of colonization among the English elite; Sir Thomas Smith (1558–1625), also involved in the East India Company; and Captain Edward Maria Wingfield (1560–1613), a soldier with experience fighting the Spanish in the Netherlands. These men had powerful connections with merchants and politicians in London, which ensured that money and supplies were far more forthcoming than had been the case with the Roanoke Colony.

As a joint-stock company, the Virginia Company received no royal finance, but that did not mean the monarchy was completely sidelined from the project. Joint control of the Virginia Company was entrusted to two councils of thirteen individuals, one based in London and appointed by King James I (1566–1625), the other residing in Virginia and appointed by the company. The latter also was permitted to elect the colony's governor.

It was under these conditions that the company successfully recruited 144 men to journey to Virginia in the spring of 1607, but the earliest years of the colony were plagued by poor leadership in Virginia and high mortality rates among settlers. The second charter issued in 1609 altered the political structures of the Virginia Company significantly. James surrendered his role in the company's affairs, in part to allow him to disavow the Virginia Company if they overantagonized Spain, and the Governor became an appointee of the company in London. The changes led to a successful share issue among London's merchants and trade guilds, and the company rapidly equipped a new fleet led by Sir Thomas Gates (1585–1621), with another to follow led by Lord Delaware (1577–1618) in 1610.

The terrible conditions of the "Starving Time" during the winter of 1609–1610 nearly led to the colony being abandoned, and serious doubts were raised in London about the long-term viability and profitability of the colony despite the publication of a number of promotional tracts designed to encourage migration. Lord Delaware had to return to England because of his failing health, which led to a financial low point for the Virginia Company in 1613. The third and final charter of the Virginia Company, issued in 1612, permitted the establishment of a lottery that eventually became the company's main source of income, since few new investors were forthcoming given the dismal prospects of Virginia.

Experiments with tobacco provided the first hints that the colony might have a profitable future, and by 1614 the first shipments of tobacco from Virginia arrived in London. The crop would be the saving of the colony, since the fabulous profits to be made attracted new migrants. While recognizing the benefits of a cash crop to the viability of the colony, the Virginia Company also tried to prevent overproduction and to promote economic diversity. Unfortunately, oversupply eventually led to a collapse in the price of tobacco in the early 1620s and economic instability throughout the colony.

In 1616 the company paid a dividend to its share-holders of 50 acres of land in Virginia per share. A year later the company extended its use of free land in an attempt to restart colonization by instituting the head-right of 50 acres to go to whomever bore the costs of passage to the New World. This policy encouraged the growth of the system of indentured labor, with the wealthy paying for the passage of workers in return for seven years of free labor. Moreover, in response to the negative publicity that was generated by those returning from Virginia, the company permitted the election of a House of Burgesses in 1619, giving settlers a direct voice in their government.

With these changes and a new man in charge of the Virginia Company, Sir Edwin Sandys (1561–1629), 3,500 people left England for Virginia between 1619 and 1622. However, internal divisions among company officials, and an inadequate response to the 1622 massacre of colonists by local Native Americans, showed how weak the Virginia Company actually was. In 1623 the Privy Council ordered an inquiry into the company's affairs and on May 24, 1624, the charter was recalled and the Virginia Company was officially disbanded.