Virginia Company

“ Historians may trace in the Royal charters issued to the Virginia Company of London a course of empire; a Company organized for profit by the ablest businessmen of their time—merchants, manufacturers, statesmen, and artists who bound themselves together in a joint stock enterprise. The historian may also find in the three charters here published a pattern for a parliamentary system and its development into the American form of government. He might even perceive the inception of a new society. ”

“ It is not necessary to enter into any discussion as to how far England, in return for the expense of founding Virginia and sustaining and protecting it in its infancy, had an equitable claim to a monopoly of its products. As was seen in the dispute between James and the Company in 1621, with respect to the shipment of tobacco to Holland without payment of the English duties, it was boldly affirmed that the planters had an inherent and immemorial right to transport their crops whithersoever they preferred. ”

“ Upon them also were to be conferred, in proportion to the amount of their subscriptions, shares in the lands of Virginia and in the accumulated capital of the corporation, when the first division of both took place in 1616, previous to a general distribution among the members. The right to enter into private commercial relations with the colonists after 1616 was granted to each person contributing to the funds of the Company, who should desire to trade in the expectation that it would be profitable. ”

“ It is not at all surprising in the light of this concurring testimony, which only grew stronger as Virginia was more fully explored, that one of the main objects the London Company had in view in its formation, was to secure the trade in the articles enumerated, now carried on with Russia, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, and even Persia. It was impossible, however, for that corporation to absorb a large part of this trade until the Colony had been firmly established, and the population had increased to considerable proportions. ”

“ By this time, private persons as well as the societies recently formed and known as Hundreds, had begun to import laborers not only for the cultivation of the lands they had acquired, but also to obtain a greater extent of ground upon the basis of the head right. [23] Of the eight hundred and eleven servants who in 1619 were introduced into Virginia, six hundred and sixty were designed for private estates, the rest being reserved for the use of the Company. ”

“ The patent granted John Pierce, one of the Merchant Adventurers, by the London Virginia Company in the interest of the Pilgrims, was signed February 2/12, 1619, and of course could convey no rights to, or upon, territory not conveyed to the Company by its charter from the King issued in 1606, and the division of territory made thereunder to the Second Virginia Company. ”

“ The members of the Virginia Company numbered nearly a thousand persons, who elected their council, and were responsible for the administration of the colony; but under the Gorges charter, the council was the whole company, limited to forty members, who were self-perpetuating, and whose relation to the colonists was thus direct and final. [72]
The new company was never either active or successful. The controversy which had marked its slow birth tended to keep people from investing; and from its narrow and monopolistic nature, it could make no appeal to popular support. ”

“ Certain associations of persons were allowed to engross enormous bodies of land in Virginia by purchasing many shares in the original Company, which carried with them the same privileges and the same obligations as those accompanying the purchase of a single share. ”

“ Previous to the issue of patents to associations of private adventurers in 1616, the cost of the transportation of supplies to the settlers in Virginia was borne entirely by the London Company or its members, to whom fell whatever profit was to be acquired from the sale of the commodities of the Colony. ”

“ The same reasons which led the landowners during the existence of the Company to prefer youths as servants continued to influence them when that corporation had been abolished. The author of the New Description of Virginia merely gave expression to the general feeling of the planters when he stated that the laborers who were most desired were persons who had just passed their sixteenth year, and all the evidence confirms the correctness of his remark that many thousand of this age could have found immediate employment in the Colony. ”

“ The merchants were particularly opposed to the desire of the Virginians to by-pass them and trade with foreign nations directly.
It is hard for us to realize today the immense importance of merchants and traders in influencing the colonial policies of the English government. Virginia was founded by a commercial company. All the early attempts at settlement were made by private persons who were willing to "adventure" their capital or their skill. Behind the great explorers stood private individuals who risked their money on the success of the voyage or settlement. ”

“ This proved unsatisfactory to the King, and the Company were commanded to convey one-half of the persons consigned to them to Virginia at once. A committee was appointed to procure vessels, but in the meanwhile a petition was offered to the Secretary of State, urging that the Company of the Somers Isles [52] should be enjoined to relieve the London Company of a part of the contingent, an indication of the small degree of anxiety which the members felt to secure this class of persons, although the need of laborers in the Colony was growing so rapidly in importance. ”

“ To one, commonly spoken of as the London Company, but sometimes as the Virginia Company, was assigned a domain in the south, from 34° to 41° North Latitude. To the other, less familiarly known as the Plymouth Company, or the North Virginia Company, was granted a range of territory from 38° to 45° North Latitude. See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1606-1607. The first named company founded a state; the Plymouth branch was less fortunate. ”

“ A fair proportion only of those who were imported into Virginia as laborers acquired handsome estates and became prominent and influential citizens. Many Assemblies, after 1632, contained burgesses who had begun their career in the Colony by binding themselves out for a set period of time. In the early sessions of the legislature, the members who had at one time been servants or apprentices had been brought in as employees of the Company, and, through the grants of land which they received on the expiration of their terms, had acquired immediate importance in the community. ”

“ We can only conjecture that the rising influence of the men who were able a few months later to overthrow (p. 55) the ruling party had much to do with the most notable change that took place in the conduct of affairs in the Virginia Company at this time. On the 13th of November, 1618—memorable but neglected and forgotten date—the Virginia Company, acting within the powers conferred on it by its charter, granted to the residents in Virginia a document styled a "Great Charter or Commissions of Priviledges, Orders, and Lawes." ”

“ But there is not to be found one word of the charter or patent itself of this corporation.
Then also, they apportioned and laid our lands in several allotments, viz.: to the company in several places, to the governor, to a college, to glebes, and to several particular persons; many new settlements were made in James and York rivers. The people knew their own property, and having the encouragement of working for their own advantage, many became very industrious, and began to vie one with another, in planting, building, and other improvements. ”

“ These countries, in delivering the commodities that the English people needed, were, it was thought, unwilling to take a large amount of English goods in return, and in consequence the difference had to be covered by payment in coin. One of the strongest reasons for the formation of the London Company was, that in the future commercial relations of Virginia and England there would be little demand for money sterling, as a result of the fact that the balance of trade between the two would be in favor neither of the one nor the other, but would be kept exactly even. ”

“ Some of them, no doubt, became subscribers to a Virginia joint-stock for the same reason that often led members of the landed classes in England into commercial ventures. But others, quite evidently, subscribed because of a sense of public responsibility, or simply because skilfully managed propaganda had put pressure on them to accept a responsibility of social or political position. For the Virginia adventure was a public undertaking, its aim to advance the fortunes of England no less than the fortunes of the adventurers themselves. ”

“ In July, 1621, the Company, in a letter addressed to the Governor and Council in Virginia, instructed them to secure for the Cape Merchant who would dispose of the cargo of the ship in which the letter was conveyed, full liberty to sell the goods at the highest prices offered, and to get the main commodity of the country in exchange without regard to the rates formerly prescribed by law. ”

“ The next step was to secure a patent, and find “adventurers,”—as men were still called who invested in such enterprises,—who would supply the necessary money. Owing to the dissensions in the Virginia Company, which now became acute, the negotiations were delayed ”

“ It was not necessary for the Virginian landowner to transport his crops to the West Indies to secure articles to be disposed of in England for coin to be used in the purchase of English goods, as was the case with the farmer of New England in selling his grain and other provisions. The Magazine set up at Jamestown during the administration of the Company was in later periods practically established upon each estate by an English or native merchant when he exchanged his imported goods for the planter’s tobacco, still without the intervention of a single coin. ”

“ The grant to a married woman on the basis of persons she had imported, was to be two-thirds less in the area allowed than it was to be in the case of a man adding the same number of persons to the population. In the case of a child, it was to be three-fourths. These conditions of tenure will be found of especial interest when we come to examine the similar conditions adopted by the London Company in the distribution of the soil of Virginia. ”

“ The third important motive, in which the colonization of Virginia had its origin, was the expectation that the new country would supply a large number of articles which the English people at that time were compelled to buy from foreign nations. The Muscovy Company had always derived the greatest part of its profits from the transportation to England of tar, pitch, rosin, flax, cordage, masts, yards, timber, and other naval stores, and also glass and soap ashes. ”

“ After 1682, there is reason to believe that the Royal African Company became either directly or indirectly the principal agent in increasing the African population of Virginia. In the commission which Culpeper received in the course of this year, it was announced that the English Government had recommended to that corporation to furnish the Colony with slaves at very moderate prices, and in return for this benefit, the authorities there were commanded to enforce the payment of all dues to the Company on the part of planters who had purchased negroes from its representatives. ”

“ People out of work were attracted by the communistic programme laid down by the Company. The shares were rated at about $300 each, to use our modern figures, and emigration to Virginia entitled the emigrant to one share. So far as needful the proceeds of the enterprise "were to be spent upon the settlement, and the surplus was either to be divided or funded for seven years. During that period the settlers were to be maintained at the expense of the Company, while all the product of their labours was to be cast into the common stock. ”

“ To the company, consisting of forty patentees, was given the monopoly of trade within the grant, and its income was to be derived from the letting or selling of its exclusive rights to individual or corporate adventurers. It had power, also, both to establish and to govern colonies. But the enterprise lacked capital and popular support. Virginia, founded as an outlet for victims of economic distress in England, appeared to absorb all those who cared to devote either money or energy to the planting of America. ”

“ In a letter from the Council of Virginia to the Council in England, the men in the employment of the Company are referred to as our “waged men,” but the expression did not imply necessarily the payment of wages in the modern sense. Brown’s Genesis of the United States, p. 107. ↑ Colonial Records of Virginia, State Senate Doct., Extra, 1874, p. 22. ↑ Declaration of the State of Virginia, p. 10, Force’s Historical Tracts, Vol. III. ↑ Abstracts of Proceedings of the Virginia Company of London, vol. ”

“ The extent to which the city companies of London and its citizens as well as the people of the other towns took lots must have been considerable, though it probably fell short of the hope that had been entertained. [43] In the meanwhile, the Company had not failed to send out supplies to Virginia. In the Declaration issued in February, 1615, it was stated that this body had very lately dispatched two instalments of men and provisions, including also clothing. [44] Argoll had captured in his expedition to Port Royal a large quantity of various articles which were of great service to the Colony. ”