Virginia Company of London
The Virginia Company of London or London Company for short was an English stock corporation that was established on April 10, 1606 by royal charter from James I , King of England and Scotland, to establish the colonial settlements on the east coast of North America . This was the beginning of the English and later the British colonization of America. The "Virginia Company of Plymouth", Plymouth Company for short , was another company that received an identical contract as part of the Virginia Company , but operated in a different coastal area, further north (now New England ). The London Company founded the Jamestown settlement , named after King James I, the first permanent English settlement in North America in 1607.
description
The area awarded to the company comprised the North American coast from the 34th parallel at Cape Fear in the south to Long Island Sund at the 41st parallel in the north. According to their contract, the company was allowed to establish a settlement of 26,000 km² in this area. The area north of the 38th parallel was shared with the Plymouth Company, provided that the respective colonies had to keep a distance of 160 kilometers (100 British miles) from each other.
In 1607 the Society founded the Jamestown settlement on the banks of the James River on Chesapeake Bay . In 1609 the Plymouth Company had abandoned their plans to build the Popham Colony and dissolved. As a result, the contract of the London Company was expanded so that their area now encompassed the entire area between the 34th and 40th parallel.
History of the London Company
The company's business objective was to establish a colony in Virginia with the help of the labor of volunteer adventurers on the usual principle of temporary serfdom . The company obliged the workers for seven years and in return offered land ownership and the costs for the passage, food and protection of the settlers.
The three-ship fleet, put together by Bartholomew Gosnold , set sail with 144 men and boys in December 1606. On May 13, 1607, these first settlers built their fort on Jamestown Island.
In addition to making sure they survived, these early colonists had one more important job: to make a profit for the Virginia Company's shareholders. Although the settlers were disappointed that no gold was washed up on the beach and that “the gemstones did not grow on trees”, they recognized the great potential of their new home. Early industries, such as the manufacture of glass, pitch, and tar, as well as the production of beer and wine, benefited from the fertility of the soil in the colony. However, the struggle for survival did not leave the settlers much time to do the work the Virginia Company wanted to make a profit.
In the triangular fort on the banks of the James River, the settlers quickly realized that they were primarily subjects of the Virginia Company of London and that they had to obey the orders of those whom the company had put in charge. In return, the settlers received weapons, clothing and food from the communal camp. After seven years they should get their own land. The wealthier, who brought their own clothes and weapons, would receive land, dividends, and additional company shares.
Initially, the colonists were ruled by a president and a seven-member council appointed by the king. Leadership problems quickly arose and the first two Presidents of Jamestown, Thomas Smith and Edward Wingfield, had to face problems such as disease, Indian attacks, poor food and water supplies and unrest with varying degrees of success.
The second contract
The Virginia Company abolished the council on May 23, 1609, replacing it with a governor . Captain John Smith proved to be the strong leader the colony needed. The industry flourished and the connections with the people of Chief Wahunsenacawh (also called Powhatan (approx. 1545 - approx. 1618)) improved. In 1609, the Virginia Company received its second contract that allowed the colony to choose its new governor from among its shareholders. The company's new recruitment campaign generated a lively influx of capital and investors. Between March 1608 and 1609, more than 600 colonists made the crossing to Virginia.
Unfortunately for these new settlers, their new Deputy Governor Sir Thomas Gates was shipwrecked in Bermuda and was not able to take his post until 1610. When he finally arrived, he found that only a small fraction of the settlers had survived the famine of 1609 and 1610. The motherland soon learned of the poor condition of the colony, which was a financial catastrophe for society. Many new shareholders canceled payments for their shares and the company became embroiled in a multitude of court hearings. In addition to these losses, the company incurred further debt when it sent hundreds more colonists to Virginia.
There was little to make up for the crushing debt. No gold had been found in Virginia and the commodities made from the raw materials found in the New World were minimal. The attempts to produce glass, pitch, tar and potash were hardly profitable, since such goods were much cheaper to get on the other side of the Atlantic.
An increasingly bad reputation, political hand-to-hand struggles, and financial worries led the Virginia Company to launch a massive advertising campaign. The society covered intersections with enticing posters, published compelling articles, and even convinced the clergy to preach the benefits of supporting colonization. Before the company was dissolved, it published 27 books and leaflets promoting the venture in Virginia.
In order to better market the shares, the Virginia Company changed their advertising message. Instead of promising instant gains and huge profits, the shareholders addressed patriotic sentiments and national pride. A shareholder was assured that his investment would increase England's power to make it the superpower it deserved to be. The "indigenous pagans" would convert to the right kind of Christianity and the unemployed could find employment in the New World . The standard of living across the nation would improve.
The English took a bite on the bait. The people wanted to gain favor by showing their loyalty to the crown, and the growing middle class also saw the acquisition of shares as an opportunity to improve their position. But the news wasn't good at all. Although Jamestown's population grew, the high mortality rate among the settlers made profits unstable. By 1612 the company's debts had risen to over £ 1,000.
The third contract
A third contract provided a short-term solution to the Virginia Company's problems. The company was allowed to run a lottery to raise capital. Other attractive points of the treaty were the permission for the Virginia government to enact laws and the addition of a 150 km wide belt of sea area to the colony's possessions, which also included Bermuda in the Virginia colony. But the colony continued to stand on shaky ground until John Rolfe's successful experiment in tobacco planting resulted in an agricultural commodity that allowed society to recover financially.
In 1616 the Virginia Company suffered further adversity. At the end of the seven years, she owed the original settlers her land and company shares and the investors in the old homeland their dividends. The company was forced to cancel the payment of the promised funds and instead transfer 200 km² of land as payment. The next year the company introduced a new system to attract new settlers to the colony. Investors and colony residents were able to acquire land rights by paying new settlers to cross. Most of the time, these new settlers spent a period of time in serfdom on the donor's land.
Sir Edwin Sandys (1561–1629), one of the founders of the Virginia Company, was a great supporter of this new system because its goal was a permanent colony that would expand British territory, ease the overpopulation of the country and increase the market for English goods should. The company's treasurer, Sir Thomas Smith, had another dream: The Virginia Company's job was to trade and make a profit.
In the end, it was Sandy's dream that came true. When he became the company's treasurer in 1619, he intensified his efforts to populate the colony and obtain protection rights for tobacco as the main source of income. At the same time, he urged the colonists to grow other crops and not be dependent on one product alone. Unfortunately for them later, the colonists ignored his advice.
In 1621 the company was in trouble. Unpaid dividends and increased use of lotteries made future investors insecure. The company's debts were now in excess of £ 9,000. The insecure Virginians could hardly be comforted by Sandys, who warned them that society did not want them to rely on anything other than themselves. The colony's condition worsened catastrophically when the Powhatan Confederation rose up against ever-increasing settlement pressures in March 1622 and wiped out a quarter of Virginia's European population.
The fourth contract
A fourth contract, which severely restricted the company's ability to make government decisions in the colony, was rejected by the shareholders. King James I changed the status of the colony immediately. Virginia was a crown colony from 1624 , administered by a king-appointed governor. In 1627 the council of Virginia received the approval of the king and this form of government of governor and council would lead the colony until 1776, with the exception of the Commonwealth years.
Relations with the indigenous people
On November 20, 1606, Governor Thomas Gates (1585–1621) received instructions from the king to forcibly convert the Native Americans to Anglicanism and to enforce submission to the colonial government. The Society's records tell of a discussion during one of their first meetings. It was about a justification of their business and methods to "[...] give the adventurers a vividness and satisfaction about the justice of the cause, and thus to encourage them". But others disagreed on the grounds that every justification includes a confession. They wanted to avoid a public discussion developing in which neutrals and Catholics could attack them. While the Catholic arguments would have supported the Spanish claims from the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas , it was feared that the neutrals might sow scruples in the consciences of the colonists about the legality of their plantations. Therefore, such a justification was not published.
In 1608, the jurisprudence of Edward Coke , the Supreme Lord Justice of England and Wales, set a precedent that went beyond the problem at hand. In the case of Calvin ("Calvin's Case") the question arose whether a Scot could seek justice in an English court. In his judgment, Coke differentiated between foreigners from countries that are at war with England and those from friendly countries. He ruled that friendly foreigners could find refuge in English courts, but also that all unbelievers, being from non-Christian nations, would find no peace, and that there would be constant enmity between them and the Christians.
In 1609, the Society gave orders to kidnap the children of Indians and indoctrinate them with English values and religious beliefs. These instructions also allowed attacks on the Iniocasoockes, the cultural leaders of the Powhatan Indians. However, it was only with the arrival of Governor Thomas De La Warr in 1610 that the company was able to take action against the Powhatan Confederation in the first war ( English Powhatan Wars ). De La Warr was replaced by Sir Thomas Dale, who carried on the war. During this time Pocahontas married John Rolfe .
The military offensive was also accompanied by a propaganda campaign. Alderman Robert Johnson published "Nova Britannia" in 1609, in which he equated the Native Americans with wild animals ("heardes of deere in a forest"). While he described the Powhatans as peace-loving in his book , he nevertheless threatened all those who avoided converting to Anglicanism as enemies of "his" country.
The second war with the Powhatan began in 1622. The causes are controversial. Society apologists say Opchanacanough started the war. Robert Williams , a current Native American researcher, suggests that Opchanacanough had secured concessions from Governor George Yeardley that society was unwilling to accept. Hence, it may be that Opchanacanough's attack on Jamestown on March 22, 1622 was an attempt to defeat the colony before reinforcements arrived. 350 colonists of 1,240 were killed in the attack. The Virginia Company published an account of this attack, which was steeped in Calvinist theology. The new orders called for "a continuous war without peace or armistice [...] to exterminate the people, such a cursed nation, ungrateful to all favor and incapable of any kindness".
Web links
- The first contract of Virginia, 1606 (Engl.)
- The history of Jamestown's (Engl.)