University of Virginia Library

I.—FUNDAMENTAL DOCUMENTS

As far as appears from the evidence of the extant documents, when by the
charters of 1609 and 1612, James I surrendered to the company full rights of trade, as
well as territorial and governmental rights in Virginia he apparently lost all interest
and part in the undertaking, and it was only when the plantation had developed into
the colony, and when at the expiration of the privileges of free importation in 1619,
the business of the corporation had become so good as to offer a prospect of revenue
that the King in his council began to interfere in the affairs of the company.[25] In
1613, under the administration of Sir Thomas Smythe, the adventurers were com-
pelled to appeal to the Crown because of the complications with France which arose
from the expedition of Sir Samuel Argall along the northern coasts of America,[26]
while a similar relation was brought about by the controversy with Spain with regard
to the attack on Spanish vessels by the ship Treasurer in 1619.[27] In both instances
the protection desired was granted. When the financial stringency forced the adven-
turers to great efforts in 1614, and they appealed unsuccessfully to Parliament for
aid, the Privy Council attempted to arouse confidence in the undertaking throughout
the country. It passed orders urging the city companies of London to invest sums
in the Virginia lottery, and in the following year it addressed similar orders to the
"Several Cityes and Townes of the Kingdome,"[28] with special letters to the lieu-
tenants of County Surrey.[29]

But the aid thus secured was not such as to draw upon the resources of the Crown,
and the attempt of members of the company to gain a monopoly of the tobacco trade
in 1616 met with the same opposition as had similar efforts on the part of the
merchant adventurers in previous years. On the other hand the company was com-

pelled against its will to submit to the treatment of its plantation as a penal colony
by James I in his spasmodic efforts to develop a policy which should save England
from an overpopulation of vagabonds.[30]

With the exception of these unimportant relations with the Crown, the company
seems to have conducted its business independently of royal aid or interference dur-
ing the first decade of its existence as a corporate body.