 | The records of the Virginia Company of London |  |
DOCUMENTS REVEALING THE MOVEMENTS FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY
The printed advertisements between 1619 and 1621 were successful in securing
the capital with which to carry on the enterprise. It now remains to discover how
the trade was conducted and controlled, how the plantation was developed and
governed, and how the business was finally destroyed.
The income which enabled the company to provide for new industries in 1619
and 1620 was derived from the £12 10s. paid by each new adventurer for each new
share of stock, and from the lotteries. Special collections and particular gifts for the
advancement of religion and of education in the colony were frequent, and thus the
account and management of the college land became important. Before the intro-
duction of freedom of trade into the colony, and the dissolution of the old magazine
on January 12, 1619/20, the company had some profit from that monopoly,[222]
but the
ease with which returns came from the lotteries had doubtless led the company to
abolish the monopoly of trade which had become so difficult to maintain. That the
company depended on the lotteries is indicated by the following statements in the
court book: On December 1, 1619, the lotteries were continued until summer because
there was no other means of securing money, and the plan put forth for the devel-
opment of the colony on July 7, 1620, provided that the estimated expense of £17,800
should be met by the income from the lotteries, which would amount to £18,000.
Information concerning the organization for conducting the lottery is wanting.
Books and rolls and catalogues of prizes are referred to but have not been found.[223]
Thus the only documents which throw light on the system outside of the court book
are the records of the suit of the Virginia Company against William Leveson, an
agent for the lottery in 1613, which discloses that books and rolls had been kept, and
that a house for the lottery had been erected and furnished "at the west end of St.
Paules Church;" a proclamation by the King for the overthrow of the lottery on
March 8, 1620/21; and a few letters solicting investments.[224]
The investments by the company during the period of the lotteries followed
three lines—the old magazine, the planting of the public and the college lands in
The court book is the only source of information with regard to the old magazine,
in which the company through its general stock of the company had invested more
than twice as much as any other adventurer. Hence, during the last half of the year
1619, it made every effort to gain an account and secure a settlement of that adventure.
The discussion, which resulted in the adoption of free trade to the colony, reveals the
system used for the control of the magazine, indicates to a slight degree the income
which the company had had from that joint stock, and incidentally shows that it had
some returns from the public lands in Virginia.[225] The numbers of men sent to the
company's land and their equipment are given in the printed declarations, in the
reports of the treasurer spread on the minutes, and in the discussions recorded in
the court book, and although the sums invested for the purpose are not recorded,
the statement was made by Sir Edwin Sandys that 800 men were sent through the
income from the lottery. The transportation of dissolute persons in the year 1619
to meet the command of the King, and the settlement of boys and girls on the
company's land previous to 1622, were other means used to people the public and
college lands.[226]
Five commodities enumerated in the broadside of May 17, 1620, were established
by action of the court. No record is extant of the exact nature of the investment,
but it appears from the court book to have been chiefly an investment from the general
stock. The movement for monopoly of certain industries rather than a monopoly
of all trade began during the latter part of the year 1620, and as a result the records
deal extensively with plans for the sole importation of tobacco, by which a joint
stock of £15,000 was to be raised to carry out what is known as the "Somerscales
plan."
The overthrow of the lotteries carried consternation to the company. An
income was essential with which to send out settlers to develop the soil or to create
new industries, but the general stock was so low that the company could not even
carry out its plans for glassworks. Finally, after several months of discussion,
recourse was had to special adventure or new joint stock companies for special
undertakings, controlled by a treasurer who should be elected by the adventurers in
the scheme. Thus followed the creation of a series of magazines for the erection of
a glass furnace, for the establishment of a fur trade, for sending maids for wives,
and for supplying a magazine for apparel. The records of these ventures are to be
found only in the court book, and the data there given is very insufficient. This, of
course, meant no advantage to the general stock, and the company was forced to
discover means for securing returns from the general investment and an income with
and private patents and monopolies for the industry of pitch and tar, for ironworks,
for new discoveries were granted, while special commissions for trade along the coast
and for fishing added to the revenue. With the exception of the movement for
private plantations and for the sole importation of tobacco, but few records exist
outside of the court book to reveal these vigorous endeavors to reap the results of
the great investments in the earlier years.[227] The grants for private plantations to
individuals or groups of individuals, called hundreds, commenced as early as 1616,
but increased rapidly during and after 1621, there being entries in the court book of
over fifty patents granted in four years, which provide for the transportation of at
least 100 men each and often for four times as many. The system by which each
hundred in Virginia and the adventurers for the hundred in England was organized
is to be found in the court book and in the extant records of the companies. The
minutes of one meeting for Martin's Hundred and one for Smythe's Hundred, and
the forms for patents deposited in the British Museum, in addition to about seventy
papers of Berkeley Hundred, afford a very satisfactory reconstruction of the terms of
agreement, the expenses, the provisioning, the form of government, the instructions
issued to the captain or governor of the hundred, and the terms of settlement with
tenants and servants. The adventures of Lord Zouch and Lord La Warr in 1617
and 1618, and of the Walloons and French in 1621, complete the series of which any
record exists.[228]
But the private grants did not promise sufficient income to meet the great
demands for supplies from the general stock which the massacre of 1622 brought
about. As a result the company turned to the income from tobacco, regardless
of its high purposes and its endeavors to enforce the production of other com-
modities. This feeling of the importance of a contract for the sole importation of
tobacco took such a strong hold upon the company that from May, 1622, until
its dissolution, just a year later, nothing else worth mentioning is recorded in the
court book, while the quarrel concerning the salaries to be paid for the manage-
ment of the £100,000 to be invested in this project monopolized the attention
of several courts. In addition to the record of an entire year in the court book,
numerous memoranda of various estimates of the value of the tobacco monopoly
to the Crown and to the company are deposited among the Manchester papers
the subject are spread on the company's minutes, and are also to be found among
the Colonial State papers. This series includes the proclamations of the King in
1624, and the new propositions and measures for tobacco importation of the
same year. The economic condition of the planter, the necessity of a revenue to
the company, the amount of the importation and of the customs value to the
King, the relations with Spain, and the economic values in England are all brought
out in the estimates, discussions, and arguments.[229]
The discussions in the Court Book with regard to the magazine, the development of commodities,
and private plantations will be found through the Index under those headings.
For the documents on Berkeley Hundred see the Smyth of Nibley Papers in the New York
Public Library, which are cited in the List of Records. See also Nos. 71, 72, 76, 77, 82, 227, 264,
735. These are really records of the private companies and fall under class VI in the List of Records.
Among the forms for patents in the British Museum is that granted to Martin's Hundred: List of
Records, No. 323.
| The records of the Virginia Company of London | |