Content deleted Content added
No edit summary Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
m correcting sentence fragment |
||
Line 23:
The '''Virginia Company''' was an English [[trading company]] [[Chartered company|chartered]] by [[James VI and I|King James I]] on 10 April 1606 with the object of [[British colonization of the Americas|colonizing the eastern coast of America]]. The coast was named Virginia, after [[Elizabeth I]], and it stretched from present-day [[Maine]] to the [[Carolinas]].<ref name="”Charter">{{cite web|url=http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1600-1650/instructions-for-the-virginia-colony-1606.php|title=Charter of the Virginia Company of 1606}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dos.myflorida.com/library-archives/research/explore-our-resources/florida-history-culture-and-heritage/spanish-colonial-history/|title=Spanish Florida|website=Florida State, Dept of Library and Information Services}}</ref><ref name="Charter of 1609">{{cite web|url=http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1600-1650/the-second-virginia-charter-1609.php|title=Charter of 1609}}</ref> The company's [[shareholder]]s were [[London]]ers, and it was distinguished from the [[Plymouth Company]], which was chartered at the same time and composed largely of gentlemen from [[Plymouth]], England.<ref>{{cite book |last= Paullin, Charles O |first= Edited by John K. Wright |title= Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States|year= 1932|publisher=Carnegie Institution of Washington and American Geographical Society|location= New York, New York and Washington, D.C. | pages= Plate 42}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last= Swindler|editor-first= William F.|title= Sources and Documents of United States Constitutions.' 10 Volumes |year= 1973–1979|publisher=Oceana Publications |location=Dobbs Ferry, New York | pages= Vol. 10: 17–23}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Van Zandt|first= Franklin K.|title= Boundaries of the United States and the Several States; Geological Survey Professional Paper 909.|year= 1976|publisher=Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. | pages= 92}}</ref><ref>[http://www.virginiaplaces.org/boundaries/boundaryk.html How Virginia Got Its Boundaries, by Karl R Phillips]</ref>
The biggest trade breakthrough resulted after adventurer and colonist [[John Rolfe]] introduced several sweeter strains of [[tobacco]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.foundersofamerica.org/johnrolfe.html |title=Welcome to Founders of America! |access-date=25 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070605072826/http://foundersofamerica.org/johnrolfe.html |archive-date=5 June 2007 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> from the Caribbean.<ref>[http://www.historyisfun.org/Economics-of-Tobacco.htm Economics of Tobacco]</ref> These yielded a more appealing product than the harsh-tasting tobacco native to Virginia.<ref>[http://www.virtualjamestown.org/jrolfe.html Virtual Jamestown]</ref> Cultivation of Rolfe's new tobacco strains produced a strong commodity crop for export for the London Company and other early English colonies and helped to balance a national trade deficit with [[Spain]]. The company failed in 1624, following the widespread destruction of the [[Great Massacre of 1622]] by indigenous peoples in the colony, which decimated the English population. On May 24, James dissolved the company and made Virginia a royal colony from England
== History ==
| |||