![]() Investment boomed as the Company launched an intensive recruitment campaign. In 1609, the Virginia Company received its Second Charter, which allowed the Company to choose its new governor from amongst its shareholders. Industry flourished and relations with Chief Powhatan's people improved. When Captain John Smith became Virginia's third president, he proved the strong leader that the colony needed. Leadership problems quickly erupted and Jamestown's first two leaders coped with varying degrees of success with sickness, Indian assaults, poor food and water supplies and class strife. Initially, the colonists were governed by a president and seven-member council selected by the King. The gentlemen, who provided their own armor and weapons, were to be paid in land, dividends or additional shares of stock. After seven years, they were to receive land of their own. In exchange, the laborers were armed and received clothes and food from the common store. Within the three-sided fort erected on the banks of the James, the settlers quickly discovered that they were, first and foremost, employees of the Virginia Company of London, following instructions of the men appointed by the Company to rule them. However, the settlers could not devote as much time as the Virginia Company would have liked to their financial responsibilities. Early industries such as glass manufacture, pitch and tar production and beer and wine making took advantage of natural resources and the land's fertility. ![]() Although the settlers were disappointed that gold did not wash up on the beach and gems did not grow in the trees, they realized there was great potential for wealth of other kinds in their new home. In addition to survival, the early colonists had another pressing mission: to make a profit for the stockholders of the Virginia Company. On May 13, 1607, these first settlers selected the site of Jamestown Island as the place to build their fort. In December 1606, the Virginia Company's three ships, containing 144 men and boys, set sail. The Company, under the direction of its treasurer Sir Thomas Smith, was instructed to colonize land between the 34th and 41st northern parallel. The Virginia Company was formed both to bring profit to its shareholders and to establish an English colony in the New World. All who purchased shares at a cost of £12 10s shared in the success or failure of the venture. Following the precedent set by other companies such as the Moscovy Company and East India Company, the Virginia Company was a joint-stock company, which sold shares. It was not until 1606 that the Virginia Company of London received a charter from the newly-crowned King James I. This unsuccessful and expensive settlement, often referred to as The Lost Colony, made the English crown wary of trying again. In the late 1580s, Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to plant a colony for England in present-day North Carolina. ![]()
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