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Virginia Company Planning

Type Event Region England Time 1600

Around 1600, London merchants, gentleman adventurers, and politicians began planning to revive colonization of North America's "Virginia" as a joint-…

Timeline

  1. 1600–1603London · LondonAround 1600, Thomas Smith, Richard Hakluyt, and others pushed London merchants, seamen, and nobles to form an adventurer consortium, drawing on joint-stock models like the East India Company to discuss pooling capital to bear the risks and rewards of North American colonization.
  2. 1600–1606London · LondonPlanners lobbied the crown for a new North American colonial charter, discussing site selection in the Chesapeake Bay, land grants, relations with local natives, and a company council governance structure, replacing the expired personal charter model of Raleigh's era.
  3. 1600–1607River Thames · LondonFundraising and ship procurement from 1600 onward gradually gave London's adventurer circles the capacity to organize transatlantic expeditions. Following Gosnold's 1602 reconnaissance and the 1606 company charter, three ships carrying about 104 settlers were finally dispatched in 1607 to found a city on the James River.

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