WEBVTT

NOTE 4. From Company to Royal Colony

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000
Volume 1, Chapter 4, From Company to Royal Colony

2
00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:16.000
King James I encountered growing troubles with the Puritans at home and grew increasingly restive about the Puritan Virginia Company.

3
00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:26.000
For one thing, the king had ousted Sandys from his post as treasurer, only to find him replaced by Sandys' liberal ally, the Earl of Southampton.

4
00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:34.000
The disgruntled and influential Sir Thomas Smith persisted in advising the King to confiscate the Company.

5
00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:45.000
Finally, King James managed, in 1624, to obtain from a court under his domination the annulment of the Charter of the Virginia Company.

6
00:00:45.000 --> 00:01:00.000
One of King James' maneuvers against the Company was to have the Privy Council suspend in 1622 the use of the lottery as a fundraising device, although it had been authorized in the amended Charter of 1612.

7
00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:09.000
This turnabout contributed greatly to the financial difficulties of the Company and its going into receivership in 1623.

8
00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:16.560
in 1923. Lotteries had accounted for 8,000 pounds of the total Virginia company budget

9
00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:24.000
of less than 18,000 pounds in fiscal year 1621. Pressures against the company's right

10
00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:30.560
to finance itself by lottery came also from the ousted Smith Group and from capitalists

11
00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:35.200
who feared the competition for funds of the lottery device.

12
00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:40.560
The abrupt change in government, although unwelcome to the Virginia settlers, scarcely

13
00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:44.360
altered the social structure of the Virginia colony.

14
00:01:44.360 --> 00:01:50.440
For surprisingly, the king did not disturb the land titles and land privileges that had

15
00:01:50.440 --> 00:01:54.720
been allocated to individuals and groups by the company.

16
00:01:54.720 --> 00:02:00.120
For many years, indeed, the colony continued to grant land in exchange for the company's

17
00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:01.760
shares.

18
00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:08.160
These allotments continued to be made in large tracts and generally the best tracts in contrast

19
00:02:08.160 --> 00:02:14.920
to the small frontier settlements of the indentured servants along the navigable rivers.

20
00:02:14.920 --> 00:02:20.600
One result of this pattern of land allocation and of the heavy reliance on forest labor

21
00:02:20.600 --> 00:02:27.000
was that Virginia, in contrast as we shall see to the New England system, was thinly

22
00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:34.000
They settled over an extended area with few towns or villages. The tobacco planters prospered

23
00:02:35.240 --> 00:02:42.040
and increased their reliance on indentured service and, after mid-century, on Negro slavery.

24
00:02:42.040 --> 00:02:48.200
The London Company, after granting land to the individual settlers, had reserved to itself

25
00:02:48.200 --> 00:02:55.200
the feudal quit-rent, in this case of two shillings per 100 acres. Since the quit-rent

26
00:02:55.200 --> 00:03:02.240
Since the quit rent was not payable for seven years until 1625, the Crown, upon seizure

27
00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:07.920
of the assets of the London Company, took over the proprietary privilege and collected

28
00:03:07.920 --> 00:03:13.440
the first quit rents from the settlers. However, the British government did not bother to enforce

29
00:03:13.440 --> 00:03:20.640
collection of the dues. At first, the governor, now appointed by the king, his council, chosen

30
00:03:20.640 --> 00:03:25.320
by the King from among the wealthiest and most prominent of Virginians nominated by

31
00:03:25.320 --> 00:03:32.440
the Governor, and the representative Burgesses continued to sit together. But soon they were

32
00:03:32.440 --> 00:03:39.400
divided into two houses, the Council and the House of Burgesses. The Council also functioned

33
00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:45.560
as the supreme judicial body of the colony when sitting as the general court. Thus the

34
00:03:45.560 --> 00:03:52.320
The legislative and judicial powers were combined. Before this court came all the major criminal

35
00:03:52.320 --> 00:03:58.400
and civil cases. The local county courts had direct jurisdiction over minor cases with

36
00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:04.520
appeals permitted to the general court. The counselors held office indefinitely. They

37
00:04:04.520 --> 00:04:10.600
were usually reappointed whenever a new governor arrived. The increase in the number of settlers

38
00:04:10.600 --> 00:04:26.600
In 1634, a change in the political divisions of the colony occurred in the composition of the House of Burgesses.

39
00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:32.600
Instead of the system of general and particular plantations, eight counties were created,

40
00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:37.600
counties that followed settlement westward along the rivers of Virginia.

41
00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:54.600
The eight original counties were, on the James River, Elizabeth City, Wanuskwa Auk, later Isle of Wight, Warwick River, later Warwick, James City, Charles City, and Henrico.

42
00:04:54.600 --> 00:05:04.600
On the Charles, New York River, Charles River County, and encompassing the eastern shore, Acomac County.

43
00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:12.600
Two burgesses were now chosen from each county and one from each of the leading towns by qualified property holders.

44
00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:16.600
Thus emerged an English parliament in miniature.

45
00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:22.600
The governor, however, as the king's proconsul in the colony, was the dominant governing influence.

46
00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:30.600
He commanded the army and navy, directed religious affairs, appointed justices of the peace and other court officials,

47
00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:35.600
The Federal Reserve, Mises Institute, Austrian School, Praxeology, catallactics, malinvestment, entrepreneurship, Man Economy and State, The Theory of Money and Credit

48
00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:04.600
performed both the judicial and the executive functions for their areas.