Roanoke Colony Analysis

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England was a relatively poor nation in the late 1500s, with a ruler willing to send privateers against other colonial powers but unwilling to risk public monies on a standing English colony. Queen Elizabeth I gave blessing to Sir Walter Raleigh’s personal funding of the Roanoke colony, but it failed.

The answer was a joint-stock venture, an early version of today’s corporations. Wealthy London gentlemen would buy a share in The Virginia Company, thus giving it the capital monies to start and supply a colony, and they hoped the colony returned a profit to them. King James I granted The Virginia Company a royal charter for the colonial pursuit in 1606. The Company had the power to appoint a Council of leaders in the colony, a Governor, and