Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/96

 executive power was lodged in the hands of a Governor and a committee of twenty-four persons who were subject to annual election. Like the Treasurer and Deputy Treasurer of the London Company, the Governor and Deputy Governor of the East India were chosen by a majority of voices at a general court. A majority of these companies were known as regulated companies, their members not engaging in trade as a body, but by individual subscription in each separate voyage, according to the means of each member or his confidence in the success of the special venture. The London Company being established mainly for the purpose of colonization, was directly under the authority and protection of the sovereign. I will enter more fully into a discussion of its powers and limitations as I touch upon the various divisions of my general subject. Before taking up the first branch, the agricultural development of the Colony, it will be necessary to give some account of the physical character of aboriginal Virginia, and the uses that the Indian population made of the soil and its products with a view to subsistence and comfort. A very just notion will be obtained of the geniality of the climate and the fertility of the ground, from the abundance in which the aboriginal inhabitants lived before they were disturbed by the arrival of the English.