Page:The Rise of American Civilization (Volume 1).djvu/52

 forced to shape its scheme of tenure to the varied character of its emigrants. Having in mind the matter of quick profits, the condition of the free laborers available for transport, and the requirements of independent capitalists desirous of engaging in agriculture on their own account, the Company provided a combination of corporate and individual ownership. In the first place, the directors decided that a part of the land should be held permanently by the Company and tilled by servants sent out at its expense. Under this arrangement, the corporation was to furnish the implements and initial supplies; each able-bodied servant was to work at the task assigned to him; the proceeds were to go into a common store from which allotments were to be made to the laborers according to their needs and profits to the Company according to its investment.

In the second place, a large portion of the land was devoted to individual exploitation, known as "the adventure of the purse." Every contributor who paid a fixed sum of £12.10s. into the corporate treasury was entitled to a warrant for one hundred acres of land and an equal amount in addition as soon as the first lot was under cultivation. To encourage the migration of settlers capable of paying their passage and launching themselves, the Company offered a hundred acres to every adventurer who would risk the hazards of Virginia in person. Any capitalist who transported one laborer to the colony at his own expense was granted one hundred acres and an equal area for each additional laborer so transported—an allowance later reduced to fifty acres—always subject to an annual quit-rent of two shillings per hundred acres payable to the corporation.

Finally great sections of land were set aside to afford incomes for the Company's officers in Virginia with a view to supporting them in a certain degree of style; and huge grants were made from time to time to individuals for "meritorious services," an elastic phrase that covered a multitude of sins. In the main the Company desired to