Comparative analysis of corporate and individual enterprise in the settlement of early America

Abstract

This Capstone Project compares and analyzes the methods used by groups and individuals to establish and sustain the early American settlements of Jamestown, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay. Corporate and individual enterprise were used by English settlers attempting to locate and survive in the New World wilderness Settlers adopted a variety of methods ranging from capitalism to communism. Individuals often found it necessary to form corporate entities whose cooperative methods ranged from stock holding to community of goods. Common property was an extreme measure but a means to an end to assure survival. Through attempts to colonize America in the late 1500's, Queen Elizabeth learned that substantial capital was needed to establish and sustain early American colonization. Joint-stock companies were created to assemble the essential capital. The Virginia Company that established Jamestown and Plymouth set up systems of common property in which many settlers accepted the restricted status of indentured servants in order to see the colony develop. Although the theme of the individual versus the corporate community is strong in these early settlements, another theme evolves. Materialistic and ideological factors become driving forces in this historical evolution of early America. Materialistic forces eventually influenced ideological forces in Jamestown, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay. A sociocultural evolution took place as the individuals within these colonies adapted to achieve their material requirements. The mode of production, whether farming, tobacco planting, or mercantilism, influenced the general character of the social, political, and spiritual processes of life in these early American colonies. Empirical evidence in this analysis will show that collective, corporate, including communal, arrangements were the springboard to successful early settlement of English America. Whether settlers held economic or religious motives for settlement in North America, European colonization was largely due to the cooperative activity of the mercantile and capitalist classes in England. The corporate phase of colonization, as under the Virginia Company and Massachusetts Bay Company, was often short-lived. Eventually, private initiatives were responsible for the greatest number of English settlements in America.