The American Dream was built along
the banks of the James River in Virginia.
The settlers who established America’s
first permanent English colony at Jamestown in 1607 were gentlemen adventurers
and common tradesmen who bravely voyaged to North America despite its many
dangers. They sought personal profit and
the greater national glory of mother England. Their venture was part of a grand
national struggle with Spain to satisfy
their aspiring imperial ambitions.
Yet the hardy adventurers who settled at
Jamestown were largely on their own with
their venture. The Crown granted them a
royal charter for a joint-stock company in
which they shared the risk among several
investors. But the Crown did not offer any
direct financial support. Rather, these free
and independent Englishmen were enterprising individuals who risked their lives
and fortunes on the venture and stood to
reap the rewards of their private initiative — should there be any to be won.
Whatever the grand visions of profit
and glory, the history of the first several
years of the colony was simply a struggle
to survive and endure. The settlers died in
30 Financial History | Spring/Summer 2011 | www.MoAF.org
droves, and the colony constantly hovered
on the edge of collapse. The old military
model of colonization established during
the Elizabethan era persisted and threatened to doom Jamestown. The authoritarian model of absolute leadership and the
communitarian methods of living were
fundamentally at odds with the character of these free individuals. The colonists bristled at draconian systems of law
and harsh rulers, while ambitious gentlemen jockeyed and conspired to seize the
reins of government. A common storehouse destroyed individual initiative and