Plymouth Company
The Plymouth Company was an English joint-stock company founded in 1606 by James I of England. It was a company of Knights, merchants, adventurers, and planters of the cities of Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth. Its purpose was establishing settlements on the coast of North America, between 38 and 45 degrees north latitude, within 100 miles of the seaboard.
The merchants agreed to finance the settlers’ trip in return for repayment of their expenses plus interest out of the profits made.
In 1620, after years of disuse, the company was revived and reorganized as the Plymouth Council for New England. With a new charter, the New England Charter of 1620. The Plymouth Company had 40 patentees at that point, and established the Council for New England to oversee their efforts, but it stopped operating in 1624; that was when these former plantations were dissolved and became Royal Colonies.
