Jamestown Fiasco

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as a whole to produce food and exports to make money. Those with shares would get part of the profits, but meanwhile the idea of private farming was lacking. The contribution of a worker had no affect on his share of the profit. The loafer would get the same amount in the end as the person who worked hard.
Still another explanation for the dilemma is one that John Smith often pointed out, which was the character of the immigrants. There were a variety of groups, among them were the "gentlemen" which make up an incredible number of the population proportionally compare to England. Out of 105 settlers when the colony started, 28 were "gentlemen," and in later settlements 56 out of 190 were "gentlemen." These numbers gave Virginia's population about six times as large a proportion of "gentlemen" as England had. Gentlemen were known to be people that had no manual skill, nor were expected to do manually labor. They were there to provide "the force of knowledge, the exercise of ...

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