rs, were paid for through the Company's
treasury, but so great was the financial burden, particularly since the
Colony was not yielding the profit anticipated, that a different
arrangement was sought, in 1617. There was organized within the Company
a "Society of Particular Adventurers for Traffic with the People of
Virginia in Joint Stock." This was known as the Magazine, to which
members of the Virginia Company contributed such sums as they were
willing to venture. In practice, it was an association of private
investors who, upon return of the ship that had been sent stocked to
Virginia, divided the profits from the sale of goods and the tobacco
returned on the ships, according to their investment in the enterprise.

The first of these ships to arrive in the Colony was the _Susan_, a
vessel of small tonnage, with a cargo restricted to clothing of which
the colonists ever stood in great need. Abraham Peirsey was in charge as
Cape-Merchant and it was his responsibility also to dispose of the cargo
at a price that would bring a profit to the promoters. The exchange, of
course, was in tobacco or sassafras, the only two commodities at the
time, which could be disposed of in England at a profit. Evidently,
Peirsey was successful in his bargaining, for upon his return to England
in the _Susan_, he came back the following year with the second
magazine ship, the _George_, which was delayed five months and in
consequence unloaded a damaged cargo. Although during the remainder of
the Company's tenure in Virginia, until June 1624, transportation of
supplies, supposedly was restricted to the magazine ships, the vessels
of private adventurers often reached the Colony with articles which were
in the luxury class such as sweetmeats, sack (wine from southern Europe)
and strong waters (liquor). The Dutch probably were the chief promoters
of this trade, which England sought unsuccessfully to prohibit, as
diverting the tobacco trade from the realm and diminishing the royal
customs.

THE MUSTER OF THE INHABITANTS OF VIRGINIA, JANUARY, 1625

The dissolution of the Virginia Company in London, May 1624, left the
colony without restriction to independent traders, who shortly began to
respond to the colonists' eagerness for supplies from overseas. There
is, however, a record of the Colony at the conclusion of the Company's
administration taken just ahead of the influx of the accelerated trade.

As the Company was about to be dissolved, Cap