wine to many thousands, their goates and poultry in great
numbers, every man hath house and ground to his owne use....

In the same year this policy was extended to include eighty-one farmers
or tenants in the colony's total population of 351.

Despite improvement in the supply of provisions, the company still had
to face the harsh facts that in 1616 there were only 351 persons alive
in the colony, and funds were low in the treasury. There had been only a
limited number of new subscribers; some of the earlier subscribers had
defaulted on their second or third payments; and the use of lotteries
had failed to provide adequate money. This was the year set for the end
of the joint ownership of land with the declaration of land dividends.
But the company could not provide the necessary funds to defray the
administrative costs for the land divisions; and furthermore, many were
of the opinion that not enough land in possession had been cleared of
trees and surveyed. The arbitrary conduct of the Deputy Governor Captain
Samuel Argall, who arrived in Virginia in May, 1617, also contributed to
the delay in carrying out the plan for land distribution.

_In A Briefe Declaration of the present state of things in Virginia_,
adventurers were told that "this course of sending a Governor with
commissioners and a survayor, with men, ships, and sundry provisions"
would be expensive, and plans were announced for only a preliminary or
"first divident" of fifty acres with the expressed hope that a later
division would bring at least 200 acres for every share. But even for
the preliminary division, more money was needed and shareholders were
asked to subscribe another L12 10s. to help pay for the administrative
cost. For each additional subscription of L12 10s., a fifty-acre grant
would be made. Here we have provisions for obtaining land by "treasury
right," a method remaining in effect only until dissolution of the
company in 1624 and not reappearing until 1699. Planters in the colony
were also to receive a fifty-acre grant for their personal adventure.
Even new adventurers were invited to buy shares at L12 10s. and were
promised fifty-acre grants with the same privileges of the old
adventurers. But the response was poor. Most of the grants that were
made were either irregular in form or contained unreasonable provisions
dictated by the exigency of the situation, thereby being later
repudiated by the company.

The financial embarrassme