4. The British chartered companies to facilitate colonization.
The Virginia Company was formed to establish the first permanent English settlement on the North American continent at Jamestown. The same company also founded the British colony on Bermuda, though it was an accident caused by the wreck of a ship which was bound to resupply the Jamestown colony. The shipwreck inspired William Shakespeare to write The Tempest. Another company was later formed to operate the Bermuda colony, the Somers Isles Company. In the late 17th century King Charles II granted a royal charter founding the Hudson’s Bay Company, giving it a monopoly on the lucrative fur trade from Canada.
