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New world, inc. : the making of America by England's merchant adventurers / John Butman & Simon Targett.

by Butman, John, author.

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New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2018.

Colonial companies -- America -- History.

America -- Discovery and exploration -- British.

Great Britain -- Colonies -- America -- History -- 16th century.

Great Britain -- Commerce -- History -- 16th century.

9780316307888 (hardcover) :

xxv, 405 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), maps (some color) ; 25 cm

The prequel to the pilgrims -- I: Before America, 1551-1574. Waxing cold and in decay ; The lure of Cathay ; The mysterie ; A newe and strange navigation ; An elusive realm -- II: Enterprise, 1574-1604. The last great challenge of the age ; The supposed strait ; Tresor trouvee ; Ilandish empire ; Nova Albion ; To heaven by sea ; Western planting ; Principal navigations ; The old East and the new West -- III: Commonwealth, 1604-1621. Two Virginias ; A public plantation ; First colony ; A stake in the ground ; A weighty voyage -- Forgotten founders.

Describes how English merchant adventurers, in search of new markets and trading partners, were the earliest founders of America, with profit as their primary motive.

"Three generations of English merchant adventurers--not the Pilgrims, as we have so long believed--were the earliest founders of America. Profit--not piety--was their primary motive. Some seventy years before the Mayflower sailed, a small group of English merchants formed 'The Mysterie, Company, and Fellowship of Merchant Adventurers for the Discovery of Regions, Dominions, Islands, and Places Unknown,' one of the world's first joint-stock companies. Back then, in the mid-sixteenth century, England was a small and relatively insignificant kingdom on the periphery of Europe, and it had begun to face a daunting array of social, commercial, and political problems. Struggling with a single export--woolen cloth--the merchants were forced to seek new markets and trading partners, especially as political discord followed the straitened circumstances in which so many English people found themselves. At first the merchants headed east, and dreamed of Cathay--China, with its silks and exotic luxuries. Eventually, they turned west, and so began a new chapter in world history. The work of reaching the New World required the very latest in navigational science as well as an extraordinary appetite for risk. As this absorbing account shows, innovation and risk-taking were at the heart of the settlement of America, as was the profit motive. Trade and business drove English interest in establishing colonies, and determined what happened once their ships reached the New World. The result of extensive archival work and a bold interpretation of the historical record, New World, Inc. draws a portrait of life in London, on the Atlantic, and across the New World that offers a fresh analysis of the founding of America. In the tradition of the best works of history that make us reconsider the past and better understand the present, John Butman and Simon Targett examine the enterprising spirit that inspired European settlement of America and established a national culture of entrepreneurship and innovation that continues to this day."--Dust jacket.

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