English joint-stock company chartered in 1606 by King James I but named for the previous monarch, Queen [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Elizabeth I]]. In 1606-7, the company sent two expeditions to North America. One settled on the Kennebec River in what is now Maine and failed; the other settled on the James River at [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Jamestown]] and just barely succeeded. After losing about five out of six of its first several thousand settlers to starvation, disease, and Indian wars, the Virginia colony prospered when [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/John Rolfe]] introduced a [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Caribbean]] strain of [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Tobacco]] in the 1610s that thrived and found a market in England. However, the mismanagement of the colony and the outbreak of the [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Second Anglo-Powhatan War]] in 1622 caused a reassessment of the company's effectiveness. It was dissolved in 1624 and Virginia became a crown colony.