Sir Thomas Dale arrived and spotted the probem immediately. He stepped into the midst of the discouraged colonists who had no reason to make their new home and life succeed. He diagnosed the problem and proposed the solution: give the men an investment in the land. Let them own property.
Without asking permission from the settlement's shareholders, Dale gave three acres of land to those men who had been there the longest. Those who had been there fewer years received less but were still given a parcel of land to call their own. Dale asked only that, in return, they provide two barrels of corn for the storehouse at harvest time.
What do you think happened? The settlers were delighted. They stopped hunting for gold and set about clearing their land, plowing their land, planting, fertilizing, watering their land.
By that fall, the storehouse was filled to capacity thanks to the two-barrel tax. The people were alive. Tabacco was introduced later, and the once failing colony took off.
(This and the previous two posts came from W. Cleon Skousen's THE FIVE THOUSAND YEAR LEAP. Read it if you have a chance. It's excellent.)
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