Hello and welcome to a history of the United States, Episode 27, Letters from a Small Isle, Part 1.

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I want to begin this week with a listener question.

It comes to us from Twitter, from at NOC blog, who asks,

Why couldn't the pilgrims get food from Jamestown, which is a much closer and coastal boat trip?

This is a great question. I haven't really explored the relationship between Jamestown and Plymouth.

And this is a great way to deal with it. When we think of colonisation efforts, it's standard practice to think of it as countries acting,

and to a certain extent it is, we have England, Spain, France, and the other European heavyweights,

staking claims to the New World.

But this strand of imperialism is very different from the version of it which existed during, say, the Victorian era,

the height of the Second British Empire. The First British Empire is the one we're currently

witnessing the construction of, centred on the United States. The second British Empire is the one

which would be centred on India. But, as I say, that empire will not exist for some time.

What we have at the moment is not the English state colonising North America, but rather the English state giving out licenses to companies,

which would colonize North America on the state's behalf. At this point in history,

both Jamestown and Plymouth are controlled by two different companies, each with a different

set of investors back in London. They operated the colonies, they sent officials over, and they

funded the operations.

If a colony needed supplies, it would be the merchants doing it, not the state.

So while there are two English colonies on the North American continent, they have very

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