British King James I gave rights to the Virginia Company, a joint-stock company to settle a colony in the New World in the beginning. The Virginia Company was responsible for establishing the first colony in America. Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in America, founded in 1607.
The main reason for establishing a colony in America was for economic investment. In the 17th century, some of the European countries sending settlers to the New World for generating wealth for the Empires. England also entered in the competition to increase wealth and power by expanding its empire in America.
