Despite these contemporary laments and the colony's erratic career, the permanent establishment of Virginia did provide the platform for the furtherance of English territorial ambitions, for the negotiation of the relationship between the metropolitan government and its colonies and, as we shall see in Chapter 6, for the development of Anglo-American colonial societies. As we have seen in the case of Virginia, a manifest degree of imperial impetus for overseas colonization did come from the Crown, even in 1606. Moreover, in addition to continuing to issue charters to the various entities which sponsored an explosion of colonial ventures between 1624 and 1663, various English governments, always with a close eye on their revenues, tried to bring the tobacco trade under closer control, culminating in the enactment of the first ‘Navigation Acts’ in 1651.

At the same time, the history of empire offers a further illustration of the extent of the grasp – and the limits of the reach – of the English state prior to the restoration of Charles II, particularly thanks to the fluid character of that state, especially prior to 1642.