We all know the story of the Pilgrims and how they came to America in 1620, fleeing religious oppression in Europe, landing at Plymouth Rock, and surviving a harsh winter to celebrate the harvest with their new neighbors, the Indians. But this is merely a back story for one of the greatest eras of business and international commerce in world history that began over 100 before the pilgrims, to when the Americas were first discovered by the Europeans.

In the 1400's English merchants were making a fortune in the wool trade, creating many shipping tycoons. But by the early 16th Century, Portuguese merchants started importing silk, cotton and cloth from Asia, taking a huge bite out of wool profits. English merchants scrambled to find a way to make up the revenue lost to competition with the Portuguese.

Looking for business opportunities they turned their attention across the Atlantic to Spanish America, where Spain had been aggressively colonizing both South and Latin America since the time Columbus discovered the New World. In this new world they sensed great opportunities to peddle their goods.

Unfortunately, the official Spanish trade policy, called Mercantilism, was radical protectionism on a scale we could never imagine. It prohibited colonists from buying goods that weren't both made in Spain and transported by Spanish ships. But there were two problems with this policy. Spain lacked an artisan class and it's goods were expensive and of low quality. Also, extremely high taxes and custom dues were imposed by the King of Spain.

This was the edge the English needed to break into the Latin American market. Privateers became extremely wealthy smuggling goods into the Spanish colonies. The English Crown also sold "Letters of Marque and Reprisal" to English Merchants, granting them the authority to legally invest in the business of Piracy against Spanish ships bringing goods to the Spanish colonies.

Of course, the Crown received 10% of all the goods plundered from the Spanish. This became a very successful business venture, with many merchants renting ships and hiring captains to sail the high seas. Contrary to popular lore, Pirates weren't considered outlaws by the Crown unless they neglected to pay their Pirating tax.

The heavy losses to Privateers and Pirates so enraged the Spanish that in 1588 they sent a naval Armada to England. In one of the greatest naval defeats in history, the Spanish lost most of their magnificent fleet. Up to that time, Spain had ruled the seas. From then on, the English Navy controlled the waterways and English merchants felt more secure investing in business in the Americas.

One of the first colonies established by the English was Roanoke, Virginia. Initially, Sir Walter Raleigh, a former Privateer and Pirate, funded a group of 150 men to travel to Roanoke to search for gold and silver. After a year, with no precious metals to be found, they packed up and went home.

Raleigh tried again, but this time instead of men, he sent 60 families hoping to create a colony with more stability. Four years after the settlers arrived in Roanoke, Raleigh died in England. Strangely, Raleigh failed to maintain contact with his settlers, so new investors in his company decided to send a ship to Roanoke to check on the colony. When the ship arrived, there were no settlers to be found. In one of history's greatest unsolved mysteries, they had disappeared without a trace.

The English subsequently concluded that colonization would require a different type of investment and management, with control diversified among a body of responsible partners. A group of English businessmen united to create a new entity, called the Joint Stock Company. This new creation was to be run by a Board of Directors, with each Board member responsible for selling stock in the company to investors. If the company were profitable, investors would earn dividends.

This was the birth of the modern Corporation, which exists in almost the same form today. Furthermore, to prevent securities fraud, Stock Markets were created in Amsterdam in 1600 and England in 1608. These markets were modeled on the Bourse, a type of commodities market that became popular in the middle ages. This new and exciting way to pool capital brought a flood of investors for companies to settle North America. Colonization was about to become big business.

New corporations run by adventurous English investors established many colonies in North America. These colonies were completely owned and operated by their founding English corporation, and the settlers were company employees. Settlers didn't just move to these new colonies, but were hired by them.

Many years later and after many significant changes, each of those colonies would join together to become part of another great experiment started by adventurous English colonists, which would eventually be called The United States of America. But that's jumping ahead in this story.

Around this time in Europe, the Catholic Church was having it's own problems with the Reform Movement launched by Martin Luther. In Switzerland, John Calvin started a Protestant sect based on a strict moral code. He preached that sexual immorality was the worst of all sins. He also advocated a strong "work ethic", taught that materialism and making money were not sinful, and that hard work would keep one pure and away from sin.

These radical notions were contrary to the teachings of the Catholic and Lutheran churches. Their clergy felt that to make a profit by selling goods was dishonest, and lending money for profit was usury. Calvin's belief in the "work ethic" attracted many converts, and Calvinism became so successful that missionaries were sent throughout Europe to convert the middle class.

The Puritans were an offshoot of the Calvinists, and they were very successful in England, becoming shopkeepers, merchants, bankers and landowners, and eventually they came to dominate many local governments. They opposed the Anglican Church, which was based on Catholic liturgy and rituals, launching a vigorous battle over morals in England. The Puritans were strongly opposed to drinking, gambling, dancing and wenching (social relations between unmarried men and women), and used their power to outlaw these popular activities.

This put the Puritans at odds with Calvinists, who believed in a strong separation of church and state. The Puritans would have none of that, and were determined to drive all evil influences out of England. The backlash from the nobles in the Anglican clergy was strong, and many laws were passed that restrained the Puritans from practicing their religion. These laws caused many Puritans to flee the country. Some went to the continent, but many went to Puritan dominated colonies in America.

One group of lower middle class Puritans, known as Pilgrims, moved to Holland and found an environment friendlier to their way of life. However, the culture in Holland was alien to the Pilgrims and they felt very uneasy living amongst such a strange people. After a few years in Holland, they rented a ship called the Mayflower and made arrangements to join their brothers in the New World.

In the fall of 1620 they set out for Jamestown, which was a colony established by the Virginia Company, now a successful Joint Stock Company. Unfortunately, fall was a poor time to cross the Atlantic, with very rough seas accompanying the onset of winter. The Pilgrims were blown way off course and landed at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. They quickly set up a colony in Plymouth, but without adequate food to survive the harsh winter in Cape Cod.

Realizing their desperate situation they set out to insure the survival of the colony by composing the Mayflower Compact. This was their constitution, and in it they gave birth to the concept of "one man, one vote". They also developed good relations with their new neighbors the Wampanoag Indians, who were very helpful to the Pilgrims that first winter, aiding them in their quest for food.

To survive, the Pilgrims became fishermen and fur traders, and when spring came they planted their first crops. They made one mistake however. Their farmland was community property and they expected each settler to do an equal share of the work. This didn't work very well, and many of the settlers slacked off with only a few doing the work.

This caused a great deal of fighting and a poor harvest. The settlers needed to rethink their communal arrangement. For their next harvest they gave individual plots of land to each settler and now everyone was responsible for their own survival. It was very obvious when someone wasn't doing their share and they suffered for their lack of initiative by their own hand.

That year the harvest was bountiful, with more food than they could eat. The Pilgrims reaped what they had sown and together with their friends and saviors the Wampanoag Indians, they had a massive celebration. This three-day festival was the very first Thanksgiving. But the full story of Thanksgiving is far from over.

The Pilgrims never planned to be on their own, and they didn't have a legal charter for their colony. Eventually, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, another Joint Stock Company owned by the Massachusetts Bay Company, absorbed Plymouth colony. In 1630 the company established the port city of Boston, and for sometime thereafter 5,000 Puritans were relocated from Europe to Massachusetts each year.

The Massachusetts Bay Company organized more towns throughout the colony. They instituted regular town meetings in each so company officials could address the settlers about the latest company rules and regulations. A strict Puritan code was enforced, and the company hired all magistrates, judges, police and other local officials. They also implemented a police informer network to make sure the settlers adhered to their values.

Many settlers objected to the oppressive atmosphere created by the company, but instead of being given a chance to generate support for their ideas, dissenters were quickly fired and expelled from the colony. Some outcasts went on to start their own colonies far beyond the reach of the company.

Roger Williams, who opposed mandatory church attendance, created Rhode Island and introduced the Baptist faith to the Americas. Anne Hutchinson, who demanded a role for women in the church, eventually settled in Suffolk County. And Rev. Thomas Hooker, who objected to the strict dress code and the police informer network, became the founder of the State of Connecticut.

The oppressive nature of the company and its abuse of authority eventually led to its demise. In the 1680's, a slave girl, who had organized a witches coven, accused many innocent people of witchcraft. This set off a frenzy of accusations across Massachusetts and by the summer of 1690 150 people had been arrested and 20 executed. The episode finally ended when the wife of the Governor was accused of witchcraft. The Governor promptly put an end to the trials.

But the damage was already done. By 1691 the Massachusetts Bay Company was liquidated and Massachusetts became a democratic colony. The town hall meeting became the cornerstone of the new democracy, and the Pilgrims principle of "one man, one vote" became law. The Pilgrims tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving also survived, and has been observed ever since.

That tradition was later to become an official holiday. In 1863, while the country was being rocked by civil war, Abraham Lincoln established the holiday of Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. In 1939, Franklin Roosevelt temporarily moved Thanksgiving back to the third Thursday of November to stimulate Depression-era Christmas sales.

The decisions to explore and settle the Americas were purely business driven. And the freedom to do so was achieved with military superiority. The Pilgrims - possibly the original Republicans - were very pro-business, but sought to maintain a strict social code. This policy served them well for a while, but just like today, they eventually loosened their code in the face of "competition" from neighboring colonies.

Periods of severe oppression have historically been followed by periods of great social or scientific growth, like the Renaissance. While tyrannical leaders can oppress a culture, the human spirit can't be stifled and will always gravitate toward circumstances that foster freedom and liberty. But the significance of this story is that, for the first time in human history, a society was built on the foundation of freedom, with unrestrained capitalism as its bedrock.

Some will always attempt to roll back our freedom, seeking those "simpler" times, when tyrants could easily rule the world. But the success of those weary travelers almost 400 years ago changed everything. They paved the way for the society we have today, and most certainly they would be proud.

Any society that seeks to protect freedom and liberty must be built on a pro-capitalist pro-corporate foundation. This is merely the people exercising their freedom of association through business, the backbone of America. So when, over dinner on Thursday, your relatives try to tear down our corporate culture as being anti-American, you can confidently tell them that they obviously are not familiar with American history or who founded this country.

These days, many people defame corporations without realizing that they are even more American than apple pie. While some companies have their flaws, just as people do, we can't ignore the reality that without the creation and proliferation of the corporation, this country wouldn't be what it is, and might never have existed at all.

Happy Thanksgiving!