The London Company (also called the Charter of the Virginia Company of London), established by royal charter by James I of England on October 26, 1606, with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America, is not founded as a joint stock company, but will become one under the 1609 charter.

The territory granted to the London Company includes the coast of North America from the 34th parallel (Cape Fear) north to the 41st parallel (in Long Island Sound), but being part of the Virginia Company and Colony, the London Company owns a large portion of Atlantic and Inland Canada.

The company is permitted by its charter to establish a one hundred-square-mile (two hundred and sixty square kilometer) settlement within this area.

The portion of the company's territory north of the thirty-eighth parallel is shared with the Plymouth Company, with the stipulation that neither company establish a colony within one hundred miles (one hundred and sixty-one kilometers) of each other.