This institution was, in essence, a legal labor contract designed and enforced by the Virginia Company. It was intended to provide established American settlers with a stable workforce of European migrants who desperately wanted to cross the Atlantic but lacked the financial means to do so. Under the terms of the contract, the owners of the means of production would own the labor of these “indentured servants” for a period of years until their contractual debt was paid. This was an extremely profitable arrangement, largely due to the growing international demand for colonial crops such as: tobacco, indigo and rice. The institution of indentured servitude had further economic implications according to Davis W. Galenson, "once the legal basis of the institution was established, it could also be used to improve the functioning of credit markets for other purposes" (1984: 7). ; specifically, the holder of an indentured contract could use the labor of an indentured servant as collateral for other goods and services in the