The life of the charter of the society was to extend to December 31, 1874, with the possibility of extension of time, provided two-thirds of the bondholders present and voting declared such to be their desire. Should no extension be decided upon, the affairs of the company would be liquidated.
By article thirty-one of the statutes the society was to be constituted as soon as the subscription should reach $100,000, which was declared to have been achieved on September 26, 1854, when A. Brisbane and Godin-Lemaire subscribed $20,000 each, Considerant had brought to the society an undesignated amount.[15] Other people were to be urged to subscribe at least a million dollars for the proposed colony. In fact, before leaving Europe in the early part of 1855, Considerant was able to leave knowing that more than $300,000 had been subscribed for the project, and prospects were good for the total amount to go beyond $2,000,000.[16] Considerant reported that already more than $80,000 had been expended upon the first project of the company at the conclusion of the first year, 1855.
The above amounts were not merely investments in the form that we understand investments today, they were payments of “rights of participation.” That is, a man bought a certain amount of bonds and this gave him a right to lands controlled by the company and a corresponding right to draw from the company’s storehouse a certain specified amount of materials or food, or as Considerant himself said,
A third plan is based on the principle of co-partnership of different kinds of labor and industry united. In this system, each one co-operates to create a joint amount of stock and products, but each member draws a share proportionate amount of his capital and the value of his labor. In this combination a separate account being kept for each person I place confidence, and I should like to see some experiment made of it, under favorable conditions.[17]
The plan was apparently very much like the profit-sharing plan which many leading industrialists are placing into operation today, each employee being paid for his labor and, in addition, receiving an income from the money which he has invested.[18]
In order to raise money for the colony, Considerant realized that he had to depend upon the capitalists for a great deal of the money, to which many of his followers objected. However, Considerant pleaded for the co-operation of capital and labor. He wanted the capitalists to furnish the capital for an interest payment. The appeal for funds on the ground of gain was made directly to the men of affairs and not to the potential settlers; the settlers were to receive freedom, a home, and higher development. The capitalists and the company were to receive the profits. The company was to use the profits to purchase lands and transport additional colonists, and the capitalists were to use their money as they pleased. Considerant, in answering those who charged him with being friendly with the capitalists, said that he had to have money to operate his society and if the objectors knew any method whereby he might obtain the money without interest payment, or would mention someone to whom he could go to secure the money, even on interest, he would be glad to accept.[19]
The first proposal concerning capital was rather chimerical. As an hypothesis, the sum of $800,000 was taken as a reasonable amount for the promotion of the company. With this sum 400,000 or perhaps 300,000 acres of land were to be bought at the price of twenty-five cents per acre, and within two years 1200 colonists were to be permanently settled on this land. In addition the following estimates were made:
| Grist and sawmills | $ 6,000 | |
| Stocks of mechanics’ tools and fixtures | 5,000 | |
| Stocks of farming and gardening implements, including threshing and reaping machines | 8,000 | |
| Horses and wagons for transportation | 5,000 | |
| Building materials, seed, young fruit trees, vines, etc. | 35,000 | |
| 2,000 head of cattle | 20,000 | |
| 1,000 horses and breeding mares bought in Mexico | 16,000 | |
| Stallions, jacks, rams, mules, sheep, hogs and fowls of approved breeds | 20,000 | |
| Cooper’s shop, pottery, brewery, tanner’s yard and cheese dairy | 15,000 | |
| Transport, wages and maintenance of colonists | 60,000 | |
| Sum of expenditure during the first year | $190,000 | |
| For the second year—Transport of colonists | $ 20,000 | |
| For their outfit, additional tools and implements, the establishment of workshops and various branches of industry | 100,000 | |
| Making a total for the first two years | $310,000 | [20] |
Thus, there would be a balance of $400,000 in the treasury for further development of the colony. In order to make it easy to raise this money there were provided four ways in which one could invest, viz., (a) invest the money and reserve the right to participate in the movement later as a colonist, (b) to become a colonist, (c) gifts to be paid in installments, (d) people to act as commercial and colonizing agents.[21]
Such relations in a financial way would determine the status of a settler after he had arrived at the colony, and, of course, the settler’s own desire as to his relations with the colony would have some effect. The financial relations were to be determined by the formation of the following groups within the colony: