The same lack of economic opportunities within Bermuda had led islanders to abandon agriculture following the dissolution of the Somers Isles Company in 1684, and turn wholeheartedly towards maritime activities. Bermuda played key roles in settling the New World, especially the southern colonies of what would become the USA. Bermudian merchant families established branches in ports on the American Atlantic Seaboard, and used their social networks, merchant fleet and their control of the salt trade (with resulted from de facto Bermudian control of the Turks Islands) to achieve a leading position in the merchant trade through those ports.