Due to the islands' isolation, for many years Bermuda remained an outpost of 17th-century British civilization, with an economy based on the use of the islands' Bermuda cedar (Juniperus bermudiana) trees for shipbuilding, and Bermudians' control of the Turks Islands, and their salt trade.
Bermudians turned from their failed agricultural economy to the sea after the 1684 dissolution of the Somers Isles Company.