Sandys had been connected with the East India Company before 1614, and took an active part in its affairs until 1629. His most memorable services were, however, rendered to the Virginia Company of London, to which he became treasurer in 1619 (succeeding Thomas Smythe). He instituted a program designed to give investors and settlers incentive to emigrate to the New World. His program granted some of Virginia's land to the people who chose to live there, providing planters who had arrived before 1616 with one hundred acres each with settlers coming after 1616 getting fifty acres. He also sent several hundred tenant farmers to work land set aside for the company while urging the production of more than just tobacco for export.