Individuals often worked to promote and fund exploration and to publish the results it produced through companies and societies, which provided for an organized structure, often centered around dues and subscription fees, and were generally founded by wealthy, upper-class men who embodied the best that 18th century education, science and social connections could provided. Whether the principal motivation was profit, such as was the case for the Royal African Company, intellectual advancement, as for the African Association, or social change, as for the Sierra Leone Company, the quickest ans surest way for companies to proceed was by using government connections and/or funds to pave the way for larger projects.