The correct answer is D) the growing of tobacco.
The profitable colonial industry King James I was referring to was the growing of tobacco.
In Jamestown, Virginia, there was a man called John Rolfe. He was the first to grow tobacco in the American colonies. He brought some tobacco seeds from Trinidad in the Caribbean and started to cultivate tobacco. The success was immidiate. The Virginia plantations produced so much tobacco to internal consumption and for exportation to England. The product was well accepted in Europe and for many years, the economy of the colony was based in growing tobacco.