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{{Short description|Transshipment zone (5th- to 19th-century name)}}
{{Other uses|Factory (disambiguation)}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2016}}
[[File:De handelsloge van de VOC in Hougly in Bengalen Rijksmuseum SK-A-4282.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|[[Dutch Republic|Dutch]] [[Dutch East India Company|V.O.C.]] factory in [[Hugli-Chuchura]], Bengal, in 1665.]]

'''Factory''' was the common name during the [[medieval]] and [[early modern]] eras for an [[entrepôt]] – which was essentially an early form of [[free-trade zone]] or [[transshipment]] point. At a factory, local inhabitants could interact with foreign merchants, often known as [[factor (agent)|factors]].<ref>Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Portland House, New York, 1983.</ref> First established in Europe, factories eventually spread to many other parts of the world. The origin of the word ''factory'' is {{etymology|la|factorium|place of doers, makers}} ({{lang-pt|feitoria}}; {{lang-nl|factorij}}; {{lang-fr|factorerie}}, {{lang|fr|comptoir}}).

The factories established by European states in [[Africa]], [[Asia]] and the [[Americas]] from the [[15th century]] onward also tended to be official political [[Dependent territory|dependencies]] of those states. These have been seen, in retrospect, as the precursors of [[colonialism|colonial expansion]].

A factory could serve simultaneously as [[market (place)|market]], [[warehouse]], [[customs]], defense and support to [[navigation]] and [[exploration]], headquarters or ''[[de facto]]'' government of local communities.

In [[North America]], Europeans began to [[North American fur trade|trade with Natives]] during the 16th century. Colonists created factories, also known as [[trading post]]s, at which furs could be traded, in [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] territory.

==European medieval factories==
[[File:Haupthandelsroute Hanse.png|thumb|Main trading routes of the [[Hanseatic League]].]]
[[File:Hansehausantwerpen.jpg|thumb|The [[Oostershuis]], a [[Kontor]] in Antwerp]]
Although European [[colonialism]] traces its roots from the [[Classical antiquity|classical era]], when [[Phoenicia]]ns, [[ancient Greeks|Greeks]] and [[ancient Romans|Romans]] established [[settler colony|colonies of settlement]] around the [[Mediterranean]] – "factories" were a unique institution born in [[medieval]] Europe.

Originally, factories were organizations of European merchants from a state, meeting in a foreign place. These organizations sought to defend their common interests, mainly economic (as well as organized insurance and protection), enabling the maintenance of diplomatic and trade relations within the foreign state where they were set.

The factories were established from 1356 onwards in the main trading centers, usually ports or central hubs that have prospered under the influence of the [[Hanseatic League]] and its [[guild]]s and [[kontor]]s. The Hanseatic cities had their own law system and furnished their own protection and mutual aid. The Hanseatic League maintained factories, among others, in England ([[Boston, Lincolnshire|Boston]], [[King's Lynn]]), Norway ([[Tønsberg]]) and Finland ([[Åbo]]). Later, cities like [[Bruges]] and [[Antwerp]] actively tried to take over the monopoly of trade from the Hansa, inviting foreign merchants to join in.

Because foreigners were not allowed to buy land in these cities, merchants joined around factories, like the Portuguese in their Bruges factory: the factor(s) and his officers rented the housing and warehouses, arbitrated trade, and even managed insurance funds, working both as an association and an embassy, even administering justice within the merchant community.<ref>Diogo Ramada Curto, Francisco Bethencourt, "O tempo de Vasco da Gama", DIFEL, 1998, {{ISBN|972-8325-47-9}}</ref>

==Portuguese ''feitorias'' (c. 1445)==

During the territorial and economic expansion of the [[Age of Discovery]], the factory was adapted by the [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] and spread throughout from West Africa to Southeast Asia.<ref>[[#Diffie 1977|Diffie 1977]], pp. 314–315</ref> The Portuguese ''feitorias'' were mostly fortified trading posts settled in coastal areas, built to centralize and thus dominate the local trade of products with the Portuguese kingdom (and thence to Europe). They served simultaneously as [[market (place)|market]], [[warehouse]], support to the [[navigation]] and [[customs]] and were governed by a ''feitor'' ("factor") responsible for managing the trade, buying and trading products on behalf of the king and collecting taxes (usually 20%).

[[File:ElminaCastle1668.jpg|thumb|left|[[Elmina Castle]] in modern-day [[Ghana]], viewed from the sea in 1668]]
The first Portuguese ''feitoria'' overseas was established by [[Henry the Navigator]] in 1445 on the island of [[Arguin]], off the coast of Mauritania. It was built to attract Muslim traders and monopolize the business in the routes traveled in North Africa. It served as a model for a chain of African ''feitorias'', [[Elmina Castle]] being the most notorious.

Between the 15th and 16th centuries, a chain of about 50 [[Portuguese forts]] either housed or protected ''feitorias'' along the coasts of West and East Africa, the Indian Ocean, China, Japan, and South America. The main factories of the [[Portuguese East Indies]], were in [[Goa and Damaon|Goa]], [[Portuguese Malacca|Malacca]], [[Ormuz]], [[Ternate]], [[Portuguese Macao|Macao]], and the richest possession of [[Portuguese Bombay and Bassein|Bassein]] that went on become the financial centre of India as [[Bombay (Mumbai)]]. They were mainly driven by the trade of gold and slaves on the [[Gulf of Guinea|coast of Guinea]], spices in the Indian Ocean, and sugar cane in the New World. They were also used for local [[triangular trade]] between several territories, like Goa-Macau-Nagasaki, trading products such as sugar, pepper, coconut, timber, horses, grain, feathers from exotic Indonesian birds, precious stones, silks and porcelain from the East, among many other products. In the Indian Ocean, the trade in Portuguese factories was enforced and increased by a merchant ship licensing system: the [[cartaz]]es.<ref>[[#Diffie 1977|Diffie 1977]], pp. 320–322</ref>

From the ''feitorias'', the products went to the main outpost in Goa, then to Portugal where they were traded in the [[Casa da Índia]], which also managed exports to India.<ref>[[#Diffie 1977|Diffie 1977]], p. 316</ref> There they were sold, or re-exported to the Royal Portuguese Factory in [[Antwerp]], where they were distributed to the rest of Europe.

Easily supplied and defended by sea, the factories worked as independent colonial bases. They provided safety, both for the Portuguese, and at times for the territories in which they were built, protecting against constant rivalries and piracy. They allowed Portugal to dominate trade in the Atlantic and Indian oceans, [[Portuguese empire|establishing a vast empire]] with scarce human and territorial resources. Over time, the ''feitorias'' were sometimes licensed to private entrepreneurs, giving rise to some conflict between abusive private interests and local populations, such as in the [[Maldives]].

==Dutch ''factorij'' and other European factories (1600s)==
[[File:Nagasaki bay siebold.jpg|thumb|[[Dejima]] island in [[Nagasaki]] Bay, first Portuguese and then Dutch factory]]
[[File:Hongs at Canton.jpg|thumb|right|[[Guangzhou|Canton]] "[[Thirteen Factories]]", c. 1820]]
Other European powers began to establish factories in the 17th century along the trade routes explored by Portugal and Spain, first the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] and then the [[England|English]]. They went on to establish in conquered Portuguese ''feitorias'' and further enclaves, as they explored the coasts of Africa, Arabia, India, and South East Asia in search of the source of the lucrative [[spice trade]].

Factories were then established by [[chartered company|chartered companies]] such as the [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC), founded in 1602, and the [[Dutch West India Company]] (WIC), founded in 1621. These factories provided for the exchange of products among European companies, local populations, and the colonies that often started as a factory with warehouses. Usually these factories had larger warehouses to fit the products resulting from the increasing agricultural development of colonies, which were boosted in the [[New World]] by the [[Atlantic slave trade]].

In these factories, the products were checked, weighed, and packaged to prepare for the long sea voyage. In particular, spices, [[Cocoa bean|cocoa]], [[tea]], [[tobacco]], [[coffee]], [[sugar]], [[porcelain]], and [[fur]] were well protected against the salty sea air and against deterioration. The factor was present as the representative of the trading partners in all matters, reporting to the headquarters and being responsible for the products’ logistics (proper storage and shipping). Information took a long time to reach the company headquarters, and this was dependent on an absolute trust.

Some Dutch factories were located in [[Cape Town]] in modern-day South Africa, [[Mocha, Yemen|Mocha]] in Yemen, [[Kozhikode|Calicut]] and the [[Coromandel Coast]] in southern India, [[Colombo]] in Sri Lanka, [[Ambon, Maluku|Ambon]] in Indonesia, [[Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan)|Fort Zeelandia]] in Taiwan, [[Guangzhou|Canton]] in southern China, [[Dejima]] island in Japan (the only legal point of trade between Japan and the outside world during the [[Edo Period]]), and [[Fort Orange (New Netherland)|Fort Orange]] in modern-day [[Upstate New York]] in the United States.

==North American factories (1697 to 1822)==
{{See also|United States Government Fur Trade Factory System}}
The American factories often played a strategic role as well, sometimes operating as forts, providing a degree of protection for colonists and their allies from hostile Indians and foreign colonists.
[[File:HS34 1.jpg|left|thumb|[[York Factory]], Manitoba, in 1853]]
[[File:Fort-osage.jpg|left|thumb|The factory trading post building at [[Fort Clark, Missouri|Fort Clark]] on the left, which in turn was within a walled fort]]

[[York Factory]] was founded by the [[chartered company|chartered]] [[Hudson's Bay Company]] in 1697. It was headquarters of the company for a long time, and was once the ''de facto'' government in parts of North America such as [[Rupert's Land]], before European-based colonies existed. It controlled the [[fur trade]] throughout much of British-controlled North America for several centuries, undertaking early exploration. Its traders and trappers forged early relationships with many groups of American Indians, and a network of trading posts formed the nucleus for later official authority in many areas of Western Canada and the United States.

The early coastal factory model contrasted with the system of the French, who established an extensive system of inland posts and sent traders to live among the tribes of the region. When war broke out in the 1680s between France and England, the two nations regularly sent expeditions to raid and capture each other's fur trading posts. In March 1686, the French sent a raiding party under Chevalier des Troyes over {{convert|1,300|km|mi|abbr=on}} to capture the company's posts along James Bay. In 1697, [[Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville]], commander of the company's captured posts, defeated three ships of the Royal Navy in the [[Battle of Hudson's Bay|Battle of the Bay]] on his way to [[Capture of York Factory|capture York Factory]] by a ruse. York Factory changed hands several times in the next decade and was finally ceded permanently in the 1713 [[Treaty of Utrecht (1713)|Treaty of Utrecht]]. After the treaty, the Hudson Bay Company rebuilt [[York Factory, Manitoba|York Factory]] as a brick [[star fort]] at the mouth of the nearby [[Hayes River]], its present location.

The United States government sanctioned a factory system from 1796 to 1822, with factories scattered through the mostly territorial portion of the country.

The factories were officially intended to protect [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]] from exploitation through a series of legislation called the [[Indian Intercourse Act]]s. However, in practice, numerous tribes conceded extensive territory in exchange for the trading posts, as happened in the [[Treaty of Fort Clark]] in which the [[Osage Nation]] ceded most of [[Missouri]] at [[Fort Osage|Fort Clark]].

A [[blacksmith]] was usually assigned to the factory to repair utensils and build or maintain plows. The factories frequently also had some sort of milling operation associated with them.

The factories marked the United States' attempt to continue a process originally pioneered by the [[France|French]] and then by the [[Spain|Spanish]] to officially license the fur trade in [[Upper Louisiana]].

Factories were frequently called "[[fort]]s" and often had numerous unofficial names. Legislation was often passed calling for military [[garrison]]s at the fort but their de facto purpose was a trading post.

===Examples===
In Canada, the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] created several factories,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Voorhis |first=Ernest |year=1930 |title=Historic Forts of the French Regime and of the English Trading Companies |url=http://www.enhaut.ca/voor1/voorhis.html#f8 |access-date=24 April 2016 |website=enhaut.ca/voor1 |publisher=Government of Canada}}</ref> including:
*Rupert House, 1668 (now [[Waskaganish|Waskaganish, Quebec]])
*Moose Fort, 1673 (now [[Moose Factory|Moose Factory, Ontario]])
*[[Fort_Albany_First_Nation#Hudson%27s_Bay_Company_Post|Fort Albany]], 1679 (Ontario)
*[[York Factory, Manitoba|York Factory]], 1684 (Manitoba)
*[[Fort Severn First Nation|Fort Severn]], 1685 (Ontario)
*[[Churchill, Manitoba#History|Churchill River Post]], 1717 (now [[Churchill, Manitoba]])

In the United States factories under the [[Bureau_of_Indian_Affairs#Office_of_Indian_Trade_(1806%E2%80%931822)|Superintendent of Indian Trade]]:<ref>{{cite web |title=Preliminary Inventory (PI 163) of the Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (RG 75), Washington, D.C. Area |date=1965 |access-date=19 June 2023
|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~texlance/records/bia(dc)2.htm#2 }}</ref>
*Creek:
**[[Colerain, Georgia|Colerain]], 1795–1797
**[[Fort Wilkinson]], 1797–1806
**[[Ocmulgee Old Fields]], 1806–1809
**[[Fort Hawkins]], 1809–1816
**[[Fort Mitchell, Alabama|Fort Mitchell]], 1816–1820
*Cherokee:
**[[Fort Tellico]], 1795–1807
**[[Fort Hiwassee]], 1807–1810
**[[Fort Wayne]], 1802–1812
*Choctaw:
**[[Fort St. Stephens]], 1802–1815
**[[Fort Confederation]], 1816–1822
*[[Fort Chickasaw Bluffs]], 1802–1818
*[[Fort Detroit]], 1802–1805
*[[Fort Arkansas]], 1805–1810
*[[Fort Chicago]], 1805–1822
*[[Fort Belle Fontaine]], 1805–1809
*Natchitoches—Sulphur Fork
**[[Fort Natchitoches]], 1805–1818
**[[Fort Sulphur Fork]], 1818–1822
*[[Fort Sandusky]], 1806–1812
*[[Fort Madison, Iowa]] 1808–1815
*[[Fort Osage]], 1808–1822
*[[Fort Mackinac]] (Michilimackinac), 1808–1812
*[[Fort Green Bay]], 1815–1822
*[[Fort Praire du Chien]], 1815–1822
*[[Warsaw, Illinois|Fort Edwards]], 1818–1822
*[[Fort Spadre Bluffs]] (Illinois Bayou), 1818–1822

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book | last= Braudel | first= Fernand | title=Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century: The perspective of the world | publisher=University of California Press | date= 1992 | isbn=0-520-08116-1 }}
*{{cite book | last= Boxer | first= Charles Ralph | date=1969 | title=The Portuguese Seaborne Empire 1415–1825 | url= https://archive.org/details/portugueseseabor0000boxe | url-access= registration |publisher=Hutchinson |isbn=0-09-131071-7 }}
*{{cite book|author1-link=James Tracy (historian) | last= Tracy | first= James D. | title= The political economy of merchant empires | publisher= Cambridge University Press | date= 1997 | isbn= 0-521-57464-1 | url-access= registration | url= https://archive.org/details/politicaleconomy00jame }}
*{{cite journal | last= Rau | first= Virginia | title=Feitores e feitorias - "Instrumentos" do comércio internacional português no Séc. XVI | journal= Brotéria | volume= 81 | issue= nº 5 |date= 1965 }}
*{{cite book | last = Diffie|first =Bailey| title = Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580| publisher=University of Minnesota Press|year=1977|isbn=0-8166-0782-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vtZtMBLJ7GgC|ref=Diffie 1977}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=641&term_type_id=3&term_type_text=Things&letter=F Wisconsinhistory.org definition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170317055044/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=641&term_type_id=3&term_type_text=Things&letter=F |date=2017-03-17 }}
*[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/492.html Chicago History]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Factory (Trading Post)}}
[[Category:History of international trade]]
[[Category:Medieval economics]]
[[Category:Age of Discovery]]
[[Category:History of European colonialism]]
[[Category:Empires|Colonial]]
[[Category:Overseas empires]]
[[Category:Economic history of Portugal]]
[[Category:Maritime history of Portugal]]
[[Category:Fur trade]]
[[Category:Hudson's Bay Company]]
[[Category:16th century]]
[[Category:Trading posts]]

Factory (trading post) - Revision history

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article