China: 'The Hongs or Foreign Factories by the Pearl River in Canton'. Gouache on Vellum. Anonymous German painter, 1850

Factory was the English term for the trading posts system originally established by Europeans in foreign territories, first within different states of medieval Europe, and later in their colonial possessions.

Factories served simultaneously as market, warehouse, customs, defense and support to the navigation or exploration, headquarters or de facto government of local communities, with the head of the factory being called a factor.

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