Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

Get access

Factory (trading post)
(1,564 words)

1. Europe

The term factory was much more common in Europe in the high and late Middle Ages than in the early modern period. The Italian word fattoria, the etymon of the loanword, first appears in connection with the great Tuscan trading companies of the high Middle Ages; it denoted a fortified outpost or “branch” of a trading company in a foreign commercial center, headed by a factor (Italian fattore[6]. The network of factories of the great South German companies (Fugger family; Welser) with permanent offices in the major Europ…

Cite this page
Denzel, Markus A. and Häberlein, Mark, “Factory (trading post)”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_019104>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20180126



▲   Back to top   ▲