Dutch Factorij and Other European Factories (1600s)
The establishment of Factories by other European powers along the trade routes explored by Portugal and Spain started in the 17th century, first by Dutch and then by England. 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 explored by Chartered companies like 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 between European companies and local populations and, increasingly, the colonies that often started as a factory and a few warehouses. Usually these factories had larger warehouses to fit the products resulting from the increasing agricultural development of colonies, which had boosted in the New World with the Atlantic slave trade.
In these factories the products were checked and got their first rough treatment, being weighed and packaged to suit for the long sea voyage. In particular, spices, cocoa, tea, tobacco, coffee, sugar, porcelain and fur were well protected against the salty sea air and against deterioration. The factor was there, 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). Given that information took a long time to reach the company headquarters, this was dependent on an absolute trust.
Some of the Dutch factories were in Cape Town (South Africa), Calicut, Ambon, Coromandel Coast, Colombo (city), Formosa, Canton, Mocha (Yemen) and Fort Orange (New York), Dejima, from 1641 to 1859 on an artificial island in the port of Nagasaki, Japan.
Read more about this topic: Factory (trading Post)
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