Factor (agent)

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A factor, from the Latin "he who does" (parallel to agent, from Latin agens), is a person who professionally acts as the representative of another individual or other legal entity, notably in the following contexts:

1 Mercantile factor
2 Colonial factor
3 See also
4 Sources

[edit] Mercantile factor

In a relatively large company, there could be a hierarchy, including several grades of factor, such as

Chief factor, e.g. Alexander Grant Dallas (1816-07-25 – 1882-01-03) was both Chief Factor of the west-of-the-Rockies portion of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Governor of Rupert's Land.

[edit] Colonial factor

In territories without any other 'regular' authorities, especially if in need of defense, the company could mandate its factor to perform the functions of a governor, of course theoretically under authority of a higher echelon, including command of a small garrison, notably

Bantam, on the Indonesian island of Java, since 1603 an English station established by East India Company; it had the following Chief factors:
- 1603 - 16.. William Starkey ; in March 1609 the Station officially becomes a Factory.
- 1613 - 1615 John Jourdain (1st time)
- 1615 Thomas Elkington
- 1615 - 1616 John Jourdain (2nd time)
- 1616 - 1617 George Berkley; next it became the Presidency of Bantam, under British Agents and Presidents (each two periods) till August 1682 when it was lost to the Dutch
16 June 1702 - 2 March 1705 Allen Cathpoole (d. 1705), the only incumbent of the settlement on the island of Pulo Condor off the south coast of Vietnam, founded by the British East India Company (HEIC), but totally destroyed within three years.

The term and its compounds are also used to render equivalent positions in other languages, such as:

Chief factor for the Dutch oppercommies, for instance of the Dutch West India Company on the Slave Coast of West Africa.
Chief factor for the Dutch opperhoofd (literally 'supreme head'; but also used for a Tribal Chief, as a Sachem of American Indians), e.g. in the Dutch factory (trading post) on Deshima (Dejima, or latinized Decima) Island.