Factory (fur trade)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The factory trading post building at Fort Clark on the left which in turn was within a walled fort.

Factory was an English term for trading posts established in Native American Indian territory for the purpose of enhancing Indian trade with European colonists and, later, the United States. Factories often played a strategic role as well, sometimes operating as forts, providing a degree of protection for Indians and allied colonists from enemy Indians and colonists. Later factories established by the United States often served to protect Indians from American citizens.

Although "factory" is an English term, other European colonies established factory-type trading posts as well.

The head of the factory was called a factor.

[edit] United States

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 via a series of legislation called the Indian Intercourse Acts to protect Native Americans from exploitation. 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 Clark.

Usually a blacksmith was assigned to the factory to repair utensils and build or maintain plows. Frequently the factories had some sort of milling operation associated with them.

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

Factories were frequently referred to as "forts" and often had numerous unofficial names. Legislation was often passed calling for military garrisons at the fort but their defacto purpose was a trading post.y