Trading companies’ Middle Eastern ‘factories’ were trade centers leaving rich archival records

Evidence

The European trading companies set up what they called factories, not in the modern sense of places where things are manufactured but centers of trade, in a number of Middle Eastern cities, and these have left extensive records which are a very valuable source of information on economic history. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 764

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Distinguishes the historical meaning of ‘factory’ (a trading center) from its modern manufacturing sense.