factor

Factor comes directly from the Latin factor (maker, doer), from facere (to do, to make). In medieval and early modern commerce, a factor was an agent — someone stationed in a foreign port or distant market who bought and sold goods on behalf of a merchant who stayed home. The factor was the merchant's representative in places the merchant could not be. The East India Company operated through factors; their trading posts were called factories.

The word 'factory' comes from factor. A factory was not originally a place where things were made — it was a trading post where a factor worked. The Portuguese feitoria in West Africa and Asia, the Dutch factorij in Indonesia, the British factory in Canton — all were commercial offices, not manufacturing plants. The shift from 'trading post' to 'manufacturing plant' happened in the eighteenth century when production and trade merged under one roof.

In mathematics, 'factor' means a number that divides another evenly — from the Latin sense of 'something that makes or produces a result.' A factor of twelve is something that makes twelve when multiplied. In everyday English, 'a factor in the decision' means a cause or element — something that makes the decision happen. All these uses trace back to facere: to make, to do.

The commercial factor is now rare. Modern businesses use words like 'agent,' 'representative,' or 'broker.' But 'factor' survives in 'factoring' — the financial practice of selling accounts receivable to a third party at a discount. The factor buys your debts and collects them for profit. The medieval merchant's agent became a financial intermediary.