I’m sorry I broke the rules but what were factories like during the beginning of the EIC’s conquest of India.
The First of half the book it talks about English and French “factories”. Just from context this doesn’t seem like the factories that I imagine when I think of a factory. A large building that takes in some raw good and makes a new output. That this is indeed a part of a factory but it seems like there is more to it. When they’re established here. The author does make separate mention of things like colonies. So my guess is it’s something between a colony and a single building I guess.They seem to be closer to forts or small towns in this context and I’m curious if anyone here can better describe to me what these “factories” were.
The whole thing just surprises me I never imagined some European going some where and saying hey can I build a factory here. But thinking about it that sounds like multinational corporations today they just don’t care about the colony part.
Your assumption that a "factory" was, essentially, a trading base – often one that was fortified – is correct. The term did not denote manufacturing in the modern sense; in the original usage, the term referred to the base of a "factor", meaning the person appointed by one of the various European companies based in India to manage their trade there. The earliest factories in India comprised a single building or small group of buildings, which would frequently be enclosed and walled; the Europeans would live there as well as work there; typically there would be ready access to the sea.
The word "factor" is Scottish in origin, and it originally referred to the man charged by a landowner with managing a landed estate; this usage dates to at least 1520, and the usage of "factory", in the Indies sense of the word, to 1582.
The modern and current usage of "factory" to mean a "building or range of buildings with plant for the manufacture or assembly of goods or for the processing of substances or materials" is later, dating to the early 17th century.
Sources
Oxford English Dictionary
John Keay, The Honourable Company: A History of the East India Company (2010)