Trading post

A factory at Bathurst (Gambia) around 1900
A recreation of a typical trading post for trade with the Plains Indians

A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory in European and colonial contexts, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded.

Typically the location of the trading post allows people from one geographic area to trade in goods produced in another area. In some examples, local inhabitants can use a trading post to exchange local products for goods they wished to acquire.[1]

A trading post can be either a single building or an entire town.[2] Trading posts have been established in a range of areas, including relatively remote ones, but most often near the ocean, a river, or another natural resource.[3]

  1. ^ Trading post; Factory - Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, 1989
  2. ^ "Santa Fe | History, Population, Map, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2024-01-10. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
  3. ^ John C. Ewers, "The Trading Post in American Indian Life," Smithsonian Institution Annual Report for 1954 (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1955), 389-401.