Before revision: Because foreigners were not allowed to buy land in these cities, merchants joined around factories, like the Portuguese in their Bruges factory: the factor(s) and his officers rented the housing and warehouses, arbitrated trade, and even managed insurance funds, working both as an association and an embassy, even administering justice within the merchant community.Diogo Ramada Curto, Francisco Bethencourt, "O tempo de Vasco da Gama", DIFEL, 1998, Portuguese feitorias (c. 1445) During the territorial and economic expansion of the Age of Discovery, the factory was adapted by the Portuguese and spread throughout from West Africa to Southeast Asia.Diffie 1977, pp.
After revision: Because foreigners were not allowed to buy land in these cities, merchants joined around factories, like the Portuguese in their Bruges factory: the factor(s) and his officers rented the housing and warehouses, arbitrated trade, and even managed insurance funds, working both as an association and an embassy, even administering cases as a judge within the merchants' community.Diogo Ramada Curto, Francisco Bethencourt, "O tempo de Vasco da Gama", DIFEL, 1998, Portuguese feitorias (c. 1445) During the territorial and economic expansion of the Age of Discovery, the factory was adapted by the Portuguese and spread throughout from West Africa to Southeast Asia.Diffie 1977, pp.