Research project European ‘Factories’ of the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800 The East India companies shaped the commodity trade from the 16th to the 18th century, organising their activities in Asia by building or taking over ports called ‘factories’. This project considers how these ‘nodes of capitalism’ functioned, and how commodities and information circulated. Print Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Visit the dedicated Project Website → This project has received funding via the EUI Research Council call 2020. Today a factory is a place of industrial production, but it owes its name to the pre-modern Asian trading ports headed by ‘factors’ where commodities for intercontinental trade were assembled, stored and shipped. This seed-funding project considers the connected system of 150 posts (‘factories’) controlled by the Dutch, English and French East India companies. These were the pre-modern hubs for the intercontinental movement of goods, people and information. This project asks what was the role of these European-controlled trading posts in forming an ‘archipelago capitalism’ well before the rise of 20th-century Special Economic Zones and world financial centres? This project asks: what were the economic activities and the commodities that passed through such factories? To what extent was this a mercantile ‘factory system’? How did such a ‘factory system’ emerge and develop over time? Who were the people involved in this network and how did they manage such a geographically articulated system? The factory system that underpinned European trade in Asia turned out to be remarkably long-lasting. Can we think of factories as ‘nodes of knowledge’ created by the movement of information, commodities and people? Did the trading factory system they developed carry other advantages such as those generated by ‘knowledge spillovers’ and ‘information flows’? The team Group members Trevor Burnard Director Wilberforce Centre, University of Hull View Jorge Flores Coordinator Researcher Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia, Lisbon View Anne Gerritsen Professor Global History and Culture Centre, Department of History, University of Warwick View Jos Gommans Professor of Colonial and Global History Institute of History, University of Leiden View Prasannan Parthasarathi Professor and Chairperson of the Department Department of History, Boston College View Tirthankar Roy Professor in Economic History Department of Economic History, London School of Economics View