Mercenary Boxed Set Book 2: What is a "Factor"?

Yenaldlooshi

Cosmic Mongoose
In the Mercenary Boxed Set Book 2 on page 15 under Conducting Recruitment, I see sentences that say:
"A Traveller can conduct recruitment on their own or get a factor to do it for them. A factor provides a flat DM+2, whereas..."
and;
"This cost is in addition to a factor’s standard finding fee if one is used...."

From this, I can infer from context that "factor" means some sort of recruitment or employment agency, but I have never heard this term used in this way before. I don't see any reference on the internet for it used in this way.

Is this a Traveller term? Is this just my limited vocabulary? Is this one of the many "Britishisms" that crop up on Mongoose Traveller? (I had to research what a "prang" was at one point). I could not find this term defined in Mercenary, but it might be in one of the other books.

Educate me, please.
 
One possible definition of a factor is an agent, usually a business representative of some type. For instance, a small-to-medium sized merchant line might set up a warehousing subdivision on a planet which supplies goods the company regularly trades and place a factor in charge of buying said goods until the company can get a ship there to collect them. In the case you asked about, a factor would be used by the company to recruit new members, often while the majority of the company is elsewhere.

You can look here, under the first entry, for this definition of the word. It's not as commonly used in modern times, but that's mainly because education standards are no longer as rigorous about correct word usage.
 
A factor is a representative, and agent.
During the Age of Sail they would found trade stations in distant lands.
These became know as factories.


The way I introduced the career:

A factor is an individual who represents a megacorp or noble in everything from brokerage to negotiation to industrial espionage. He is a hands-on troubleshooter, trade negotiator, and business agent.

These are the people who travel the worlds of a subsector, learning the intricacies of the economies of each world, and studying what the markets have to offer.

These are the people who act with the authority of their patron, directing trade, deploying resources, all to the profit of their employer.

These are the people who sanction trade wars, industrial espionage, even small scale wars, in order to advance their patron's interests.

They are troubleshooters, merchants, diplomats...

and they all have to start out somewhere.
 
For 21st C Americans this usage of factor is a bit obscure, but it does pop up in some of the key sci fi sources for Traveller like E.C. Tubb. I think the first use of "factor" as agent in Traveller appears in CT Leviathan (1980). Given this, I wonder if this meaning is more common in the UK than in the U.S.
 
They probably were mentioned in classic science fiction stories.


Factory was the common name during the medieval and early modern eras for an entrepôt – which was essentially an early form of free-trade zone or transshipment point. At a factory, local inhabitants could interact with foreign merchants, often known as factors.[1] First established in Europe, factories eventually spread to many other parts of the world. The origin of the word factory is from Latin factorium 'place of doers, makers' (Portuguese: feitoria; Dutch: factorij; French: factorerie, comptoir).

The factories established by European states in Africa, Asia and the Americas from the 15th century onward also tended to be official political dependencies of those states. These have been seen, in retrospect, as the precursors of colonial expansion.

A factory could serve simultaneously as market, warehouse, customs, defense and support to navigation and exploration, headquarters or de facto government of local communities.

In North America, Europeans began to trade with Natives during the 16th century. Colonists created factories, also known as trading posts, at which furs could be traded, in Native American territory.
 
also mentioned in various fantasy (medieval) RPG settings that went into any detail on merchants/trade like Mystara did.. that is probably where I picked up on what they were. Though in the pre-internet days suppose we had to look it up in the home volumes of the Britannica haha.
 
Thanks everyone for you responses. Though I agree you have all found the intended real world analog for the term, I am thinking that the author's choice to use that term, for all it's archaic charm, instead of simply calling it a "recruiting agency", is a bit of trying to make a square peg fit a round hole.

Nowhere in the real world usage, do you see recruitment specifically mentioned. It is all just "doing business" or being a company for another company.
 
CookP7_005.jpg


Headhunters.
 
...instead of simply calling it a "recruiting agency"...

Even before this thread, I understood it to be referring to an individual not an agency. Similar to hiring a broker for the trading game.

I see it as a way of getting away from 21st century western nations IN SPACE, though I don't know if that was the intention behind the usage. Hire a trusted agent not go to the temp agency.
 
Factors exist as a form of mercantile plenipotentiary, useful when you have very long communications delays. The term factor implies a degree of autonomy that agent doesn't even though technically both are authorized representatives.
 
Curses! Out-autisted, even as I attempted to out-autist someone else!

--------

This thread is making me imagine "prestige careers," in the vein of D&D 3's prestige classes. Which is not a great recommendation for the idea, but as careers at least they'd be easier to balance than classes were. First Broker, then Factor.

Absolutely unnecessary, of course. The Broker career easily describes a factor, just by declaring it so. But it might still be a way to say something about a campaign setting if Factors were a named thing in character creation.
 
Broker 0 = Trader
Broker 1 = Broker
Broker 2 = Factor
Broker 3 = Majordomo

Not great but gives a feel for advancing in the career.
 
Look at the historical examples rather than current world.
Factors did recruit mercenaries.
I tried, I found none. Not saying they don't exist, but can you give some examples? I am asking because I have a keen interest in history but for some reason this term is a blind spot for me. Was it maybe the East India Company? Was it considered a "factor" in it's day?
 
Yes, the British East India Company is a good place to start, along with the Dutch East India Company and Dutch West India Company. Prior to these the Portugese established factories all over the world.
Factories
 
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And the practice goes way back from there. There are known examples of written communications between employers and their factors surviving from the Babylonian city-states. Although unless you can read several long-dead languages, the various "India Companies" are probably a much easier place to start.
 
Number 5 is what you are looking for.

fac·tor
[ˈfaktə]
noun
factor (noun) · factors (plural noun)
  1. a circumstance, fact, or influence that contributes to a result:
    "his skill was a factor in ensuring that so much was achieved" · "she worked fast, conscious of the time factor"
    • biology
      a gene or similar agent transmitted by heredity from one generation to the next:
      "the Rhesus factor"
  2. a number or quantity that when multiplied with another produces a given number or expression:
    "an amount that exceeds it by a factor of 1000 or more"
    • mathematics
      a number or algebraic expression by which another is exactly divisible.
  3. a level on a scale of measurement.
    • (with numeral) a sunscreen of the sun protection factor specified:
      "factor 30 sun cream"
  4. physiology
    any of a number of substances in the blood, mostly identified by numerals, which are involved in coagulation. See factor VIII.
  5. an agent who buys and sells goods on commission:
    "his father was chief factor for the Hudson's Bay Company"
    • a company that buys a manufacturer's invoices at a discount and takes responsibility for collecting the payments due on them.
    • SCOTTISH
      a land agent or steward:
      "the house became home to the estate factor"
    • archaic
      an agent, deputy, or representative.
 
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