FACTOR

in commerce, an agent employed to do busine for another in buying or selling, or in the charge of preperty. A factor differs from a broker in holding a wider and more Giscretionary commi ion from his employer, in being able to buy and sell in his own name, and in having a lien on goods for his outlay. The ditfference, however, depends so much upon the usage of the particular trade, or upon the special instructions constituting the agency, that no exact line of demarcation can really be drawn between them. The term factor has in common usage generally given place to the terms agent and broker, the former applied in the more general, the latter in the more restricted sense. Tt is still retained in some special cases, as in that of house-factors and factors on landed property in Scotland, who have charge of the letting and general management of house property, farms, .; called in Hngland estate agents.