FACTOR

(Lat. facio.) In Mercantile Law, a mercantile agent, who is entrusted with the po e ion of the properly which he is commi ioned to dispose of. Under the law which obtained previously to the pa ing of the iict 6 G. 4. c. 94. it was field that a factor, as such, had authority to sell only, and not to pledge, the goods of his principal; and consequently, that a party who had made a bona, fide advance to the factor on the credit of the goods was liable to restore them to the principal without his being bound to repay the advance. By that statute it is enacted, that any person intrusted, for the purpose of consignment or sale, with goods, , and in whose name such shall have been shipped, shall be deemed the true owner, so far as to entitle the consignee to a lien thereon in respect of any money or negotiable security advanced by such consignee for the use of the person in whose name such goods, . shall have been shipped; provided the consignee has no notice, by bill of lading or otherwise, that such party is not the true owner. Various other provisions are added by the same act, to the effect that persons in po e ion of bills of lading shall be deemed owners, so far as to make valid contracts; that no person can acquire a security upon goods in the hands of an agent for an antecedent debt beyond the amount of the agent's interest in the goods; that persons may contract with known agents in the ordinary course of busine , or out of that course, if within the agent's authority; that persons may accept and take goods in pledge from known agents; and a right is preserved to the true owner to follow his goods, while in the hands of his agent or agent's a ignee, in ca3e of the bankruptcy of such agent or a ignee. A factor has a general lien on goods consigned to him, not only for incidental charges, but as an item of mutual account for the balance due to him, as long as he remains in po e ion. In Scotland, the term factor is used synonymously with steward in England. Factor, in Arithmetic and Algebra, is the name given to each of the quantities which we multiply into one another in order to form (.facere) a product; that is to say, to the multiplicand and the multiplier. Factors are otherwise called divisors, especially in speaking of a number which is regarded as the product of several others. [s. 451]