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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Development of the Thirteen Factories

cities across Africa, Asia, and the Americas, exemplifying in Bengal adopted a distinctive Islamic style (Figure 3B).
the infrastructure of early modern economic globalization. Similarly, the factories in Ambon, Indonesia, and Nagasaki,
Factories varied widely across different regions due Japan, incorporated distinct local architectural elements
to variations in climate, environment, population, and (Figure 4).
culture, as well as the nature of interactions – cooperative As overseas trading posts established by Western
or antagonistic – between Western traders and indigenous countries after the Age of Discovery, factories functioned
peoples. Westerners designed these factories as fortified as economic nodes along global trade routes, serving as
complexes to facilitate trade, provide defense, and tangible manifestations of economic globalization. These
serve as multifunctional spaces for residence, storage, specialized establishments, situated in trading ports and
and business activities. Early factories often featured open communities worldwide, symbolized the intersection
distinctively castle-like elements, including surrounding of global and local influences. In their early construction,
walls (Figures 2 and 3B), soaring façades (Figures 3A and 4A), most factories incorporated local architectural styles,
and trenches (Figure 4B) to isolate their occupants from which were adapted and remodeled to fulfill the functional
local populations and minimize potential conflicts. The requirements of a trading post. This context raises several
spatial organization of these factories typically featured an questions: What local architectural prototypes influenced
enclosed layout with a spacious inner court that served as the design of factories in Guangzhou? How were these
a core space for cargo transportation and organization. designs adapted to meet the demands of global trade?
Warehouses were often positioned around this inner And what insights do these adaptations provide about the
court, reflecting influences from the architectural space broader process of architectural globalization?
of Mediterranean fondaco (Figure 1B). Watchtowers were
commonly integrated into the factory walls or positioned 3. Local prototype of the Thirteen Factories
centrally within the inner courts for surveillance and 3.1. Local hangs as a prototype for the Guangzhou
defense purposes. It is worth noting that, while the spatial factories
organization of factories was often inspired by fondacos,
their exterior architectural styles were largely shaped Hangs (行 [hang], or hong as pronounced in Cantonese)
by local influences. For example, the Dutch factory in were important commercial facilities in late imperial
Vengurla, India, displayed a distinctive “Hindu temple” China, functioning both as storehouses for goods and as
style (Pendse, 2018) (Figure 2A), while the Dutch factory intermediaries for buying and selling. To manage overseas

A B

Figure 2. (A) The Dutch factory at Vengurla, India (1678). Sources: Nationaal Archief, Den Haag; (B) The York Factory in North America (1853). Source:
Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1996-475-2
A B

Figure 3. (A) Dutch factory in Surat, India (1646); (B) Dutch factory in Bengal (1665). Source: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Volume 7 Issue 1 (2025) 4 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.3676