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##### Advice: Set Up No More for Yourselves, But Become Factors for Christ

{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…

Exhortation to Those Who Began the Heavenly Trade But Have Backslidden

Advice: Set Up No More For Yourselves, But Become Factors for Christ}

Do not set up for yourselves anymore, but engage yourselves as factors1333 for Christ. Possibly you formerly traded for yourselves, and that bankrupted you. If you want to prevent that danger in the future, do not work for yourself, but for Christ, trading as His factors, not as if self-employed.

Now three things are required of a factor, and these also must be observed by wisdom’s merchants if they expect to drive a thriving trade in godliness:

1. To trade with another’s stock of goods.

2. To be regulated by another’s advice.

3. To pursue another’s benefit.

1333In the modern age of cheap and reliable worldwide communications, the factor is largely obsolete. To avoid an awkward and misleading translation, the editor therefore deems necessary some explanation of the job of the factor. For a simple example, consider someone in the days of sailing ships and oxcarts, perhaps a well-to-do American farmer with cotton for sale who wants to buy household items not available locally. The farmer is aware that there is a market for cotton in Europe, and that European countries, likely England or France, will have the household items he needs. But he does not know who is buying cotton and at what price. He is unsure who is selling the goods he wants and at what price. He would even not know if they are available, and if so, in what kinds or styles. The farmer would therefore hire a factor and give him some general instructions about what he would like to buy. The factor would then be responsible to sail with the cotton, sell it, then use the money to go shopping for what the farmer wanted. He would then sail back with the goods and any leftover profit from the cotton, all for a stiff fee. Instead of sailing, he might send a letter to another, known factor overseas, achieving the same effect. In some cases, the factor might take out loans to purchase everything required, or engage the services of other factors. All of the parts of the job entailed a great amount of work. The factor’s responsibility and latitude in decision-making was great due to the limited amount of information either the factor or farmer had from last year’s roundtrip. Unlike the modern agent, customs broker, middleman, or cargo expediter, the factor had a much more responsible and important calling and much more discretion, but all in the client’s best interest. Sellers also, especially manufacturers and trading companies, extensively used factors, and for similar reasons. These factors could be stationed around the world and could be responsible for warehousing and other services, depending on the scale of the principal’s operations. Ashwood’s factor analogy fails at one significant point: the heavenly trader serves only one Principal.

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