A company or guild of merchants in former times; an association of merchants trading with foreign parts; the merchant guild of a town; also, the…

A town or place, appointed by royal authority, in which was a body of merchants having the exclusive right of purchase of certain classes of goods…

A kind of action; one of the operations practised in any art or profession; also, in more comprehensive sense, a department of action, a pursuit…

An incorporated association of workers in the same craft or trade, having the monopoly and control of their particular occupation within a borough…

With plural agreement. A name given to the Merchants of the Steelyard.

the Steads n. ‘the Cities’ of the Hanseatic League; the Hanse Towns. Also, the corporation of Hanse merchants in London. Obsolete.

(See quots.) Obsolete.

A Chinese merchant permitted to engage in foreign trade; spec. any of the Chinese merchants at Canton (Guangzhou) having the monopoly of trade…