A trading company is a

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." Having a business name does not separ ...

that works with different kinds of products sold for

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

, business purposes. In contemporary times, trading companies buy a specialized range of products,

shopkeeper A shopkeeper is a retail merchant or tradesman; one who owns or operates a small store or shop. Generally, shop employees are not shopkeepers, but are often incorrectly referred to as such. At larger companies, a shopkeeper is usually referred ...

them, and coordinate delivery of products to

customer In sales, commerce, and economics, a customer (sometimes known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a good, service, product or an idea - obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier via a financial transaction or exchan ...

s. Trading companies may connect buyers and sellers, but not partake in the ownership or storage of goods, earning their revenue through sales commissions. They may also be structured to engage in commerce with foreign countries or territories. During times of

colonization Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...

, some trading companies were granted a charter, giving them "rights to a specific territory within an area claimed by the authority granting the charter including legal title, a monopoly of trade, and governmental and military jurisdiction".

Trading companies

* Afghan-German Trading Company * African & Eastern Trade Corporation * Augustine Heard & Co. * Austrian East India Company * Barbary Company *

Bergen Greenland Company The Bergen Greenland Company ( da, Det Bergen Grønlandske CompagnieOswalt, Wendell H. Eskimos and Explorers'. Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1999.) or Bergen Company (''Bergenkompagniet''Culture Greenland.." Sisimiut Museum. Accessed 2 May 2012.) was a D ...

* Black Sea Trade Company (Trade Company Poland) * Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation *

Compagnie de Chine The Compagnie de Chine was a French trading company established in 1660 by the Catholic society Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement, in order to dispatch missionaries to Asia (initially Bishops François Pallu, Pierre Lambert de la Motte and Ignace Cotol ...

* Compagnie de Saint-Christophe * Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique *

Compagnie du Nord The (also referred to as the Northern Company) was a French colonial fur-trading company, founded in Québec City 1682 by a group of Canadien financiers with the express intent of competing with the English Hudson's Bay Company. It was founded by C ...

* Company of the Moluccas * Company of Habitants *

Company of One Hundred Associates The Company of One Hundred Associates ( French: formally the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France, or colloquially the Compagnie des Cent-Associés or Compagnie du Canada), or Company of New France, was a French trading and colonization company ch ...

* Company of Scotland * Comprador * Courteen association * Danish East India Company *

Danish West India Company The Danish West India Company () or Danish West IndiaGuinea Company (') was a Dano-Norwegian chartered company that operated out of the colonies in the Danish West Indies. It is estimated that 120,000 enslaved Africans were transported on the c ...

* David Sassoon & Co. * Dent & Co. * Dieppe Company * Dodwell & Co. *

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ...

* E.D. Sassoon & Co. *

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

French East India Company The French East India Company (french: Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales) was a colonial commercial enterprise, founded on 1 September 1664 to compete with the English (later British) and Dutch trading companies in th ...

* French West India Company * General Trade Company * Gibb, Livingston & Co. * Grand Anadolu İnternational Commodity Trading House *

Guinea Company (London) The Company of Adventurers of London Trading to the Ports of Africa, more commonly known as "the Guinea Company" was a private joint stock company founded to trade in Africa for profit. It was a trading company trading in slaves,Hugh Thomas, ''The ...

* Guinea Company of Scotland * Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas *

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

Hutchison Whampoa Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) was an investment holding company based in Hong Kong. It was a Fortune Global 500 company and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. HWL was an international corporation with a di ...

* Indonesia Trading Company * Jardine Matheson * Kaptallah *

King George's Sound Company The King George's Sound Company, also known as Richard Cadman Etches and Company after its "prime mover and principal investor", was an English company formed in 1785 to engage in the maritime fur trade on the northwest coast of North America. The ...

Kunst and Albers Kunst and Albers (German: Kunst und Albers, Russian: Кунст и Альберс) or Kunst & Albers was a German trading company in Russia. Founded by Gustav Kunst, a merchant, and Gustav Albers, a sailor, it operated the first department store ...

* Lamson & Hubbard Trading Company *

Levant Company The Levant Company was an English chartered company formed in 1592. Elizabeth I of England approved its initial charter on 11 September 1592 when the Venice Company (1583) and the Turkey Company (1581) merged, because their charters had expired ...

Li & Fung Li & Fung Limited is a Bermuda-incorporated, Hong Kong-based supply chain manager. In 2020, it was reportedly struggling to turn its century-old business around for years. On 13 February 2017, it was removed from the blue chip index: Hang Seng ...

* London and Bristol Company *

London Company The London Company, officially known as the Virginia Company of London, was a division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for colonizing the east coast of North America between latitudes 34° and 41° N. History Origins The territo ...

* Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie *

Mississippi Company The Mississippi Company (french: Compagnie du Mississippi; founded 1684, named the Company of the West from 1717, and the Company of the Indies from 1719) was a corporation holding a business monopoly in French colonies in North America and t ...

MMTC Ltd MMTC Ltd., Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India, is one of the two highest earners of foreign exchange for India and India's largest public sector trading body. Not only handling the export and import of primary products such as co ...

* Muscovy Company, English trading company chartered in 1555 as the first major chartered joint stock company *

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

* Northern Traders Company * Northwest Cameroon Company * Olyphant & Co. *

Portuguese East India Company The Portuguese East India Company ( pt, Companhia do commércio da Índia or ) was a short-lived and ill-fated attempt by Philip III of Portugal, to create a chartered company to ensure the security of their interests in India, in the face of t ...

Royal African Company The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English mercantile ( trading) company set up in 1660 by the royal Stuart family and City of London merchants to trade along the west coast of Africa. It was led by the Duke of York, who was the brother ...

Royal Greenland Trading Department The Royal Greenland Trading Department ( da, Den Kongelige Grønlandske Handel, KGH) was a Danish state enterprise charged with administering the realm's settlements and trade in Greenland. The company managed the government of Greenland from 1774 ...

* Royal Philippine Company * Samuel Samuel & Co * Serapis Global Company * Shewan, Tomes & Co. * Society of Berbice * Society of Suriname * Somers Isles Company * South Cameroon Company * Swedish East India Company * Swedish South Company * Swedish West India Company * Virginia Company

By country

Philippines

* Amaggi Group

Japan

* Hartz Mountain Corporation * Inabata & Co., Ltd. *

Itochu is a Japanese corporation based in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka and Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo. It is one of the largest Japanese '' sogo shosha'' (general trading companies). Among Japanese trading companies, it is distinguished by not being descend ...

* JEM Industries Corp *

Marubeni (, OSE: 8002, NSE: 8002) is a '' sōgō shōsha'' (general trading company) headquartered in Nihonbashi, Chuo, Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the largest ''sogo shosha'' and has leading market shares in cereal and paper pulp trading as well as a s ...

* Mitsubishi Corporation * Mitsui & Co. *

Sogo shosha are Japanese companies that trade in a wide range of products and materials. In addition to acting as intermediaries, ''sōgō shōsha'' also engage in logistics, plant development and other services, as well as international resource explorat ...

* Sojitz Corporation *

Sumitomo Corporation is one of the largest worldwide ''sogo shosha'' general trading companies, and is a diversified corporation. The company was incorporated in 1919 and is a member company of the Sumitomo Group. It is listed on three Japanese stock exchanges ...

Toyota Tsusho is a sōgō shōsha (trading company), a member of the Toyota Group. Toyota Tsusho has a worldwide presence through its many subsidiaries and operating divisions, including over 150 offices, and 900 subsidiaries and affiliates around the world. ...

Türkiye

* Grand Anadolu İnternational Commodity Trading House

South Korea

* POSCO International *

Hyundai Corporation Hyundai Corporation () is a South Korean company founded in 1976 as part of the Hyundai '' chaebol''. It is a general trading company providing export and import services with a wide variety of products including marine vessels, industrial plant ...

* LG Corporation *

Samsung C&T Corporation Samsung C&T Corporation ("Construction & Trading Corporation"; formerly Samsung Corporation; Korean: 삼성물산), is a South Korean construction and engineering company. It was founded in 1938 as the first Samsung company and was initially i ...

* SK Networks

Oil traders

* Chemoil * DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract *

Glencore Glencore plc is a Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland. Glencore's oil and gas head office is in London and its registered office is in Saint Helier, Jersey. The current company wa ...

Gunvor Gunvor Group Ltd is a Cypriot-domiciled multinational commodity trading company registered in Cyprus, with its main trading office in Geneva, Switzerland. Gunvor also has trading offices in Singapore, the Bahamas, and Dubai, with a network of r ...

* Mercuria Energy Group *

MOL Group MOL Plc. ( hu, Magyar OLaj- és Gázipari Részvénytársaság, lit=Hungarian Oil and Gas Public Limited Company), also commonly known as MOL Group, is a Hungarian multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. Members of ...

* Salam Investment *

Trafigura Trafigura Group Pte. Ltd. is a Singaporean-based Swiss multinational commodity trading company founded in 1993 that trades in base metals and energy. It is the world's largest private metals trader and second-largest oil trader having built or ...

* Vitol * Vopak

References

External links

* {{commonscat-inline, Trading companies * Distribution (marketing) Trading