# List of trading companies

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Published: 2026-10-29T23:28:20.926Z

Updated: 2026-10-29T23:28:20.926Z

A trading company is a business that works with different kinds of products sold for consumer, business purposes. In contemporary times, trading companies buy a specialized range of products, shopkeeper them, and coordinate delivery of products to customers.

## Key facts

## Overview

A trading company is a business that works with different kinds of products sold for consumer, business purposes. In contemporary times, trading companies buy a specialized range of products, shopkeeper them, and coordinate delivery of products to customers. 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, 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".

## India

Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation MMTC Ltd State Trading Corporation

## United States

Archer Daniels Midland Bunge Cargill

## Trading systems

Globex Trading System DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract

## See also

Canton System Chartered company Commodity traders French colonial trading companies Fur trade Old China Trade Sogo shosha Spice wars Trade

## Further reading

Carlos, Ann M., and Stephen Nicholas. "'Giants of an Earlier Capitalism': The Chartered Trading Companies as Modern Multinationals". Business history review 62.3 (1988): 398–419. in JSTOR Ferguson, Niall. The ascent of money: A financial history of the world (2008). Jones, Geoffrey. Multinationals and Global Capitalism: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-first Century (2004) Lipson, E. The Economic History of England (1931) pp 184–370 gives capsule histories of 10 major English trading companies: The Merchant Adventurers, the East India Company, the Eastland Company, the Russia Company,  the Levant Company, the African Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, the French Company, the Spanish Company, and the South Sea Company.

## External links

Media related to Trading companies at Wikimedia Commons

## Sources

- List of trading companies · Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/?curid=43526954

Source: Wikipedia contributors — https://en.wikipedia.org/?curid=43526954&oldid=1378185420

Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Adaptation notice: Reformatted for XPay; the source may be abridged, restructured or translated. Consult the cited revision for the original.