A kontor (also Kontor) (English: ) was a major foreign trading post of the Hanseatic League.: 127 Kontors were legal entities established in a foreign city (ie. a city that did not belong to the Hanseatic League), with a degree of legal autonomy. Most kontors were also enclaves. They were located, in London (the Steelyard), Bruges (Kontor of Bruges, later moved to Antwerp), Bergen (Bryggen), and Novgorod (Peterhof). Smaller Hanseatic trading posts were called factorien, i.e., factories. The kontors were established as corporations or guilds of senior merchants from trade guilds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kontor