Following the Middle Ages, Constantinople (Istanbul), Barcelona, and the Italian commercial states assumed the role of trade intermediaries between the Orient and northwestern Europe.
As the first tribe upriver from Montreal, they had a strategic market advantage as fur trade intermediaries; in addition to trading pelts they obtained directly from the hunt, the Algonquin traded corn and furs from tribes in the North American interior for French manufactured goods.
The Portuguese settled on the peninsula in 1557, worked out a lease with the local Cantonese authorities, and proceeded to carve for themselves a profitable role that served them well for 100 years or so, as trade intermediaries between a closed China and a spice- and silk-craving Europe.
Ukraine's president has made a surprise breakthrough, by gaining Russian agreement to oust gas-trade intermediary RosUkrEnergo in favour of direct sales at the current price, which is less than two-thirds of the tariff paid by EU states.
The unusual legal and political position of the small independent duchy, situated in territorial isolation between two great empires, contributed greatly to its function as a trading intermediary.
Ukraine's political in-fighting, the existence of a controversial trading intermediary, its opaque system of gas distribution, the weakness of its law and the extent of corruption all make it vulnerable.
Given that it had started the day facing bankruptcy, it was something of a miracle.Founded in 1995, Knight has spent the past decade turning itself into a trusted trading intermediary for many of America's largest mutual-fund companies and retail brokers.
That translates into lost revenue for the trading intermediaries and savings for the small investor.
From about 1400 they acted as trading intermediaries between the forest states and the cities of the Niger.
Risky business Competition is all ReprintsIn this way the SEC wants to eliminate late trading by intermediaries.
