Unknown to many people in related fields, the business of factoring has enjoyed a remarkable increase in extent and importance during the past decade. The origins of this specialized business service are lost, like those of many other modern institutions, in the Middle Ages. Then, as today, factors served manufacturers and traders by selling goods on consignment in return for a commission; but in recent years they have turned increasingly to the financing of sales by advances on merchandise and the purchase of receivables. In fact, they have taken over a substantial share of the business which commercial bankers used, often reluctantly, to handle for small manufacturing concerns.