In Hamburg, the Berenberg family formed part of the Dutch merchant colony.

Their descendants were prominent merchants in Hamburg, Lisbon and other European cities with Dutch merchant colonies, as well as in London.

Cantor was born in the western merchant colony in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and brought up in the city until he was eleven.

During this period, Assyrian merchants established a merchant colony (kârum) attached to the city, which was called "Kaneš".

Astrakhan at the mouth of the Volga was the first place in Tsardom of Russia where an Indian merchant colony was established as early as the 1610s.

The Berenbergs were originally members of the Dutch merchant colony in Hamburg and received the same rights as the Hamburg burghers in 1605.

In 1256 the commercial rivalry between the Venetian and Genoese merchant colonies broke out into open warfare.

In 734 BC Phoenicians from Tyre (Lebanon) established a flourishing merchant colony in the Palermo area.

Records from the 19th century BC attest to the existence of an Assyrian merchant colony at Kanesh in Cappadocia.

A significant number of Saxon miners and a large merchant colony from Republic of Ragusa lived within the town.