magnitude

magnitude - noun - Size; extent; great importance or consequence; a number characteristic of a quantity and forming a basis for comparison with similar quantities such as length; the brightness of a star or other celestial body as viewed by the unaided eye and expressed by a mathematical ration of 2.512: a star of the first magnitude is approximately 2.5 times as bright as one of the second magnitude and 100 times brighter than one of the sixth magnitude

I think that definition is long enough to not warrant commentary, don't you?

factor

factor – A person who acts or transacts business for another; an agent entrusted with the possession of goods to be sold in the agent's name; a merchant earning a commission by selling goods belonging to others.

Obviously, the word has several definitions; I've given a couple that may be less familiar. In the ante-bellum South, such crops as cotton, tobacco, and indigo would be shipped overseas to a factor, who would then handle the sale. The factor might also purchase and ship back items that were not readily available in the states. This became a bone of contention in the states that eventually made up the Confederacy. Since the federal government in its pre-income-tax days was mostly financed by import tariffs, Southerners felt - with some justification - that they were bearing a disproportianate share of the burden.