Timoshka (asker) Mar 23, 2020:

@ Thomas T. Frost Based on your info, I did some searching online and found this reference: "A planned Swedish trade house, started by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder, half-finished and struck by fire in 1680, was finally completed to the plans of Nicodemus ..." So perhaps, if contoir = handelshus, then "trade house" might be a reasonable translation? I've also tried "house of commerce" and "commercial house," too...

Thomas T. Frost Mar 23, 2020:

Probably related to trade Contoir just means kontor. You can look it up at

https://ordnet.dk/ods/ordbog?select=Contoir,b&query=contoir :

'anv., om ældre, udenlandske forhold: handelshus'.

I found an example at

https://books.google.de/books?id=SaJSAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA727&lpg=P... .

'Landøkonomi' and 'commerce' are mentioned in relation to a 'Norsk Contoir'.

Tomasso Mar 23, 2020:

comptoir, alt. spellings? Comptroller och Auditor-general), just a possibility?

https://www.linguee.se/engelsk-svensk/översättning/comptroll...