MTW Trade

Introduction

Trade is not as reliable as farming for income, but once set up it can generate great wealth. It requires a lot of infrastructure and preparation, but the reward is worth it.

Trade Requirements

Trade income is computed on a per province basis. To participate in trade, a province must have at least one trade good. This will allow the province to construct the trading line buildings, which are required for any trade income to be received. On it's own, a province with a trading building will generate a small amount of income through local trade.

The real money comes from expanding the trade with other factions. This is done with shipping trade routes. With a Port and ships creating trade routes, the province will generate trade income for each neutral or allied province that has a Port on one of the sea regions in the trade routes.

To open a trade route between two provinces, an uninterrupted line of ships needs to be established connecting the ports of the provinces. An enemy ship will make a sea region unusable for trade. No other action is needed, trade will occur automatically for for all applicable provinces and trade goods.

Trade only occurs between provinces of allied or neutral factions. Provinces owned by the same faction do not trade. If both provinces have the same trade good, no trade income will come from that trade good.

Local Trade

If a trade building is built in a province, then that province will earn income from local trade, regardless of the availability of valid trade routes. This income is equal to the value of the trade goods located in the province, adjusted by the trade building level, tax rate, and leader attributes.

For landlocked provinces, local trade is the only trade possible.

Trade Income

MTW Trade Goods and VI Trade Goods show the base values for trade goods in the MTW campaigns. These values are from the campaign startpos files. The base income for each trade good is actually 52% of the values in the startpos file.

Building Effects

The base level trading building gives 100% of the value of traded goods in the province. Each higher level building adds an additional 20% to the income.

Tax Effects

The tax level of a province will affect the amount of trade income generated.

• Very Low 75%
• Low 90%
• Normal 100%
• High 110%
• Very High 125%

Governor and Faction Leader Effects

Each level of a governor's acumen adds 1% to the trade income of a province. The faction leader's acumen will add 2% per level to the trade across the kingdom.

Vices and Virtues can also affect the trade income for both the faction leader and province governor.

Import Income

Trade routes also benefit the destination province. A percentage of the trade good value is earned as an import tax.

The import percentage is determined from the startpos file for the campaign, with the SetImportPercentage setting. In both the grand campaign and the Viking campaign, the import percentage is set to 20%.

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TBD - what order are percentages applied for tax, acumen and VnVs?

Import income is probably not correct.