I can't believe I am asking this but what all does Trade Rights do, or Trade work.

[Budwise]

At first (and this sucks because I left my manual at work and can't read it now) all I thought it did was make trade start between the two nations. Like, I will trade you tea from Britian for your French food delecasies. Then, someone once pointed out to get Merchants and send them to Timbuktu but make sure I have Trade Rights with the Moors first. Why do I need anything from the Moors? If I don't have trade rights with them, I can't get my foodstamps cashed in Slavery and Gold Smuggling trades?

Trading in General I have an idea how it works, I have beat the game on Short Campaigns so I figured it the basic out but do you trade everything thats in your territories automatically or do you need a Merchant there too? If its automatic, why do you even need merchants in your homeland? If I am at war with the Milans (God I hate them every game.) and send over an armata of Merchants to their land, does it help me and take away from them or something? Logically, this would make a point by denying them access because of a free market. For instance, if China outproduces crappy toys and cheap clothes to America, the cheap people who 0shop at Walmart won't buy American and American workers will lose their jobs (Okay Okay, tried to make a funny, not to be taken offensively.) I think that that would be a good strategy?

Also, Blockcades work at all? Lets just say you had one ship and you blocked London, I would by default if I was a person in the game ship my crap to the next town and use their port. The CPU doesn't use a tactic of Blockcading EVERYTHING. It would make since that blockcading just a port wouldn't do much but blockcading most of them would overwork the ports that are open and people in theory would screw up the paperwork and shipping orders or mix this product with that. Lots of funds over complaints and returns, not to mention spoilage would accrue.

Well, this long post will turn off some readers so like the Belle Palsy or Multiple Sclerosis attack that I am having in my Jawline, god is telling me to shut up.

[Ethelred Unread]

Hey, sorry about the jaw.

Check

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=81603

for a guide to merchants.

And as far as I can gather, merchants earn more when on a resource in a country where you have trade rights, though it doesn't seem to reduce the amount of money that the other country makes.

[Arcturion]

Having trade rights with a country will increase the amount of money you earn from each resource your merchants are sitting on in that country. For example, you will get much more money from each merchant you have sitting on the gold in Timbuktu if you have trade rights with the Moors (who own Timbuktu).

Besides controlling resources you can also build trade buildings to encourage general commerce, which goes automatically into your money pot every turn. It happens automatically for each province you own.

Most people don't use merchants in their homeland except to train them up. Merchants are better sent to far off resources to get maximum benefit.

You could send a boatload of merchants to Milan to offensively grab their resources, but it would be a waste of high level merchants. You could potentially be earning 1k per merchant in Timbuktu. Low level merchants would just get eaten up by Milan's own merchants.

Blockades work. All they do is cause your enemy to lose some income from trade, and for you to gain some small income from the blockade. Personally I think this is insignificant and I only blockade if I have a quest calling for it.

[Budwise]

I am not going to mass quote so where you see what you wrote, please feel good that I am giving you credit now, I really truly appreciate your input.

Having trade rights with a country will increase the amount of money you earn from each resource your merchants are sitting on in that country. For example, you will get much more money from each merchant you have sitting on the gold in Timbuktu if you have trade rights with the Moors (who own Timbuktu). --- Thank you, didn't know that.

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Besides controlling resources you can also build trade buildings to encourage general commerce, which goes automatically into your money pot every turn. It happens automatically for each province you own.

Most people don't use merchants in their homeland except to train them up. Merchants are better sent to far off resources to get maximum benefit.

I knew the first one but I kinda figured on my own the second one the way the CPU is. Thanks, I have had too many merchants in my own land

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You could send a boatload of merchants to Milan to offensively grab their resources, but it would be a waste of high level merchants. You could potentially be earning 1k per merchant in Timbuktu. Low level merchants would just get eaten up by Milan's own merchants. ---- Yeah, I wasn't really doing it for profit, just to help the war effort aganst Milan. I had plenty of money and I wanted their few pennies. I guess I was trying to more see if its possible than practical.

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Blockades work. All they do is cause your enemy to lose some income from trade, and for you to gain some small income from the blockade. Personally I think this is insignificant and I only blockade if I have a quest calling for it.------ I use blockcades all the time, it gives a use for my ships in the water. I do a poor job though and don't blockcade more than like three ports at a time.

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Hey, sorry about the jaw. https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=81603 --- Thanks, but I already read it earlier but it didn't really answer my questions. A worthy read though.

[Quillan]

Trade, aside from merchants, is handled in a rather abstract manner. Cities trade with other cities. The money made is dependent on things like the size of both cities involved, "trade goods" (a score modified by all the various improvements like trade harbors and markets), and resources. More money will be made when one province has a resource the other does not. This value is increased if the other city belongs to a different faction, but is cut in half if you don't have trade rights with that faction. You won't trade at all if you're at war with that faction.

Land trade routes are fixed, while sea trade routes are flexible; sea routes change every turn. A city has up to 3 sea trade routes, depending on the level of harbor that's been built there. Each turn it will trade with the most valuable cities it can. Sea trade is also influenced by distance. Close targets are worth more than very far targets; I assume the idea is that you can make many more trips in the time represented by a game turn when the two ports are close together.

Over in the Ludus Magna section of the RTW forums, they did some rather in-depth investigation of the trade mechanics a couple of years ago.