I am not making enough money, help!!

[Sheogorath]

Ivory is generally the most valuable trade resource, so you should make it your business to rush the Ivory Coast and Madagascar if you're going for a trade empire. Maybe even help the competition to the door, being a polite superpower.

A few little wars never hurt anybody ;)

[Quillan]

Slight little side note on ivory: I've read (here) that the trade value of trade goods fluctuates based on several factors, including both the number of factions trading in that good as well as the total amount being traded. When I started my UP campaign, I spammed merchant ships, starting with Fluyts and following them up with Indiamen. By 1720, I had 4 spots in the Ivory Coast, 4 spots in the Straits of Madagascar and two spots in the East Indies taken up with trade fleets. Each fleet consists of 3-12 merchant vessels, most being 3-4. In this game, ivory is currently down to 13 in value; spices, cotton, tea, and even coffee are more valuable, probably because I'm monopolizing the source of ivory and flooding the market with it.

I'm thinking it's probably better to keep the trade fleets at no more than 4 trade vessels as well as not getting more than 4 total ivory spots in the hopes that the value stays high. I know in my GB campaign ivory and spices both stayed at around 22 value for the entire campaign.