Does any one know how a port goes from very poor to wealthy?

[ZIM!!]

I have numerous ports through out the world but it seems they are all, except for my port in my home province of UP are either very poor or poor, even though most of my port provinces are maxed out some containing more than one town and containing just as much industry and plantations as my home province the port is a maxed out commercial port but still very poor. Is this a bug?

Any ideas?

[A Very Super Market]

Taxes and growth, and maybe trade? Honestly, it doesn't seem to make any difference. Same with factories, farms, and the other special ones.

[Belid Hagen]

time and improved technology

[ZIM!!]

Yeah Im nearly all the way up the tech tree its like about 1750-1760 all the poor ports are maxed out commercially the assets in the region are maxed out the roads are maxed out.

But I read somewhere that it might be because there no trade route there is in fact no dotted line coming out of my ports, maybe thats it... is there a way to get the dotted line? I figured if you had a commercial port it formed automatically

[Belid Hagen]

Yeah Im nearly all the way up the tech tree its like about 1750-1760 all the poor ports are maxed out commercially the assets in the region are maxed out the roads are maxed out.

But I read somewhere that it might be because there no trade route there is in fact no dotted line coming out of my ports, maybe thats it... is there a way to get the dotted line? I figured if you had a commercial port it formed automatically

trade agreements

[ZIM!!]

I am maxed out there too I have a total of 5 trade agreements the game will not let me have more, Does 5 agreements sound too low?

[Liberator]

time and improved technology

love and understanding

[andrewt]

What Anweru said is correct. Also, the ports/towns in the Americas, especially the towns, are poor more often than not. It makes the Americas a good region to build schools in. Since a lot of them have low tax income, you won't be losing much from exempting them from tax to counteract the schools as well. You'll still get your trade income from them. If you want to build dockyards, build them on the poorer ports as well.

[quadalpha]

All towns have a wealth rating. This increases with certain buildings (you'll see +x town wealth in the description). Revenue producing buildings produce more revenue as they get wealthier, and you can only build modern universities in "prosperous" towns.

Edit: Also, lowering upper/middle class taxes helps. Go look at the policy page.