How Trade works

[andrewt]

These are from my observations so far:

There are 3 components to your trade income, exports of resources, exports of other goods and a bonus for how long you've traded with a certain faction.

1. Exports of resources are based on how many resources you control. This component of trade, I've noticed, doesn't change even if you add new trading partners. If you have 15 barrels of tea and 1 partner, you export all 15 to that partner. If you have 3 partners, the 15 are divided among your 3 partners.

The one I don't get is how many resources you export. For example, I'm playing UP and exporting tea from Ceylon. However, the number of barrels of tea I'm exporting is larger than the one my plantation says. I'm suspecting some technologies or port upgrades play a part in this. What the modifier is, I can't understand.

For this resource, your income is essentially how many barrels of tea, etc. you're exporting multiplied by the price listed on your trade screen. Furthermore, it seems the province doing the exporting also gains some of it as province income. So you get 2 sources of income on exports, the exports themselves and the tax on them that gets added to province income. However, it doesn't seem to always be consistent.

2. For every trade partner, there's a component called other goods. To me, this looks like pure profit and each partner gets one. I don't think it's divided by number of trade partners so this is a benefit for trading with more trade partners.

In my UP game, I'm exporting a similar amount to all my trade partners. It's generally within 10-20% of each other, no matter how many resources I'm exporting to them. I don't know how this goes up, I'm guessing with technologies and just having the value go up as time passes in the game.

3. The last one is a bonus for how long you've been trading with a certain faction. Each turn, it goes up. Unlike number 2, it seems how many resources you trade to the other faction partly determines how fast the bonus goes up. I don't think it purely determines it, so I believe this still goes up with having multiple trade partners.

[Fondor_Yards]

1. The modifying factor as far as I can tell is the plantation wealth.

2. I assume the 'other goods' are the products of all your carpet weavers, factories, and such on.

[andrewt]

I wonder what port upgrades do, then, aside from increase province income. The number of trade routes thing seems to be capital province only. I'm wondering if increases quality of exports is a similar thing. I thought it affected it on a per province basis.

[Gaiseric]

it seems that you trade more other goods with major nations than you do with minors. I am not sure what affects the number of other goods that is traded. maybe population? territories?

[A Very Super Market]

Probably population.

Trading with the UP gives me 700
Trading with Savoy gives me 600
Trading with Ottomans gives me 1500

It is probably population, size, and whatnot.

[andrewt]

That's not the case with my game. My highest other goods is Westphalia with 1291. My lowest is Ottoman with 1161.

[MikeV]

Probably population.

That's my guess, too. Seems like they want to encourage farm building again, since so many folks developed allergies to them in R:TW (where the squalor levels got to be obnoxious).

[Liberator]

it seems that you trade more other goods with major nations than you do with minors. I am not sure what affects the number of other goods that is traded. maybe population? territories?

Supply? Demand?!

[jonny]

Do all these factors still hold true now after the patches?

[Slaists]

Do all these factors still hold true now after the patches?

Well, not entirely. He's a quick summary:

1. Trade ports can only export a certain amount of goods. So, if you have two land-connected provinces both producing sugar sharing one port, it is likely that the product of only one of the provinces will be exported. It seems, now one needs to invest more in trade ports. Also, the amount that a port can export goes up as the port level gets upgraded.

2. It appears, regardless how many trade ports a faction's main province has; if one of the trade ports is blockaded, ALL maritime trade stops.

3. Kobalt suggests fisheries and shipyards for provinces with several port slots. Fisheries and shipyards give minuscule or no addition to the province wealth. So, even if a trade port does not actively trade, it does give positive return simply through boosting the province's wealth. Fisheries and shipyards are useless in that sense.

[Servius]

On Supply...
- Trade goods (Furs, Tobacco, Cotton, Sugar, Spices, Ivory, Tea, and Coffee) are generated in your provices or by trade ports on the coasts of South America, Africa, and Indonesia.
- The number of units generated by plantations is determined first by the level of the plantation (which will give you the base units produced), which is then modified by the site quality. Meagre = 100% of listed production, Low = 125%, Average = 150%, High = 175%, and Abundant = 200%. Thus, it is always more cost effective to upgrade plantations on Abundant or High producing towns than for Low or Meagre ones.
- There is also text on the trade port page that says upgrading ports does something to improve the "trade value" but I can't nail that down to increasing the world price, increasing the number of units, or increasing the "Other Goods" category. My bet is that trade port levels determine the max amount of "Other Goods" you trade with your partners. Can't confirm yet though.
- If one of your export trade ports gets blockaded or raided, it can't export any goods. If you're an island with only one trade port, no goods get out. If you're on a contenent with other trade ports in other regions next door, or if there are more than 1 trade port on your island, the goods will just get shipped out through another one of your trade ports. This is true, despite the impression the Trade window gives you that no goods from the entire theatre are being supplied to your home region.
- The trade routes are those colored dashed lines that run between ports. When you park a ship on one that carries trade goods for a nation you're at war with, you'll steal some of the goods or income the other nation would have recieved. Income from raiding other nations' trade routes shows in up as "Other" in the revenue list (where you see your tax income and your trade income), along with Protectorate income, etc. You can raid intra-national routes (like one from Jamaica to England), which leads first to a reduction in the supply of trade goods to England, and thus results in less trade revenue for England. You can also raid inter-national routes (like from England to France), which does not affect the supply of trade goods but does affect the income received from trade partners.
- Every trade good generated by one of your regions or those coastal trade posts gets shiped to your capital. As GB, everything goes to England first.
- Before the most recent patch, 100% of the trade goods generated by a region could be sent to the nation's home region for later export with even the level 1 trade port in the supplying region. After the patch, the supply of trade goods to the home region can be reduced if your trade port is too low level. I haven't figured out the number yet, but each trade route can carry x goods. So, a fully-upgraded Meagre plantation can have all of it's exports handled by a level 2 or 3 trade port, but a fully-upgraded Abundant plantation will require a level 4 trade port (and maybe part of a second trade port's capacity) to export all of the units it produces. Open up your region capital's detail screen, look at the Region Wealth section, and run your cursor over the trade good icons there. That will tell you how many of the trade goods produce in that region are actually being supplied to your home region for export to trade partners.

On Exports...
- The goods that reach your capital are then sold to your trade partners at the global prices shown at the top of the Trade window. I don't know what determines how much goes to each trade partner, but my guess is the main (if not sole) variable is the population of the trade partner. The bigger their population, the greater part of the pie they get.
- This is why the number of trade partnerships you can have is partly determined by the number of trade ports in your home theatre. READ AGAIN: HOME THEATRE. So, using GB again, upgrading trade ports in Ireland will grant you more trade partner slots. So, it's not just trade ports in England or even Scotland.
- As metioned above, inter-national trade routes can also be raided. When these are raided, the trade income you get from your trade partners goes down, even if your supply of trade goods stays constant.

[Servius]

UPDATE!

I think I figured out a rough approximation of the export capacity of trade ports. This is what I have so far. Please note that these are approximate and your results my differ by +/-3 units.

Also, this export capacity refers to your regions that produce trade goods and export them to your home region. To my knowledge, the only cap for exports from your home region to other nations is the cap on trade partnerships, not on the total number of units you can export to them.

0|VP|Po|Gro|Pro|Wea
1|40|45| 50| 55 | 60
2|60|67| 75| 82 | 90
3|80|90|100|110|120