Commodity prices: Comparative Study

[Slaists]

Fisherking asked me how did I manage to have commodity prices so high in my end-game in the Russian campaign I posted on a few days ago. To be honest: I am not so sure myself exactly how I did it. For one, I always prioritize economic development very early in the game.

Anyway, I did this comparative study: loaded the game as it was in 1793 (sorry, 1799 save has been deleted inadvertently). Attachment A shows commodity prices at that point in time. I'd like you to pay attention to Ivory and Spices (two goods that I do not produce in my towns):

Ivory price = 38
Spice price = 34

Let's call that "case A".

I then proceeded to destroy all buildings enhancing town wealth in my mainlaind provinces (I was too lazy to bother about the few colonies I had); I cannot guarantee that I destroyed ALL for the very same reason: I was too lazy to check. I also left ports alone (since those are they key for good transportation: I wanted the transportation to stay the same). However, you can be assured, it was an economic cataclysm of global scale. On the next turn, I measured the commodity prices again: you can see it in attachment "case B".

Notice the difference between Ivory and Spice prices with A?

In case B:
Ivory price = 34 (> 10% drop from 38 in case A)
Spice price = 28 (about a 20% drop from 34 in case A)

What does this example teach us? Commodity demand is a function of the overall town wealth development. If the AI and the player have high town wealth, the commodity demand is high. In my campaigns I actually gift AI the economic techs I research just to give their economies a boost. As a result, I am also boosting the overall demand for the commodities I produce myself.

Notice also that the drop in fur prices was much smaller (from 14 to 13): this is due to the fact, that destroying town enhancements in Russia, I also destroyed fur trade posts; Russia is a major supplier of fur to the market; Thus, by destroying the infrastructure, I was destroying both supply and demand at the same time resulting in low impact on the price.

P.S. Also, realize, that by destroying town enhancements I was destroying just part of my wealth. All the accumulated town wealth (I had it significant) stayed. If that was destroyed, the drop in commodity prices form A to B would be way more pronounced.