I'm not sure if this patch is any better or worse. I started a spanish campaign last night and got as far as 1714, having completed the New Spain quest, eliminated Portugal and Papal states.

In my first turn i was able to set up alliances with Genoa, Savoy and Venice and trade with Portugal and Morocco. I was also able to swap flanders and florida with France for French Guyana and their enlightenment tech. So far so consistent with previous play throughs on other game versions.

Incidentaly, i always offer military access as a sweatener to trade agreements. More often than not it works, and as the AI can't backstab you from within your territory, it comes with minimal risk.

Now I had no illusions of a lasting peace with Morocco or Portugal, just a few turns of trade, and Morocco did duly DoW after about 4 turns. Portugal never did however, and i did the dirty on them by about turn 6 or 8.

After I'd captured dutch Guyana and Curacao from the UP, they upped their game in Europe and captured first flanders and then France! I'd not seen this before but have heard of it happening. I re-captured paris and greedily wanted to keep it. After a couple of turns it all turned to the worse and a rebelious French army appeared (without drawing me into conflict with france though -weird), so I decided to cut my losses and invest in my ally. However, I couldn't for the life of me persuade France to trade or even accept Paris back for nothing. I literally offered them France as a gift and they wouldn't take it!

Now, i'm, not sure if the presence of a rebelious army of their nation (or any) is what detered them from it but when reloading to a save immediatly following my capture of Paris, France happily accepted my gift. They still wouldn't trade it for Savoy though...