Thankyou Ludens,

Indeed it is very counterintuitive - plus in reality different merchants in different provinces did trade with each other. Also if one could trade with each other there would be more incentive to invade and perhaps losing more troops in the bargain would not be that big a deal. Alas.

However without getting too ahead of myself here, my suggestion is that the trade between 2 points should be also dependent on the number of ships in the sea route. So if you had atleast 2 ships in every sea region between say Egypt and Venice your trade whould be more than if you had just one. Also this way you spread your ships out more and don't just have a large armada sitting out in the Straits of Gibraltar or the Aegean Sea. Since ships cost atleast 700 florins on average I don't think it's too much to ask for.

Onward Sea Traders

Cheers