Thanks for the explanation RedKnight. I understand much better now having only played MTW for less than a month and hence my questions re peasants.

Of course comparing farm income with trade is a bit like comparing fixed income with variable income - since trade can go up or down extremely rapidly, as I have now found out, whereas farm (and mine) income is stable. Thus although your spreadsheet may appear to show it better to upgrade a farm, the reality may be it is better to upgrade trade first if this trade is going to increase rapidly with an increasing fleet of ships. Or the "enemy" may have different ideas and scotch your well laid trading plans as the Italians did to me for a while!

That is why I thought it may be a good idea to incorporate mines into the equation as well. I have seen the payback periods tabulated in Frogbeastegg's MTW Primer. So thought it would be even better to compare them with farms on a dynamic spreadsheet to help get the best use out of limited finances early on.

Btw, I understand about Rome, though I shall be giving that a miss for a bit. Too much going on with MTW for me currently .

Tomcat