How to maximize trade income?

**bretwalda** · 02-23-2005, 20:33

I am speaking about absolute maximum income. Since as you grow bigger there are fewer provinces to trade to your trade income declines. SO to have an ideally high trade income which provinces need to be taken? I understand that you need to be at peace with a certain faction to have trade income from their provinces.

**weegee** · 02-23-2005, 21:14

Venice and Sicily generate a lot of income in my empire (3-4k if I remember correctly). Obviously the more ports you can get your ships to, the better. I would think Antioch is also a cash cow. The key would probably be to get control of the top 3 or 4 ports, remain at peace with all the coastline factions, and then get a network of ships to connect it all.

Not sure, but I think upgrading the trading posts to the next levels might also increase trade. I forgot to track it on my last upgrade, but I'll see if I can note how much trade I had before and after.

**Procrustes** · 02-23-2005, 21:31

Hi,

I'll try to paste this. There is a file called "FaysMTW_pack.zip" that contains economic stuff looked at every which way you can imagine. Lots of excel spreadsheets that you can use to run different scenarios. Basically, a provinces trade income is based upon the number and value of the items it has to trade and the number of viable partners it can trade with, modifed by the govenor's and king's acumen, etc. This is a cut-and-paste of the trade forcasts for each province assuming that they could each trade with the maximum number of partners you could theoretically link. Note that the trade items in some provinces vary because of special events.

HTH,

P.

Province........Trade...Trade.Goods
=======================================================
Khazar_1367.....5,808...Hides,.Honey,.Silk,.Spices,.Wax
Tripoli_1295....5,251...Cotton,.Silk,.Spices,.Sugar
Antioch.........4,668...Gems,.Silk.,.Spices
Portugal_1434...4,444...Cotton,.OliveOil,.Spices.,.Wax
Constantinople..3,715...Dyes,.Grain,.Silk
Venice..........3,380...Glassware,.Silk,.Wool
Sicily..........3,320...Grain,.Silk,.Sugar
Khazar..........3,131...Hides,.Honey,.Wax
Flanders........2,788...Grain,.Silk,.Wool
Sweden..........2,694...Furs,.Saltfish,.Wood
Egypt...........2,496...Cotton,.Ivory
Tripoli.........2,462...Cotton,.Sugar
Lithuania.......2,342...Butter,.Hides,.Wood
Naples..........2,119...OliveOil,.Silk
Cordoba.........2,068...Hides,.Silk
Novgorod........2,025...Furs,.Wood
Kiev............1,879...Grain,.Linen
Pomerania.......1,879...Grain,.Linen
Crimea_1367.....1,810...Grain,.Silk
Portugal........1,741...OliveOil,.Wax
Northumbria.....1,544...Saltfish,.Wool
Aquitaine.......1,441...Wine
Finland.........1,373...Furs
Denmark.........1,355...Butter,.Saltfish
Livonia.........1,338...Butter,.Wood
Norway..........1,321...Saltfish,.Wood
Castile.........1,064...Silk
Genoa...........1,064...Silk
Greece..........1,064...Silk
Toulouse........1,064...Silk
Valencia........1,064...Silk
Brittany........1,030...Linen
Morocco.........1,004...Hides
Friesland.......875.....Wool
Ireland.........875.....Wool
Leon............875.....Wool
Mercia..........875.....Wool
Tuscany.........875.....Wool
Wessex..........875.....Wool
Bulgaria........849.....Grain
Crimea..........849.....Grain
Moldavia........849.....Grain
Nicaea..........849.....Grain
Saxony..........849.....Grain
Prussia.........686.....Wax
Armenia.........151.....Gems,.Silk,.Spices
Edessa..........151.....Gems,.Silk,.Spices
Syria_1295......151.....Gems,.Silk,.Spices
Anjou...........75......Linen,.Silk
Brandenburg.....64......Grain,.Linen
Lorraine........64......Linen,.Pottery
Syria...........54......Gems
Poland..........53......Grain,.Wood
Burgundy........43......Wine
Milan...........43......Silk
Muscovy.........43......Furs
Swabia..........43......Wine
Volga-Bulgaria..43......Furs
Bohemia.........32......Linen
Champagne.......32......Grain
Ile.de.France...32......Grain
Ryazan..........32......Hides
Silesia.........21......Wood
Smolensk........21......Wood
Volhynia........21......Wood

**Shadar** · 02-25-2005, 06:49

Give your major trading provinces very high acumen governors with extra titles (this gives a load more cash), and upgrade your trading buildings to the highest. In my games the good provinces (like Flanders, Sweden, Lithuania, Sicily, Antioch, Constantinople and Khazar) usually reach in excess of 3000-4000 florins a year at least.

**ichi** · 02-26-2005, 00:25

Find a faction with a King or heir on an island. Destroy the faction everywhere except that island. Pull your fleets away from the island for at least one turn, once you are no longer touching that faction anywhere the war will end. Move your fleets back to the sea around the island and now you have a captive trading partner.

ichi

**repone** · 02-28-2005, 19:54

Originally Posted by weegee

Not sure, but I think upgrading the trading posts to the next levels might also increase trade. I forgot to track it on my last upgrade, but I'll see if I can note how much trade I had before and after.

Some posted the following information somewhere in these boards (forgot where, as I tend to gather info into docs for myself

) :

(from an Org post)
Trading post: 100% (baseline - you get to trade)
Merchant: 120%
Merchant Guild: 140%
Master Merchant: 160%

It had already been said, but try to trade from provinces with 2-3 resources first, establish a network of boats (beware of bad weather/aggressive factions like the sicilians who can bring your trade income to almost 0 by sinking one boat).

Hope it helps

**repone** · 02-28-2005, 19:56

mm can't edit yet ..

last thing: follow ichi's advice

**sir_schwick** · 03-01-2005, 00:27

Because each coastal territory you take is one less your trading territories earn, choose your trade base carefully. Also, once you have that base, expand inland and into useless coastal territory as well. Try to slowly build up fleets, once you get two or more shipwrights running, things will come along nicely. I try to get a minimum of 2 ships and 3 ships per foreign ship in a sea tile, for storms/combat etc.

Here are the trade bases I usually use based on faction:

Middle East - Egypt, Antioch, Tripoli, and that other coastal one.
Besides a one territory defence from Africa and a threat of an Anatolian invasion, this is pretty secure. Even when fleets only reach around to Italy, you are still pulling very good bank. Crete and Cyprus usually have ports even though they have nothing to trade, meaning you get two easy provinces to sell to.
A suprising number of factions can try and claim this bread basket. The Spanish, Italians, or Hungarians are in decent positions to try and spam crusades for the region. The Egyptains already have a decent position and the Almohads are usually busy with the Spanish. Byzantium has a good shot at the region. Of course any Turkish Sultan must secure these blessings if he hopes to survive at all.

Northwestern Europe - Wessex, Northumbria and Flanders all are worth owning, especially if you are the English and French.

Venice - Highly contested area open to Byzantines, Italians, Papacy, HRE, France, Hungarians.

**repone** · 03-01-2005, 07:30

mmmm sir_schwick .. what about Sweden? If you can bribe/invade it and put down any rebellions (good training for a general IMHO), you have a northen powerhouse with 3 trade goods, good agriculture, and Iron ... depending on the difficulty/faction you're playing, it can be too troublesome though ...

Am I way off

**sir_schwick** · 03-02-2005, 01:31

I forgot about Scandinavia, usually do not play factions that far north. Actually that whole area, along with Lithuania can really give you some decent trade. If you have the ships it eventually gives you decent light infantry as well.