Quote Originally Posted by Sleepy
Nope trader, et al, is also a prerequisiste for many buildings, you can check this with the building browser.
Yep, you're right. It's a pre-req for the blacksmith line at least.

I guess I never noticed since I always build "trader" fast. It has a very short payback time.

Quote Originally Posted by dorkus
10%, remember, is only for the best trade provinces. And 10% means that for 10 turns you are loaning the game money. Moreover, with "inflation" that 10% is probably a real 5% (there is no "monetary" inflation in the game, but there is inflation in the sense that your income/expenses rise, so a given level of money generation is not worth nearly as much tomorrow as it is today)
It's got to be better to make 10% than make 0% doing nothing with your money.

It may be that in some provinces you pay more in garrison cost or lowered tax rate because of the extra pop growth. You probably shouldn't build markets in those provinces because the return may be negative. If you wanted to really get technical on the math, you'd have to factor in a periodic abandon/exterminate event. I have the feeling the cash you raise in one of these actually pays for a lot of the cost of pop growth.