Quote Originally Posted by Negator_UK
One thing I have noticed is that trade only seems to work with other powers (ie, my provinces don't trade with each other) - the more of the map I occupy the more it looks like my income will have to come from farming and conquest.
The income generated by trade is not really a trading income but the proceed of custom taxes so that you do not get anything by merely connecting two of your onw ports, your kingdom being a bit like a predecessor of the single market (pretty inaccurate historically but whatever). You just get income as a result of trade by taxing international trade (to and from other faction but exports by AI factions are not that common except sometimes from Italy) with other factions (no tax on trade with rebels ). A port with a mearchant house that is not connected with another faction's port only generate taxes on local trade (same as inland provinces). Regarding the utility to creat mearchant houses in landlocked provinces, I do not fully agree with Manco Capac since building the first level will costs you 800 florins for a steady income of about 30 with one trade good so that your investements repay themselves in thirty years. Not the yield of the century and probably not something to build immediately but a few of those can help in the long-term (they could even help you to get the trader virtue but that V&V does not seem to work very well ... sometimes you get it out of the blue, sometimes you build every trading infrastructure available and don't get it at all). I agree that upgrading a landlocked mearchant house to a higher level is not worth the trouble.