Merchants and resources

**wiretripped** · 12-20-2006, 13:32

A couple of small questions...

What would be the most profitable resource?
That monopoly on a certain resource, is that considered by region, or over the entire map?
Do certain buildings in your town increase the revenue generated from a certain resource in the region?
Also, how do you increase a merchant's traits? Do they increase over time? Or do specific actions speed up this process?

Thanks!

Regards,
wiretripped

**trickydicky** · 12-20-2006, 13:43

The most profitable resource I think is Gold/Ivory. It is dependent upon distance from Capitol however, so if your Russia for example, the Gold in Timbuktu will net you thousands per turn!

At least with a high finance Merchant.

Merchant traits are gained over time, by standing on resources, and by acquiring other Merchants.

I'm not sure on the monopoly thing, except to have more Merchants on any given resource than anyone else.

With regards to buildings and different resources, as far as I know they just effect overall trade in ant given province.

**shawpower** · 12-20-2006, 13:45

With regards to profitable resources, the list would probably start with Gold and Ivory as already mentioned by trickydicky, but would also include Silk, Spices, Slaves, Anmber and Marble. The New World offers some nice ones too. (;-D

**pevergreen** · 12-20-2006, 13:48

Traits are also gained by moving around to other places resources. Monopoly3 gives a negative as well, not sure what though.

**lecnac** · 12-20-2006, 14:15

Monopoly 3 gives a -1 on personal security.

**wiretripped** · 12-20-2006, 14:17

Originally Posted by trickydicky

The most profitable resource I think is Gold/Ivory. It is dependent upon distance from Capitol however, so if your Russia for example, the Gold in Timbuktu will net you thousands per turn!

At least with a high finance Merchant.

Ah. So, the further away from the capital, the more profitable the resource?
That's interesting to know.

**Quillan** · 12-20-2006, 15:53

The further away the closest source of that resource to the capitol is what determines overall value. Gold isn't terribly valuable to Venice, because there's a gold mine in Zagreb. I get more money from the amber near Krakow than I do from the gold in Zagreb. However, playing Spain with the capitol in Valencia, I was getting 840 a turn on the gold in Timbuktu with a 7 finance merchant. There are no gold sources anywhere in western Europe. Silk is exceedingly valuable as Spain or England, but nearly worthless as Byzantium (there are 4 silk sources within a 2 turn move of Constantinople).

**Slaists** · 12-20-2006, 16:02

Merchants seem to get monopolist trait if they sit on a resource that has double instances (I think, I have not seen tripple instances yet for any resources) in that particular province. They gain this trait as long as there are no merchants from other factions camping the same resource in the same province.

My strategy for the beginning of the campaign (until I get high level merchant guilds) is to camp double-resources in my own territory (so I can run away from high level foreign merchants) until my merchants grow to become monopolists; then I move into foreign territories looking for more valuable resources to camp, foreign merchants to take over.