King's Purse - Pocket Money or Big Bucks ?

[Captain Pugwash]

Fort exploit??? whats that. I simply send them off straight to timbukto/constinople and antioch and leave em there till they drop

[PseRamesses]

Fort exploit??? whats that. I simply send them off straight to timbukto/constinople and antioch and leave em there till they drop

Build a fort and stack all your merchants in it. All of them will make money from than trade goods. Ex: one merch make say 130 fl, 2 will make 260, 10 will make 1300fl etc etc.

[Von Nanega]

I use the forts only on a cheap resource to train up a merchant. I use the house rule of only one merchant at a time in the "training area".

[edyzmedieval]

My Merchants never gather points. They stay like they were trained till they die. And I always get only 8-10 florins out of each merchant.

[RoadKill]

If your into modding you can go into the files and mod up the King's purse amount. very simple. Thats what i did i balanced it out between all the factions.

[Shahed]

My Merchants never gather points. They stay like they were trained till they die. And I always get only 8-10 florins out of each merchant.

Some tips for you.

1. Train merchant.
2. Leave him in a "safe" area on a resource which has 2 or more instance of that resource in that province.
3. Make sure to have one of your own, or, make sure no one else is trading the other instance of this resource in that province.
4. Let him trade that resource until he gets the Monopolist trait which gives +3 FInance. Might take a while to get this trait, check back every 2-3 years.
5. Now move him to another trade resource (following the same principles as above) in a foreign nation.
6. Leave him there until he gets the Graceful Traveller trait, giving +2 Finance.

Notes:
1. Do not expect fast returns.
2. Be aggressive, but not foolish. Check target chance before attempting a takeover.
3. The above strategy gives a 0 Finance skill merchant +5 Finance.
4. Hunt enemy n00b merchants specially when you are above +5 Finance. +7 or +8 is ideal, more is uber, and it's totally achievable. The Robber Baron trait gives +4 Finance (IIRC). So in all, a successful merchant trained at zero Finance skill will have +9 at end of career, counting for negative traits he will still end his career above +6, +7 Finance skill.