Monopoly - does it work?

[Magraev]

Hi all

I've had a monopoly on grain as france at least for 20 turns, maybe interrupted once.

Unfortunately I can see no effect of this at all. The grain-ressources gives me 12-20 florins profit, no more after I took all 4 than before.

So is there no reason to grab that monopoly or what? I expected an event, and a sharp increase in revenue. Maybe I should try for a more lucrative resource, but that makes it quite a bit harder to get the monopoly.

Does anybody have some insights on the subject to share?

[TinCow]

I believe (but am not positive) that having a monoply makes it possible for your merchants to gain the monopoly line of traits, which further boost their financial skill.

[Magraev]

I've noticed no new traits in my merchants.

The monopolist trait can be had just trading a ressource that there are two of in a region (illogical I know). My merchants probably all had this before I sent them off, so I don't know If they can get it from monopolizing grain.

If there are no more reasons to establish a monopoly I say don't bother. Go for the gold, silver and amber instead.

[Eng]

I think u need all the resources all of them not only those on your land.
also the monopolist trait has nothing to do with it some merchants evan start with the trait. go take the ivory of dongola and timbaktu then let us know if theres a boost.

[ReiseReise]

The only purpose of monopolies is to give your merchants traits, they can get up to +3 skill, which will get them a lot more money. To gain the traits your merchants just needs to sit on a resource that there are multiples of in a single region, e.g. amber in many northern europe areas, silk and spices in several areas of middle east and many many more. If another faction's merchants are on the other spot in that region you won't get the traits.

The way I use monopolies is have my merchant sit on them for maybe 10 turns to gain a couple traits before they trek halfway across the globe to the really profitable areas. Sending a new merchant with 1 skill to the middle east is asking for him to be "acquisitioned". On the other hand, I have never sent merchants to Timbuktu, but I guess people like it because you get huge money and there is no competition so you don't have to worry about sending a newbie merchant.

[atheotes]

From the FAQs section:

Q: How can my merchant become a monopolist?

A:

Quote:
Originally Posted by HoreTore
You don't need two merchants, you need two resources of the same type in the same region. Put a merchant on one of them, and he'll have trading monopoly, if there are none on the other resource(excluding your own, of course).

After 5 turns, he'll get the first level of the trait, another 5 turns(10 total), he'll get the second and he'll get the third level ten turns after that(20 total). This doesn't have to be consecutive though, if you have him on the resource for 6 turns, and an enemy merchant sits on the other resource for the next 2 turns, he'll still only need to sit on the resource for 4 more turns to get the second level. Also, the type of resource doesn't matter, ie. he can get 7 turns from Iron, 5 turns from silk and 8 turns on textiles to get the third level, for example. This is why it's a good idea to end their move on a resource he can monopolize when you are moving him towards the resource you want him to trade. For example, if you train a merchant in Rheims and you want him to trade silks in constantinople, you can stop by the iron in metz, the textiles in milan and venice and the iron in zagreb. He'll probably get to constantinople with the first level, which helps a lot in dealing with the merchants hanging around there...

NB:
1. level is capitalist, 2. level is market controller, 3. level is monopolist.

[Quillan]

I think u need all the resources all of them not only those on your land.

Incorrect, and I speak from experience here. You develop the Monopolist line of traits when, in a province that has two of the same resource, no other power but you has merchants on those resources. You can park a merchant on a single resource for his entire life and he'll never develop the trait. However, if you park two merchants on two of the same resource in the same province, they'll get the first level of the trait within 10-20 turns. It doesn't matter if anyone else has the same resource someplace else on the map, only within that province.

[Magraev]

I think he means the total world wide monopoly.

And I had that, so my conclusion must be, that there is no gain in trading all ressources of a certain type. oh well...

[WhiskeyGhost]

Actually, i've seen in my experiences, that if you control all of the same type of resource, theres a slight increase overall. Also, when an enemy takes one of the same resources, both of you lose merchant income (say you have all gold mines, and then a merchant sets up on Zagreb's your gold merchants in Timbuktu lose some of their previous income. Not much, but its much more noticeable when you have high level merchants.)

[Magraev]

So you're talking about being the only one in the world trading gold - not about having a merchant on every goldmine in the world.

I was asking about the second part, but it's interesting to know the other aswell. I must have been the only one trading grain (since I had all ressources), but that probaby just ment I went from 12 to 13 florins revenue pr. merchant...

Thanks for the input all.