Industry and Wealth

[Papewaio]

You have 3 main sources of wealth.

A basic 3000 purse that you get no matter what.
Town income which is essentially what your economy does and you have full control of that.
Trade income which is dependent on you have resources and the rest of the worlds demand for the goods. Not only can you not control part of the trade income equation it is not stable. Why? Because it can be easily blockaded.

So if you can grow your town income you are not dependent on foreign oil reserves err trade routes for income.

[al Roumi]

You have 3 main sources of wealth.

A basic 3000 purse that you get no matter what.
Town income which is essentially what your economy does and you have full control of that.
Trade income which is dependent on you have resources and the rest of the worlds demand for the goods. Not only can you not control part of the trade income equation it is not stable. Why? Because it can be easily blockaded.

So if you can grow your town income you are not dependent on foreign oil reserves err trade routes for income.

If I may correct the honourable Papewaio, thats Tax income rather than Town income.

And John117, the wealth contributed by industrial towns is not affected by supply or demand in the same way as trade is. As such, your tax income isn't as vulnerable to "international relations" as trade is.

The instabilities that tax income is prone to are physical damage to your farms, towns and ports by: raiding by armies, damage by rakes, or damage from discontent (i.e revolt or revolution).

These are by and large, rarer occurances than piracy, blockades (IMO especially of my trade partners), the fluctuation of market prices and trade partners' loss of ports & territories.

[Papewaio]

Tax income is based on town income so it is six of one, half a dozen of the other. As far as stability is concerned, obviously the amount is different.