A question about Seleucid economy

[seienchin]

That's my Empire:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'm not saying that the situation is desperate, but it still looks that I get less than it seems, taking into account that vast chunk of land that I control.

Ok, I know your problem.
You have less trade income than taxes. Something Ive never seen in my EB career.You need more sea trade. First you need to get the eastern arabian cities. They can trade with your provinces along the persian cost. Second: Get crete. Third: Make trading packts with greece.

You know the provinces in the east are some of the poorest provinces there are in EB. Some have mining, which you need, but most only drain money. No matter how awesome they sound^^.
Your richest provinces by know should be in minor Asia, but they are fare away from your center, so maybe they have some corruption and are less developed?

Last but not least:
Build ports and granaries.
AND! Only use a few Allied generals or governours in Type IV Govermnet. They drain your money like crazy.

I managed to atack minor asia with 5 fullstackes of elite units in my makedon campain, by owning greece, sicily,thrace and some islands. Athens alone made more than 15.000mnai a turn.

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

Your biggest problem is going to be Carthage soon though. They've been kicked out of spain and sicily so they will gun for your Egyptian provinces soon. Expect fullstacks full of elites (generally the pikemen or sacred band), Maure Infantry and Garamantines, they love to throw those at you.

Capture Cyrene before they go to war with you just because it is a given that they will. Defend it with stone walls, some toxotai, Peltasti, klerechoi phalangitai, and thorakitai. That should mean you won't need a field army to defend that border. If you don't take Cyrene then Carthage can attack 2 cities. Paratoinon is alright but Ammonion gets terrible recruitment options (just Machimoi and Pantodapoi I believe) which would then leave the Nile region open to them.

With the African border secure and not needing an army, those forces can go somewhere else useful and save you quite a bit of money. I suggest eliminating Parthia and Pontos asap and then taking eastern arabian provinces to add to your trade income in the Persian gulf.

Also @ seinechin its not unusual for AS to get more taxes than trade. Same in my campaign and I own almost all of Greece. Reason for this is large Mesopotamian and Persian cities which roll in taxation money but supply little to no sea trade.

[Lysandros]

AND! Only use a few Allied generals or governours in Type IV Govermnet. They drain your money like crazy.

Actually I can strongly recommend using them as governors. In my last Seleucid game which I played under the impression of a Sweboz and a Romani game when I had tons of money in either one, I wanted to find out exactly why it had always been so difficult to become rich as a Seleucid player. Corruption is only a minor reason as you can see in Marcus' financial summary, but upkeep costs for the army are insanely high. So what I did in my last game was installing Type 4-governors in about half of the provinces. I chose those provinces where foreign barracks allowed for much more units than the factional barracks (including Ekbatana and Susa for example, where I switched back to type 1-governments later for the cataphracts). The governors can also replace much of the usual garrison you keep in the provinces far away from the centre of the empire.
It really makes a huge difference if you recruit only as much units as you really need! A type 4 governor himself gets

Effect Influence 5
Effect Law 4
Effect Defence 1

in any case, so he will easily both eliminate corruption and keep a city content even if he is your only garrison. Furthermore, his bodyguard with its great number and his ability to get traits and ancillaries will make him valuable not only as an administrator but as a military force, too.

[seienchin]

Actually I can strongly recommend using them as governors. In my last Seleucid game which I played under the impression of a Sweboz and a Romani game when I had tons of money in either one, I wanted to find out exactly why it had always been so difficult to become rich as a Seleucid player. Corruption is only a minor reason as you can see in Marcus' financial summary, but upkeep costs for the army are insanely high. So what I did in my last game was installing Type 4-governors in about half of the provinces. I chose those provinces where foreign barracks allowed for much more units than the factional barracks (including Ekbatana and Susa for example, where I switched back to type 1-governments later for the cataphracts). The governors can also replace much of the usual garrison you keep in the provinces far away from the centre of the empire.
It really makes a huge difference if you recruit only as much units as you really need! A type 4 governor himself gets

Effect Influence 5
Effect Law 4
Effect Defence 1

in any case, so he will easily both eliminate corruption and keep a city content even if he is your only garrison. Furthermore, his bodyguard with its great number and his ability to get traits and ancillaries will make him valuable not only as an administrator but as a military force, too.

On the other hand thet can be as expensive as 2000mnai a turn in the east. One of your own FMs plus some levies never drain that much money.
I ruined a baktrian campain with level 4 govermnents.
But again. I highly recommend him to increase sea trade with arabia and greece.

[Marcus Ulpius]

I think I have trade agreements with both Greece and Macedonia. I probably underestimated the granaries as I didn't build them at all, that's something I should start doing. At one point I had more lvl 4 governors that I have now. I did it for roleplaying reasons in most Eastern towns. Eventually I had to get rid of them. As they died, I destroyed lvl 4 government and replaced it with lvl 2 or lvl 1. Those governors were ruining my income.

The only reason the Ptolies yet exist is that they cover some of my border with Carthage, so there's only one town that can be attacked by the Carthaginians. I plan the destruction of Pontus, attack on Palmyra, then I'll probably annex Saba as they are already at war with me, and then I'll take all of the Arabian peninsula. There will be no need to keep strong garrisons there as that regions have no border with anyone.

[seienchin]

I think I have trade agreements with both Greece and Macedonia. I probably underestimated the granaries as I didn't build them at all, that's something I should start doing. At one point I had more lvl 4 governors that I have now. I did it for roleplaying reasons in most Eastern towns. Eventually I had to get rid of them. As they died, I destroyed lvl 4 government and replaced it with lvl 2 or lvl 1. Those governors were ruining my income.

The only reason the Ptolies yet exist is that they cover some of my border with Carthage, so there's only one town that can be attacked by the Carthaginians. I plan the destruction of Pontus, attack on Palmyra, then I'll probably annex Saba as they are already at war with me, and then I'll take all of the Arabian peninsula. There will be no need to keep strong garrisons there as that regions have no border with anyone.

Yeah get the arabian peninnsula. At least the north of it.
I always give Kyrene to the koinon hellenon, so the carthagenians cant atack me. It works very well

[woirble]

What type of temples are you building? If you build temples of Atargatis everywhere you get a good law bonus (reduces corruption), a good happiness bonus and a decent trade bonus. The law and the trade should help your economy.

[king of thracia]

I started a new campaign on H/M, one of straightforward conquest and I'm swimming in money. I keep the minimum military in the field, but not so minimum that they can't win battles. Once I'm past the start I set all taxes to low and develop economically except for fundamental military infrastructure at key points. Lots of low level trade docks, farms, basic granary, and then estates and highways. I build the first level of mines after basic sanitation, farms, and trade docks are constructed. Strong coastal trading areas use Type IV governments until they have basic development; exception is of course Antioch which in addition to being already highly developed is the main military base of the west. And Alexandria, now that I've conquered it :). The eastern frontier is switched all to type 2 governments.

Now, keep in mind that despite its vast territory, the number of cities in Arche Seleukeia is not especially high. A Rome that is expanding out of Italy and a Getai that controls northern Greece and western mikra Asia can already rival in number of cities. And Greece and western mikra Asia are especially lucrative.

For peace of mind you can wall off the northeast with Baktria. Attack Pahlava first to keep Baktria as allies and make them break with Pahlava. It's possible to have relatively peaceful borders in the west without expanding much beyond initial starting position; I recommend taking coastal regions at least for economy. However straight up conquest of Ptolemies, mikra Asia etc works out well as you may know.

[Fluvius Camillus]

I think I have trade agreements with both Greece and Macedonia. I probably underestimated the granaries as I didn't build them at all, that's something I should start doing. At one point I had more lvl 4 governors that I have now. I did it for roleplaying reasons in most Eastern towns. Eventually I had to get rid of them. As they died, I destroyed lvl 4 government and replaced it with lvl 2 or lvl 1. Those governors were ruining my income.

The only reason the Ptolies yet exist is that they cover some of my border with Carthage, so there's only one town that can be attacked by the Carthaginians. I plan the destruction of Pontus, attack on Palmyra, then I'll probably annex Saba as they are already at war with me, and then I'll take all of the Arabian peninsula. There will be no need to keep strong garrisons there as that regions have no border with anyone.

Umm granaries give growth and the large one hapiness and a trade penalty..

In my furthest large/huge cities I sometimes destroy them, cities like Kirtan and Ippone grow extremely fast, requiring me to put 20 units as garisson + a lot of squalor.

~Fluvius

[Subotan]

Umm granaries give growth and the large one hapiness and a trade penalty..

In my furthest large/huge cities I sometimes destroy them, cities like Kirtan and Ippone grow extremely fast, requiring me to put 20 units as garisson + a lot of squalor.

~Fluvius

Which is the one which gives a boost to farming income then?

[Subotan]

If you capture the Gulf States (For Sea Trade), Hayastan and India for Mining moneys, you should yourself in a lot more comfortable position.

Maybe some investment in farming as well, as yours seems quite low.