Does any one know how a port goes from very poor to wealthy?

[ZIM!!]

I have numerous ports through out the world but it seems they are all, except for my port in my home province of UP are either very poor or poor, even though most of my port provinces are maxed out some containing more than one town and containing just as much industry and plantations as my home province the port is a maxed out commercial port but still very poor. Is this a bug?

Any ideas?

[A Very Super Market]

Taxes and growth, and maybe trade? Honestly, it doesn't seem to make any difference. Same with factories, farms, and the other special ones.

[Belid Hagen]

time and improved technology

[ZIM!!]

Yeah Im nearly all the way up the tech tree its like about 1750-1760 all the poor ports are maxed out commercially the assets in the region are maxed out the roads are maxed out.

But I read somewhere that it might be because there no trade route there is in fact no dotted line coming out of my ports, maybe thats it... is there a way to get the dotted line? I figured if you had a commercial port it formed automatically

[Belid Hagen]

Yeah Im nearly all the way up the tech tree its like about 1750-1760 all the poor ports are maxed out commercially the assets in the region are maxed out the roads are maxed out.

But I read somewhere that it might be because there no trade route there is in fact no dotted line coming out of my ports, maybe thats it... is there a way to get the dotted line? I figured if you had a commercial port it formed automatically

trade agreements

[ZIM!!]

I am maxed out there too I have a total of 5 trade agreements the game will not let me have more, Does 5 agreements sound too low?

[knoddy]

i think its broken, my main trade port has over 10k worth of trade going through it and it still says its poor.


Cheers Knoddy

[anweRU]

The poor, wealthy etc refer to the base income that the port adds to the taxable province income, and not the trade routes. It doesn't change during the game. The poor ports at 400 gp, the one above 600 gp, etc. I think the maximum for my Indian 'wealthy' ports was 1000 gp. You can increase the port income by upgrading it, but the upgrade amount is fixed, not dependent on the port status.

Same for the industrial buildings. If want to maximize profit, build schools, religious & entertainment structures in poor or very poor towns, and industrial buildings in wealthy towns. It makes a big difference in income (up to ~ 600-700 gold for iron works IIRC).

[Liberator]

time and improved technology

love and understanding

[andrewt]

What Anweru said is correct. Also, the ports/towns in the Americas, especially the towns, are poor more often than not. It makes the Americas a good region to build schools in. Since a lot of them have low tax income, you won't be losing much from exempting them from tax to counteract the schools as well. You'll still get your trade income from them. If you want to build dockyards, build them on the poorer ports as well.

[quadalpha]

All towns have a wealth rating. This increases with certain buildings (you'll see +x town wealth in the description). Revenue producing buildings produce more revenue as they get wealthier, and you can only build modern universities in "prosperous" towns.

Edit: Also, lowering upper/middle class taxes helps. Go look at the policy page.

[dopp]

It's buggy. A town can go from 'very poor' to 'wealthy' when you save and reload.

[Fisherking]

If you build a trade port in a region, and if you have trade resources in the region or an inland region next to it, I think you get a trade route.

If there is no trade resource as above, then you are not going to get any trade beyond the little money earned by the port. So every region on the shore does NOT get its own trade route.

[Dead Guy]

If the wealth levels of towns/ports does increase, like it seems they should going from the boni that say "+6 to town wealth per turn in the region" etc, then they do so way too slowly.

[Alsn]

If the wealth levels of towns/ports does increase, like it seems they should going from the boni that say "+6 to town wealth per turn in the region" etc, then they do so way too slowly.

That is something completely different. The "+x to town wealth" just means that the city in that region increases its income contributed from "town wealth" by x per turn(double click on any city and check out what different things contribute to city income).

That is also what the advisor keeps bitching about whenever you raise taxes for the nobility(or middle classes if you're a republic) about "lowering taxes now and reap the rewards later" since increasing taxes will incur a penalty on total "+x to town wealth".

With regards to the topic at hand however I have also been curious about this and rarely(if ever) will a "new town emerges" ever be anything other than very poor. Not really sure what that means as I haven't had the time to check if they ever increase from being very poor(just started to understand how income works a couple of days ago).

[anweRU]

IIRC, I did have one or two towns emerge as the level above poor in my Maratha's campaign. However, the majority were very poor.

[Alsn]

IIRC, I did have one or two towns emerge as the level above poor in my Maratha's campaign. However, the majority were very poor.

I see, then I've got nothing. :(

[Dead Guy]

That is something completely different. The "+x to town wealth" just means that the city in that region increases its income contributed from "town wealth" by x per turn(double click on any city and check out what different things contribute to city income).

That is also what the advisor keeps bitching about whenever you raise taxes for the nobility(or middle classes if you're a republic) about "lowering taxes now and reap the rewards later" since increasing taxes will incur a penalty on total "+x to town wealth".

With regards to the topic at hand however I have also been curious about this and rarely(if ever) will a "new town emerges" ever be anything other than very poor. Not really sure what that means as I haven't had the time to check if they ever increase from being very poor(just started to understand how income works a couple of days ago).

Yeah that seems correct actually. Strange of them to have a term in the game that is so poorly defined.

So then we know that the wealth of a town affects the amount of money buildings in it will generate (workshops, trading ports etc) but we don't know what decides the level of wealth and if it changes over time? Perhaps it's just a way to dictate the value of different regions, in addition to the maximum amount of towns it can have etc.

[Alsn]

So then we know that the wealth of a town affects the amount of money buildings in it will generate (workshops, trading ports etc) but we don't know what decides the level of wealth and if it changes over time? Perhaps it's just a way to dictate the value of different regions, in addition to the maximum amount of towns it can have etc.

Pretty much, yes. The question is if anyone has actually recorded a town increasing(or decreasing) its "wealth level"(or whatever you want to call it). I can't actually remember seeing it increase but then again, I have never really looked for it.