The world market is a bear to understand at first, but it's one of the easiest things to control once you understand it.
Let's work with cotton as an example. (Now why would I pick cotton? D'oh! Pun attack. OK. I'll stop now.)
If your country does NOT produce cotton:
< 10 units of cotton will cause your country to buy up to 10 units of cotton and hold them in your stockpile. If you drop down to any number less than 10, your country will automatically buy what is needed to bring the number in the stockpile back up to 10 -
assuming that their are 10 units on the world market to buy.
This is an important concept to remember, perhaps not with cotton, but still it will apply to the most important need of your country. When you have to buy your goods off the world market, your ability to do so depends on that good's availability and your country's ranking vs. the rest of the world. The number 1 country gets first pick at buying goods off the market, then down through the other countries. Depending on your country's ranking, the good that your really need may be all bought up by the time your turn rolls around.
If your country DOES produce cotton:
> 10 units of cotton will cause your country to sell all its cotton, keeping 10 units of cotton in your stockpile. If your pops need cotton, they will buy it from the world market, but at a reduce price since you grow it and sell it.
Their needs do not come from the stockpile. This is an important but confusing concept for most players to wrap their minds around, since it does not make sense in any concrete way. It must be some real-world economic concept, since it confuses me to this day.
If you produce cotton and set your country to buy cotton (< 10), your country will buy up to 10 units (by default), but never sell any produced cotton, so you wind up with huge amounts of cotton in your stockpile.
OHGamer's AAR is an excellent read.
The most important thing to remember about Victoria is that it is not primarily a war game, although you can wage war. Your primary immediate goals are a sound economy and a content populace, or as content as you can get them. If you come out of the gate waging war against the lesser powers, you will soon find yourself a pariah among the nations and stronger, more economically stable countries will start declaring war upon you to punish you for your wicked, wicked ways. This we call "badboy" wars. A concept I'm sure you are familiar with being an owner of EU3, and they start when you are least able to handle them as a rule unless you have made a conscious decision to play your entire game that way.
