Money from heaven! Tarrifs don´t work

[unmerged(19911)]

I´m surprised this one has not been posted!

I´m running Victoria 1.03b in Windows XP, 512mb ram, 2ghz processor.

Now, to the best of my knowledge, tarrif rating has ABSOLUTELY no impact in the game. None whatsoever, except giving the player an extra amount of money from the sky. The way it works now, it just makes the countries with Protectionist parties or small countries just have a free money surplus.

A discussion has been initiated by OHgamer in the VIP forum and both me, Generalissimo and OHGamer agreed that this is a flaw in the game.

As I understand, high tarrifs should increase the price of the items bought by your pops in the World Market, thus making them less acessible to them (with all the consequences of it). In this away, tarrif money would come from someplace (i.e, your pops pockets) rather than a gift from Above.

On the other hand, subsdize your pops should NOT be just a plain waste of money as it is now (since it has no documented effect on the abilty of your pops to buy the goods). It should decrease the cost of items bought in the world market, making it more easy for your pops to buy.

 

[OHgamer]

Another issue

That I see is that tariffs do not factor in costs of goods to different nations based on location or whether they have the technological capability to produce the goods on their own. The result is that the player of Uruguay will get the same amount in tariff income on 1 unit of steel as a player in the Netherlands because they will both pay the same price for it on the world market, even though historically the Uruguayan consumer of steel in the 19th C would have, for the same amount of money spent for steel as the Dutch consumer, received much less steel due to the nature of global trade and the role of intermediaries in the 19th Century. Not sure what the best way to illustrate this difference would be - perhaps a factor that takes into account the distance away from the leading producer of a commodity could be implemented into the calculations. Perhaps it should be less of an issue of tariffs than in cost of goods in total. The prestige system is good in determining who can get goods, but by saying that all nations will pay the same world market price for goods if they have enough prestige to buy them ignores one of the biggest problems inhibiting the economic development of developing nations in the 19th C - the additional costs added to get the goods from Northwestern Europe or the USA to the developing nations.

 

[Nightcap]

I´m surprised this one has not been posted!
Now, to the best of my knowledge, tarrif rating has ABSOLUTELY no impact in the game.

It probably hasn't been posted before because everyone assumed it had been posted before. It is a very well known bug.

Tarrifs do have one other impact on the game (other than free cash) they raise CON for those pops that don't like them.

 

[Cavalry]

I don't think just because it is free money, it is a bug. There are free money everywhere in Victoria, tax,laisserfair import,loan payment, maybe even statebond. Yes it maybe a bug compare to the documents, but not a game breaker. Subsidies is rarely need because at the time you can pay it, your pop is rich anyway. The only matter is the amount tariff bring to you. But for a lot of players, the game is already hard.

 

[Paul Roberts]

I'd love to hear whether the free cash from tariffs will be fixed. Perhaps it's not a total game breaker, but it definitely weakens the economic model. Dealing with trade and tariffs should be central to economic management.