Trade... A guide for noobs,

[The Modified Mog]

Personally in my rather small time of playing Eu4 (only like 280 hours) this is one of the areas of the game that I assume is important, but I have never been able to understand fully. I understand trade nodes, mercantilism and so on but I have heard talk that this is a lot more important than I think. Let this page on the interwebs be one where noobs like me can understand trade in Eu4, as it is one of the most baffling mechanics but also one of the most interesting. Please, keep it light on the numbers and long tough reading paragraphs. If you understand trade, see this thread as a place to distil your knowledge into small coherent easy to process chunks of info that are relatively easy to understand for the average joe,

Thanks in advance,

Mog... The Medieval Mog

 

[Republic of Mercury]

Trade value in a province = value of trade good * amount produced.

trade value in a node = sum of value in provinces in that node, + anything coming in from nodes upstream.

For every a merchant you have transferring in other nodes, you get +10% power in your home node, and you increase the amount of money in the node by up to (5% * (100% + your trade steering modifier)). If you have a merchant collecting in any node other than your home node, you lose the 10% power per merchant in your home node.

Here's a trade-game I played recently. Observe my obscene income.

And here's a guide I wrote about what merchants do. A bit old, but might be helpful for you.

 

[The Modified Mog]

Trade value in a province = value of trade good * amount produced.

trade value in a node = sum of value in provinces in that node, + anything coming in from nodes upstream.

For every a merchant you have transferring in other nodes, you get +10% power in your home node, and you increase the amount of money in the node by up to (5% * (100% + your trade steering modifier)). If you have a merchant collecting in any node other than your home node, you lose the 10% power per merchant in your home node.

Here's a trade-game I played recently. Observe my obscene income.

And here's a guide I wrote about what merchants do. A bit old, but might be helpful for you.

Thank you this is a good start, may I ask a painfully nooby question, what ways can I increase good produced apart from improving the production in said province,

 

[The Modified Mog]

Thank you this is a good start, may I ask a painfully nooby question, what ways can I increase good produced apart from improving the production in said province,

Wait I checked it on the wiki... My mouth is watering now... Manufactories... I know what you are for now XD THIS IS THE REALISATION OF TRADE I WAS LOOKING FOR!!!

 

[warhammerfan11]

Wait I checked it on the wiki... My mouth is watering now... Manufactories... I know what you are for now XD THIS IS THE REALISATION OF TRADE I WAS LOOKING FOR!!!

Manufactories are one way but you can also use the workshop and counting house which give +50% and +100% local production efficiency respectively. My advice is that if you are putting a manufactory in a province, it is also significantly monetarily beneficial to put a workshop/counting house in that province as well. Also, I would suggest only putting manufactories in provinces that would give a minimum +0.5 ducat increase, otherwise the time and money spent just isn't worth it.

 

[Republic of Mercury]

Manufactories are one way but you can also use the workshop and counting house which give +50% and +100% local production efficiency respectively. My advice is that if you are putting a manufactory in a province, it is also significantly monetarily beneficial to put a workshop/counting house in that province as well. Also, I would suggest only putting manufactories in provinces that would give a minimum +0.5 ducat increase, otherwise the time and money spent just isn't worth it.

Production efficiency doesn't effect goods produced.

 

[warhammerfan11]

Production efficiency doesn't effect goods produced.

Yeah, sorry about that fam, I was just thinking about the money, not about the actual goods produced.

 

[sigeena]

And manufactories are often more efficient in Trade Nodes which you already hold a high percentage of Trade Power. So don't just spam manufactories on the richest trade good, make sure you can milk the TV as well.

I would also consider that sometimes it may be more worthwhile to collect other than your home node. Yes, you'll lose the transfers from downstream. But if you already hold the bulk percentage of TP in your home node, that loss isn't very significant, compared to the total collection values.

Usually, that occurs around 1560-1630, where there's a sudden manufactory surge.