In terms of what I'm building, I have a few cement factories as I saw in a Youtube video (admitedly not Brazil) that they are the best to kickstart the economy. I think I have a couple of paper/furnature factories on the way now I have access to Lumber. I was thinking though that because I have a shed-load of fruit/coffee/cotton type provs and no coal or iron that maybe Brazil wasn't the best choice to start off...?
Thank you for the reply too Animosity - makes a lot of sense, maybe I'm just expecting big numbers too soon? Any tips on what are pretty stable money making factories to build? Taking the market into consideration of course.
The video you watched was possibly old. In vanilla, Cement used to be quite an overpowered factory. Things have been balanced much more.
Early game general factories I like:
- Wine, excellent until 1850 and you will see notice when it stops becoming so popular. Have other factories ready for the workers to move into by this time.
- Liquor, excellent early on. Somewhat stablizes, but still a great start.
- Glass is a decent factory, but not a big money maker.
- Canned food. Your army will always need lots of it, just make sure you have access to iron.
Specialized factories:
- Luxury clothes, if you have access to Silk. Excellent factory as the demand is quite large. Either have silk or sphere one of the countries that do ( ie/ China, Yunnan, Gxyungzi????)
- Luxury furniture, if you have access to Tropical Wood.
- Steel, if you have iron.
- Steamer Shipyard, if you have steel.
Factories I never build:
- Fabric. Dye is too rare. Unless your UK?
- Paper. For some reason, paper never seems to treat me well.
Other factories not listed here can do very well as well. These are merely the factories I like to build. Pay attention to the supply/demand of the market. Look at your common market and build factories that can easily be supplied by it.
Pay attention to World Market. If you have no Dye in common Market, and Dye demand outweighs supply, avoid factories that use Dye.
Ofcourse, this is all subject to change. Just because small arms are in high demand today, they may not be in 2 years when your factory is done. If you are not Lassiez-Faire, it is okay to build some factories only to close them until a later point. I usually do this with luxury clothes. I build them before I sphere the Silk, then I sphere the Silk. ( :
Also, if you want to just learn the industry, try a rich GP country like Prussia, Austria, France. You have access to most resources and the ability to Sphere what you do not have. This way you can toy with many options and see what factories work, why, and when. Also, as a GP, you can look at the industries of certain countries like Belguim, Netherlands, der Schweiss, and see what is making money for them.