How do you increase private capital ?

[indra_pd]

I'm playing as USA, currently in Early Jan, 1854. I have abundant Money 4793, but low in Private Capital 506. My inflation is 13%. Just couple years away from the Civil War. I have 16 colonial areas with Formal colony or better status (The West + Hawai) with Samoa in progress. I've set Census Tax and Corporate Tax 1%, Excise Tax+Tariff Tax +Maritime Tax to Maximum. I've tweak all taxes percentages to increase Private Capital, and nothing big happened to my Private Capital though. Is it because i lack selling luxury goods, i have only 14 in current stock(planned income 6, spending 6 too). This is frustrating, i have to build grand army to defeat the South. Do i have start all over again to try build Luxury Goods from the beginning. Any suggestions ?

[bjorkrismacho]

Im only on my first GC now but i see that producing excess goods (the higer price/production the better) increase private capital alot, are u exploiting your colonys rescources?
sell the excess, and most importantly Produce what you spend

[Kensai7]

Private capital is mainly produced through exporting your goods or selling them to your local population. All while trying to buy as little as possible, unless you are planning to resell it as well, which works quite nicely as a way to raise commercial taxes. Remember, this is not an era for a mercantilistic approach, unless you try to embargo an enemy.

[sagji]

Census tax I usually set to the maximum - but with the amount of money you have saved you may want to set it to just under 1/3 of the maximum.
Excise and corporate tax should be at minimum as these convert capital into money. Tariffs is more complicated, if you aren't selling all you can in at least one category, and ideally two, this should be reduced. As you increase the tariff rate you can sell more of you own goods to the internal market, which in turn reduces the amount of goods the internal market gets from outside - so you get more tax per good but less goods (the maximum tax gain is in the middle). Also moving it to the right damages relations with other nations.

You also need to make sure you are selling all you can to the internal market -in the F4 screen on the 4th line you can right click to increase the amount of stock sold to the internal market, though there is a limit of how much of each good, and each category of good it will buy. I would expect the US to sell all the food and common goods provided the tariff slider isn't too high. You may need to import some goods to achieve this but you break even on price and gain in tax and contentment.

Turn off conversion of supply and ammunition - top right of the F4 screen. If you have a supply issue it is in the delivery not the amount of supply you produce.

You need to keep enough capital on hand to operate your structures. The first thing that happens in processing the turn is paying to operate your structures, and if you don't have the capital on hand you will get some capital and inflation will go up. This is required even if you make a profit - as sales aren't resolved until later in the processing.

If you produce more than you internal market wants try to sell it on the world market, and if you still have an excess then reduce production before your stockpile gets too high or you will be throwing it away.


Look at the F11 screen to see what is profitable, look at the F4 screen to see what goods you can sell more of to the internal market. Look at what you import, or what you are short of and can't import because there isn't enough on the world market.
Luxury goods are generally good to invest in - they make a good margin and are always in short supply, this is true of all luxury goods and gold and gems are especially good. Don't however neglect basics - manufactured goods are essential to do most things, so more production is good.

[Kensai7]

Don't however neglect basics - manufactured goods are essential to do most things, so more production is good.

Pretty summed in my sig!

[Vezina]

Also, to go with what sagji said, check the f11 screen for structures that are not profitable. You may need to filter for which structures have capital as an input, as some "unprofitable" structures like shipbuilding and military academies require state funds instead of capital(I think). If a building is unprofitable, it means you would be better off keeping the inputs and selling them and just buying the produced good outright on the market where it is cheaper. This will save you capital if you can sell the input goods.

I remember in the early patches it was hard to turn a profit with cotton, although I think that changed now. If you haven't done it, build as many gold mines as California can hold. It will give you a huge state funds boost, and is always demanded on the market. Generally, the US has very low national market limits due to an early low population, so you should be exporting at a much higher level than you are importing due to your vast resources. The best things for you to build as the US, in my opinion, are manufactured goods, gold mines, and luxury goods, in that order.

[indra_pd]

Thank u guys for the suggestions. I'll try all the tips on weekend. This game is confusing & makes me very curious, that even i had to postpone playing Total War : Shogun 2.

[indra_pd]

Finally... i'm back to business with F11 solution (patch 1.02). There were many unprofitable building (margin <5) that operational. After i closed them down, made 9 gold mines in sierra nevada + railroad, build manufactured goods factory and luxury goods factory. US become rich. The key here is to produce for the most profitable business / biggest margin. Awesome tips guys

[Kensai7]

However, don't trust that screen 100%. I think much depends also on the current price of resources/goods that are needed for input and can be sold to output. These change almost constantly. Also, a technological breakthrough could revolutionize one previously unprofitable margin.

Check off, but don't become paranoid!

[Jim-NC]

I can say that the values do change over time, so sometimes businesses are profitable, then can become unprofitable in short order.

[StephenT]

Also, remember that even if a particular business seem to be unprofitable, its output might be used as an input by a different factory that is extremely profitable, so shutting down the factory might hurt you. Also, shutting down the factories in a province will cause unemployment, which might lead to reduced happiness, leading to strikes, demonstrations and revolts.

In short: closing down factories is a temporary measure to get through emergencies, not a universal solution.

[Candew]

Also, remember that even if a particular business seem to be unprofitable, its output might be used as an input by a different factory that is extremely profitable, so shutting down the factory might hurt you. Also, shutting down the factories in a province will cause unemployment, which might lead to reduced happiness, leading to strikes, demonstrations and revolts.

In short: closing down factories is a temporary measure to get through emergencies, not a universal solution.

Ahh, this might be the reason I am seeing some revolts (strikes) in some areas. I never thought of this! TY TY TY!!!

[Kensai7]

As in real life, sometimes it is better to have some industries that lose money than hordes of jobless citizens that keep demonstrating against your government!

[Vezina]

Also, remember that even if a particular business seem to be unprofitable, its output might be used as an input by a different factory that is extremely profitable, so shutting down the factory might hurt you. Also, shutting down the factories in a province will cause unemployment, which might lead to reduced happiness, leading to strikes, demonstrations and revolts.

In short: closing down factories is a temporary measure to get through emergencies, not a universal solution.

I haven't played that far into the game, but do the advanced structures require higher levels of workers? If not, I don't see how we would ever fully employ a city like Paris or London with the current structure pool, especially considering the needs of other regions and regional resources.

[Boernes]

Yes, further upgrades require more workers and middle-class staff. A lvl3 Factory requires a workforce of 90 workers and 20 middle-class

[indra_pd]

Yes, further upgrades require more workers and middle-class staff. A lvl3 Factory requires a workforce of 90 workers and 20 middle-class

I haven't built level 3 factory yet. I wonder if i built level 1 factory and supposedly the worker is not enough, is the factory
(1)still able to produce good (2)not able to produce goods because the lack of worker (3)the output of the factory is reduced ?
I usually just built factory on size 3 city minimally, where i thought it had enough population,without counting the workers.

[Kensai7]

Mouse over the built structure in the tab below to see its productivity.