Sphering a country may kill its factories
I was playing a game as Portugal, and it was the year 1927. By then, industralization MUST be profitable. I have sphered Spain, but it gives me just a meager 16 industrial score - not nearly enough to make a difference.
Well, the problem is - Spain's economy just sucks. Is this because they are a "Bourgeoise Dictatorship" without Capitalists ?. I have been investing there - building railroads, reopening factories, even building some new ones - they just go bankrupt most of the time. Most stuff is in oversupply. They have a lot of regions - so much potential wasted.
Are people in Spain are poor - cannot they afford to buy the things the factories produce ?
Turns out that this is not the case. I reopen all of Spain's factories as Portugal, and then I reenter the game as Spain.
After a while, most of the factories turn unprofitable again, because they cannot sell their stuff. But the demand is there, and there are actually pops who have money to buy it. Do they buy in the international market instead ? Do they buy stuff first from countries who have high prestige ?
For instance clothes. There is a huge demand for it, there are pops who demand it and have money to spend, but the only factory who is producing clothes cannot sell them all. There is a big supply of clothes in the world market. But why aren't people buying clothes from Spanish factories first ? About 60% of the production goes wasted.
Clothes factories are not profitable in Portugal as well because of oversupply. But overall Portugal sells a higher percentage of its output. Spain sells around 40% of its output, while Portugal sells 60% of it.
I went back into the game as Portugal - the computer played a little so it changed some stuff. I know the Pops cannot be buying all the cloths they need (494.28 here), since there are many who are not satisfying their everyday needs, which includes clothing. It's the ones inside of the green and yellow pie who can't buy clothes.
Then it dawns on me - in Spain they are buying PORTUGUESE clothes ! I edit the save file, take Spain out of my sphere and let the game run. The Clothes factory turns PROFITABLE ! The wine, liquour, explosive, artillery factory as well ! They are selling all of the stuff they are producing to the internal market. So sphering a country may kill its industry. Obviously, people in Spain will buy first clothes from Portuguese factories, as Portugal has a higher prestige inside of the sphere. On the other hand, I have a bigger market for Portuguese goods.
Actually, it is probably a little more complicated though : as in this case 64 % of the resources are available for the common market, only 36% of the factory output is sold directly in the country, in Spain. In this case, that is why at least 36% of the output is sold.
The rest (64% ) goes to the common market. But little of it will be sold, as Portuguese factories will have the opportunity to sell their products first (or anyway, more of it).
Ideally you should build factories in your spherelings which build stuff in high demand in your country.
Or don't sphere industrialized countries - grab provinces from them.
As a corollary, being a sphereling means that it will be very difficult for you to industrialize - you should be a GP at all costs.