CoT madness?

[Ramidel]

I'm playing as France in the 1500s, and I'm suffering a bit of a ?? moment at a couple of divergent CoTs...For reference, my Trade Level is 6, my Mercantilism is 8, and I haven't passed my Free Trade Refusals (I have 5 embargos total.

1. I have totally monopolized Ivoria (my CoT) by embargoing everyone else who trades there. Nonetheless, it has complete control over sub-Saharan Africa's trade economy; every bit of the 633 ducats (subject to efficiency, of course) is going straight into my pocket, with no signs of shrinking any time soon. Sub-Saharan Africa is either controlled by France or by the African pagans and Muslims who I'm embargoing; the English colonies in West Africa are not a part of this (nor the strip of land in Zanzibar's range; Zanzibar is nearly as irrelevant as Flandern now, though). My CoT at Zacatecas is looking a lot like Ivoria and is running on similar trade policies, but is only about half the size and I hold virtually all of Mexico.
2. Immediately after annexing Andalusia off of Portugal, Andalusia's trade center lost territory to Tago. The funny thing is, Tago's area includes Algarve, which is my own bloody province now! I have no embargoes against European powers and Andalusia's fully-stocked; I have 5 merchants there but so does Spain.

Is something odd going on here? If so, what?

 

[Ericus1]

No, not really. CoT's that have more competition and whose owner is closer to the free trade side of the slider will be stronger that CoT's who don't. So, since you're fairly mechantilistic, that's part of it, and if Andalusia hasn't been getting much activity, that's another.

Merchantilism is supposed to help ensure that your territories trade in your CoT's, and free trade relaxes that, but it's still relative to the strength of the CoT's.

Algrave is litterally squashed between two CoT's that are far closer than the normal game mechanics would allow, so it's not unusual that it's behaving a little strange.