Certain raw resources can be quite concentrated in certain areas, so I've been toying with the idea of seeing if I could form a monopoly in one of them, then refuse to sell it - to stop other nations from being able to get any and thus develop with it.
Best option seems to be Silk. Almost entirely in Asia, I've just started a game as Russia and if I'm aggressive early on and annex the nations/land with silk in it in Asia, that would leave just 5 provinces in Europe to capture and I'd have a global monopoly on silk - and thus Luxury Clothes.
Thus surely no other nation would be able to promote clerks, thus severly impeding their ability to industrialise.
Has anyone tried/achieved this before? Any other raw materials that it could be realistically done with?
EDIT: I guess Dye would be another option, as the UK if you could capture all of India then that'd just leave 3 more provinces in the world producing dye, get them and you'd monopolise dye until 1880+, and thus regular clothes and thus luxury clothes too, so nobody would be able to promote any craftsmen or clerks!
Best option seems to be Silk. Almost entirely in Asia, I've just started a game as Russia and if I'm aggressive early on and annex the nations/land with silk in it in Asia, that would leave just 5 provinces in Europe to capture and I'd have a global monopoly on silk - and thus Luxury Clothes.
Thus surely no other nation would be able to promote clerks, thus severly impeding their ability to industrialise.
Has anyone tried/achieved this before? Any other raw materials that it could be realistically done with?
EDIT: I guess Dye would be another option, as the UK if you could capture all of India then that'd just leave 3 more provinces in the world producing dye, get them and you'd monopolise dye until 1880+, and thus regular clothes and thus luxury clothes too, so nobody would be able to promote any craftsmen or clerks!
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