Economics 101

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First let me start by saying that I have enough problems handling my own personal finances, let alone the complex ones in the game I've gone thru VKV's EU2 Financial System v5 and it's a wee bit complicated for me.

Perhaps some of you learned gentlemen could spare some of your time and write some easy-to-grasp articles on what constitutes good economic management in this game?

I'm playing my first game (Austria 1492) and I'm up to early 1600's. My general approach is to pile up the merchants in the different CoT's to keep revenue rolling in. As soon as I hit stab +3 I concentrate on both infra and trade. And when money is available I spend it on officials and factories. Inflation is a bummer, but I rely on those events that knock it down every so often. Hope this is the right way to go about it. My balance seems to be stuck at around the 2000 d mark because I gotta keep my armies strong to keep down those continuous revolts by those pesky commoners. Let them eat cake I say

Thanks fellas.

 

[Castellon]

A good place to start is Chema's beginers guide.
Click here to visit the Site

 

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letssee..

1) keep running expenses down (if peace time), troops to 50% and smaller armies.

Keeps expenses at max 10% of income. (might not be possible before 1500.. but afterwards certainly)

2) Invest in trade and Infra.

3) Manufactories are VERY expensive so beware (1k is too much)

4) Start a few colonies

5) IF austria DIPLO-vassal & Diplo-annex, and soon you own franks, spain, HRE, poles and italy (ok spain and franks needed a force vassalisation to comply )

 

[Dev]

I'd argue that when playing an evil "want a bigger empire" nation you shouldn't drop military maintance a single % untill you can do so and still have strong morale.

/dev

 

[Lt. Tyler]

Originally posted by The camel
EDIT...
2) Invest in trade and Infra.

3) Manufactories are VERY expensive so beware (1k is too much)

First here is a good suggestion, though I would say put all resources into one, rather than splitting your research between the two.

And as for manufactories, I'm not sure I agree that 1K is too much to pay. Consider that a manufactory, even when built in a non-ideal province, generates 66 ducats per year in research + production. Thus at 1K price tag, you'll pay that back in a bit over 15 years. Build them early enough in the game, and they'll pay for themselves and give you much more.

Also, this calculation ignores the growth increase and revolt reduction from manufactories, and also the increase in trade or production from refineries and good manufactories, respectively.

 

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Manufactories are the best buy in the game.

 

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1K is a great deal! Do a cost/benefit analysis, and you'll find that even 2-4K is generally a good price (except in the late stages of the game). Manufactories are incredible.

 

[boehm]

Originally posted by Lt. Tyler


First here is a good suggestion, though I would say put all resources into one, rather than splitting your research between the two.

And as for manufactories, I'm not sure I agree that 1K is too much to pay. Consider that a manufactory, even when built in a non-ideal province, generates 66 ducats per year in research + production. Thus at 1K price tag, you'll pay that back in a bit over 15 years. Build them early enough in the game, and they'll pay for themselves and give you much more.

Also, this calculation ignores the growth increase and revolt reduction from manufactories, and also the increase in trade or production from refineries and good manufactories, respectively.

I regularly buy manufacturies at 1800d...no problem its only when they cost more than 2000d that it starts to be serious concern! *g*

 

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Originally posted by Lt. Tyler
Also, this calculation ignores the growth increase and revolt reduction from manufactories, and also the increase in trade or production from refineries and good manufactories, respectively.

The +5000 in manpower for weapons manufactories is nice too, especially if you have a lot of expensive artillery. Saves you a couple of ducats in upkeep per year.

 

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Originally posted by Dev
I'd argue that when playing an evil "want a bigger empire" nation you shouldn't drop military maintance a single % untill you can do so and still have strong morale.

/dev

I agree dev, but it is good advice if you want to become a trading/colonial empire...but there are risks (such as getting your hat handed to you by native uprisings etc.)

*Petrus cracks knuckles*

Ok, Econ in the game. [And big thanks to Chema_Cagi and State Machine!]

You make money essentially two ways: yearly province revenue and everything else. I will focus on the basics, province revenue.

To increase your yearly province revenue: Promote tax collectors, legal consuls, and gov’ners. They will increase your tax base, increase production in the province, and lower inflation. (This is priority #1.)

If you have a Center of Trade (CoT), you get a little $$$ from each merchant. Bigger the CoT, the more merchants. So you can still make money off of a CoT even if you don’t have any of your own guys elbowing for room. (Mid-Term term priority: collect CoT thru wars and colonial expansion).

Manufactories increase province production. Maximize this by building refineries in wine provinces, naval Manufactories in provinces with wood etc. Check out the manual for more info on what does what. ( Manufactories are a long term priority for when you have lots more money to spend but others may disagree. Your call).

Trade revenue is higher if the goods flowing to the CoT are worth more. That’s why the Asian CoT are so yummie. (Forget India, the real money is in the S. Pacific and East Asia. That’s where you want to control CoT).

Goldmines are good for fast money, but without a 20+ provinces in which to promote gov’ners, goldmines will eat your economy away from the inside over time. Inflation is a bitch. (1 or 2 goldmines are fine. All the gold in all of America may seem appealing, but beware. For true long term success, focus on trade).

And one final note on trade. If you choose a trading empire, the trade advantages of max plutocracy far exceed the disadvantages. (Economic powers should make plutocracy a high priority).

Now others may disagree with some of my suggestions. But remember, mostly it’s just a question of playing style. This works for me. Different strategies may work better for you. Good luck.

 

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Originally posted by Petrus

To increase your yearly province revenue: Promote tax collectors, legal consuls, and gov?ners. They will increase your tax base, increase production in the province, and lower inflation. (This is priority #1.)

This is not true. Tax collectors increase tax income and production, governors and legal counsels only increase production. Thye'll boost your income, but not your end of the year taxes.

 

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Originally posted by Isaac Brock
Manufactories are the best buy in the game.

maufactories are the second best buy --governors are still the best buy ...base price of 50d increased growth, full point reduction on inflation (thereby lowering tech cost a full percent,), only one month to build and they will increase demand for certain products that you hopefully already produce/trade in!

 

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Originally posted by Isaac Brock


This is not true....

Who said anything about taxes. I said tax base.

 

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Originally posted by Isaac Brock
This is not true. Tax collectors increase tax income and production, governors and legal counsels only increase production. Thye'll boost your income, but not your end of the year taxes.

Hmm. Isn't it like this:

Tax collectors increase tax and production income.

Legal councels increase tax income only.

Governors increase production income only.

Or do I have a bad memory...?

 

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Plutocracy is fine if you're a peaceful nation, but the diplomacy penalty cuts your diplomat availability severely (which can wreck you in a long war) and makes diploannexing very hard. I still play high aristocracy.

The best manufactory by far is the refinery. That 1% trade bonus gets to be huge. If you have a trade income of 500, that's 5 ducats per month, or another 120 ducats/year. Goods manufactories give the same bonus to production, but in my experience production income is typically only half of trade income so the bonus is worth only half as much.

Promoting officials is not a free ride. The income bonus they give is pre-inflation, but the expense is post-inflation. Legal consuls in particular only give a one-point production boost, but cost 100 ducats. That's a 100-year payback time, not counting inflation. Give them lower priority than manufacturies, I say.

My secret to financial success has always been to get 5 merchants in as many CoT's as possible. If you're in Europe, start by sending every merchant you get to a CoT (caution: Venice is very competitive, so you may want to avoid it). If you're in the Rest Of The World, you aren't spoiled for choice, so do the best you can.

Trade maps as much as possible to access more CoT's. Asian and New World CoT's are more expensive, but the competition is less so your merchants will last longer (note: the American CoT's get more competitive later as the natives get trade technology1; they only know of one or two CoT's so all their merchants go to a very few places, making competition stiff.)

Don't worry about getting monopolies; they are very hard to defend, unless the CoT is in an obscure location (Table or Yukon, for example) or unless you're willing to embargo 46 other nations.

That's my two pfennings. Good Luck!

 

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Originally posted by crooktooth
Don't worry about getting monopolies; they are very hard to defend...

Hence Plutocracy.

 

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Originally posted by Grenadier

Hmm. Isn't it like this:

Tax collectors increase tax and production income.

Legal councels increase tax income only.

Governors increase production income only.

Or do I have a bad memory...?

That rings a bell. Remember that you get your tax income twice each year: once on Jan 1st as cash, and again in monthly installments as investment.

 

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Originally posted by crooktooth

The best manufactory by far is the refinery. That 1% trade bonus gets to be huge. If you have a trade income of 500, that's 5 ducats per month, or another 120 ducats/year. Goods manufactories give the same bonus to production, but in my experience production income is typically only half of trade income so the bonus is worth only half as much.

Absolutely true! Refineries may be one of the best deals in the game (even at high prices). It never ceases to amaze me that some people would pay 10000 ducats for a single level of trade tech, but wouldn't pay 5000 for 5 refineries. A 5% bonus to trade is a 5% bonus to trade any way you cut it, and the other bonuses make the refinery an excellent deal (irrespective of where you put them). The only question is inflation, and governors can deal with that (governors are excellent investments as well). When playing a huge nation without the Latin tech group, I'm willing to spend obscene amounts of money on refineries. When researching the higher levels of tech (for any nation), I'm also willing to spend obscene amounts of money on refineries. You won't see me discouraged by 3k refineries. Why? because I can do simple arithmetic

 

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As noted above
tax collectors +1 tax, +1 production = +3d /year (taxes monthly and annually)
legal counsels +1 production = +1d/year
governor +1 production = +1d/year

 

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Originally posted by Isaac Brock
As noted above
tax collectors +1 tax, +1 production = +3d /year (taxes monthly and annually)

Actually, the annual benefit is a thirteenth month of income, this one going straight to your treasury (inflation-free!), rather than being apportioned by your treasury sliders.

So a tax collector gives you +1 tax, +1 production, +1/12 annual bonus, for 2.0875 ducats/yr.