How do I not lose money?

[unmerged(61489)]

I recently bought Victoria + Revolutions and I am sufficiently overwhelmed. I've started a game as Portugal and I'd just like to know how to not lose money. Do I just have to spend a lot less money on maintenance/education/crime fighting etc? Or am I missing something obvious?

 

[byzantium43]

Jack up tariffs, Get a good balance of taxes (regressive tax if Laissez-faire)
Increase and industrial production, make sure you're not imported unnecessary goods, lower army maintenance if you aren't expecting any wars or have a good manpower pool.
Always keep education upkeep at full though, its beneficial to just about everything, including income, in the long run.
Also many countries will lose money for a while before balancing out. Don't be afraid of small loans.

 

[Eärendil]

Make sure you're not importing something you don't need.

 

[Taylor]

Sometimes you will own factories that lose money (you can check it in the ledger, dunno about Portugal though). Close them. Keep crime fighting and education at max, but military/naval maintenance and defence spending can be decreased if you feel safe enough. Having high defence spending is good for gaining prestige though, so as soon as you start making a decent income, I'd begin spending some money on that again.

 

[unmerged(131989)]

Don't let the game manage your trade!

 

[Lord Raglan]

what are good settings for trade, because in order to do many things you need some stockpiled goods, but this ends up costing more

also is it better to focus on manufactured goods or RGO's economically, or a bit of both

 

[unmerged(61489)]

Alright, I'm doing a little better now. I've jacked up taxes and tariffs and fixed up what I was trading.
I've also given my army and navy away as expeditionary forces. This seems to be a way of having an army standing by without having to pay for it, is there a downside that I'm missing (aside from them being in someone else's control and losing strength)?

 

[unmerged(17307)]

hello,

do gain money you can adjust this settings:

- tax
why is this bad?:
tax over 50% destroys your middle and rich class slowly, they degenerate to poor people. no effect on poor people. tax under 33% makes ppl happy. they also start to be rebbellious if you keep it high a long time.

- education
why is this bad?:
you research slower. also edu under 50% makes the people slowly loose literacy, over 50% edu makes the people slowly gain literacy. literacy is the number that decides how good your researchers are.

- crime fighting:
why is this bad? :
crime-f under 50% makes your people revolt over time (and revolting units are biger). crime-f over 50% makes your people more calm (and revolting units are very small).

- social spending
why is this bad? :
low spending makes your population "democratic", it raises its conciousness. that means if you are a monarchy they start to hate you over time - if you are very democratic already you do not need social spending the people just get even more "democratic".

- Defensive spending
why is this bad? :
low def-spend gives you low prestige growth over time. also your "Manpower-points" (with them you repair units and build news ones) has a lower maximum, it also can be negative. if suddenly a war breaks and you set def-sepnd to max again it takes a long time for the manpower pool to get big again.

- Army maintenance
why is this bad? :
armies (normaly 10.000 men per unit) have lower max soldiers. if suddenly a war breaks out you neet to set arm-maint back to 100% again and "repair" your units to have them full strength again.

- Navy maintenance
why is this bad? :
ships (normaly 100% strenght) have lower % of strength . if suddenly a war breaks out and you want to have your ships stronger you need to set nav-main back to 100% again, go to a port and wait a couple of weeks until they are "repaired" back to 100%.

- tariffs
why is this bad? :
high tarrifs raise conciousness of all your people. that means if you are a monarchy they start to hate you over time.

- klick your trade screen and deactivate "let computer handle trade". then set all your resources to "sell" if the computer had them to "buy". like this the compi does not start to buy stuff like mad.
why is this bad? :
you need to check the trade screen from time to time and buy items yourself in case you or your factorys need them. some people dont like this

- klick your "politics" tab and choose "political reforms - public meetings - NO" this makes crime fighting less expensive.
why is this bad? : democratic people (high conciousness) do not like it. the other ones do not care.

 

[Lord Raglan]

ah okay thats a helpful post - i was more or less getting aware of that anyway but that has clarified for me

if i'm playing a small country that doesn't produce much, how can i keep my economy going by buying things i need without my import costs going sky high?

 

[unmerged(16676)]

Keep your military as small as possible if you are a tiny country.

The computer will leave you alone unless there is an event against your nation or you do things that annoy other powers.

A country like Portugual can go the entire game and not fight a war.

 

[unmerged(131989)]

what are good settings for trade, because in order to do many things you need some stockpiled goods, but this ends up costing more

It depends on your country and your aims, essentially. If you want to have a revolution then you may need different settings to having the aim of being an immigrant-whore nation.

 

[unmerged(48056)]

As Austria, I like to demobilize my soldier populations in the coal/steel/precious-metals provinces.