IN: Free Trade vs Mercantilist

[vertinox]

I was reading over the IN manual and read the part of the changes in merchants. It says that if you go full Marcantilist on the slider that other nations cannot compete away your merchants which is a very obvious benefit.

It says the downside is that you don't have free trade of course, but what benefit does free trade actually give you if you own the CoT?

Reduced tech costs? More prestige? Or maybe other nations have better relationships with you?

 

[Tycho]

I was reading over the IN manual and read the part of the changes in merchants. It says that if you go full Marcantilist on the slider that other nations cannot compete away your merchants which is a very obvious benefit.

Going for merchantilism wil ensure that merchants are not competed out of centers you own. Manual page 25

 

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Going for merchantilism wil ensure that merchants are not competed out of centers you own. Manual page 25

While free trade makes them more effective everywhere else.
Make sense. If you are a big colonial empire with many cots you would go mercantilist. If you are a small 2-3 province minor, then free trade would be the best option.

In the end, however, I think free trade will be the most flexible option, just as it has always been in the EU series.

 

[vertinox]

Going for merchantilism wil ensure that merchants are not competed out of centers you own. Manual page 25

Right, but what is the advantage of going free trade? Do you make more money off your own CoTs even though you aren't able to keep merchants in them?

 

[Darkrenown]

You get more merchants and higher TE.

 

[Hagen II]

You also get settlers.

 

[e-stab]

You also get settlers.

The number of colonists in IN is unaffected by all sliders.

 

[Palle]

Right, but what is the advantage of going free trade? Do you make more money off your own CoTs even though you aren't able to keep merchants in them?

If your own CoTs are very poor and foreign CoTs are very rich, it makes sense to compete in foreign ones.