First of all, thanks for the reply!
Industries- makes sense, but that is my problem. I can't build the ones I want. I see that demand is up for clothes, but can't force them to build them. With Bureaucrats set to 100% will that happen more naturally? The other parts of #1 I'll take to heart and apply it next game.
That takes me to my next question, when bureaucrats are 100% (not sure what that means, though- the slider bar is full?) do you mean, change the Nat'l Focus to capitalists, or ignore the NF and change the State/Province Focus for the highest 2 POP provinces? At what point do you go to the next highest provinces, if that's the case?
Subsidies- duly noted! I subsidized like a madman in the Midwest and South East to get factories going (of course they weren't the ones I wanted). I will do what you said and keep poor/middle class taxes low next time- I did kind of the opposite as an impetus to get my desired factories (again, fruitless).
#4 will take some more thinking based on what I want to accomplish. My war aims as America are two-fold every time: Completely absorb Mexico and minimize Southern preparedness army-wise (I mostly produce units in the historic Northern states). Southern Pride is a pet peeve of mine......... One day I would LOVE to absorb Canada, too. Back to my point. During the games, I saw the huge profit potential in arms and artillery on the world market and tried to take advantage. I take it the game engine doesn't really allow one country to dominate the Arms Market.
Again, thank you very much!
What I wrote applies if you are playing Victoria 2 with A House Divided expansion pack and patched to the latest patch 2.31. If you don't have the AHD expansion with the 2.31 patch, then things would be slightly different and not all the points I made will apply.
1) It's useful if you can appoint a party with state capitalism as economic policy into power for the first few years so that you can build some initial industries yourself then switch back to conservatives or liberals, but I think it's not possible to do that as USA because USA does not have a party with State Capitalism at the beginning, but I am not sure, so check if you can. Unfortunately, capitalists tend to build factories randomly and therefore often build the wrong factories in the wrong states, but at the very beginning you should still tax the few capitalists you have less than 10% for a while so that they build more industry even if many of them will be a complete waste. Tax capitalists over 30% once you have built up a decent industry and you have more capitalists.
Having 100% bureaucrat coverage should be your first priority, then ensure that most states have at least some capitalists, take care of the most populated states first of course.
2) With National Focus, you should initially make it a priority to get administration to 100% and have 100% bureaucrats in most important states. Click on the bureaucracy view mode tab, it will show which parts of your country lack bureaucrats, if you click on a province you can see on top right the percentage of bureaucrats it has, try to get it to 100% in all important provinces. States with low bureaucrats percentage will not be efficiently administered and thus pay less taxes as well as prospering more slowly, so having 100% bureaucrats is crucial in states you want to have many factories. Bureaucrats also make sure that enough craftsmen are trained to work in newly built factories.
Secondly, if you click on your budget screen, on the right above the administration slider you can see the percentage of bureaucrat national coverage. At the 1836 start this is usually below 50%, you need to get it up to 100% to maximize you tax efficiency and other things, that will not take very long to achieve. Note that just because your administration coverage in the budget screen shows 100%, it does not mean that all your states are covered well, so go to the map and check again, you will find that some states will still be red or yellow. You can ignore a few backwater states at first, and in newly conquered areas from Mexico you will not be able to get bureaucrats fast enough for a while as few people of your national culture live there and getting 100% bureaucrats there will take very long time, so wait a few years until more of your people settle in newly conquered Mexican lands. Though I think if you have a party in power that supports full citizenship then you can promote Mexicans to become bureaucrats in territories you conquer from Mexico. Same for colonies, wait for some of your people to settle them, then promote bureaucrats and then convert the colony into a proper state. Ideally, you should aim to eventually have all your states having 100% bureaucrats.
First use NF to get bureaucrats, then get some capitalists. Start with 2 most populated states, then switch around sometimes to make some capitalists in other states too. You should at least some capitalists in most of your states, with most populated states having 0.50% to 1% of capitalists as most of your industry will be there and capitalists will optimize it. Capitalists breed and increase in number on their own too, so for the start get each state to have 0.30% or 0.40% of them and then switch the NF to another one, states with low population and few factories can do with 0.10% of them. Places you conquer from Mexico or Alaska, leave them last as these will not be very productive at first anyway.
Also don't forget to promote clerks occasionally, they are vital to your industries too.
3) As for subsidies, do it only in rare circumstances, for example you might have to raise tariffs at the beginning for extra cash, then subsidize all factories that rely on imported goods to prevent them from going bankrupt because of the tariffs you had to introduce. Remove subsidies a few weeks after you have abolished import tariffs. Even though subsidizing costs very little at the beginning, you are preventing the most successful industries from growing by subsidizing unprofitable ones. So don't over do it and use it selectively, if you decide to subsidize a fabric factory temporarily for some reason, you should subsidize the other fabric factories in other states too or they might be driven bankrupt by the ones you are subsidizing. Also don't forget to destroy bankrupt and close factories when there is no more room for new ones to be built in a state concerned.
As for taxes, in the beginning you will not have much tax income from capitalists and you might have to tax the poor over 70% for a while. So for the first few years cut capitalist taxes to 5%, or even 0% so that they can invest their money into building factories and railways. Use NF to promote more capitalists in the meantime. Once your initial industry is up and running and you have most of your capitalists being able to afford luxury goods, tax them up to 30% or 40% and that should hopefully give you enough income to tax poor and middle class people less than 10%. Middle and Rich class usually don't provide you much tax money at the start, so taxing them low makes sense when you have a shortage of clerks, need more clergymen to increase literacy and let capitalists invest into industry and infrastructure.
Personally I start with stockpile slider and military spending at 50% to save money and use it to have the Education and Administration sliders set to 100%. I tax the poor around 90%, middle at 40% to 50% and rich at 10%. Commercial techs for tax efficiency and administration help lower tax rates. Over time I steadily reduce poor and middle taxes to 20% then to 5%, while I raise rich taxes up to 30% or 40%. Sometimes I also impose import tariffs for extra cash at the beginning, in which case I subsidize the industries that rely on imported raw materials. In my last game as Germany by 1890 I taxed the poor and middle class only 3% while taxing rich around 25% and having a balanced budget with 400 army brigades, a decent navy and national stockpile slider always at 100% to support my very profitable military industry.
4) A military industrial complex is useful, but don't make it a top priority at the beginning. They will export a bit to the world market, but because of heavy competition it will not be able to export a lot. As USA you should bring all South American nations into your sphere of influence, except those you plan to fight wars against. Countries in your sphere of influence will buy all goods and weapons from you first before they go to the world market. But don't bring large countries like Brazil or Mexico too early into your sphere, they might have factories and artisans that can undercut your industry, so wait until your industry is well established, has become larger and more competitive then of those of nations you wish to bring into your sphere of influence. By bringing countries into your sphere you allow their industries to compete against yours directly, so never bring large well industrialized nations into your sphere, also don't sphere China or Japan. China has no industry at the start but it has so many people like artisans they can put half of your industry out of business or force you to subsidize your factories. Japan and China tend to become Great Powers towards the end anyway and thus leave your sphere of influence once they do.
P.S. Remember that you cannot declare war on countries that you have brought into your sphere of influence, and you cannot kick them out once you have them in your sphere, you will have to wait for another Great Power nation to take them out of your sphere first.
OH one thing, I seem to be unable to build more ships than what I have, would this be due to the fact my Captitalists are upgrading the railways/building more factories? And also how am I able to A) Build more ships and B) Raise my threshold on Soldiers as I can raise a maximum of 41 brigades I think despite having another 20 in the build queue.
