Keeping or Annexing a merchant republic

[Azmodael]

For those of you unaware - merchant republics generate a bonus to non-owned provinces in any node they have trade power in.

Naturally this lead me to ask myself a question - is it worth to keep a vassal merchant republic to boost production?

The answer is... complex.

Our example trade node produces 100 ducats worth of goods. If you collect 100% of that in a trade node you get a total base income of 200 ducats.

Now lets introduce a merchant republic that takes 50% of that trade power away from you. In return you get a 25% bonus to goods produced. This raises production income to 125 and lowers trade to 50% of 125 or 62, for a total income of 187. This might look like a net loss, but consider the following factors:

*A merchant republic will put its own merchants on the steer routes and bring more money in
*The production boost also applies to nodes in which the merchant republic doesn't collect, but still has some trade power. The extra production boost from those nodes is net fiscal gain.
*The merchant republic collects a lot of excess money due to having great trade focused ideas

The net result is slightly less total income for you, but a really really rich and powerful vassal, which can field an endless stream of mercs without any trouble.

So while this idea is not something amazingly strong, it's still cool and a viable way to have fun.

 

[Robert de Bruce]

You have to count in the costs for keeping the vassal. This is mostly the one diplo-slot you use for it. So you have to consider what you could do with a diplo-slot otherwise. Depends on game situation ofcourse, but I think in most cases you have other interesting options for diplo-slots. And additionally modifiers for integrating vassals stack on long time vassals. So I think in most cases keeping the vassal isn't worth it at all.

 

[ShoGuL]

Or you could convert to merchant republic yourself 50% more goods produced everywhere!


But On Topic: It's an interesting idea. Wouldn't it be optimal to make your merchant republic vassal be tiny in the node you actually collect, and try to give them land (CoT's) elsewhere? If I remember correctly, the production boost is based in their share in each specific node, even if they are just using it to funnel trade onwards.

So technically you should be able to have them dominate the trade route, boosting income, and then focus all your ships and provinces in the end node to suck up 90% of the final trade value yourself ?

 

[Incompetent]

I think this is actually what the devs had in mind when they put in the Merchant Republic mechanics: that major powers would tolerate their presence for the economic benefits. It's actually a very profitable arrangement if the Merchant Republic is also a player: in one of the multiplayer dev clashes, Fido as Portugal became a merchant republic and basically bankrolled most of the world (or at least the anti-StarNaN league). With an AI, it's not so efficient given the AI's weaknesses. Ideally you'd want to carefully engineer which provinces the MR has, distributed all over your empire, but I'm not sure what restrictions will come in with granting provinces.

Theoretically, I think the biggest multiplier on goods income you can get is through some version of the following offshore banking scheme:
- Conquer trade company land, build manufactories there
- Build 'offshore bank' colonial nations in the Americas with max tariffs (you can keep them happy by developing in subject): Caribbean, Eastern North America, Canada (only the eastern part is needed)
- Get a ton of trade steering (biggest source is naval tradition; MRs can get more trade steering through trading cities), pull all the trade around the Cape to your offshore banks
- Get a ton of tariff efficiency (magically multiplies all the non-treasure fleet money you extract from CNs)
- Unfortunately, your CNs are obliged to give you some trade power, so a dribble of the trade will still be left to you in Gulf of St. Lawrence. As I understand it, the best option is actually not to put your trade capital downstream and collect, because you want to be ineligible for treasure fleets. (If you're ineligible for them, the gold income counts directly as CN income and thus benefits from tariff efficiency; you also don't get the gold income pirated, and the income becomes inflation-free from the overlord's perspective.) Instead, just collect the remainder in Gulf of St. Lawrence with a merchant (reduces your TP, which is good because you want the CN to collect as much as possible.)

Oh and by the way, your offshore bank CNs will keep half of their income due to tariff magic, so they will be fantastically wealthy in their own right, in addition to all the money you extract from them.

A pet Merchant Republic could factor into this, if you can somehow give them land upstream in TC-land. MR goods production bonus and TC goods production bonus don't overlap, but as I understand it you don't get TC goods production bonus in your own provinces. Maybe just a generic pet would work, as long as they are able to make TC provinces on important centres of trade. Not sure what the logistics are of giving Old World land to CNs, which would be the absolute dream as far as money making is concerned. (If they can hold Old World land, presumably CNs can make their own TCs...)