Making money 1.142

[kramari]

What is the best way to make money in game now? I played 1.138 and I could just use velvet and spice caravans. I made a lot of money. But now I installed 1.142 patch and that doesn't work anymore and war is expensive. If someone has any tips for me it would be nice.
I found that honey is worth a lot in Novgorod but I can't send a caravan from anywhere there and merchants don't have enough money to sell them.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Lithuanian2]

The War feeds its Children.

 

[unmerged(347838)]

Right now the caravans are useless to me as well.
I have done some experiments by sending the same cargo to different places and they all only made maximum 350 thaler profit.
The caravans don't go to every city as well which is disappointing.

So what I am doing now is buying honey, wine, vodka, shag and some other stuff to castles, fortresses (but not city).
They usually take the above goods for 2000+. The only thing that stops me from earning loads of money is the amount of thalers the merchants have... (and the upkeep for the cities...)

 

[unmerged(326187)]

Making money isn't as easy as before, but you can make a decent amount of money with a caravan. You just have to work at it. Find a city with 15 to 20 of an item to get as big a caravan as you can. Assess local prices, this will give you an idea of where you can sell your item for a profit. Talk to the mayor, in the list of cities you will see prices of what that item is selling for in some nearby cities. I've found that I can make a lot of money with mid range priced items, i.e. buying 20 salt for 165 thaler and selling for 400 thaler, making 2700 thaler. I've rarely made much with big ticket items like spice or velvet, at best you can get 5 items in a caravan and the profit margin is small. When you get 20,000 thaler, deposit 10,000 thaler with the merchant guild, 14% interest is great and builds up quickly. It's a slower process, but big money caravans aren't there anymore.

 

[Nagamzor]

The amounts I use here are just rounded numbers because I'm at work, but..

Something that I always do is I always pick up powder anywhere that sells it for the lower prices.
Cherkassk and Azaq Kale or whatever carry 4-6 of them each usually, everytime goods reset, but a lot of other towns/cities will carry 1 or 2 as well.
I don't usually send these in caravans. I'll do the other types of goods in caravans, like butter, salt, tools.

These are buyable for like 150-200 each and I never sell them for less than 800 because there are enough towns that offer this, but there are often towns that go over 900 and sometimes over 1000. Because I don't sell them for under 800 if you see some place has them for 500-600 its still profitable to buy them.

I made a lot of money doing this while I was doing quests to get my renown high enough to do the black mace quest as a neutral. I was moving caravans and horse herds all over and I would stop at every fortress and city to check prices.

Sometimes if I know I am going to Cherkassk and Azaq Kale to get more, I'll send a caravan there, and just accompany it for more money.

Another easy way to make money is to go to the villages and buy fresh beef. In the cities and forts they sell for 100-200 and they're usually buyable for 20 or so. They always sell high because they never have them in stock.
If I stop, I also ask if they have any cattle for sale, buy 5 and then slaughter them (usually the scaled up cost of the next ones to buy isn't really worth it).
Each slaughtered cattle gives you 2 fresh beefs and each cattle costs you 30-70 to buy which is always a profit of quite a lot, especially if you stop in a village close to the city you're going to so you don't have any spoilage.

If you want to make a lot of money fast, take one of those "move my cattle herd to a city."
The herds have like 80 head for me right now and if you slaughter them all that is a lot of money, there are consequences, but..you could make 25k off of that one quest depending on the herd size and if you don't slaughter them all at once (so the meat doesn't spoil), and move to different cities to keep the sale price high.