IMO the problem lies mainly in the production value's being towned down a bit to much ,that is not in every case.I think the production value's are good for luxury product's and thing's like artillery ,but to low for basic goods like paper ,regular clothes and furniture.
I have a suggestion ,but many might not find it a wise idea.Ah well here comes the idea ,but first the motivation:
While in 1835 production of poduct's as artillery ,weapons ,ship's ,luxury items were mainly done big naions alone that had the tech for it ,production of basic furniture ,paper ,regular clothes and luxury metals was enough to sustian most needs ,however at variable prices.Most of these basic product's were not produced en masse in organized factories much ,but more in artinsinal style in the house by carpenters ,cloth makers etc.
This is something that is missing in Victoria ,these little home factories that made the transition to industry later on but provided for basic materials early on.For ex. there have always been carpenters ,but in Victoria one does need a factory build with advanced and hard to get goods and educate people just to be able to produce lumber.
Suggestion:
Introduce a new type of factory that can only hold a certain amount of pops ,has a lower production output/efficiancy but can be build at certain low technoligy and is abundantly present in the start of the game to a certain extent.These factory's could only exist for the most basic of goods ,clothes ,paper ,lumber and furniture ,cloth and maybe fertilizer.More advanced products should only be able to produced in the regular factory's.This 2nd type of factory wich should represent the home working artisans should only need basic thing's like lumber to build and only labourers to man.They should cost a lot to build so the transition to industrialized country would still take long ,however most Western country's should have a good number of those that would soon be replaced.These low level industry's would produce only a minimal of those basic goods at very low profit ,just enough to very slowly be able to improve youre industry.The more advanced country's like germany and britian should get a mix of normal and secondary industry ,while country's like in South America or East europe would only have a moderate amount secondary industry ,and backward country's only few to none.
I think this could be made even more fun if it would take technoligy research in steps for about every factory possible to build rather than having most available when you got freedom of trade.I think the ability to build steamers and clippers should be dependant on naval tech ,weapons and artillery on land tech ,luxury's on more advanced industrial tech.
It is just an idea.i don't think it would be that hard for Paradox to make a 2nd type of factory in game that can produce only basic goods in low amount but is available for most country's given technoligy and allows it to have the potential to improve graduatly their country by balancing technological evolution with industrial evolution.
