It's always better to have all your provinces send their goods to a CoT that you own.
1) better compete chance
2) tax and population bonus from the CoT province
3) you get a slight toll and harbour fee bonus from having other nations trade in your CoT.
This is especially true for colonial goods which fetch a high price. You should make it a priority to either conquer a CoT over there or build one yourself.
If you are Mercantile, you can pretty much forget about trading in foreign CoTs. If you're lucky enough to get merchants there they will be out competed in the blink of an eye. If you're free trading with good trade tech, the national trade policy and other +trade efficiency/compete chance modifiers, you can dominate both foreign and domestic trade but if you are mercantile, your CoTs have a stronger "pull" as in more provinces will send their goods there, especially if that coT is coastal.
In a way, trading is a way of doubling the money you make off of goods. You get production or tarrifs based on the value of the goods produced in the province*production efficiency, but you also get (the value of all the goods in the CoT/20)*the number of merchants you have in there*your trade efficiency. Best way to learn about trading is to have your own CoT and send merchants to it and see what happens.
Oh yeah, infamy kills your foreign compete chance. If you're a free trader you should always keep that in mind.
1) better compete chance
2) tax and population bonus from the CoT province
3) you get a slight toll and harbour fee bonus from having other nations trade in your CoT.
This is especially true for colonial goods which fetch a high price. You should make it a priority to either conquer a CoT over there or build one yourself.
If you are Mercantile, you can pretty much forget about trading in foreign CoTs. If you're lucky enough to get merchants there they will be out competed in the blink of an eye. If you're free trading with good trade tech, the national trade policy and other +trade efficiency/compete chance modifiers, you can dominate both foreign and domestic trade but if you are mercantile, your CoTs have a stronger "pull" as in more provinces will send their goods there, especially if that coT is coastal.
In a way, trading is a way of doubling the money you make off of goods. You get production or tarrifs based on the value of the goods produced in the province*production efficiency, but you also get (the value of all the goods in the CoT/20)*the number of merchants you have in there*your trade efficiency. Best way to learn about trading is to have your own CoT and send merchants to it and see what happens.
Oh yeah, infamy kills your foreign compete chance. If you're a free trader you should always keep that in mind.