I've played loads of Merchant Republic games and have come across this problem again and again, most notably Denmark having a CoT that saps trade away from Lubeck.
To shut down a CoT you have to push up their stagnation by lowering the value of the CoT. First step is get every province you can to trade through your own CoT. Being Merchantile helps this. If that's not enough, invite them into your trade league and if that doesn't work, try getting trade rights for the most expensive good that is traded through the enemy CoT
If all that fails then turn to war. If the province that trades through the enemy is coastal, blockade it to reduce the good's worth by 75%. This alone might not be enough if they are really wealthy goods or not enough are coastal. In that case, occupy the province and sit on it for a few years. The value of the trade good will eventually drop in chunks of 10% until it is 0, then you need only wait until the now worthless CoT stagnates. Once the CoT is gone, feel free to peace out, maybe even vassalise the enemy. If you've sat on provinces for that long, odds are good the war score required for vassalation has dropped by ~50%
Take heed: if you just sit on enemy provinces for 5 years you will auto white-peace and all your work will be for nothing. Make sure you leave 1 province unoccupied and either keep it blockaded (blockedes prevent white peace) or kill fresh troops that are recruited there to keep the war going.
To shut down a CoT you have to push up their stagnation by lowering the value of the CoT. First step is get every province you can to trade through your own CoT. Being Merchantile helps this. If that's not enough, invite them into your trade league and if that doesn't work, try getting trade rights for the most expensive good that is traded through the enemy CoT
If all that fails then turn to war. If the province that trades through the enemy is coastal, blockade it to reduce the good's worth by 75%. This alone might not be enough if they are really wealthy goods or not enough are coastal. In that case, occupy the province and sit on it for a few years. The value of the trade good will eventually drop in chunks of 10% until it is 0, then you need only wait until the now worthless CoT stagnates. Once the CoT is gone, feel free to peace out, maybe even vassalise the enemy. If you've sat on provinces for that long, odds are good the war score required for vassalation has dropped by ~50%
Take heed: if you just sit on enemy provinces for 5 years you will auto white-peace and all your work will be for nothing. Make sure you leave 1 province unoccupied and either keep it blockaded (blockedes prevent white peace) or kill fresh troops that are recruited there to keep the war going.
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