Trade is it worthy? Is this normal too?

[Alucardvincent]

I am playing as Brandenburg, I am auto sending merchants to Lubeck, but each time I check that CoT I see “Merchants in route” but I never had seen the “shield” of my nation in the list of trading nations and always my trade value is zero. It seems that when the merchants arrive they disappear.

Is this normal or just my nation “trade power” is too small? And is it worthy to keep trying to trade or is only a waste of money?

 

[aprogressivist]

Trade is very powerful, possibly the most powerful forces in the game if handled right. The key is to get a good compete chance. There are basically two strategies to do this:

1) If you're small, max out Free Trade so you can get to the CoTs that other people own and try to rush for colonisation.

2) If you're big, maxing out mercantilism is viable as you can try to expand and claim CoTs.

 

[WankoStankins]

You're wasting your money, mercantilistic nations shouldn't send out merchants to CoTs outside of their own country, they will just get out competed. Wait until you have a lot of territory and then create a CoT in a coastal province, OR conquer Lubeck. The alternative is to wait a long long time and just keep going towards Free Trade, but it's not worth it for a country like Brandenburg who should be going to war a lot, as war hurts your merchants. Stay mercantilistic and just conquer/create a CoT.

 

[grommile]

You're wasting your money, mercantilistic nations shouldn't send out merchants to CoTs outside of their own country, they will just get out competed. Wait until you have a lot of territory and then create a CoT in a coastal province, OR conquer Lubeck. The alternative is to wait a long long time and just keep going towards Free Trade, but it's not worth it for a country like Brandenburg who should be going to war a lot, as war hurts your merchants.

War doesn't hurt your merchants; infamy hurts your merchants. There is very seldom a good reason to go significantly above 10 infamy, and in single-player 10 infamy is a manageable amount with your sliders set for Free Trade.

Of course, having said that, Brandenburg has more important things to do with those slider moves.

 

[WankoStankins]

Sorry, I just equate war with bad times for merchants because whenever I go a warrin' I gets me some infamy

 

[cywang86]

Sorry, I just equate war with bad times for merchants because whenever I go a warrin' I gets me some infamy

well, it also has the side effect of getting embargoed from a CoT now and then.

Unless you're bent on going free trade slider + compete chance/TE NI/advisor, I wouldn't bother sending any merchant to the good foreign CoT like Lubeck or Venice.
Stick to the shitty/mediocore ones like France, Lisboa, and Alexandria.

 

[Lord Dakier]

But what about stagnation. As Byzantium in D&T I get Constantinople but it doesn't take long for stagnation to pretty much make me lose my trade centre. I do a lot of war so I can understand my neighbours not getting on too much I guess, yet it's not as if there was much value in my CoT

 

[grommile]

But what about stagnation. As Byzantium in D&T I get Constantinople but it doesn't take long for stagnation to pretty much make me lose my trade centre. I do a lot of war so I can understand my neighbours not getting on too much I guess, yet it's not as if there was much value in my CoT

At a guess, the Venetian and Genoese leagues are hoovering up all the Christian trade in the Med and the nearby Muslims are trading through Alexandria or Astrakhan.

 

[cacra]

If you are at war you get -1 merchants a year i think. And as burgundy it may be best to send your merchants to smaller cots like paris or andulica, this way you are much less likely to get competed out because there isnt much competition over an available slot.

also free trade is so much better than merc it is unbelievable. if you own all of europe and have the modifiers from the sound toll then merc may be more profitable sure.

 

[Lord Dakier]

How does trade efficiency work though? It's pretty much the only mechanic I don't understand.

 

[grommile]

How does trade efficiency work though? It's pretty much the only mechanic I don't understand.

Each merchant you have at a CoT provides monthly income equal to 1/240th of the CoT's rated value, multiplied by your trade efficiency.

So, at a 1200-ducat CoT, if you have 5 merchants and 35% TE, you will get (1200/240) * 5 * (35 / 100) = 8.75 ducats/month of trade income from your trade position in that CoT.

If you have a Monopoly in a given CoT, then any empty seats count as being held by you. (Sending merchants to CoTs where you have a monopoly attempts to knock out a foreign merchant, leaving their seat empty.)

 

[calvinhobbeslik]

So, if you have the max of 200% TE, placing 5 merchants will only get you 1/24 of the value of the COT? That's really low...

 

[cywang86]

It's monthly, so it's a pretty decent value even when compared with tax income.

It can easily become 100 monthly if it's Lubeck, plus you're not limited to just one CoT.

TE can also boost your compete chance by 0.5% per % of TE, and contribute to your toll (base tax * TE) in non-oversea territory. You can see it'll surpass your monthly tax income after a certain point of the game.

 

[unmerged(62860)]

(1200/240) * 5 * (35 / 100) = 8.75 ducats/month of trade income from your trade position in that CoT.

[IQUOTE]

Small math error there, 1200/24. So 87,5 ducats. Just so people dont think trade is worthless.

 

[calvinhobbeslik]

(1200/240) * 5 * (35 / 100) = 8.75 ducats/month of trade income from your trade position in that CoT.

[IQUOTE]

Small math error there, 1200/24. So 87,5 ducats. Just so people dont think trade is worthless.

Not a math error, an error of putting an extra 0.

 

[Lord Dakier]

Ooooook, so TE is a fixed statistic not a dynamic one altered through direct trade? If so how can we look to increase TE?

Is there also a way of checking the TE or shall I just do the mathematical sum backwards?

 

[calvinhobbeslik]

Ooooook, so TE is a fixed statistic not a dynamic one altered through direct trade? If so how can we look to increase TE?

Is there also a way of checking the TE or shall I just do the mathematical sum backwards?

Each trade tech increases it by 1% or more, and a level 5 or 6 trade building increases it by 1% You can see it in your budget screen: it's the percentage next to your trade income.

 

[Lord Dakier]

Ahh excellent, thanks.

 

[unmerged(80402)]

If you are in the trade league, you get your trade league leader, compete chance in your trade league cots, or your own, if your own is higher. Ussualy it isn't. BUT infamy still influences your chances.