Trading, how do you do it?

[Galleblære]

I usually play smaller countries, and frankly, I've never really appreciated the CoT system. The automatic function sucks out too much money from my poor nation, and doing it manually all the time is just micromanagement hell....

So, I am considering, gasp, completly ignoring it untill I have a good enough income base to put it into "automatic". Would this be a good idea?

Usually, how much profit is there to make from trading when you are a small nation? Bear in mind that money spent on sending expensive merchants could be used on infrastructure, wars of expansion etc.

So what tactics do the good people here use?

 

[unmerged(17489)]

Use the ledger's Centre of Trade information. Very helpful. Try to sneak your merchants into rich CoT's when the competition isn't 100%

 

[unmerged(21937)]

In SP it sounds workable strategy, in MP you would lag at tech and income. Manual trade is the key.

 

[unmerged(19936)]

I ignore trade in all but my home CoT (unless it or I am hopelessly poor) until higher trade levels when merchants will actually bring in more than they cost, and by then I have a good income to be able to send them places.

 

[der Alte]

Trade is key to success!!! It's a mistake to neglect it. If played well, from the 1600s your trade income will amount about 25-40% of your total annual income and later on this pecentage may go well over 50%. That's huge.

I normally apply the following rules:
- Focus on trade tech, try to get ahead early.
- focus on my nearest/cheapest CoT and try to keep 5 merchants there
- always sign TA with nations, who hold a CoT I want to trade in. This is helpful as later they tend to embargo u, when u flood their CoT with merchants.
- Next I go to the 2nd cheapest CoT, which has the highest trade value. I prefer CoT's, which I know will grow in the future as colonization goes ahead (Tago, Anglia, stc.).
- I never send a single merchant, but normally 2 or 3 at same time. One fails, one competes out another nation, and the last one expands market share. (Actually, that's the point where the AI gets beaten.) 2 may be enough, once your TE is far the most advanced.
- In the early phase it's better to keep just 5 merchants in many CoT's, than to have a monopoly in a few, as there is less chance to be competed out. Up-keeping a monopoly may cost a fortune. Later on u may change this, however try to reload the game less frequently.
- as your TE improves u may want to adjust your DP sliders. I normally prefer mercantilism 3-5. This will provide plenty of merchants.
- Once I'm done with the above I focus on exotic CoT's. Malacca, Ganges, Zanzibar, Timbuktu, etc. are great as it's wuite easy to acquire a reasonable market share or maintain a monopoly. Just don't forget to sign a TA in advance to avoid being embargoed.
- newly appearing CoT's always offer a great opportunity to expand as competition is low. Go for them!
- If u are poor and behind in TE or have just a few merchants, slot hunting may help on u. I mean, check level of competition and send merchants to those CoT's, where competition is the lowest.

 

[unmerged(6147)]

It is for small nations that trade is most important. That is because your income from trade will be about the same whatever nation you play. You will own around 25% of all the trade in the game from around some year between 1550 and 1650 - the exact year depending on when you finish your "go for 5/6 merchants in almost every COT" stage - and to the end of the game (unless you WC in which case it will end in 100%).

That is: income from trade is a fixed sum. While income from tax/production varies with the size of you nation. That is why trade is proportionally more important for a small nation than for a big one.

To achieve the "5/6 merchants in every COT" you need to micromanage them, you won't achieve it by using the automatic feature. And frankly, I cannot understand why people hate is so much. Just check the COTs say three times a year and you will succeed. That is not much of work, but it is very rewarding and that makes you feel good!"

And of course: in general avoid using the batch sending technique, emptyslotting is normally the winning technique. But that has been discussed a lot before and you must surely have read at least some of the threads about it

 

[Owen]

I mostly use the method where I look for open spots, and it works OK.

Really though, I want Tonio to explain exactly how he trades.

 

[Muizer]

...... doing it manually all the time is just micromanagement hell....

There's enough threads on trade around that elaborate on different strategies. Just picked up on this aspect of your post because IMHO there are few, if any, activities in the game with a higher "return per click" than trade (provided you do it well).

Muizer

 

[unmerged(15337)]

I would echo most of the comments already made by several players better than I. Don't give up on trade as a small nation; just as Daniel said, your income is so low that any extra income at all is a critically important gain. Unfortunately, to do this requires personal management and it is extremely tedious and irritating. Often your progress is more of a stagger, two steps forward and one step back if you're lucky, the opposite when things go badly.

Some things to watch out for:

1. Look for annexations. Often this frees up a few slots in a good COT.

2. Watch for the historical appearance of the COTs at Andalusia, Anglia, and Thrace. Until a reload, competition is usually light at a new COT.

3. Your quota of merchants is likely to be very low for at least the first century. So sending merchants in a group of 2 or 3 at a time is bad technique IMHO as it uses up an entire year's worth of merchants for very little gain, if any at all, and leaves you highly vulnerable when one or two of your merchants get booted out later in the year. Again IMHO, watching page 14 of the ledger for empty slots is the way to go.

4. As mentioned in earlier posts, concentrate on your local COT, the cheapest, and fight to the death to get and keep your full market share there. Even if it's Venice. If you have a reasonable supply of merchants, say 3 or 4, and if slots are available in other COTs consider sending them there. But try to keep at least one merchant on hand at all times in order to replace one of yours who gets kicked out somewhere.

5. Get trade agreements with COT owners if possible. With the latest patches it appears Johan is implicitly forbidding TAs, but with earlier versions (I play a 1.07 beta) this is a reasonable strategy.

6. If you know you have a rotten admin monarch for a long time, don't bother with trade until or unless you finally get a decent king. Just in case you're used to Habsburg quality, by "rotten" here I mean orange or red. Yellow is a GOOD rating for a non-major nation, especially outside of Europe.

7. Remember that you're running a marathon, not a sprint. You have to have great patience literally over decades in order to see good results.

Edit: One more point, number 8. Beware of running at low stability for a long time. Not only are your merchants likely to be booted out, but also your supply of merchants will shrink to very little or none at all.

 

[Galleblære]

Hmmm, I'll have to reconsider my playing style then. As stated earlier, I feel the constant placing of merchants detracts from my overall game, so I usually ignore it untill I have enough tax income to put it on "auto". I usually go for complete free trade, and the 3-5 range in aristocracy, which helps trade efficiency as well.

But basically then, the advice is (early on) to:

1. Send three merchants at a time to your local CoT
2. Keep a lookout for CoT's with limited competition.
3. Don't go for monopoly early on.
4. Trade agreements to keep your merchants in line.
5. Don't use the automatic function!

Though, doesnt trade agreements lower your trade efficiency?

However, later on, when you can flood the world with expensive, highly competative merchants, using the automatic function doesn't seem to have any real drawbacks...or?

 

[unmerged(25609)]

Not quite - don't send three merchants unless you are a) wealthy b) blasting your way in c) trying to create a CB by getting the angry COT owner to embargo you d) too busy, too lazy to micro-manage
As a convert to micro-management, I can tell you that this works best. When you're playing a minor, and can't afford the 3 merchant technique on a regular basis, this is cheapest. It's more effective, too. Just check the ledger regularly. Pause the gane on the 3rd of the month, open the ledger. Send a merchant or two (to two different COTs) Done.

Trade agreements do hurt your efficiency. But if you make them with the owner of a COT (or more than one), it will prevent them from shutting you out with an embargo. And that makes it worthwhile.

Even later in the game, I wouldn't flood the COTs with merchants (unless you're going for a WC) Repeatedly kicking others out of COTs will, not unnaturally, annoy the hell out of them. Relations with those countries will slide. Monopolies aren't entirely necessary, anyway. Five merchants in every COT will bring in scandalous amounts of cash.

 

[Muizer]

some remarks:

1. Batch sending has a success rate of about 33%, empty slot trading 70% (also early on).

2. If you send to empty slots, mercantilism is IMHO the better choice.

3. personally I go for full aristocracy, because it's the only way to increase my monarch's diplomatic rating whereas trade efficiency can be raised through research.

Muizer

 

[Christian D]

Is there anyway to ask other countries to trade embargo someone?

 

[unmerged(18043)]

Is there anyway to ask other countries to trade embargo someone?

No but you could take over the CoT and then you'd be teh one handing out the embargos.