What are EU4 manufactories supposed to represent?

[maxirage]

The implementation of manufactories always bothered me because I have no idea what they are supposed to be. Are they meant to be factories ala the industrial revolution? That's what some achievements and the manufactories institution implies, and yet that cannot be possible because they are available far too early. Are we supposed to believe that agriculture was industrialized in 1500, and the only limiting factor was how much money the state could spend it? That's very silly and not realistic at all. And if they're not meant to be factories, then what the heck are they? Their current gameplay purpose seems to reward countries with lots of money by giving them even more money.

 

[Khenmew]

Your thinking of mass production factories that is fueled my mechanics if you look at the manufactories in game they are all supposed to be handcrafted goods. some of them are farm related. (Farm estate, Mill, Plantations). then the rest think of them as big business this is no longer the fudle age when you can supply your whole nation army from a mix match of local blacksmith they needed quality and quantity and standardisation.

Tbh i am just guessing but that's how i pictured it

 

[Khenmew]

Farm Estate - well there farms
Naval Equipment Manufactory - I pictured this as ship makers for civilian use mostly merchants but as it improves fish too you could think of it as the whole port area.
Textile Manufactory - pretty ancient business from what i remember most women would make there own clothes for there family but the rich would have to buy their clothes from somewhere and the fabric was big business for merchant silk road and all that.

Weapons Manufactory- just big blacksmiths with 100s of smiths working mostly for army weapons

Plantation - same as farm estate only on cash crops
Trade Station - think vence or the slave market of America
Mill - its a mill about as clear as the farms

 

[Tom D.]

I know that in France you had state-sponsored and subsidised manufactures where I think some manufactures employed hundreds of people in one manufacture (not sure on the numbers though), and I think they're more referencing those manufactures rather than "real factories à la Industrial Revolution". These manufactures were more or less factories prior to the Industrial Revolution, where they made goods more or less en-mass and were intended to keep imports low and exports high, in the logic that the economy can only be sustained with enough gold in the country and export can bring that gold into the country, whilst imports let gold flow out of the country.

A nice example I found in my notes of my classes on French history: the tapestry-making Gobelins manufacture.

 

[cristofolmc]

There were manufacturies before the industrial revolution. They just didn'tuse the technology they would later use for mass production. But there definitely were manufactories.

Industrial revolution manufactories are represented in my opinion with the bonuses you get from events if you have Rule Britannia...

 

[Trin Tragula]

Manufactories are other names for the proto-industrialization that took place in EUs timeframe and was one of the defining developments of said period. Putting out systems, organization of labour and investments and in some cases increased mechanization (mills, etc).
Basically this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-industrialization
It is all pretty limited compared to the huge leaps of the 19th century but was still an important part of economic policy in the period.

 

[True_Heir_of_Rome]

I always considered them to represent the state dumping a large amount of capital into streamlining and growing a particular industry rather than one singular building, or even a series of buildings.

Most mechanics in the game need to be heavily abstracted if they are going to fit into the way history worked, and buildings are no exception. I would think the worst offender in this instance would be the church/temple. There are quite a few notable institutions of worship that existed pre-1444, certainly large enough to warrant there being a building there at game start. Alas, that would upset game balance so if you would like the game to make historical sense you must come up with some elaborate abstraction or simply accept that it's a strategy game with some historical flavor rather than a history simulator.

and, as other have pointed out, there were manufactories quite a bit before the industrial revelation. The Venetian Arsenal comes to mind as an example of a pre-industrial manufactory, although I imagine it would be represented as a ship yard in game.

P.S. Venice should start with a ship yard.