Here's another idea about how to revamp the trade system - it's loosely inspired by the price gradient model from Railroad Tycoon III.
At each trade node, every commodity has a price. At each tick, every province produces a quantity of a single good (as they do now), and production income is earned based on the price. Now each province also consumed some amount of each good, which would be based probably on development or base-tax (as a proxy for population). Basic foodstuffs would be consumed in great amounts, while luxury goods would have low demand until you hit reasonably high populations (and then would spike up). If consumption exceeds production, then the price goes up; in the opposite case, the price drops. If the price of a good falls too low (and vast stockpiles build up), then production should also fall to keep the market from saturating (we can assume either a flat production price for simplicity, or a variable one by province for a more complicated system that simulates competitive advantage). You might imagine that demand for some goods (i.e. cotton) would depend on the production of other goods (i.e cloth), to add another level of complexity.
The nodes would be linked as they are now, but bidirectionally. Sea nodes should be linked not only to their neighbors, but also to nodes further away, if a nation with trade power there has the trade range to reach multiple nodes away.
After consumption, each node checks with its neighbors, and if prices for a good that is available at a certain node is lower than the price of that good at the next node over, then it gets transported (goods would flow preferentially based on where the greater price differential exists). Trade power at a node would count as the "carrying capacity" to move goods to neighboring nodes (expensive goods move first), so an overall "profit" is calculated from each node (based on the price differential multipled by the number of goods moved), and then divided among every nation that has trade power at a node.
You can add light ships to the node to increase trade power, and thus earn more profit just as it works now. If there is too much trade power (and not enough goods to carry), then some of the capacity sits empty (again proportional to trade power)
For those sea connections that reach multiple nodes away, those connections would only exist for nations that have the trade range to reach them. Because they are further away, the price differential will be larger (as goods are not evenly distributed and more distant goods would always have a huge price difference as it is difficult for it to be carried very far without being consumed), and thus the profit greater; also this profit would be constrained to the nations with high trade range and who have the ability to establish a trading presence in distant trade nodes. Thus, as in real life, you can earn huge profits by establishing your nation at trading points far away, and sending goods directly from them (perhaps being the only nation that can do so, if you manage to keep your competitors from establishing footholds around the world), at a huge price differential.
War would impact this whole system - trade power should go to zero when a province is sacked and recover slowly, and development should also be destroyed when a province is taken over (which cuts both demand and production). If you destroy trade fleets, then goods stop moving (and allow new nations to supplant previously dominant ones).
Embargoes would work by preventing nations from using their trade power to carry goods to a node where you have trade power, to the proportion of your trade power in the destination node (instead, their trade power at the source node gets re-routed to carrying a less profitable good to a different node) which would cut into their profit (and also raise the price of that good for everyone else carrying it).
At each trade node, every commodity has a price. At each tick, every province produces a quantity of a single good (as they do now), and production income is earned based on the price. Now each province also consumed some amount of each good, which would be based probably on development or base-tax (as a proxy for population). Basic foodstuffs would be consumed in great amounts, while luxury goods would have low demand until you hit reasonably high populations (and then would spike up). If consumption exceeds production, then the price goes up; in the opposite case, the price drops. If the price of a good falls too low (and vast stockpiles build up), then production should also fall to keep the market from saturating (we can assume either a flat production price for simplicity, or a variable one by province for a more complicated system that simulates competitive advantage). You might imagine that demand for some goods (i.e. cotton) would depend on the production of other goods (i.e cloth), to add another level of complexity.
The nodes would be linked as they are now, but bidirectionally. Sea nodes should be linked not only to their neighbors, but also to nodes further away, if a nation with trade power there has the trade range to reach multiple nodes away.
After consumption, each node checks with its neighbors, and if prices for a good that is available at a certain node is lower than the price of that good at the next node over, then it gets transported (goods would flow preferentially based on where the greater price differential exists). Trade power at a node would count as the "carrying capacity" to move goods to neighboring nodes (expensive goods move first), so an overall "profit" is calculated from each node (based on the price differential multipled by the number of goods moved), and then divided among every nation that has trade power at a node.
You can add light ships to the node to increase trade power, and thus earn more profit just as it works now. If there is too much trade power (and not enough goods to carry), then some of the capacity sits empty (again proportional to trade power)
For those sea connections that reach multiple nodes away, those connections would only exist for nations that have the trade range to reach them. Because they are further away, the price differential will be larger (as goods are not evenly distributed and more distant goods would always have a huge price difference as it is difficult for it to be carried very far without being consumed), and thus the profit greater; also this profit would be constrained to the nations with high trade range and who have the ability to establish a trading presence in distant trade nodes. Thus, as in real life, you can earn huge profits by establishing your nation at trading points far away, and sending goods directly from them (perhaps being the only nation that can do so, if you manage to keep your competitors from establishing footholds around the world), at a huge price differential.
War would impact this whole system - trade power should go to zero when a province is sacked and recover slowly, and development should also be destroyed when a province is taken over (which cuts both demand and production). If you destroy trade fleets, then goods stop moving (and allow new nations to supplant previously dominant ones).
Embargoes would work by preventing nations from using their trade power to carry goods to a node where you have trade power, to the proportion of your trade power in the destination node (instead, their trade power at the source node gets re-routed to carrying a less profitable good to a different node) which would cut into their profit (and also raise the price of that good for everyone else carrying it).
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