Economic domination strategy
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Three words. Trade Trade Trade Monopolies "frigging tons of merchants" and more Trade.
Ok, that's a lot of words but you get my drift.
So, how to do this? In the following, I'll walk you through the steps that I have successfully used. Note that the numbers involved will not be covered here, as they are already listed on the section of Trading strategies.
Contents |
National Ideas
For a trading game, I'd take the following National ideas in the following order:
- National Trade Policy: +10% trade efficiency.
Although this only adds 5 % to your compete chance (see Trading strategies), it adds a massive amount to your actual income from the merchants you've placed. Should be taken as your first National Idea if you want to start trading early.
- Shrewd Commerce Practice: +10% merchant compete chance.
Equally important. Compete chance is what keeps your merchants in business, and the opposition unemployed. You'll want this one as your second National Idea.
The third National Idea that directly influences trading is
- Merchant Adventures: +1 merchant/year.
However, this is nowhere as important as the other two. Most of the time, you'll be sending out your merchants in batches of at least two. Additionally, you'll be sending them out in January, when you have the cash for it. Thus, if you already gain 5 merchants/year or more, you'll send them all out in one go, and won't have much use for this idea.
The rest of the national ideas does not directly influence trade, and can be chosen according to nation and playing style.
However, remember that stability is extremely important to traders. If you're having trouble keeping your stability, go for the National Idea Church Attendance Duty.
Also, since reputation is important for traders, you won't be fighting that many wars. This means your prestige will not increase by winning wars. It thus might be a good idea to get Patron of the Arts for the +2% prestige/year.
Domestic policies
The most important Domestic policies for a trading nation is:
- Aristocracy/Plutocracy.
You'll want this one all the way to plutocracy, preferable as the first thing you do. Doing so will give you +5 % trade efficiency, thus increasing your income and your compete chance. This increase comes at the cost of more expensive cavalry and lessened production efficiency. It's well worth it, since you want your money to come from trade anyway.
- Land/Naval
Here you'll want to go all naval. Doing so gives you an additional +5 trade efficiency, and also gives you +5% production efficiency, thus neatly making up for the lost production income from the Aristocracy/Plutocracy slider. Be warned that this again increases the cost of your regiments, but you can afford it. After all, all this trading is going to make you rich!
- Mercantilism/Free Trade
This is actually the least important of the sliders that directly influence trade. All this one does is giving you more merchants if you go free trade. But, as discussed above under national ideas, there's little point in having more than 5 merchants/year early in the game. Ignore this one for the first several changes you're able to make, and instead focus on the two sliders mentioned above. They're what counts for a trader. It is, however, important that you do not go for full mercantilism. Yes, I've said that 5 merchants a year is enough for a starting trading nation, but you won't have 5 merchants/year if you're getting -2 pr. year from this slider. You'll want this one near the middle for your first 100 years or so, so unless it starts there, get it there!
The rest of the sliders have no real impact on your trading, and can be chosen as you desire. Be warned, however, that you'll want to keep a high stability, so going all out on the sliders increasing stability cost is proparbly not a good idea.
Forms of Government
Some Forms of Government are of special interest to a trading nation. These are:
- Merchant Republic, available at Government tech level 3. Several Italian minors start with this government.
This government allows you to send out merchants with a 25% discount. In the early steps of the game, this is actually pretty cool. You'll often want to send all your merchants at the 1st of january, and (especially as a 1 or 2-province minor) your yearly census tax might not be enough to send them all. This is where the reduced cost from this government really shines.
- Administrative Republic, available at government tech level 11.
+5 % trade efficiency means more income and better compete chance. And it only costs 1 stability to change from merchant republic to this government. I recommend doing so the moment you get the chance!
- Constitutional Monarchy, available at Government tech level 24.
This allows you to send out merchants at half cost. Cool as that sounds, by the time you have government tech 24, the cost of merchants isn't really a problem. There are other, more lucrative, governments out there to chose.
When to change government, which route to go?
My recommendations for a trading empire would be:
If you start as a merchant republic: This one is easy. You'll just continue being a merchant republic untill you hit government tech 11. Then you change to Administrative Republic, and then stay with that government for the rest of the game. This change will only cost you 1 stability, which is well worth it.
If you start as a despotic monarchy: This is a bit more tricky. First of all, you have to determine if you can live without the royal marriages and the possibility for peaceful vassalizations that gives. However, since your goal is income through trade, I'd say you can.
Changing from despotic monarchy to a merchant republic is hard. It requires you to go through Feudal Monarchy (-4 stab), and from there to Merchant Republic, for an additional -4 stab. That's -8 stability right there, guaranteed to bring you all the way to -3. And since trading nations depend on their stability for both yearly merchants and compete chance, that's harsh. In addition, Feudal Monarchy limits your aristocracy/plutocracy-slider to 1 step towards plutocracy. And we've just seen above that you'd like to be as plutocratic as possible. So, when you change, do it in one go (that is, wait until you have research government tech 3, thus are able to go directly from feudal monarchy to merchant republic), and be prepared to invest all your money into stability. In addition, wait until you have 5 merchants in at least 4 CoTs. With -3 stability, you won't be able to expand your trade until it has improved. From merchant republic, go to Administrative republic once you're able to, as above.
Another option is to ignore the Merchant republic, and wait until you have reached Government tech 11 before changing governments.
Then change to Administrative Monarchy, available at government tech 10, and from there to Administrative Republic, available at government 11. This will only cost 5 stability (-1 from despotic monarchy to Administrative Monarchy, -4 from Administrative Monarchy to Administrative Republic), which is, granted, still a lot. However, unlike the route above, you can take this one in steps. Administrative Monarchy is better than Despotic Monarchy, and has no policy sliders limitations. So change to that when you get the chance, and then to Administrative Republic.
In both cases, don't be tempted by Constitutional Monarchy. 5 % trade efficiency is way better than 50% merchant discount.
If you start as a Theocracy: Then you're hard pressed. To get from a theocracy to an Administrative Republic requires several expensive steps. I'd never start as a theocracy if I wanted to play a trading game.
Your only option to change government from a Theocracy is to Absolute Monarchy, for a whopping 7 stability. Furthermore, Absolute Monarchy is available at government tech 19, meaning you're stuck with your conversion-friendly government for quite some time. Since you're not doing aggressive expansion as a trading nation, you won't have anything to convert, so your government is left giving you no bonuses at all.
As said above, do not change a government which will bring you to -3 stability until you have 5 merchants in several CoTs. You'll be unable to expand your trade with that stability. Once you've made the switch to Absolute Monarchy, pour all your into stability until you're back at +3.
Then research Government tech until you reach lvl. 20. This will open Republican Dictatorship. Switch to this one (-4 stab. from Absolute Monarchy), and from Republican Dictatorship to Administrative Republic (another -4 stability). You're now back at -3 stability, ready to invest all your money in stability again for some years... Expensive, but I told you not to start a trading game as a theocracy. :)
Technologies
This is an easy category: You'll want to maximize your trading technology!
However, you cannot afford to forget the other areas, as being left behind in for instance land technology would get you killed in no time.
So, researching as a trade nation isn't that different from researching as any other nation: You'll want to keep an eye on your neighbors and other potential enemies, and try to catch up if they get to far ahead in land or (depending on nation) naval tech.
Your best bet is to focus all research on one slider at a time. Build that up to a decent level, and then move on to the next. Pay special alert to the price of the technology you're researching. If it suddenly skyrockets compared to the others, you've hit the 'ahead of history'-penalty. That means it's time to let that area rest for a while, and focus on other areas.
There are some goals you'll want to aim for. These are:
Government tech
Government (1) Get your first National Idea. Remember that it should be National Trade Strategy
Government (3) Can change government to Merchant Republic
Government (5) Can have 2 National Ideas. This should be Shrewd Commerce Practice.
Government (9) Can have 3 National Ideas
Government (11) Can change government to Administrative Republic. Do so! See above for more information on governments types.
Government (12) Can build Constable. You'll want these guys in all your provinces, starting with your cores!
Government (14, 17 and 22) Adds 1 National Idea
Government (23) Can build Tax Assessor. You'll want these guys all over your nation. This will allow you to direct money from monthly income to treasury without being hit by inflation.
Government (33, 42 and 53) Adds 1 National Idea.
Production Tech
Production (1) Can build Workshop. Even though taxation is not your primary income, everything counts. You'll want workshops in all your provinces.
Production (6) Can build Textile Manufactory. I only mention this, because it's the last special thing that happens in production tech. From here, you can safely ignore production tech, and invest your money in something else.
Trading Tech
Trade (1) Can place Merchants. A no-brainer, this is of course essential to your plans.
Trade (6) Can build Refinery. They're expensive, and difficult to save the cash for. Don't go for these until you have government 23.
Trade (7) Can gain Monopolies. At first, you're better of spreading your merchants all over the world, instead of focussing on one center.
Trade (13) Can build Marketplace. This is good news. Since you're drawing in money from trade, you'll want every center of trade as rich as possible. Build marketplaces in every province you own, starting with those contributing to CoTs you have 5 merchants in.
From here, every step Trade technology adds +1% Trade Efficiency. This doesn't sound like much, but you don't want to fall to far behind.
Land and Naval technologies
Every step of these helps your troops fight better, and some will give better unit types. You cannot afford to fall to far behind in these techs.
Stability
You'll want to have a stability at +3 all the time. This gives more merchants and helps you compete. Whenever your stability falls below +3, drop what else you're doing, and invest all your research into it.
