The complete Victoria manual
From VickyWiki
(If you wish every chapter to be on its' own page, take a look at The Victoria Manual instead)
[edit] Introduction to the manual
Introduction
“I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.” -Sam Houston
I have had the distinct pleasure of being a member of the Victoria forums for a little while now, and yet even in my relatively brief time there, I have found that there is a severe lack of knowledge about the workings of the game. There have been many attempts to correct this, and valiant efforts put forth by several dedicated members have indeed produced results. These answers, however, tend to be scattered around the forums, and even when they are found, they are mixed in with discussion threads so that distilling the legitimate information is often difficult. More importantly, there is hardly ever a definitive answer given to the more difficult questions. That is why I undertook to write this manual—so that there would be one place where players with questions could go to find the answers they sought.
There have been many negative comments made about the original manual. I, for one, believe that given the constraints on space the writers had, as well as the complexity of the game itself, they actually did an excellent job summarizing some of the more difficult concepts. Therefore, it is not my intent to replace the current manual—only to supplement it. This document assumes a prior understanding of where certain screens are, as well as what the buttons do. I do not bother to delve into installation instructions, nor into how to load or save a game.
My hope is that this effort of mine helps clear up some of the more pressing problems that result in several repeated threads being posted in the forums. I also hope that this manual will give even experienced players a new understanding of the game, at least in certain areas. This manual is, to the best of my ability, 1.03 compliant. The latest game version is 1.04 and the information here is being gradually updated.
I do not profess to know everything about this game—quite the contrary, in fact—and if there is anything wrong with this manual, please do not hesitate to contact me at once. I can be reached via the open forums or by private message if you wish.
I want to thank Rafiki for all the time he put into correcting the drafts of this second edition. Rafiki’s webpage (http://victoria.nsen.ch) is where you should go for all the tables that this manual leaves out, as well as for a bevy of other information. I also want to thank Darkrenown for his extensive commentary, as well as always being available to answer my questions on the forums. Thanks also to Derek Pullem for reviewing the first draft of this document and correcting my many errors. I also want to thank aprof for allowing me the use of his leadership modifier chart, and Carligula for his superb essay on Plurality and Consciousness, which I reference. Thanks also to Johan for reading this over and approving its release.
Last but certainly not least, I want to thank the members of the forums for patiently and consistently answering my questions. This manual is, in reality, a reflection not of my own knowledge but of yours, for most of the facts contained herein I learned from you.
Regards, Memnon
[edit] The Map
“BOUNDARY, n. In political geography, an imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of the other.”
-Ambrose Bierce
[edit] Map modes
There are five ways to view the map, each with a different use. The buttons activating each of these views are on the bottom left of the main task window, beside the minimap.
[edit] Terrain
This is the first map mode. It is the default form you see when loading the game. This map will show you the kind of topography of the province—mountains, hills, grassland, forests, etc. It also shows where the major rivers are. These factors are important to keep in mind when conducting a war, as terrain acts as a combat modifier. The types of terrain are described in the fold out sheet packaged with the game.
[edit] Political
The Political map is perhaps the most frequently used mode. This shows you clearly the borders between all countries, as well as the demarcation of provinces. It also shows the location of capitals by placing a city icon in the province where the capital is located.
[edit] Economic
The economic mode shows what resource is produced by each province. This resource is represented by the icon in the center of the province. Each province produces only one kind of resource, but certain in-game events can change the type of resource produced in the province.
[edit] Infrastructure
The infrastructure map shows the layout of the railroads and factories of a country. Railroads appear as dark, straight lines connecting provinces with one another, whereas factories are represented as small factory icons. Provinces where railroads may be built are shown in green. Fully developed provinces (for the current technology level) are shown in white. Although the icons appear in a particular province, factories are organized not by province but by the state (see below).
[edit] Revoltrisk
This mode shows in red those provinces that are in danger of revolting. No red means no revolts and the greener the better. This map also shows, through the placement of small icons, the various types of crime in each province. Provinces can only have one form of crime at a time.
[edit] Map levels
The map is organized into three levels.
[edit] Nations
The highest level is that of the nation. These are clearly shown in their own color on the political map. Each nation is sovereign over its own territory and (unless it is a satellite or a dominion) has control over its international relations. Taxes and tariffs and literacy are examples of factors determined at the national level.
[edit] Provinces
The lowest level is that of the province. These are also clearly illustrated on the map—they are the smaller territorial demarcations within a country. Battles, railroads, resources, crime, revolts, and POP management are all handled by the province. Provinces also have an individual “life rating” which shows how hospitable the province is to human habitation. The better the life rating, the more people will want to move there, the higher the growth rate and the lower the penalties suffered by invading armies.
[edit] States
Between the province and the nation is the state. States are visible as the highlighted region on the terrain map after only one click, or as the slightly darkened region on the political map after only one click (clicking again selects a specific province).
The state is merely a collection of provinces, geographically related. It is at the state level that factories are managed. The factories are spread across the entire state, even though the icon appears in a specific province. POPs in any province in the state can be assigned to work in a factory within that state. Factories can only be built in states that have been granted statehood in your country. Statehood can be granted only when the majority population of at least one of the provinces in the state is your national culture. Keep in mind that all territory conquered or purchased from civilized countries, regardless of its population, is a state.
States are unique in Victoria in that they are the only demarcation of land that transcends national boundaries. Land allocation in treaties is done by the province, not by the state, meaning that states can be split up among two or more nations. Examples of this at the outset of the 1836 scenario include the state of Azerbaijan, which is divided between Russia and Persia, and the state of Maine, which is divided between the United States and Great Britain.
States divided between nations can still have factories built in them, but only those POPs inside your country can be assigned to work in them. When an entire state is conquered, all factories in that state are transferred as well, but keep in mind that as long as even one of the provinces in a state remains in the hands of the other country, all the factories will remain in that other country.
[edit] POPs
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
-Karl Marx
What is a POP anyway? POPs are the basic population units in Victoria. They are in every country and every populated province. They are the basis for your entire economy. In fact, they are your economy. POPs come in various sizes, from 1 to 100,000.
[edit] POP types
POPs come in ten flavors: Officers, Aristocrats, Capitalists, Clergymen, Clerks, Craftsmen, Farmers, Laborers, Soldiers, and Slaves. Each contributes in different ways to your economy. Most POPs are convertible by you, the player, assuming they are at the right level already and you have the resources to promote them to the next.
What do the different POPs do?
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[edit] AristocratsThese are the wealthy landowners in your country. They basically sit at home all day and consume things. They provide an efficiency bonus to farming RGO in the province they are in and research a little, but besides that, they’re useful for little more than being taxed. You cannot promote them but all officers in conquered provinces automatically become aristocrats. Aristocrats are the rich strata and their natural ideology is conservatism. They need at least landed voting rights to vote. | |
[edit] OfficersThese are the more experienced and highly trained solders in your army. The number of Officers you have contributes directly to the number of leadership points you develop. The more Officers you have, the more leadership points you gain each month. Non-national culture POPs do not provide any monthly increase. Converting a non-national culture POP will only give you a one time boost in leadership points. Officers are middle strata and their natural ideology is conservatism. They need at least landed voting rights to vote. | 
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[edit] ClergymenThese are the religious figures in your country. They work to your benefit by reducing the Consciousness of some of your POPs - Farmers, Workers and Soldiers (see section “The Big Three”), making them good citizens for autocratic governments, but not so good for democratic ones. They also, by extension, reduce the Militancy of some strata of your population, making them less likely to revolt against your rule. They do, however, raise consciousness for Aristocrats, Capitalists, and Officers. Clergymen also add to your research considerably until the discovery of Darwinism, which makes them less useful. The religion and culture of clergymen will not affect their performance but only national culture Clergymen add to research. The consciousness effect applies to the whole state. Clergymen are middle strata and their base ideology depends on your national value (conservatism for order, liberalism for liberty and socialism for equity). They need at least landed voting rights to vote. | |
[edit] CapitalistsThese are the entrepreneurs of your economy. They boost the output of all factories in the state they are in, help a little with research and are also very good for taxing. Non-national culture capitalists still improve factory efficiency. Capitalists are rich strata and their natural ideology is liberalism. They need at least wealth voting rights to vote. | 
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[edit] ClerksThese are the educated working class of your population. They work in factories alongside Craftsmen (see below) and they improve the efficiency of the factory itself. Importantly, state culture Clerks add to your research, so the more state culture Clerks you have, the more research points you acquire. The size of a Clerk POP does have a direct effect on your research output. An 80,000 person Clerk POP does produce more research points than a 1,200 person Clerk POP, so a common tactic is to convert the largest POPs in an industrialized state to Clerks, because you can only have a limited number of Clerk POPs compared to Craftsmen POPs in a factory. Clerks are middle strata and their natural ideology is liberalism. They need at least wealth voting rights to vote. | |
[edit] CraftsmenThese represent the lower-educated skilled workers. They work in factories, but they do not add to the efficiency of the factory the way Clerks do, nor do they yield research points the way Clerks do. Craftsmen are poor strata and their natural ideology is liberalism, which can change to socialism later. They need universal suffrage voting rights to vote. | 
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[edit] FarmersThese are the agricultural workers in your country. They work the land and produce goods. Farmers work in RGOs (Resource Gathering Operations), of which every province has one. But they will only work in RGOs that produce grain, fish, cattle, fruit or wool. Farmers are poor strata and their natural ideology is conservatism. They need universal suffrage voting rights to vote. | |
[edit] LabourersThese do the hard physical work for your economy. These are the coal miners, the lumberjacks, the hard-working men who develop the raw resources that drive your industry. They, like Farmers, also work in RGOs, but they do not share space with Farmers. Instead, they fill the ranks in the other RGOs, such as iron, coal, sulfur, timber, etc. Labourers are poor strata and their natural ideology is conservatism, which can change to socialism later. They need universal suffrage voting rights to vote. | 
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[edit] SoldiersThese are the basic fighting unit of your country. The number of soldiers you have adds directly to your manpower pool. The more soldiers you have, the higher the manpower. Be aware that soldier population will be killed during war1. It is best to use non-national culture population as soldiers, since unlike many other pops, non-state culture soldiers still give their monthly bonus to manpower. You still need some national culture soldiers if you wish to raise national culture divisions. If you suffer enough casualties in a war, it is possible that some of your Soldier POPs will disappear entirely. Soldiers are poor strata and their natural ideology is conservatism, which can change to socialism later. They need universal suffrage voting rights to vote. 1Note: This is only true at higher difficulty level | |
[edit] SlavesThese are at the very bottom rung of the economic ladder. Not actually considered citizens, they have no rights, they don't earn any money and therefore cannot be taxed, nor can they can be converted to any other kind of POP. Slaves work, like Farmers and Laborers, in RGOs. Only a few countries in Victoria have Slaves, and these include the United States, Denmark, Texas, and eventually the Confederacy as well. Many of these countries have events that allow their slaves to be emancipated at some point and converted into Farmers/Labourers. | 
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[edit] Culture matters!
Note that most POPs that give certain bonuses (ie. Clerks granting research points) must be of one your National Cultures (see “National Cultures”) for you to receive that bonus.
[edit] Income strata
Aristocrats and Capitalists are considered “Rich”; Officers, Clergymen, and Clerks are considered “Middle Class”; and Craftsmen, Farmers, Laborers, and Soldiers are considered “Poor”. This is important to keep in mind when deciding how much to tax each class of your citizenry. Slaves, as mentioned earlier, are not taxable.
[edit] POP "activites"
[edit] Merging
POP merging is one of the more controversial concepts of the POP system. Merging takes place between POPs which are less than 10,000 in size and essentially prevents a situation that there are dozens of small, hundred or thousand person POPs, in a province. An under-10,000 POP can merge with a larger POP as long as the resulting POP is not larger than 100,000. When any two compatible POPs (that share the same culture, religion, and type - i.e. Clerk, Craftsman, Farmer) are located in one province, they may merge and form a single, larger POP, as long as at least one of them is less than 10,000 in size. In other words, if both POPs are bigger than 10,000 they will never merge (although one of them can merge with another, small one). Merging will lower POPs combined production output so it's best to avoid it if you can.
The direct effect of POP merging is that industrialization is easier in multi-ethnic empires, as the small POPs of different cultural groups will not merge, thus creating more available POPs to place in factories. Since a 500 person POP is just as efficient in the factory as a 19,999 person POP, this kind of multi-ethnic industrialization can make a big difference in production.
[edit] Splitting
POPs not only merge but split as well. When a POP grows to be 100,000 in size, it will split into one 25,000 person POP and one 75,000 person POP, each of which will continue to grow as separate entities, eventually splitting themselves once they reach 100,000 again. This is how the game simulates population growth.
[edit] Degredation (devolvement)
POPs can also degrade (devolve). If a specific POP is taxed too high (above 55% of its income) AND some other conditions are met (notably satisfying POP's needs) it will devolve into a "lesser" POP. In other words when you tax POPs below 55% they will never devolve, no matter what. When you observe middle and/or rich strata POPs decrease in size by a small amount every few days while your poor strata POP in the same province increases in size by the same amout you may be sure it's devolvement. Thus it is wise to never overtax your upper and especially your middle class unless you know what you are doing.
[edit] Production
How do POPs produce? POPs add to your production output by working directly in either factories or in RGOs. Neither will produce goods without POPs to work them. When choosing which POPs to assign to a particular factory, you must keep in mind the POP’s size. Different sizes of POPs produce more than others (see section “Industrialization”). Every factory or RGO can accommodate only five POPs per level, regardless of their size.
Another factor to keep in mind is that you are limited in the number of clerk POPs compared to the number of craftsmen POPs in a factory. Clerks are more beneficial to you, so if possible you should always try to aim for the maximum allowed number of clerks (both in number of POPs and POP size).
[edit] Migration
POPs will not remain forever in one province. If they are unemployed, they will eventually seek work elsewhere. All POPs migrating are programmed to seek jobs within your country first, then in your country’s colonies, and lastly in other countries (this is called emigration). This way, if you have open factory slots in one state and unemployed Clerks and Craftsmen in another, they may migrate to the open jobs. Keep in mind that this process, as in real life, is not perfect and many POPs will not always go where you want them to. When you see an unemployed POP that decreases in size every month and some other compatible POP (the same culture, religion and type) in a different province increases in size by the same amount you are observing an (internal) migration. When such POP disappears from one of your provinces and doesn't show up in any of your provinces you are propably observing emigration, your people found a better place to live in another country. Ledger, page 17, contains migration overview in the last 30 days.
POP migration is also affected by the life ratings of your provinces (the little thermometers), which show how good they are for human habitation. The better the life rating of the province, the more people will want to move there.
[edit] POPs' concerns and needs
All individual POPs come with individual thoughts and issues. Each POP will tell you what their specific issues of concern are, what chance they have to revolt, and how politically conscious they are of themselves. Each POP type also comes with its own demands for specific goods. These are in three groups: life needs, everyday needs, and luxuries. The more of each they get, the less likely they are to revolt and the more you tax them, the less they can buy. The specific goods that fall into each class can vary by POP type. For example, Farmers, unlike all other POP types, have fertilizer set as a luxury good.
[edit] The Budget
“The worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.”
-John Stewart Mill
[edit] Introduction
Managing your budget is key to any successful game, and knowing what the various sliders mean helps tremendously.
[edit] Taxes
There are three tax sliders, one each for the poor, middle, and rich classes. The first thing to remember is that POPs don’t like being taxed above a third of their income, but they’ll stomach it for a while. The worst thing you can do is consistently tax the middle and upper classes above 55%, as this will probably lead to devolvement among the POPs (see section “POPs”). If this happens, your Clerks, the driving force behind your research, can fall back into farmers or laborers because of tax-imposed poverty. High taxes will also lead to high levels of emigration. But of course, it also leads to lots and lots of money, so do your own balancing. A proper management of tax sliders is one of the most subtle aspects of the game. Another downside of high taxes is that pops will be less able to afford the goods they need each day, raising their militancy.
[edit] Tax efficiency
There is a second idea related here—tax efficiency. This is the rate at which your collectors are actually able to impose your tax legislation on the people. In other words it is the portion of the tax which you collect that goes into your treasury. There is an overall tax efficiency as well as a class-specific efficiency. To see how much of your POPs' money you’re actually getting, you have to multiply the tax rate by the tax efficiency by the class-specific efficiency. Both are displayed when you hover the pointer over the slider. Since 1.04 at the start of the Grand Campaign tax efficiency is low and slowly reaches 100% with the progress in Commerce techs.
[edit] State bonds
Though not actually a slider, bonds represent your population’s investment in the government of your country. Remember the reasoning behind this: the more of a financial stake a population has in its government, the more likely they are to rally to its support in time of crisis (by the way, for all you history buffs and econ majors, this was part of Alexander Hamilton’s financial plan back in the Washington administration, and was the original reason the United States federal government developed a permanent system of national debt). Though the citizens rallying to the flag in a crisis to save their money is not actually represented in the game, your income from selling bonds is.
Citizens will buy bonds if they have extra capital left after purchasing all their needs. Even if your government is in debt, your citizens can still purchase state bonds.
[edit] Education
This slider determines how much your government spends on raising the literacy rate and on funding research and technological development. Holding spendings at fifty percent keeps the current literacy rate steady. Put the slider above fifty percent and literacy will gradually increase; put it below and it will gradually decrease. The amount of spendings also determines how many research points you gain. Skimping on education yields few points, regardless of the number of Clerks or Clergymen you have. Spending much lets you get the most out of your research base.
[edit] Crime Fighting
This determines how much money your government spends fighting corruption and illegal activity in the country. Reducing crime helps reduce militancy, directly affects the revolt risk, and can help remove issues like immoral business practices which can lead to a collapse of your economy. There is always crime developing in your country, but the higher the slider the more quickly the government moves to stamp it out. Each month the computer runs a check on the amount of crime in you country, and depending on how much you have invested, a crime “building” (such as immoral business or machine politics) may appear or disappear. At zero percent funding, Revoltrisk is 40% higher; at fifty percent funding it is normal; at one hundred percent funding, it is 40% lower.
[edit] Crime buildings
This is a related concept. Crime buildings represent the crime that is in your country. Every province can have only one type of crime building at a time. You cannot build crime buildings, they appear and disappear automatically depending on crime fighting slider setting. In fact crime buildings are usually (very) bad to have.
[edit] Social Spending
This determines how much your government spends supporting its various social reforms. In order to gain the benefits of your reforms, you must spend at least fifty percent of the slider. Funding below reduces the benefits, whereas funding above leads to Trust in Government (see section “Reforms”).
[edit] Defense Spending
This is where you decide how much you put into national defense. The amount of money you allocate here determines your rate of increase in manpower and leadership points, as well as the maximum of each that you can have. When you convert a POP into a Soldier or Officer, the current level of defense spending determines how much manpower or leadership you get for that particular conversion (this number will not be constant, but dependent on the size of the converted POP. However, overall, the higher the defense spending of your country, the more effective conversion to Soldiers or Officers is in increasing you manpower and leadership). Having high defense spending also increases prestige slightly.
[edit] Army Maintenance
This determines how much money you give to the upkeep of your army and also, together with defence spending, how fast your manpower pool regenerates and what is the maximum you can reach. This can—and sometimes must—be low due to the expensive nature of industrialization early in the game. Funding Army Maintenance at one hundred percent means your divisions can be at full strength. Placing the slider below one hundred percent reduces the number of men per division, although the divisions themselves can never disappear, even at the lowest Army Maintenance possible. At zero percent maintenance number of men per division is reduced to 19% of the maximum; a fully maintained division may have 10,000 men (or 12,000 with a brigade attached). Cutting maintenance also reduces morale of your troops.
Once the slider is lowered and changes take effect after one day has passed, those men have gone home. They will not automatically return when you increase the slider again. The only way to bring the divisions back to full strength is through reinforcement (see section "The Army").
[edit] Navy Maintenance
This influences your individual ships the same way Army Maintenance influences individual divisions. Lower it below one hundred percent and the strength of your ships declines. Unlike with divisions, the strength of your ships will rebuild at no cost when the maintenence is brought back up. The only requirement is that the ships must be in a port, and, given enough time, they will come back to full strength. Note that ships take considerably longer to regain full strength than land units.
[edit] Loans and Interest Payments
Whenever your country spends more then it has in its treasury, it doesn’t shoot you into negative territory. Rather, you take out a loan, the amount of which is located in this box. This loan will remain until you repay it. Repayment is not automatic. You can hold the repay button to speed up the process for big loans.
It can be profitable to take out some loans in order to speed up your industrialization. Be careful with what you do with your loan money, wasting your loan money on laying a railroad track in a scarcely populated low value resource producing province may not be a good idea. Ideally, you want to use your loan money to either build or expand a profitable industry (consult your ledger to see what industries are profitable right now) or build railroad in your factory provinces to boost efficiency, thus improve your income.
[edit] Interest rate
Alongside this number is the interest rate. Not only you do have to repay the loan, but you also must pay daily interest. This number is usually only a few pounds a day at most, unless you are a very reckless spender.
The interest rate can be reduced through discovering several technologies in the Commerce area of research. These include things like Ad Hoc Money Bill Printing and any other techs that make capital flow more freely in the economy.
[edit] Bankruptcy
One thing to keep in mind: if your country goes too far into debt, you will be forced to declare bankruptcy. If this happens, not only do you lose a tremendous amount of prestige, but you lose all your stockpiles of goods and half of your factories as well. Having gone bankrupt once makes you more likely to go bankrupt again, and sooner as well, as the trust bankers put in your government goes down with each successive declaration (this can even lead to so called cascading bankruptcies). Suffice it to say, bankruptcy is a bad thing.
[edit] Tariffs
Tariffs were one of the most hotly debated issues in the Victorian time period, and, similarly, they are one of the more powerful—and potentially destructive—tools you can use to manage your economy. Tariffs are taxes on imported goods, which, for the purposes of the game’s mechanics (see section “Trade”) means that you’re putting a tax on every good your POPs buy from the world market, except the ones that are produced domestically.
Tariffs are, to some extent, an alternative to taxes, although usually you'd want to use them both. Often taxes are enough to cover merely the needed spendings from the sliders and the budget surplus is archieved thanks to tariffs. Taxes and tariffs differ slightly in the effects they exert on your population so you have to decide what suits you better.
The larger your population, the higher your tariff income should be. Tariff incomes are also higher for countries whose POPs are more advanced (i.e. Clerks, Capitalists, Officers, Clergymen, and Aristocrats over Craftsmen, Laborers, Farmers, and Slaves). This is because well developed POPs demand more goods and more expensive goods, thus raising your tariff revenue. But tariffs also make the goods your POPs seek to buy more expensive, and thus, potentially out of their reach. One of the modifiers of Militancy is how many of their desired goods POPs are able to purchase, so leaving high tariffs for indefinite periods of time can be quite harmful to your domestic tranquility.
Moving the tariff slider below the break-even point should, in theory, act as a subsidy to your POPs, but, thanks to testing done by dedicated members of the forums, it seems this is untrue. The sentiment of the moment is that trying to use the tariff slider for subsidies is akin to throwing your cash away.
There is a certain balance to keep in mind when imposing tariffs and constructing factories. If you produce an item domestically in any quantity, your POPs will try to buy it from your own sources first. Even though they will buy it through the world market system, there will not be a tariff imposed because the product was created domestically. For this reason, producing at least a little of all your POPs’ desired goods within your nation will benefit them by reducing the cost of those goods (as there will be no tariff on them) but it will kill your tariff income. If your POPs demand more than you are producing they will have to import the lacking amount from the world market and it will be taxed.
Keep this in mind in the early game, particularly for players of countries with one one or more liquor factories. As Russia, closing your liquor distilleries on day one of the game can lead to a very large increase in tariff income for the early game with very few if any immediate repercussions.
[edit] Important note
Remember, though you may make changes to the sliders in this window, none will take effect until you have actually exited the window.
[edit] Industrialization
“Red-hot iron, white-hot iron, cold-black iron; an iron taste and iron smell, and a Babel of iron sounds.”
-Charles Dickens
[edit] Introduction to industrialization
Industrialization is the key to the Victorian economic system. Though it’s possible to survive on an agrarian economic system, your country will go nowhere. All players seeking to achieve or keep Great Power status must industrialize.
There are three aspects to successful industrialization.
[edit] Factory construction
The first aspect is the construction of factories. As mentioned previously (see section “The Map”), this is done at the state, not provincial level. To construct a factory, open the particular state’s information screen. At the bottom, there will be a button allowing you to build a new factory. Factories cost a certain amount of raw material to build. Many nations start out with a certain amount of these raw materials—lumber, cement, and steel—and with a small stockpile of machine parts. Use them wisely, especially the machine parts. Many nations do not begin the game with machine parts.
When choosing what factories you wish to build, try to keep in mind the various prices and uses of the products you are considering making. For example, in the early game, steel is a well-priced commodity considering how cheap it is to produce. Keeping this process in mind can help you quickly amass enough cash to continue industrialization.
Also keep in mind the system of vertical production. By this I mean the way that one factory uses the products produced by another. For example, let’s say you take timber and turn it into lumber in a Lumber Mill. You can then take that lumber and use it in a Furniture Factory to make furniture, a generally highly-priced good. That furniture can then be used to manufacture luxury furniture in a Luxury Furniture Factory. Luxury furniture, situated as it is at the top of a long vertical production chain, tends to be very highly priced and thus very valuable to sell. As a rule, remember that the longer the production chain, the higher-priced the goods towards the top tend to be.
Most factories are able to be built once the technology Freedom of Trade has been discovered, although there are some that cannot be built until later (Telephone and Automobile factories, for instance) and some that can be built before (Liquor Distilleries, Wineries, and Glass Factories). Note that most uncivilized nations start the game without having discovered Freedom of Trade.
[edit] POPs and how they affect production
Once you have built your factories, you want to ensure that they actually produce things that you can sell. This brings us to the second aspect of successful industrialization — POPs.
You need POPs to run your factories for you. They are the labor that runs the machines, the strength behind your economy. There are two kinds of POPs that work in factories—Craftsmen and Clerks. Craftsmen do not need Clerks with them in a factory; they can run it on their own. Clerks, on the other hand, cannot run a factory on their own, and, in fact, there is a limited number of Clerks you can put into a factory. You must have at least one Craftsman for each Clerk in a factory; there cannot be more Clerks than Craftsmen in any particular factory at any time and you cannot have more than two clerks per level of the factory.
Unemployed Clerks and Craftsmen will automatically be placed into newly constructed factories as soon as they are complete, but eventually, you will run out of unemployed workers and will have to convert more. You should take these new workers from the ranks of the Farmers and Laborers of the state. To convert another type of POP into a Craftsman or a Clerk (or, in fact, into most other kinds of POPs), simply click on their specific box and then click the button that says “Convert to [insert POP type of your choice here]”. If you have enough of the required goods in stock, the POP will be converted immediately and will be auto-assigned to a factory at once.
But not all POPs are equal when it comes to factory assignment. As you will recall, all POPs come in sizes between 1 and 100,000. Obviously, a thirteen man POP is not as good in a factory as an eighty-five thousand man POP, but the differences are slightly more esoteric than that. Rather than having a set value increase in proportion to the size of the POP, there is instead a system based around several POP size thresholds.
Before you can understand this concept you must understand the idea of production efficiency. Factories do not start out running at maximum possible capacity. There are, in fact, several discoveries that increase the output of the factories using their efficiency as a modifier. POPs also have efficiencies for production based on their sizes:
| Headcount | Efficiency |
|---|---|
| 1 – 499 | 33% efficiency |
| 500 – 19,999 | 50% efficiency |
| 20,000 – 49,999 | 75% efficiency |
| 50,000 – 100,000 | 100% efficiency |
So a fifty-thousand person POP produces exactly as much as a hundred-thousand person POP, which is three times the amount of a three-hundred person POP. Note also that POPs of non-National Cultures are half as efficient than those of your National Culture(s).
POP efficiency is also affected by literacy level. The values listed here assume that all factors, therein literacy, are maxed. At 0% literacy Craftsmen efficiency is half of that. The formula is: Craftsmen efficiency = 50% + (literacy/2). Clerks get an additional 50% efficiency bonus. The formula is: Clerk efficiency = 100% + (literacy/2).
For example, France, which begins the Grand Campaign with a thirty-two percent literacy rate, will, at the outset, have Craftsmen that can operate at a max of sixty-six percent efficiency [50% + (32%/2) = 66%], assuming their efficiency has already been maximized through all other means. Clerks will operate at a max of one hundred sixteen percent efficiency [100% + (32%/2) = 116%].
You can see how efficiently a factory is running when you have it's screen open. You'll see white and grey number under the icons showing the factory's intake and output of goods. The grey number is the default efficiency while the white number is the actual efficiency. For much of the game your white output number will be lower than the grey output number untill you have maximum railroads and large, high literacy, state culture pops working there.
[edit] Railroads and infrastructure
Managing POP sizes is not the only way to improve factory efficiency. This brings us to the third aspect of successful industrialization—railroads.
Railroads are the last link to gaining the highest possible factory efficiency because, unlike POPs, their efficiency increases over time with new technologies. There are several levels of railroad in the game, and each successive level further improves the efficiency of your factories. To build a railroad, simply go to the information screen of the province in which you wish to build the railroad and click on the button beneath the picture of the current transportation type (for almost all nations in the start of the game this should be a horse-and-carriage). Assuming you have the requisite materials in stock and researched the required technology, the railroad will immediately begin construction.
In order to receive the benefits of railroads, they must cover one province in the state in which the factory is situated. Otherwise, they will not be effective. The average railroad efficiency of the state is calculated and used for factory purposes; the more railroads you have in the state, the higher the efficiency. Never forget the importance of railroads in improving factory efficiency; it can make all the difference in the world in the later game. Besides, railroads are always a good investment because they also allow your troops to move across your territory much more quickly than they otherwise could.
[edit] Trade
“Free trade is not a principle, it is an expedient.”
-Benjamin Disraeli
[edit] Introduction to trade
The last remaining issue with the economic system is trade. Understand trade, and you will be able to make a quick fortune.
[edit] Auto-trade
There are many, many products you can make, buy, and sell in Victoria, and all of them are available for trade on the world market. All commodities start the game being auto-traded by the computer. A word of advice: turn this feature off. History has shown that the computer will purchase items you need, but in quantities and at intervals not usually suited to your budget constraints. To turn off this feature, you must go through and unclick all the little boxes on the left of the screen that have X’s through them. An X signifies that the computer is trading the commodity for you.
In a normal game, however, it is usually safe to leave some basic raw materials auto-traded. These include cotton, wool, coal, sulfur, and timber. But check your economic map first. If you country is short on any of these goods, it is better to leave them under your control.
[edit] Manually setting trade
You should rarely leave your higher-end goods under computer control. Allowing the game to auto-trade luxury clothing has lead to several second-year bankruptcies among new players. To set the orders for buying and selling manually, click on the box for the particular commodity. That commodity should then appear at the bottom of the trade window. Click the box to the left to indicate whether you want the game to buy or sell, and then move the slider to the amount desired. Remember to click “Confirm Trade” or else the order will not take effect.
[edit] Supply and demand for goods
Victoria’s economy is an open one, meaning that, like all open economies, the price of goods is determined by supply and demand. As mentioned earlier, all types of POPs have different demands. The game keeps track of how much of each good (furniture, clothing, precious metal, automobiles, etc.) is produced on the market, as well as how many POPs are demanding them. Based on the amount of demand for goods, and th