Trade goods
Trade goods come in a wide variety of types, with 34 different trade goods divided into 6 categories, each with different trade values and modifiers. They allow a nation to tailor its provinces, and even more so the country, to its needs and desires by controlling what a province produces and where it is traded to and consumed, and are particularly important as the basis of trade and will often form the bulk of the income of an exporting nation.
Mechanics[edit | edit source]
Production[edit | edit source]
Every territory produces one type of trade good, and all territories in a province contribute their trade goods into a common pool. A territory produces 1 trade good by default (with 2 for cities and 3 for a metropolis), but can produce more with enough slave labor. For each additional 15
slaves in a settlement and 20
slaves in a city or metropolis (rounded down), the territory will produce one more additional trade good.
The threshold for a surplus is reduced for each territory by the Slaves needed for Local Surplus modifier, and across all territories in the country by the
Slaves needed for Surplus modifier. Sources of these modifiers include:
-2 by the
Land Seizure Protocol Land Reforms Law for Republics (Requires
Civic Advances level 12)
-2 by the
Lex Sempronia Agraria Land Reforms Law for
Roman Republics (Requires
Civic Advances level 12)
-1 by the
Formalized Agriculture Infrastructure Tenets Law for Tribes
-1 by the
Slave Latifundia
Civic Invention
-1 by the
Complex Irrigation Systems unique
Anuradhapura
Oratory Invention
-4 for
League cities
-2 by
farmland terrain type
-4 by a
Foundry (in
cities)
-5 by a
farming settlement or a
mine (in
settlements)
+2 in territories with a
Unintegrated Dominant Culture
Some territories also have unique permanent modifiers giving surplus threshold reductions, such as the Rhodian Glass Workshops in Rhodes or the Cedars of the Gods in Phoenicia.
Additionally, the Base Resource Production modifier increases the base number of trade goods produced regardless of the number of slaves in the territory. The most important sources of base resource production are
cities and
metropolises, which give
+1 and
+2 base resource production, respectively. This means that cities are still a significant source of trade good surpluses even without the high
slave ratios and
slaves needed for local surplus modifiers that settlements and their buildings give.
Surpluses and trade[edit | edit source]
- Main article: Trade
A province will have a trade good surplus if it produces more than one of a certain trade good, either because it has more than one territory producing the same trade good and/or if its territories have enough slaves to produce multiple resources in the territory. A surplus typically gives no inherent bonus except for the stacking base trade good bonus; the main use of surplus trade goods is to trade them away to other provinces for
commerce income, as well as to move the location (and bonuses) of the resource to another province. Imported trade goods contribute to the trade good surplus just like locally produced trade goods, while resources that are exported no longer give their effects to their province of origin.
Each trade good has a certain Base Trade Value that determines the amount of income countries receive from trading the resource. Trading common resources like wood or
furs will give much less gold than valuable, exotic goods like
dyes or
gemstones. For foreign trades (i.e. between provinces belonging to different countries), the exporting province will receive the full base trade value, modified by the country's
export value, in
commerce income, while the importing province will receive 0.35 times the base trade value in
commerce income, modified by the country's
import value. Domestic trades will instead give only 0.20 times the base trade value for both the importing and exporting provinces. Areas that can produce and export valuable trade goods are therefore generally richer and more lucrative to conquer, but making sure that there are available trade partners - for instance, buy having a large network of nearby tributaries - is also important.
Trade route requests can only be initiated by the potential importer. Countries hoping to export resources should instead focus on making sure as many surplus trade goods are available as possible and if necessary make sure there are enough potential trading partners in diplomatic range, and then wait for trade requests to come in (which generally does not take too long).
Bonuses and effects[edit | edit source]
Each individual trade good has a particular bonus that is applied to their province, which stacks based on how many instances of the resource is present. Each category of trade goods has a different set of bonuses - military trade goods allow recruitment of the more specialized unit types as well as giving a small output or resource bonus, food trade goods increase the food available in the province, and trade goods in each of the pop type categories increase the local
happiness of the corresponding class. These bonuses can grow to be quite significant for large and prosperous provinces that produce and import many different trade goods, and are particularly important for providing the
food necessary for more urbanized provinces that have long since outstripped their limited local food supply, as well as increasing the happiness of the normally restive
nobles and
citizens who produce most of the
research points and
trade routes in the country.
Each trade good that has a surplus in the capital province specifically also gives a special nationwide capital bonus. Unlike the normal province modifier, this bonus is not stackable and is only applied once per trade good, which means that it is generally better to have a large variety of surplus resources in the capital to accumulate as many bonuses as possible. As the capital province is likely to be the most populous province in any case with the most higher-class pops, it is almost always better to focus on accumulating trade good bonuses in the capital above every other province.
Changing trade goods[edit | edit source]
In general, trade goods cannot be changed directly by the player. Trade goods can, however, be changed indirectly with the foundation of a city. Agricultural trade goods ( grain,
fish,
livestock, and
vegetables) can only be produced in settlements; founding a city on a food-producing territory will replace the trade good once the city is finished, typically with a higher value Nobles or Citizens trade good. If the city status is later revoked, the territory will revert to producing its old agricultural trade good. Note that this applies only for cities founded during the game - revoking city status of a city that already exists at start will not change the trade good.
The trade good of a settlement can also be changed by a few special events and missions, most notably the prospecting task of the generic infrastructure mission.
Goods list[edit | edit source]
Strategic resources[edit | edit source]
Food[edit | edit source]
Nobles[edit | edit source]
Citizens[edit | edit source]
Freemen[edit | edit source]
Slaves & Tribesmen[edit | edit source]
Strategy[edit | edit source]
This section gives an account of Goods by their corresponding effects:
Military Strength[edit | edit source]
Resources of this category grant mainly military bonuses, advantages or features. The production of cavalry in a province is linked to the availability of horses within that province, while the production of ships in a province is linked to the availability of wood within that province. Any lack of a strategic resource leads to a lack of a certain unit or advantage that may force the player to adapt his military strategy.
There are also military resources affecting the quality of units and bonuses of military structures like forts. This type of resource does not change the variety of units the player's nation can build, but it does affect stats and advantages of produced units. Strategic resources should be preferred to military resources: With a hemp surplus in the capital, the ship damage increases about +10%, but missing wood leads to the incapability of building ships and of using the hemp-given advantage of additional damage.
[edit | edit source]
Trade good | Province modifier (Navy-related only) | Capital surplus (Navy-related only) |
---|---|---|
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Allows ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Production Benefits[edit | edit source]
Happiness[edit | edit source]
Use provincial trade routes to import goods to increase a pop type's happiness within the province. This works best in provinces with large numbers of the pop type.
Note the trade goods which increase happiness at the state level when the capital has a surplus:
Economical[edit | edit source]
Extra economical benefits excluding Happiness:
Manpower[edit | edit source]
Extra manpower benefits excluding Happiness:
State, Research, Politics and Infrastructures[edit | edit source]
Everything else is here.
Food[edit | edit source]
Food resources in a province help feed the pops of the province. If there is a surplus of food (food within the province, not as a resource for national or international trade), the pop growth rate increases. A lack of food leads to a decrease in pops and their happiness. Any lack of food can be prevented, by importing a food surplus from one province to a starving one. Any 1 surplus of a food resource within a province can be transferred within the player's nation by using 1 trade route.
On the foundation of a new City, if the territory was producing Grain,
Fish,
Livestock or
Vegetables, a new Trade Good will replace it. After revoking this City's status, however, the old Trade Good will return. Extra concerns have to be placed on whether the province would end up with enough food or not.
Also, Salt,
Honey and
Vegetables only provides a modifier of +3%
Food. Therefore it would only give 3 extra food when there is already 100
Food. The total production of provincial
Food can be viewed when hovering the Food storage gauge on the province. It tells how much
Food is consumed and how much of it goes to the storage. The sum of these 2 numbers should indicate the total Food production of the province and if it is above 100, then importing
Salt,
Honey or
Vegetables will provide better benefits than
Fish or
Livestock.
Concepts | Buildings and Infrastructure • Colonization • Great works • Tax • Trade and Commerce • Trade goods • Population |
Domestic policy | State • Attributes • Characters • Civil war • Culture • Government • Heritages • Laws • National ideas • Position • Rebellion • Religion • Technology |
Economic policy | Buildings and Infrastructure • Economy • Food • Great wonders • Population • Trade • Trade goods |
Territories | Region • Province • Territories • Colonization • Holding |
Military | Military traditions • Army • Distinction • Land units • Land warfare • Siege • Naval warfare |
Foreign policy | Treaties • Warfare • Casus belli • Claim • Diplomacy • Subject nations • Barbarians |
Script | Events • Decisions • Missions |
Other | Achievements • Antagonist • Game configuration |