Europa Universalis IV Merchants Guide

Let's talk about merchants in EU4.

This video is part of a series of guides for Europa Universalis 4.

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[ateteu_]

Lol i didnt understand a thing. Game says i have 1 free merchant. HOW DO I USE IT?

LOL why this game is so complicated

[WazzupImBack]

It would be much better if you just had a trade video that told everything you could possibly want to know about trade instead of splitting the videos so that it's harder to follow.. :(

[xilllllix]

FINALLY I understand what all this stuff means!

[Airicks]

can you ever maximize trade outside of europe? - I mean, if you are an asian or african nation how can you benefit from collecting trade if european players are just pushing it towards their nodes?

[AWESOMENESAS]

hey its 13th of august here but I guess another 7 hours for america

[luka.pilasanovic]

this was just recommended to me, why I ask.

[savxcgamingchannel]

This is all good but when ever, I select 1 merchant to do 1 thing only 1 merchent seems to be able to do 1 thing and before i was able to make different merchants do different tasks now out of the blue it wont...

[ricksco]

Are you going to play UE4 in the same min-max way you play ckii or is it going to be a more lax play style?

[jonathanferguson]

Good video except for how you butcher the numbers twice.

[zetius]

You can repair your ships in owned harbors, and I guess in those aswell, where you have fleeting rights from other countries, not too sure about that.

[woolver]

You dock them in a port and wait.
You can either have them return to your own ports or negotiate fleet basing rights with some nations. The latter will cost you either money or diplomatic power I'm not entirely sure.
Also coastal areas have less attrition, but time at sea increases attrition. So the longer your ships are away from a port they will die more quickly.

[glanu]

I've watched the trade tutorials and the tariffs tutorial (historically, it should have been related to trade, but nevermind me). What I don't see in your tutorials, and hope you will expand later down the road: what does it mean? :) (noob version) how do I optimize trade? if i steer trade at peace, for some years, towards my main trade center, will it lead to some increase in cash collected from trade? (where does it lead to, effects aren't obvious strategically).
Thanks!

[Aleesb]

Hey, thanks Ithink this is really going to help me out. I'm an old EU III, HOI II player but EU IV is a bit different for me to wrap my head around.

[djdelixe]

thanks, have been wasting a merchant at london >< you discovered that yourself about not needing an agent in the trade node near your capitol ? isnt in the manual.
whats the idea set up for england in 'the new world era' where is optimal to set my merchants ? my outer nodes are the ones near mexico & the west coast of india.

[losttrotter]

see your power in that trade node and its worth. try sending some trade ship. i think the trade evolve differently each game. found mexico once at 10 gold worth, the other just at 5.

[djdelixe]

seems so, when you are in the screen to choose your country & century you are not limited to the "countries of interest" shields, you can also select countries to play as by clicking on the province on the map

[Kivalt]

Is there any way to know for sure how much you would earn from collecting from a "foreign" trade node instead of steering from it, so you know before you send the merchant which option would be more profitable?

[Amaror]

I can tell you that. You Explore, by getting exploration ideas up to "Quest for the new world". Then you can hire explorers and conquistadors. Explorers discover land by moving into a water tile that touches the land. If it stays hidden just move out and in again. Conquistadors do the same for land armies instead of ships. Both are used like generals and admirals. You can repair their ships by docking them up at a province (clicking on it with the ships selected). I don't know if colonies work.

[Muanh]

If you are a republic you can get an additional merchant from plutocracy ideas located under military category.

[djdelixe]

ships get auto repaired every month if they are in port