A Trade Guide for EU4

A brief overview of how trade works in EU4

[bombaclart]

Now I can actually maintain a functional economy whilst blobbing with 274% overextension😂

[ViktorVildras]

Hey all, sorry if this didn't fully clarify trade. It is a very, very big topic and trying to condense down to 30 minutes can be, difficult, with such topics.

If you have any questions leave it in a comment. I have no issues answering questions if you have any.

[keglez]

There are some useful estate privs, for the Burghers in particular, giving provincial trade power/ light ship trade power/ mercantilism: exclusive trade rights (can grant and revoke when burgher equalibrium>loyalty to spam mercantlism to 100)
Trade embargos scale off of mercantlism also. Keep in mind you can embargo a rival's subject without getting the trade efficency pentaly.
Trade value mapmode is quite useful for playing tall, expecially earlier. If you intend to dip dev, focus on the higher value goods first (spending 60 to dev a 4.5 value copper province> spending 40 to dev a 2.0 value grain tile) Can just do math on this.
Trade companies can be used all over the map and depends entirely on where your trade capital is located, (can TC northern Denmark as Lubeck and or move your capital to Danzig to TC most of Germany is so desired)

Good Video boss

[GenoAtkins]

Nice vid - 3000hr+ and finally know how embargoes actually work, might experiment embargoing beyond rivals

[luddite]

actually, i think your calculation for the trade steering bonus is wrong (or has changed in a recent patch). it's a multiplier, not an additive. So +25% trade steering doesn't increase the 5% boost to 30%, it multiplies it to 6.25. In my current game with lubeck I have 1100% trade steering, but that just gives a 60% trade bonus (.05 * (11 + 1)), not a 600% bonus which would be crazy.

[luddite]

OK one more question (sorry to keep spamming you). I've got a pretty good trade chain going now, from caribean->chesapeake->st lawrence->north sea->lubeck. My problem is that the colonial nations in all those zones eat up a lot of the trade power. I know they transfer me half their trade power, but the way the trade calcs work, it still ends up with me only getting like half the trade power in the node, which makes it impossible to make really profitable long-distance transfers. Is there a way to stop that? Should I go to war and reconquer my colonial nations? Or is the new world just busted, and it's only worth using it spawn merchants while the real trade value is going around africa to the east?

[luddite]

Is it fair to say that trade is mostly a late-game mechanic? Usually when I see trade guides, it's people showing off a massive empire, or at least one big enough to have 5+ merchants and tons of light ships. Early in the game, when you just have the two starting merchants and a few light ships, it seems like trade just doesn't amount to much no matter what you do. Is that right?

[luddite]

hey, got another question for you. I'm doing a lubeck game now using your advice, and it's going well. I'm making a lot of money from trade early on. I have a decision now though. I just got the mission reward that gives 1000% trade steering. I could keep on like I am, just steering all the nearby nodes, where I have like 25-50% power. Or I could set up a long chain around the world, which would probably add up to a lot more with steering, but a lot of the value would be lost to others since I don't have trade power anywhere far away. Does that make sense? Is it better to just maximize your own income, or do you also try to stop others from making money?

[viniciusyugulis]

Idk I just turned everything I could into trade protectorates once I got that government reform as Britain and then I suddendly started to make over 3K gold per month

[Omertahun]

Im being honest: I have a whole lot of difficult things I had to learn in my life being an architect/civil engineer and I gave up on EU4 when I started to be more difficult than those mentioned things. Even though Im not a stupid retard, I just cannot deal with that in my spare time.