Backgound
Trade is a part of the game I have always taken for granted. I have never really taken the time to investigation how much it costs to set-up and what the likely returned could be from such a network.
To create a sea going trade network you will require the following:
- Coastal provinces with tradable resources
- A ports to allow for imports and exports
- A navy to create the shipping network
- Trade buildings to buy and sell the goods
For this example I am going to use Poland as my faction. I have started the game on the early era and I have invaded Pomerania and Sweden as both provinces are rich in tradable resources. I am going to use these two provinces and create a trading network with Denmark, who has a port, and then with the third ship I produce I will advance into the North Sea and trade with Northumbria in England as it also has a port.
Construction cost to setup a three ship three port trading empire |
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| Desc | Cost | Qty | Total cost | |
| Ships | 700 | 3 | 2100 | |
| Port | 750 | 2 | 1500 | |
| Shipwright | 400 | 1 | 400 | |
| Merchant | 1000 | 1 | 1000 | |
| trading post | 800 | 2 | 1600 | |
| keep | 1000 | 2 | 2000 | |
| fort | 400 | 2 | 800 | |
| TOTAL COST | 9400 | |||
| Generated income per turn | 286 | |||
| expense per turn | 80 | |||
| PROFIT PER TURN | 206 | |||
| Payback in Years ( Cost divided by profit ) | 45.63 | |||
As can be seen from the above table three ships and two ports are not that profitable, as it will take 45 years to payback the initial investment. I appreciate that some of these buildings do have other uses and are prerequisite for other building advancements, but for this study they are needed so I will include them in the cost model.
My next advance will be to add Prussia to the equation and see what a third port does to the profitability and payback. Prussia only has one resource to trade, so I would imagine that adding a third port to trade with 3 foreign ports would make some difference
| Construction cost to set-up a three ship three port trading empire | ||||
| Desc | Cost | Qty | Total cost | |
| Ships | 700 | 3 | 2100 | |
| Port | 750 | 3 | 2250 | |
| Shipwright | 400 | 1 | 400 | |
| Merchant | 1000 | 1 | 1000 | |
| trading post | 800 | 3 | 2400 | |
| keep | 1000 | 2 | 2000 | |
| fort | 400 | 3 | 1200 | |
| TOTAL COST | 11350 | |||
| Generated income per turn | 338 | |||
| expense per turn | 80 | |||
| PROFIT PER TURN | 258 | |||
| Payback in Years ( Cost divided by profit ) | 43.99225 | |||
As can be seen it makes very little difference in the overall payback. Profit per turn has increase by 56 florins but the construction cost has increase by 1950 florin.
The next suggestion is to add another ship into the next work, hopefully this should make a significant difference.
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The addition of an extra ship into the network has had a dramatic effect on the income and payback. The fourth ships has joined a further 3 ports to the network resulting in an additional 195 florins profit per turn. The payback time has also almost halved.
So to summarise, trade can be very profitable, it is best to select provinces with large trading resource, the likes of Sweden, Flanders and Constantinople, once you have selected your major provinces the next objective would be to build a large fleet of ships, the more ports you can get into the trade network the more money can be generated and the quicker you will payback the investment it took to create such a network.