What I enjoy so much about ETW campaigns is the relative freedom that is offered in the grand campaign to make profit anyway you seem plausible. You cant achieve success in the campaign if you do not have the income to fund your armies, navies and other miscellaneous things.
In this guide I will discuss ETW campaign economics, how they influence your campaign, and will also give tips on successful management of your factions economy.
Part 1: The basics of economics.
Without going too far into detail of real-world economics, such as micro & macro economics, I will lightly shed light on global trade, importing goods, and more. Trade is the second largest source of income, taxes is first. However, trade can easily become the first. CA made it relatively easy to establish income in the game. If you're a super power, such as Spain, you will have no problem establishing trade.
I will use Spain as an example many times during this guide, they have proven to be a very good faction for trade. They hold 3 provinces in the Caribbeans, Florida, Hispanola, and Cuba. In my latest campaign as Spain, I had Cuba and Hispanola fully developed. I lost Florida to the Indians, which is no biggy. Cuba & Hispanola after being fully developed was pumping out almost 2700 barrels of sugar and 2000 barrels of tobacco (roughly) per turn. This was being imported by 7 factions in Europe. The income for this trade, per turn, was almost 10,000 gold! Top that onto taxes that brought in about 8,000.. I was making *around* 20,000 gold a turn.
Such numbers come at an expense in of itself. The amount of gold needed to invest in such cash crops is in around 30,000 by the time the buildings reach level 5.
Part 2: City Income
As previously stated, there are many ways to earn gold in the campaign. Most should be earned through taxes & trade, but what about the weaving mills? Or the mines? These materials are calculated in the cities income. Which is the 3rd largest income generator.
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Materials produced in Europe:
Timber - Saw Mills
Iron/gems/gold - Mines
Agriculture - Farms(Sheep/wheat/rice etc)
Metals - Metal Works
Textiles - Craft-Workshops
Wine - Vineyards
Furs - Fur Traders(Russia/Sweden)
Fish - Fisheries
Spices - Plantations(Also produces, tobacco, sugar, cotton, molasses)
Tea - Farms(Mostly found in India.)
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*Note - trade ports only produce income from trade and increase city based income. They don't physically produce any materials.
They all produce different amount of gold per turn. They boost the cities income, and some increase the income annually per turn. Taxes are calculated through the base of population for that city or region. Taxes do not effect the city-based income. Also, many of these commodities will be found in America and India.
Part 3: Taxes
A simple source of income, yet sometimes can be the most complicating. The rich upper class are snotty. Gentlemen like to keep their well owned cash, however, they should be taxed the heaviest. If you adjust the slider for taxes, the classes should evenly give more gold per "bracket" that the slider moves onto. However, your poor class is your largest population class. Therefore, if they are taxed the highest, your population growth will suffer, and perhaps you will lose population.
The rich can be taxed up until the regions turned yellow or red. If they turn yellow, you might want to increase the military garrison or build coaching inns for that region. Lower classes should be green, always. Because it's not the rich upper class that will revolt!
Colonies in America should be taxed at the lowest level. You get very little income from taxes there, and the last thing you want is your trade income being suffered due to rioted population.
Part 4: Trade
In my opinion, trade can be the biggest source of income. A well developed exterior colonies in America can you rack you in thousands of gold per turn. Trade agreements are also the fundamental ingredient to good diplomatic relations with other factions. Most importantly, your neighbors. It's a good habit to establish trade agreements in the first few turns of your campaign. Later you can decide who you want to rage war against and break the agreement.
Mostly all super powers are trading giants. Spain, and Great Britain most notably. The more ports you have, the greater number of trading opportunities you can have.
This concludes guide #3. I hope you enjoyed the read.
-Daelon
Without going too far into detail of real-world economics, such as micro & macro economics, I will lightly shed light on global trade, importing goods, and more. Trade is the second largest source of income, taxes is first. However, trade can easily become the first. CA made it relatively easy to establish income in the game. If you're a super power, such as Spain, you will have no problem establishing trade.
I will use Spain as an example many times during this guide, they have proven to be a very good faction for trade. They hold 3 provinces in the Caribbeans, Florida, Hispanola, and Cuba. In my latest campaign as Spain, I had Cuba and Hispanola fully developed. I lost Florida to the Indians, which is no biggy. Cuba & Hispanola after being fully developed was pumping out almost 2700 barrels of sugar and 2000 barrels of tobacco (roughly) per turn. This was being imported by 7 factions in Europe. The income for this trade, per turn, was almost 10,000 gold! Top that onto taxes that brought in about 8,000.. I was making *around* 20,000 gold a turn.
Such numbers come at an expense in of itself. The amount of gold needed to invest in such cash crops is in around 30,000 by the time the buildings reach level 5.
As previously stated, there are many ways to earn gold in the campaign. Most should be earned through taxes & trade, but what about the weaving mills? Or the mines? These materials are calculated in the cities income. Which is the 3rd largest income generator.
----
Timber - Saw Mills
Iron/gems/gold - Mines
Agriculture - Farms
Metals - Metal Works
Textiles - Craft-Workshops
Wine - Vineyards
Furs - Fur Traders
Fish - Fisheries
Spices - Plantations
Tea - Farms
----
They all produce different amount of gold per turn. They boost the cities income, and some increase the income annually per turn. Taxes are calculated through the base of population for that city or region. Taxes do not effect the city-based income. Also, many of these commodities will be found in America and India.
A simple source of income, yet sometimes can be the most complicating. The rich upper class are snotty. Gentlemen like to keep their well owned cash, however, they should be taxed the heaviest. If you adjust the slider for taxes, the classes should evenly give more gold per "bracket" that the slider moves onto. However, your poor class is your largest population class. Therefore, if they are taxed the highest, your population growth will suffer, and perhaps you will lose population.
The rich can be taxed up until the regions turned yellow or red. If they turn yellow, you might want to increase the military garrison or build coaching inns for that region. Lower classes should be green, always. Because it's not the rich upper class that will revolt!
Colonies in America should be taxed at the lowest level. You get very little income from taxes there, and the last thing you want is your trade income being suffered due to rioted population.
In my opinion, trade can be the biggest source of income. A well developed exterior colonies in America can you rack you in thousands of gold per turn. Trade agreements are also the fundamental ingredient to good diplomatic relations with other factions. Most importantly, your neighbors. It's a good habit to establish trade agreements in the first few turns of your campaign. Later you can decide who you want to rage war against and break the agreement.
Mostly all super powers are trading giants. Spain, and Great Britain most notably. The more ports you have, the greater number of trading opportunities you can have.
This concludes guide #3. I hope you enjoyed the read.
-Daelon