City Income After Conquest

[Cardinal Roland]

I am a little confused on how the taxation works after capturing a city.
Let me give you an example. On capturing Istanbul yesterday - a little something I did in the afternoon - I was given the Loot or Occupy options. To loot I would have netted some 50,000, to occupy the chart said that the income per turn was a little over 4,000 I reasoned that after about 12 turns (6 months) I would be a net gainer so I occupied.
Then my Empire's income went down the next turn!!? I actually earn less now than before I took on this major city? How come? I know that one could argue that the new population will not be so keen to pay taxes to the new regime but really ...
It was the same again after taking Athens, my income went down and this time the Ottoman's against who I was fighting were eliminated so all the Port cities were freed up and I received what benefits were going from them. I did not build extra units so incurred no extra costs - what is going on?
What is the point of telling us what the taxation income will be if we occupy if that is plainly not the case?
Am I doing something wrong or is this just a vaguery of the game?

[Teodosio]

If I understood correctly, your doubt is whether city's income is truly what the "occupy window" tells you.
If you want to check that why are you looking at the empire's income? The aggregate income depends on many things and can vary from turn to turn, in this way looking at it can mislead you.
A simpler solution is to check directly the city's income: if you open the city screen you will be able to see its wealth and its income per turn (where income = wealth * tax rate). Then you will be able to tell whether or not it is the same with what the occupation window told you!

[Cardinal Roland]

Yes that is indeed the answer and I will do that, thank you for the pointer. However, my income prior to taking Istanbul was something like 5,000 and after taking Istanbul it fell to about 3,000. Now given that I was expecting an income of 9,000 its actually fallen 6,000 which is more than my previous income was in total!!! Which is quite a drop off in production over the whole Empire. In fact it represents a fall greater than my previous total income.

Its just nuts from where I am standing.

I gain a million new people to tax, to buy my goods and to sell their goods into my Empire and my income drops by more than I was previously earning. Pass me another Gin and Tonic, maybe after enough of them it will all makes sense!

[Teodosio]

Yes that is indeed the answer and I will do that, thank you for the pointer. However, my income prior to taking Istanbul was something like 5,000 and after taking Istanbul it fell to about 3,000. Now given that I was expecting an income of 9,000 its actually fallen 6,000 which is more than my previous income was in total!!! Which is quite a drop off in production over the whole Empire. In fact it represents a fall greater than my previous total income.

Check every entry in your administration screen - how much are you gaining by taxes, trade and "other", and how much are you spending for army, navy and other. Do the same in the following turn.
I suspect in this way you will find out who stole the money!

[Cardinal Roland]

Ah! Good thinking Teodosio! Being of an honest inclination myself I had not thought that one of my Ministers might be ripping me off!
I can feel the axe about to be sharpened as we speak. Thanks for your input on this one.

[Graphic]

It tells you the city wealth, not the exact amount of income you will receive. Your income is a tax on the city's total wealth that will be low or high depending on how your taxes are set.

[Wolfcp11]

Also, you may be paying for town watch

[Brusilov]

Don't forget to check on the abilities of your politicians - some of them have really bad attributes which can end up losing you money. You can boot out a politician from one of the ministries (and keep doing so until you find one you like or don't have anymore replacements).

[Gupi]

I reckon i know whats happened... maybe someone's pirating one of your trade lanes or someone is blocking a port of a nation you have a trade agreement with which is slashing your income. Coincidence and all that.

Better check!

[Randall Turner]

Also, you may be paying for town watch

Exactly. For a newly conquered main province, town watch is going to be a big deal.

I was going to say mouse-over one of your cities and take a look at your admin percent, but if you're only making some single-digit thousands, your admin percent isn't going to be that high.

Note for the future, though - if you take a province, especially if you already have a bunch of provinces, your tax "efficiency" will go down because your "admin" (wastage) percent will go up, reducing taxes across all provinces you own.