merchants - how do you use them

[Marku]

hmmm?? and the missionaries too, now that i think about it.

[Spart]

You don't know how to use them or you just want to know how we use them? Well, as for the merchants, you have to send them to CoTs (Center of trade), which are the main trade provinces for a certain amount of other provinces. If you click on a province, there's this center of trade button in the lower right corner of province info screen. Clicking it takes you to the center of trade, where you can see how many merchants there are and from which countries. Click the "send merchant" and he's on his way. If you're lucky, he can actually make it and start bringing in cash.
However, I feel that you really must put an effort to your trade if you want to use merchants properly, since otherwise they get driven out of business pretty soon.

You can send missionaries to provinces with different religion, by clicking a button in province info box. Quite simple.

Haven't been using merchants or missionaries much myself in this current campaign, since there is no need for missionaries and my merchants can't compete with the rest of Europe. Next time with a smaller country I'll be sure to use them more.

[milns]

I suggest you to send merchants only when you have traid or smth level 3 when you can form monopoly's and get trade agreements with CoT holding countrys so they do not embargo you

[SoggyFrog]

I suggest not following milns' advice because monopolies (Requiring Level 7 Trade tech) are usually impossible to keep, and are therefore a waste of money early. Trade agreements reduce trade efficiency, and thus income, while embargoes usually occur during war and as such are temporary.

Q: what are traid and smth?

[Fuji]

Just send them and batches of 2 !!

And get that idea then you'll have 5 merchants everywhere in no time, like in my campaign with Liège :p

1 problem though, when I inhereted the throne of Austria and my small empire became huge, the merchant game became more difficult, like the game was autobalancing :p ?!

[milns]

@SoggyFrog
lol wasn't sure about the name of trade tech
Well I usually do not place my merchants in more than 2 CoT's and if you have high trade tech it is not hard to upkeep your monopoly or at least 5 merchants in CoT, also look for rich CoT's
EDIT: usually I get embargos when I get 5/6 traders in CoT ( if it is Venice than 100% sure I would get embargo, playing as France or Austria)

[sovijus]

had some experience with merchants in my previous campaign, so i can share some tips on that...

1. Trade tech - it's the most important thing if you want to create trading empire, it should be your primary research objective from the very beginning, alongside with Government tech (to get ideas). Make sure you are among top leading countries in Trade tech research.

2. National ideas - National Trade Policy (+10% trade income) idea is a must. Since trade income % adds not only the amount of cash gained from merchants, but also compete bonus for your merchants, so they will be able to get into CoT easier and stay there longer. Shrewd Commerce Practice (+10% compete bonus to merchants) is another good idea, especially if you get crappy kings. Don't bother with Merchant Adventures (+1 yearly merchants), unless you have taken both other ideas and have nothing better to choose.

3. Kings with high ADMIN - thats the only thing you don't have control over, it's just based on pure luck (though I noticed that merchant republics or nations that were historically more apt at trading have a better chance to get ruler with high ADMIN rating, but maybe i'm wrong)... mediocre king's ADMIN can be somewhat alleviated by two afore mentioned ideas, but it's really bad if your king has some crappy 4 or 5 ADMIN, just hope that he dies fast (you can convert him into general and place in some army, even if you are not in a war - that way he will die faster, though you might end up in regency council or worse, - personal union.. and avoid converting into general your good king).

4. Stability - try to keep your stability as high as possible. +2 or +3 preferably. You will get more merchants and i think it also adds somewhat to your merchant compete chance (don't have any proof, but im fairly sure that it does, thats why big empires have some hard time in competing in CoT's, since they have more troubles maintaining stability). Besides, high stability is always good.

5. Domestic policies - since trade income % also affects your compete chance, you should maximize it by changing sliders in your domestic policies window towards plutocracy and naval (those give you bonus to your trade income). Going for free trade is also good idea, but if you manage to keep high stability and/or own some CoT's it's not necessary. Plutocracy and naval should be your primal objectives.

6. Good relations - wars are bad thing for trading, not only you get less merchants, but also i noticed, that you start to loose your merchants, that are already in a CoT, much faster, also it becomes harder to place them. Besides, if you get into wars you will be embargoed and thats not a good thing. But surely you will not avoid wars, just make sure that you keep them as short as possible. Even if you are not at war, very low relations are bad for trading, countless times i've noticed that im loosing my merchants to countries that i'm in extremely bad relations with. You don't have to be at very good relations with everybody (that's impossible anyways), just make sure that there isn't alot of countries that you are at -150 or lower relations (thats another thing why big land countries have harder time in trading - more neighbours, more opportunities at getting bad relations, from boundary disputes, for example).
On a side note, if you are going for trade - embargoes and trade agreements are a big no-no. Don't ever go on a embargo spree every time you are at war, like AI does. It doesn't only reduce your trade efficiency it also affects your relations with other countries in a bad way. And besides, if you are planning on getting your income from trade why would you want to cripple yourself with trade agreements and embargoes?