As you know, having enough money is really important in M2TW. A faction that has enough money will be succesful at war. However, economy is almost the hardest part of the whole game, so I have to write a valid guide about it.
Trade rights
Negotiating of trade rights is an important step towards friendship between your factions. Succesful negotiations make your relations better and allying easier. It makes your merchants who are trading resources on the other factions area (of course a faction that has trade rights with you) to produce more money, and if their merchants come to trade on your lands, you get a small fee from that.
Markets
Markets are marketplaces where people come to buy goods and sell their own produces. There are five levels of markets: Grain Exchange, Market, Fairground, Great Market and Merchants’ Quarter. Grain Exchange allows you to recruit one merchant more, Market another one and so on. All of those levels boost the base trade income and the trade income of your merchants. Build as many markets as you can in your cities, as castles produce your military forces.
Sea trade
Sea trade buildings (Merchant’s Wharf, Warehouse and Docklands) are great at producing some extra money; they boost base trade income and give you more trade fleets that result to more trade routes.
Note that ports, shipwrights etc. are not “Sea trade” buildings, although you need to build a Port to construct a Merchant’s Wharf. However, different levels of ports boost your base trade income.
Mines
Mines could be constructed over raw mineral resources on the strategic map (note that this doesn’t prevent your merchants to trade the resource on the mine). This will give you extra income depending on how valuable is the resource. Valid resources are gold, silver, marble, sulfur, iron, tin and coal. When your settlement is a minor city or a fortress, you can upgrade your Mines to Mining Network, which gives you 75% better income of mining. Also note that different traits of governor can affect your mining income.
Roads
Roads allow your armies to move faster, but it also causes settlements to start land trade with each other. Dirt Roads offer only a small trade income, Paved Roads a little better. Byzantine is a unique faction here; they can build Highways which are still better than Paved Roads, making even land trade worthwile (usually only sea trade produces significant amount of money).
Merchants’ Guild
When you get enough points on Merchants' Guild (see Guide to guilds down in this post), they offer to start their work in a city. First level of Merchants' Guild will give you +1 to base trade income (for example Grain Exchange gives +2) and allows you to recruit Merchant Cavalry Militia. Upper levels give you +2 and +3 trade base income, and Merchant Cavalry Militia's recruitment pool is larger. On the whole, Merchants' Guild is pretty useful building.
Merchant Bank
Merchant Bank is a building only available to the Holy Roman Empire, Milan and Venice. This building is very useful, because it boosts your base trade income and allows you to recruit one merchant more. Merchant Bank could be constructed only in cities, and when you reach the Huge City-level, you can upgrade your Merchant Bank. The bigger Merchant Bank has the same kind, but improved effects.
Hanseatic League Headquarters
Hanseatic League Headquarters is building only available to Northern European and Easter European factions. Hanseatic League is a very important building, as it increases the income of all your settlements. However, it works as a guild: you must gain enough “points” for Hanseatic League to get an offer to them to start working in a settlement.
Resources
In M2TW there are many kinds of tradeable resources. You see them on the campaign map as small images. These resources will be automatically traded via roads between settlements, producing more money to you.
Resource | Base trade value
Gold | 20
Chocolate | 15
Tobacco | 15
Amber |12
Ivory | 12
Silk | 12
Silver |12
Spices |12
Marble |10
Sugar |10
Iron |9
Cotton |8
Dyes |8
Slaves | 8
Textiles |8
Wine |8
Timber |6
Tin |6
Wool | 6
Fish |5
Grain |5
Sulfur |5
Coal |4
Furs |3
Note 1: grain also increases the growth rate of a settlement in that region.
Note 2: distance to capital makes those resources to produce more money when a merchant is on them; the higher es the distance, the higher is the income.
Using merchants
Using merchants is simple. First you must to recruit him in a city, then move him to a resource as valuable as possible. He starts to trade that good immediately. The amount of money that he brings up is shown on his Character Portrait.
Merchants can acquire foreign merchants; just select your merchant, right-click on a foreign merchant and then press “Acquire”-button. Either merchant will be lost, and the acquiring merchant may receive a bonus to his Finance-stat. Note that your merchant may be acquired as well of course, depending on the success rate of Acquire-action.
Tip: move an army to a valuable resource, then join the army with (likely) full stack of merchants: that gives you a massive merchants trade income. To do this, a military access may be required (if you trade a resource on other faction's land).
Taxes
Taxes play really big role in your economy. Always keep a governor in a city to reach the maximum tax income. These two thing will help you to get higher taxes:
-if you want to avoid the "BadTaxman" trait line; toggle the tax rate to "very high" when your building is finishing construction and you have a governor in a settlement, otherwise "low"
-if you aren't going to build anything for some turns, toggle the tax rate to "low" >>> your governor has increased chance of getting "GoodRuler" trait line that increases chivalry
-if you want to get the "GoodTaxman" trait line; do as above is mentioned, but note that the public order of the city must be "disillusioned" (75%-80%). Otherwise it leads to "BadTaxman" trait line
In big cities you may keep the taxes on "high", unless there's low public order. The tax rate may be changed only in cities.
Having the AI Run Your Finances
Vicarius
Semisalis
Primicerius
Originally Posted by UCMENOMOR
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TO LIVE IS TO DIE
) stuck in a boondock town and I intuitively click that auto-manage button, but I'm unsure if this is good for the general or bad for the town, or has no effect at all.
Foederatus
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