Trade port blockaded = bankrupt?

[Total_War_Noob]

Of course you will look at this and think; of course. However my point comes here. I have three Commercial Basins( I think that is what they are called). The Brits sailed in, blockaded one, leaving me two good ones, and all my income stopped coming in.
Now I have noticed that the little supply ships are only sailing into that one main port - is there something that I should have done that would enable me to use all ports?

I tried to search...however no luck. So if this has been posted before I apologize.

[empr guy]

are they just ports or trading ports? Only trading ports are used to trade, but if its not that i have no idea.

[Total_War_Noob]

I am playing as the US. Have multiple ports, three of which are trade ports. The Brits blockaded just ONE and caused my nation to go bankrupt. Just wondering why it did not shift to one of my other trading ports.

[TommyAtkins]

Trade agreements are for trade from one specific port to another specific port. If that port gets blockaded, you would have to cancel the agreement and sign another one to change to a different port (but that will lead to a large diplo hit).

[Lumina]

Bankrupt means your or the AI home ever is in trouble money wise is losing more money than they are making per turn. This can be achieved by allowing an AI faction to build up military strength then destroying their sources of income it will dramatically hurt the nations economy and growth and actually make their nation's growth go down, and down, and down, either disbanding units, or freeing up trade routes and repairing key money making buildings will get you out of bankruptcy, this can dramatically weaken a once powerful enemy definity if it's one that relied on trade. I've only successfully done this to Maratha, took two land army invasions from the north by forced march over land through Russia which was controlled by my ally Austria and one by sea to the south, to rather than capture destroy and run away and blockaded their ports after a long series of heavy naval battles cripped their navy, it was an excellent campaign, I just waited and waited until I know they would of been too broke to buy new units, then attacked all over the continent and took over India.

[One Two]

realism fail

[lemming3k]

realism fail

This. You'll find the trade goes through one port, so once it's blockaded you're screwed. Poor mechanics really.

[P|A|ntZ]

It's a little bit unrealistic, but what it represents holds true. If your adversary has a navy that is strong enough that it can blockade your main port and you cannot defeat them, then they effectively can blockade your entire country/coast.

Personally, I think a good trade mod would have blockaded ports treated in a similar fashion to raided trade routes, where only a portion of trade is lost, rather than being 100% shut down. During blockades, some ships always get through to alternate ports, etc.

[Wingate]

realism fail

It might seem so from an early 21st Century perspective (or even more so from an early 20th C perspective, for that matter).

This was a mercantilist age and trade was often taxed or otherwise restricted to profitable monopolies or to achieve other goals. A grant of trading privileges directly or by treaty might be limited in all kinds of ways and with a great number of details to favor or harm particular nationals or foreigners. You may have heard the expression treaty port.

Taking it to an extreme, some countries viewed trade as subversive, corrupting, or damaging to the economy. Ming China constricted trade to an ancillary activity tolerated in conjunction with permitted tribute missions. The "surprising" result was smuggling, which helped foster and fund rampant piracy.

In game, you might think the blockaded country would make other arrangements, but not doing the intelligent thing seems to me to be quite realistic.

[Wingate]

By the way - I'm not suggesting that any realism associated with the design decision is anything but coincidental. Given incompetence in breaking blockades and the general level of abstraction, it would be better if the trade spilled over to another port.