Why do my merchants suck?

[Somerandomdude2]

Currently: capital city is Milan, merchant travels to Timbuktu.
Gold is worth 18 florins per turn (ok, I'm pretty sure there is some gold near Ragusa ((spelling?)) so maybe that's why it's low) and ivory is 15 florins per turn.

Again, maybe there's some ivory lying around nearer to home that I just don't know about, but, this isn't abnormal regardless of where my capital is.

In fact, the only time I've ever actually earned more is when I sent some low level merchants there (playing as Spain at the time, I think) and they generated somewhere between 200-300 each, per turn and quickly gained experience and their profits shot up. Then I captured Timbuktu and immediately their incomes dropped to similar to what they are in this game (and no, in this game I don't own Timbuktu).

Lots of people post about these enormous 3-4 figure incomes from individual merchants, so...
What's going on here?

[Silverheart]

My experience is that it takes several hundred years for resources to increase in value.
High-level merchants are nearly useless in the beginning, but as time goes on, it seems that all resources become far more valuable.

[Norwegian_viking]

i too had the same problem, but you have to find the g-point for resorces, Timbuktu, Isreal, Constaninople are great places.
Edit: trade rights helps alot, if the teritory is not yours

[Czin]

Hmm, I thought you were asking why is it so damned difficult to get merchants a high level in finance. In addition to what others have said, you won't get high finance merchants until fairly late in the game where you can create them from large cities (giving them a greater chance of the prominent family ties or famous family trait) and have a merchants guild to give them that extra 2-3 finance s level they really need. Once you have that, it's really hit and miss, some Merchants will have a high enough finance level right off the bat to make those triple or quadruple digit incomes off of trade resources while also taking them from A.I merchants (thus increasing their finance level even more and thus putting more money in your pocket) others are best left forgotten.

Lastly, different factions have different values for trade resources. For example, the Roman Empire (Byzantines) won't get quite as much money from a finance ten merchant trading silk as Scottish merchant of the same finance level, while the same scottish merchant would make a lot less money by trading wool when compared to the above Roman Merchant. Well, that is, in stainless steel 6.3 any way. But I do know for sure that even in vanilla each faction puts a different value on resources, probably based on how much that faction would historically value that resource, England and Scotland won't care too much for wool since it was never in short supply on the isles, but they would greatly value silk since it was quite is extremely rare in Britannia.

[EmperorDan]

same happened to me, in the early periods merchant trade was bellow 200 but later in the game, the merchants worth their money...

[shikaka]

same happened to me, in the early periods merchant trade was bellow 200 but later in the game, the merchants worth their money...

Even if below 200, they are worth their money. If they earn 100, they pay for themselves in 5 turns (I think, maybe 6 or 7?) and it is a clear profit afterwards!

But I usually only use them if I have the Nile delta or Timbuktu...


edit: Broken crescent has extra-cheap merchants (100 florins per merchant), so I use them much more often.

[painter]

It is because the region's merchant buildings also improves your merchant's revenues.

I've tested with turn 1, cheating London to a huge city, giving Samuel Blacke 10 points in finance, destroying all possible buildings and check Samuel Blacke's revenue with dyes in London. Following is his income in florins as I cheated the construction of London's buildings:

21	[No upgrades]
25	Grain Exchange
27	Market
29	Fair Ground
31	Great Market
34	Merchant's Quarter
38	Port
40	Shipwright
44	Merchant's Wharf
46	Warehouse
48	Docklands

I went on to construct every other available building and his revenue does not improve, not even with better roads, better walls or the town hall series of structures. As you can see, a reasonably built up city can double your merchant's income. The city also needs to be a coastal city in order to improve your merchant's revenue any further.

[Somerandomdude2]

Thanks for the responses, especially painter with a very helpful response.

[TheGreatOne]

Merchants are used to trade with nations you have trade rights with, but are not connected in someway to your boarders or ports........

example, you are england. you have trade rights with milan...... you send a merchant to each province milan owns.... the price increases depending on distance from capital, further they are the better the trade.

[rebelyell2006]

Also look to Eastern Europe. Amber can be profitable for Western Europe factions, as it is only found in the east. The same for Middle Eastern cotton and sugar.

[MJDreamWalker13]

If you bought Medieval 2 WITHOUT the Kingdoms expansion or did NOT install patch 1.3 then your merchants will suck.
Update the game and enjoy the real profits.

If you already did do what the others told you.

[rebelyell2006]

Something else to consider, that if your settlement has a Cathedral or greater, the merchant will have a 50% chance of getting the ReligiousMerchant trait, which gives the merchant a -1 Finance penalty. Likewise if the merchant is too far away, there will be a -1 penalty for ServesSelfMerchant trait. And those can be compounded. You will have to find a balance between merchant-buildings and priest-buildings.

[painter]

Unfortunately, all the good spots are far away from the centre of the map, where your capital should be located. Fortunately, the penalties of ServesSelfMerchant aren't too severe.

[rebelyell2006]

It is at most a -2 Finance penalty, and all of my merchants get it for some reason. But there are plenty of benefits for moving agents far away from the capital, such as the "Worldly" traits for merchants, diplomats and such, giving bonuses to those merchants.

[Vazzaroth]

My problem has always been other nations merchants killing each and every merchant I ever produce before they become worth anything.



But that one time I had a cutthroat high finance merchant who carved a financial swath through Hungary during my (HRE) war with them... I used him to destroy everyone who ever seized my finances. But it was stupid hard to get him that good, and most of the major nations had all their merchants being a similar level so they were hard to take out without huge risk.

Being unable to secure finances because of merchant sniping is what made me ragequit that game.

[PoleCat]

Merchants must be trained like any other unit. You must seek out the best regions for trade and be mindful of the best regions for gaining upgrades to Financial skills. The Monopolist trait is a great trait to have. You can train up in this easily by moving your Merchants to regions with two of the same type of resource (Gold, Silk, Ivory, etc.) and then controlling and defending that region from other Merchants. It will take a few turns for the trait to materialize (and starts with Capitalist) but it is worth it in the end. If you're training new Merchants then be sure to pair the new with a Merchant with high skill - the older Merchant can fend off unwanted attacks from other factions while keeping your new Merchant safe. Remember that in Vanilla the AI Merchants won't attack your Merchants after they've reached three levels of Financial ability. Good luck!

[tudor93]

Remember that in Vanilla the AI Merchants won't attack your Merchants after they've reached three levels of Financial ability.

oh .... but I'm pretty sure they do

[Double A]

Why does no one ever use the search bar? Seriously, we have a 5 second wait between searches, there's simply no excuse.

[EmperorDan]

also, early in the game, best use your merchants to wage merchantile war against other nations.....it gives a good addition to your income....i get 300 florins per turn as England, cause i have a merchant in oslo/stockholm region and each turn i take out the danes merchants and the hre's who seek the amber:d

[Sulfurion Blackfyre]

Just mod the resource values. For instance if gold has a value of 30, give it a value of 50. Good enough improvement to make merchant significant, if you do that to all resources. Of course they won't beat a city in income, but it's better than nothing.