Trade agreements and reputation

**Knight of Santiago** · July 05, 2011, 08:38 AM

Hi, first time poster, first 6.64 SS player and all!!

I have just started a H/H campaign as Leon-Castile and up to now I have refrained from making trade agreements with factions at war with my allies (HRE, England, Sicily and Hungary). However the Merchant's Guild tells encourages me to initiate trade with Venice (ATM one of the top-notch factions and at war with HRE, France, Hungary and Sicily).

My question is: should I do so?? I'm trying to play it cool and stick to diplomacy when at all possible. Just kicked Portugal and the Moors from the Iberian peninsula ( Aragon barely hanging on to Barcelona) and I would like to keep war among Catholics to a minimum. Will my rep suffer if I trade with the Venetians?

**ihranator** · July 05, 2011, 09:15 AM

Having trade agreements with everyone doesn't affect anything, AFAIK.

**toymachine** · July 05, 2011, 02:02 PM

I generally try to give a 'generous' trade agreement to help things along, but I wouldn't personally worry about (not) trading in the situation you're in..

**Ichon** · July 05, 2011, 02:08 PM

I don't know if it matters that you make trade agreements or not. It doesn't seem to in the game aside from sometimes I have a suspicion that making agreements with faction far away increases those random blockade wars. Ideally you should be able to sell each trade agreement for 400-2,000 florins at the start. Since you can only make so much money once it makes the most difference early.

**Knight of Santiago** · July 06, 2011, 06:21 PM

Thanks, I had the idea that trade did have an impact on rep. Anyways, the Pope apparently did not like them invading Genoa and decided to call a crusade on Venice, so that´s it for trade... Oh, well...

**elzahr** · July 07, 2011, 01:40 AM

Try to have trade agreements with everyone

**Nyarla** · July 07, 2011, 02:16 AM

trade agreements enable your settlement to establish trade routes with provinces that border yours or establish sea traderoutes to export valuable goods and make some nice money overseas in provinces not your own.

open the trade summary scroll the see how much u gain through trade with the different settlements. the smaller your empire the more your cities have to rely on exporting your gods to foreign lands to produce decent tradeincome. ofc the AI exports goods to your provinces too so u gain from both export and import

**Caesar Clivus** · July 07, 2011, 02:58 AM

Originally Posted by Nyarla

trade agreements enable your settlement to establish trade routes with provinces that border yours or establish sea traderoutes to export valuable goods and make some nice money overseas in provinces not your own.

Your settlements have trade routes with other factions' settlements without having a trade agreement in place first. Trade agreements just increase the amount of trade you receive.

**Nyarla** · July 07, 2011, 03:29 AM

interesting but guess it makes sence since merchants act on their own. never noticed, since i either am allied to my neighbours or at war

**Marcvs Antonivs** · July 07, 2011, 09:12 AM

I barely use merchants. Normally I only use priests/diplomats and 1-2 spies. Princesses I marry them with my family members/generals, rarely use merchants or assassins. But when you use your merchants wisely they can make you quite a profit. I had 2-3 merchants that once bought me about 1500-2000 florins per turn, that and trade agreements can bring you a huge profit, never paid much attention to numbers though.