Merchants

[Vanderdecken]

Aww.......my favorite annoyance. Or at least, that's what they were. Turns out, there is a lot to be made in Northern Italian Textiles. An average merchant of 4 notches brings in 224 florins per turn. I would say that's doing pretty good. At full-notched, some 500 or 600. Good business. That's what it is. And the person who exploits it, can have the same income as a town and doesn't need to invest anymore money than needed to build it up to get that income.

Turns out, there's also plenty of money in the slave-trade (yeah yeah, I know). My merchants in Crimea are bringing a goodly sum of 300 per turn, per slave outlet each turn.

So, all of the benefits of money. It made me realize that there can be cities in the desloate places of nowhere that are profitable (e.x: Caffa) and that Merchants aren't a complete waste of time. In fact, looking at empire, it's one of the few things I miss. It involves a lot more politics than simply parking a trade fleet on a resource and having to declare war to attain it.

Oh well.

[Diamond]

If you're playing a campaign as a nation on the west coast of Europe (Spain, Portugal, France, England, Scotland, Moors, etc.) then there's a lot of money to be made in the New World. Upgrade your ports as high as they can go before 1385 or so and as soon as you get the historical event that says "a trade route to india by sailing west would be most lucrative" or whatever, build a bunch of carracks, fill them with merchants, and sail west! A merchant with one notch will make 250-300 florins a turn trading tobacco in the northernmost Aztec city. There are three or four tobaccos there alone. There's also chocolate, which is worth a lot. If you bring, say, ten merchants that are all three or so notches, you'll be rich soon

[_Elysium_]

Timbuktu. Put a fort over a nearby Gold deposit then put all of your merchants in there. I think a 6 Finance Merchant will generate 760 Florins per turn.

[Ahlerich]

Timbuktu. Put a fort over a nearby Gold deposit then put all of your merchants in there. I think a 6 Finance Merchant will generate 760 Florins per turn.

i dont get that. does that mean that merchants also generate money when they sit in towns? i though all the years that they have to be placed on a ressource to work

[Diamond]

i dont get that. does that mean that merchants also generate money when they sit in towns? i though all the years that they have to be placed on a ressource to work

No, he means if you take a family member/general with all your merchants and put them on a resource, then click "build" and you can create a watchtower or fort on the spot

[_Elysium_]

No, he means if you take a family member/general with all your merchants and put them on a resource, then click "build" and you can create a watchtower or fort on the spot

Yup. If you move a family member onto a resource then build a fort there, you can have up to 20 merchants on that one resource. You can even mine it for additional income while still having 20 merchants there. I don't know if you need any military units in the fort with the merchants though, to prevent the fort from disappearing. I forgot to try it..

[tudor93]

Yup. If you move a family member onto a resource then build a fort there, you can have up to 20 merchants on that one resource. You can even mine it for additional income while still having 20 merchants there. I don't know if you need any military units in the fort with the merchants though, to prevent the fort from disappearing. I forgot to try it..

yeah but it's kinda cheating you may as well use add_money;

[eXistenZ]

making money by taking over other merchants is even more fun. spread them out onto strategic places (northern itly, the bosporus, poland), and they can make money by sitting on a resource, and conquering other merchants

[Ahlerich]

interesting..

[_Elysium_]

Indeed. I had 7 or 8 merchants on a Gold deposit in my last campaign, making just over 3400 Florins per turn, in total, when I finished.

[eXistenZ]

Personnaly, i spread out my merchants. One in timbuktu, one in northern italy and close to vienna, one in russia, and one at the bosporus at least. there are a few great places to intercept enemy merchants, and i you succeed, you get a nice cash bonus. and they level up faster