Losing Money Fast

I have just started playing and was only in 1806,, I had numerous trade ships on all the American routes (approx 2 ship per symbol),, I was making around 3-4000 coins per turn and was using most of it wisely I though building up my econmoy by building farms, gov buildings, trade ports etc.

I had a small garrison of troops in my major UK cities (2-3 units approx )

The only forces I was building was in Gibralter with the aim of future spain campaign and to ensure its defence.

I had also strengthned my Navy so as to blockade the french and maintain my trade routes,, but it wasnt an armada by any stretch.

Then all of a sudden from about 4k a turn I went to 0,,, and started getting Bankruptcy warnings!!!!!

Before i know whats happening my populace in london are on strike,, and I have no funds to put troops there to do anything.

I have now lost Gibralter, ,which at least gave me some extra funds (800 coins p turn) in order re-secure London.

But Im back where I started and dont know where I was going wrong.

I checked to see if any of my trade partners had pulled out ,, but they hadnt

I did notice tho that where you see what you are making from trade now shows 0 for some of my major partners.

If i still have a trade agreement and they havent broken it,, can they just stop buying ???

I have played Empire and this hasnt happened to me before,, is this something new? If so what can I do about it , or am i totally at their buying mercy??? I dont get how it just went from all rosey to 0 in about one turn,, no gradual loss first,, help

Your trade port was either blockaded or occupied by an enemy fleet. You should be aggressively destroying French and Spanish ports in the Atlantic and in the Channel after you mop up the fleets they start the game with, a good idea is to just use two or three individual frigates to do the bulk of the damaging/destroying/occupying in the Atlantic/Channel and keep the bulk of your fleet down by the Straits until you build up a large enough fleet to take the Mediterranean ports also.

If you know how to handle a ship then a good bet is to push forward and eliminate all of the Spanish ports as early as possible while holding the majority of the trade ports, makes for an easy game even in VH/VH.

try not to rely too much on trade, because if the trade nodes get occupied or trade route got raid. it will lead to the decrese income , and then bankruptcy. (instead spent some money to upgrade your farm\industry\market\ etc.)

Its not necessarily YOUR trade port that was blockaded either.

Another possibility is that Vienna (or Brandenburg) came under French siege. When a capital falls under siege, trade is no longer possible with that faction (as if their trade port were blockaded) but your trade agreement will still appear to be in effect. So keep an eye on French forces in the interturn to make sure that they stay away from trade partner capitals.

-Turnip

Another way to sabotage buildings and ports instead of using spys or brigs/sloops it's to land your cav units with path seldom trot near uni's, manufactories, trade and dockyard ports. One per building it's sufficient. Have them in and out these facilities till their damage it's at max then pull them out onto the campaign map to be concealed once more. The AI will take like 3/4 turns to repair these and will take tons of money from their treasury, this strat it's also good to achieve a piece treaty requested by your enemy in a long term basis without much fighting.

just pitching in...get as many ships per route as your can I usually make 20k plus with all my cities not being taxed (to help growth). Furthermore disband all UK garrison units, save perhaps london. it has a garrison already...the milita

You should do you utmost to ensure to have the maximum number of trade ships on every trade node you can, this is the best way to make money.