EU4 Trade Guide I Trade Nodes and Steering Guide

There are 5 types of trade company buildings, you can scroll down to see more.

I tried understanding trade in this game, I ended up extending the HRE into China in the failed attempt.

Did they change the massive debuff you get for collecting from trade outside your home node? Remans video seems to contradict collecting from trade but its also 5 years old lol

So it it useful to boost tradepower outside my collecting node? Does it help merchants steering more? Not sure if I should build marketplaces outside my collecting node..

Thank you for this guide, iv been absolutely crippled late game due to my lack of understanding of trade

Great guide, fast and saying exactly whats needed to grasp the concept.
But i think one thing is missing, that you should try to get merchants in nodes in chains leading downstream from the node you are collecting the trade. Chain of nodes, as just continous line of going downstream from the main node where you collect trade, for example Venice, Ragusa, Consantinopol, Crimea, and whatever is to the east. There is a stacking bonus to your trade power for every merchant in chain of trade nodes. So it is sometimes not good to collect trade from node just because it can ruin that bonus, you need to see if it will be better for you. After consulting my knowledge with Wikipedia If you have 5 merchants in chain It gives +11% to trade power base in every node in a chain which dont looks like much but it will be more as it depends on your nation trade steering ability. A bit shame, i think that this could stack infinitly, but they restricted it to just 5 merchants. I remember you could have like +1k(or even more) ducats of profit form trade as venice thanks to this bonus.

Played srivijaya recently, i noticed with my big old merchant fleet i could literally remove all of a nations trade income using my fleet and a merchant, it was hilarious what i could do

Such a great video! I like that you gave multiple scenarios and explained the pros and cons etc. You have a great way of breaking down complex concepts in this game into manageable portions. In previous attempts to better understand trade I sometimes get overwhelmed by the pace and amount of content.

One specific question: If I am running a game where I can secure one of the 3 end-nodes relatively early on, does it make sense to conquer up one stream as much as possible to chain together or would it make more sense to spread it out and conquer upstream multiple directions trying to balance it out? I hope I am phrasing my question in a way that makes sense lol.

Thanks again for all your content!

Gènoa pls, not Genóa

None of this makes any fucking sense

You are Saying nothing shoe me how to trade

thank you

Hi Ludi - another `mazing guide - just one correction - boosts to production efficiency doesn't affect amount of goods produced but only the amount of money you get from production - so in terms of trade the workshop and counting house does NOT have an impact - I also thought so for years but it's more like trade efficiency where it's a final modifier to you income (but for production). It's only production development and manufactories that boosts trade value. Even though those two have affect on both trade value and production income so if you invest in those two it may very well be wort building the production efficiency boosting buildings as their impact will correlate with base production, but love this guide - watched it like 5 times :)

nearly forgot to commento for teh aldorythm

Finnaly I can play as Portugal but good

Hey I had a question which didn’t get answered. What does both the wargoals to get trade actually do? Had a situation where as France I took transfer trade node from most of the Italian peninsula, but not getting much out of it. What is actually happening

This guide is so helpful!

i feel like the trading system is a little too simple. maybe i'm missing something, but it seems like changes in the values of goods ("trade goods") are determined by random events. there's no real system of supply & demand

Maybe its me but i think I dont get it at all😭

watched a few dozen of your vids and still got no clue what are you saying at the start of the vids...

Additional side note for improving your late game income: If you have a lot of merchants, high trade power/trade node %, and you have increased your trade steering through various means (like ideas, country's missions, etc.), then you should try transferring your goods to your end node using the longest route possible to get there. The reason for this is that each time you transfer trade downstream, it gets affected by your trade steering and it artificially increases the trade value each node you hit. So the longer the route, the higher the income will be when it hits your end node.
I will emphasize though that this is assuming that you have high trade power % in each of the nodes that you are transfering from, cause if you send it to a node you don't have most of the trade power you will lose out on more than steering your income to nodes that you have control over.

its Mer-can-TIL-ism . Say it right! or look up Arumba say it 1trillon times.

Does production efficiency affect trade value now? Afaik only goods produced affect trade value while production efficiency just gave you more money through production.

Seconds in and you can't pronounce 'mercantilism'.

I am definitely gonna remember all of that

Tip here build many trade building in teritoris so your trade value increases especially when you are transferring trade from Cape of good hope to ivory cost and you have just 3or 5 provinces in Cape of good hope. It increases your trade power considerably.

Literally took notes in a spiral notebook as if i'm in a College course. Well-made my guy!

idk man i still make more money then the value of my trade node in trade and i am only collecting from the English channel as Britian so shrugs

I feel like the number that says how much profit you earn by assigning light ships is wrong. Very often it says that in your home node it will result in negative value but it actually will give you more than some other nodes where it says it'll give you positive 1,2 ducats. And it shows you can also earn profit by protecting trade even in the zones you dont have any territory in. I'm confused on that.

There are five building groups in Trace Companies

One unanswered question: how many ships for optimal trade steering?

Which dlc is ?

Oooh, this helped a lot. Thanks Ludi et Historia.

You forgot that inland trade nodes like Ragusa have caravan power which will drain lots of trade no matter how much ships you throw at it. Nations will have flat trade power, and unless you have huge trade power like 10 times of the rest of nations there[and there's usually huge amount of them] then you will only steer something like 75%. I had all provinces in that node, sent light ships, made the best world ports and still couldnt go above 75%...

You forgot to mention the fifth section of trade company buildings of which the unique one increases the possible amount of marines.

don't forget to leave the belly button on

probably the best guide on trade i've seen so far....and i've been playing for a long time!

One thing I don't understand: where does the provincial trade power come from? (Listed above Trade value and goods produced in the province interface).
It seems to form the overall trade power but then it seems a bit random; for example, in my France run I once went to check my provinces' trade power and it was like 4.3 for richest provinces with World Ports I've been developping like Brussels or Antwerpen and then like 21.9 in a random province producing cheap goods such as Picardie or Vivarais.

I feel this model of trade was very poorly designed when they made the game. Who's the say trade can't leave Venice? Why couldn't a powerful Germany pull trade from Venice, making the node connect to one of the German ones. Who's the say instead of the North Sea going to the Channel, why couldn't a powerful Norway pull trade from the Channel to the North Sea? I feel the arrows should be reversible and there should be no end-trade nodes.

the last trade guide i watched was from 4 years ago so its time to refresh and add to that knowledge

What is missing here is using vassals for trade. There are some crazy good vassals that will highly increase your income. Just look for those with provincial trade modifier, bonus merchants and carvan power and use divert trade interaction, so all their trade power goes to you. Especially last patches, where governing capacity comes to play, it is worth to keep some vassals for huge paart of the game. Also note you are limited with world trade centers, but your vassal has its own limit, so you can increase its trade power even more (and in consequence yours as you take 100% of it).
My favourite are Pskov (if not annexed early, otherwise Novgorod), Mazandaran, Gujarat, but there are many many more.

For example Mazandaran:
- bonus merchant - not only allows more steereing, but you would also be able to build 1 more world trade center
- +20% caravan power
- goods produced modifer, so more cash from that trade
On top you get fort defense in mountanious Persia region :).

This is also why you should never integrate Pskov as Muscovy, feed it instead and collect all that cash for yourself :) (or if you are playing in the area and are able to transfer vassalage early, DO IT!)
- 2 bonus merchants - one from ideas, one from veche republic
- bonus caravan power
- bonus provinial trade power
- more trade steering
+ 20% goods produced

NOTE - released Pskov would not keep Veche republic reform

Forgive me, but it is quite chaotic and messy.
1) Trade value f node is not only what is produced there, but (produced + incoming) - outgoing
2) Production efficiency has nothing to do with trade. It only increases income from production, and does not boost how many goods are produced, so does not increase trade
3) Trade companies are not limited to continents, otherwise you would not be able to TC Anatolia as Venice

Actually there are tree types of trade nodes. Two of them you mentioned. But the third is starting nodes. No trade flows there. Just goes to the other nodes.
For Example: California,Great Lakes,Lhasa, Siam.

Somebody please explain provincial/global trade power difference, caravan power, goods produced/production efficiency, and how much trade power the merchants themselves give.

adn what about trading cities?