EU3: Economics for Dummies

By Azonalanthious
Chapter I: Understanding yearly vs monthy:
First, you have 2 major types of income, your yearly and your monthly income. Ye
arly is paid on Jan 1st and is based strictly off the tax value of your province
s. It is important to note that this is where cores matter - a non-core province
will pay your 10% of their tax income, a cored province will pay you 100%. Cons
tables increase either of these by 50% (so 60% and 150% respectively). Its also
worth noting that overseas provinces (colonies basicly) have a -90% penalty, so
pay very little. The yearly income all goes into your actual cash pool - this is
the money you have to spend to maintain and buy your soldiers, buy buildings or
ships, and so on and so forth.
Your monthly income is the second type. It is paid at the 1st of each month and
will be 1/12th of each provinces tax income (so yes tax counts twice. Also worth
noting that cores/constables do not matter for this version of tax, though over
seas still matters), 1/24th the province tax income of any vassals, production i
ncome, your trade income, your tarrifs, and your gold income. By default this in
come goes into improving your tech or stability, but by minting can be used to g
enerate actual cash money at the cost on of inflation. Chapters 2-6 are pretty m
uch only concerned with monthly income, as it is by far the more complex of the
2 income types.
Chapter 2: Trade Goods and Trade Value
Most provinces (new colonies and uncolonized provinces are the only exceptions,
new colonies gain one eventually) produce a trade good. Each trade good has a gl
obal price that is generated by combining factors for every country, the factors
varying from good to good -- for example, naval supplies prices go up if a coun
ty with a large number of big ships is at war, while spices go up for every mark
etplace built. This number is the top of the two price numbers listed by a trade
good when you have the province view up.
Once the price is determined, you next look at how much is made - overseas provi
nces will always be 1.0 (once a full province, while still building up a colony
it will be lower). Home provinces will get a bonus based on both their tax incom
e and their population - I believe the highest I've seem was 3.1 units produced.
A province's trade value is the price of its trade good times what it produces
-- for example, if grain is selling at 5.0 and a province produces 2.0 grain, th
en its trade value is 10.
The modifiers National Trade Income Modifer and Local Trade Income Modifier incr
ease this value, to to use the above grain example, if you had a +10% National T
rade Income Modifier, it would now be 110% of 10, so have a trade value of 11. P
restige is the most common National Trade Income Modifier (you get +0.15% per po
int of prestige) but there are others you can get as well. This number is the se
cond of the two price numbers you see when the province view is up. So that's Tr
ade Goods and Trade Value - will discuss why Trade Value is important in a secon
d here.
Chapter 2a: Gold
Gold is a special trade good. Each month you add 1/12th its Trade Value directly
to your monthly income. However, its Trade Value does not apply to the producti
on and trade uses mentioned below. Having a large % of your income be gold will
also increase you inflation, but this doesn't matter for 95% of countries (ther
e are 4 I believe that start with enough gold to matter, and by the time you hav
e taken a number of gold provinces with other countries you will generally also
have taken enough non-gold provinces that it still won't matter to you).
Chapter 3: Production
First, overseas provinces do not have a production income (there is one exceptio
n, covered under buildings below). Provinces which are not overseas will have a
production income - this income is the trade value from above times your product
ion efficiency. This is the number that shows next to production in province vie
w. 1/12th of this income is added to your monthly income each month. So generall
y speaking high trade value + high production efficiency = high production incom
e - simple enough.
Chapter 4: Trade
Each of your provinces adds its trade value to whatever CoT it trades though. Th
is has no direct effect on your income (but remember that trade value also drive
s a province's production income). Trade income is generated by placing merchant
s in a CoT. Each merchant placed will control 5% of that CoT -- for example, if
you have 2 merchants in a 100 ducat CoT, you will control 10% of it or 10 ducats
worth. You then take this amount times your trade efficency to determine the ac
tual income from that CoT for you, then (like all other forms of monthly income)
divide by 12 and add that amount each month. Having a monopoly in a trade cente
r offers an extra bonus -- any empty spots give their 5% to you. So for example,
if you have a monopoly in a CoT with 2 empty spots, you will get 40% of that Co
T's value - 30% for your 6 merchants and 10% for the empty spots.
Chapter 5: Tarrifs
Oversea's provinces produce tarrifs. A province's tarrif income will equal its t
ax income plus the production income it would have had if it wasn't overseas. In
order to fully collect tarrifs you need at least 1 big or light ship for every
oversea's province you have - fewer then this will decrease the % of the income
you receive. Like other monthly income, you divide a province's tarrif value by
12 and add it to your income each month. Its worth noting that this means tax ac
tually applies twice for an overseas province's monthly - once (in full) to thei
r tarrif income, and once (at a -90% penalty) to actual tax income, so you squee
ze a little extra out of colonial provinces base tax.
Chapter 6: Buildings
The following building have a major economic effect:
* Workshops: +2 to tax (monthly, yearly, and how much goes into tarrifs)
* Custom Houses: +5% tax (monthly, yearly, and how much goes into tarrifs)
* Constables: +50% tax (yearly only)
* Marketplaces: +2 to trade value (so ultimately increases both production incom
e and the value of local CoT)
* Manufactories: +6/+12 to production income (also bonus to tech research but th
is doesn't actually go into income. This will also give colonies production inco
me - the only way they can get it instead of just tarrifs)
* CoTs: +2 tax income plus an additional +2 per 100 value of the CoT (not techni
cally a building, but seemed the best place to put this since its built in a pro
vince)
Additionally, while they have no direct effect on income, courthouses, tax asses
sors, regimental camps, and ship yards all increase the price for at least one t
rade good, so can indirectly increase your income as well.
Forts and Churches has no income related effects.
Chapter 7: General Strategies
Step 1: Take provinces! Note that EVERY province will be a net positive to your
tech speed IF you fully develop it (ie build all building including manufactorie
s). Now, you may not want to take the time to build everything everywhere or it
may still be early game where can't build everything due to buildings not being
around yet. In that case, focus first on a province's tax value - remember this
applies twice, effecting both monthly and yearly income. Next look for high trad
e values to maximize your production income - early game, gold will be king here
, but late game it can be passed by colonial goods.
Step 2: Trading: Merchantile. If you are high merchantile, you want to own your
own CoTs and trade there - you receive a large bonus to competing. Once you can
get monopolies, you should try to maintain a monopoly in all your own CoTs at al
l times, and as soon as possible you want to start sending extra merchants to di
ve out competition and have empty seats - ideally you want 6 of your own merchan
ts, 13 empty seats, and 1 merchant belonging to someone else (for some reason if
you drive out that last foreign merchant, you'll get a flood of incoming foreig
ners and likely loose your monopoly, so leave that 1 and be happy with controlli
ng 95% of the trade). Generally speaking you will do better dominating your inte
rnal CoT monopolies then sending merchants out and about, so don't bother sendin
g merchants to CoTs you don't own until you've got your own CoTs to the 6/13/1 a
rea. (note-there can be exeptions to this rule, just depending on how the game h
as gone).
Step 3: Trading: Free Trade. If you have high free trade, you get a bonus in CoT
s you don't own (and a smaller bonus to trade efficiency itself), so you will wa
nt to be focusing primarily on foreign CoTs. Generally speaking its better for a
free trader to cast their nets wide -- I generally aim to have 5 merchants in e
very CoT with a value over 400 -- rather then monopolizing. However, this can ch
ange depending on how the game goes -- for example, if there is only one CoT in
the Americas and its up to 4,000 ducats, then feel free to let all the rest of y
our trading get competed out while you focus on getting the 6/13/1 in that CoT.
Step 4: Colonies: Colonies are generally a net negative until the 1600s when the
y really start improving (and by 1700 are usually pretty good), so keep that in
mind when colonizing. They can position you nicely for later on, but early on th
ey hurt more then help.
Step 5: Research trade and production: If there isn't a specific reason to resea
rch another tech first -- ie a new idea for goverment tech -- research your trad
e and production techs first at each tech level - this means their bonus is appl
ied when researching the other 3, and while that 1/2% isn't much individually, o
ver the course of an entire game and 72 tech levels, it really adds up. Also rem
ember that its impact can be larger then it looks at first glance - if your prod
uction effecincy is 20% for example, +2% actually translates into a 10% increase
in your actual production income.
Step 6: Sliders: In terms of maximizing income, it is important to go full Centr
alize, full Free Trade (or merchantile depending on the style of game you are pl
aying, just full one or the other), full plutocracy, and full naval (if you have
overseas provinces only). Full Free Subjects and Innovative are also nice for i
ncreasing tech speed, but don't directly effect income.
Now, there is more to EU3 economics then just what is covered above, but this is
"Economies for Dummies". The rest will have to wait for the follow up book, "Ec
onomics for Those Who Are Just Kinda Slow".