The Complete Beginner's Guide To EU4 Trade 

I love the fact that players with thousands of hours and 100+ achievements can still learn things from these videos. Thank you

Finally a guide for EU4 economics that isn't just "get money lol"

SECRETS?!?! What secrets? How did you find out?

0:36 There's gotta be a tier lower than virgin for those origin trade nodes in the New World where no trade flows into them and they only get value from their provinces.

As someone who usually plays FPS games, I had the craziest learning curve for EU4

Trade plays are amazing. After you discover how the mechanics work, it becomes really fun to sabotage your rivals by messing with their income, screwing their trade flow or pirating their nodes. Take the Ottos for example, they only ever collect in Konstantiniye and sometimes steer from Aleppo, I managed to drop their trade income from 400s ducats to merely 80 by pirating and reducing their trade control on the home node. It really helps and hinders their advance since that means much less money to spend on mercs and stuff.

People don't really mention it, but admirals on your light ship fleets will also give you a bonus to trade power and if I'm not mistaken it scales with the movement pips.

Another tip: Always play Cornwall. Just pirate any rich trade nodes and you always win.

Not to forget the Ivory Coast trade note, which is very important, if you want to steer a big amount of money to Sevilla or the English Channel.

Trade winds are a different mechanic, making a directional difference in travel time through some sea zones. They are represented on the map as little green arrows.

Thanks Ludi for your guides Im getting better in EU4 🙏

Actually, in your example at minute 13: with your trade value in ragusa you should collect in constantinopol and transfer in ragusa. This is due to the fact that only half the value from ragusa gets transferred to venice. Once it crosses 70% always transfer.

Finally a complete dynamic trading guide that will be the cornerstone for decades to come. If you are browsing RU-vid in 2029 and wonder how trade mechanics works in EU IV, look no further Ludi got you covered. In seriousness thanks for the video, will check it out tonight and see if I need to change my trade strats :)

Just a little sidenote: when diverting trade, all the nations that have their main trade node downstream will sum all their trade power in the node and compare it with the total trade power all nations that have that node as main trade node have, that determines how much trade value is moved forward (to enforce this though there must be at least one merchant from any nation downstream). In case of multiple options, the trade power of all nations that have a merchant in the node will be counted, and the trade power of the nations that don't won't (I don't remember exactly where it goes or if it just is ignored). So you can see why sometimes it is just better to put a merchant in Alexandria to enforce your trade power, but yoi can neglect costantinopole becouse you can just control Ragusa and other nations will work for you in Costantinopole. Also if you manage to control 100% of a node and the downstream nodes you can effectivly create an artificial endnode in the first one (of course in nodes that only have one outlet this is easier to do, for instance Costantinopole). Also also when you collect in a node that is not your main trade port you receive a preatty big debuff in trade power, so if you don't control the whole node you and you control near 100% of the "road" to your main trade city, if you collect you are effectivly losing money. Great video though. P.s. Sorry for broken English Tl dr to transfer you don't need a merchant if another nation has one there, but only if you transfer to a specific location, you can create artificial endnodes by controlling all the downstream node(s) and when you collect somewhere that is not your main trade node you receive a big negative modifier to your trade power.

Having just started playing this game seriously (thanks to the dlc subscription), this was insanely helpful. Thanks so much!! Amazing video!

Great guide, love it. I recently found out how important "Army Tradition" and "Navy Tradition" is. I, and I assume others, are pretty clueless on this, as there isn't much info around. I have basic understanding of what modifiers it gives. But had no idea how to get/maintain it (found out today that to maintain +1 army tradition, you need 1 active fort per 50 dev). As much info like this would be incredibly useful.

Next thing you'll tell me that the Genoa trade node isn't as powerful as you said it is

I learned a lot the hard way before I watched this video. I was playing Umayyad Andalusia and had to do the "Control Ivory Coast Trade" mission; it requires 90% trade power. I had most of the coast by colonization, but the rest was occupied by my allies, minor tribals and Italy. Plus the UK had a 10% Trade Power. I got rid of the tribals and Italy, but I still was at 56% value. So I assigned everything to a trade company, did the upgrades, constructed all the TP buildings, focused my country towards trade ideas and measures, used diplomacy to secure trade power, and started pumping a light vessels fleet that reached 450+ vessels and assigned it to trade protection. And I made it, 91% trade power. I may be missing details right now but, yeah, pretty proud of myself.

Great guide. One small criticism though, the "level 3" trade company buildings aren't really level 3 as they are independent from the level 1 and level 2 buildings. In your guide it sounds like they would be an extension of the lev 1/2 buildings.

@Ludi u didnt explain the lvl 3 trade company buildings well they are only one for a region not one for a state that would be to overpowered

Me who already knows how to play with almost 3k hours and understands the gameplay still watching just in case

Wish i could have that exact income in the thumbnail in my games also 🧐. Anyways, Nice Guide ludi!

Few years playing and now i understand how trade value and power works. Thanks!

okey I'm lost

Cant belive you changed the number in the thumbnail you absolute madlad

This is the fifth guide on eu4 economy that I have watched, but it's the first one that actually helped.

I already knew those things, but I still enjoyed watching this video.

I have bout 1500 hours on ck3 Vic 3 and hoi4 but 1 hour on eu4 I now learned how to do that entirely pretty simple once you learn it

Hey guys am live daily on Twitch from 4:20 pm UTC +3 See you there! www.twitch.com/ludiethistoria

Love you Ludi!!

Trade was honestly the main thing that drove me away from EU4 at first alongside the idea stuff: I simply couldn’t understand it for the life of me and couldn’t figure out how to, you know, make money. Thanks for the guide!!!

perfect timing ı was just playing mughals and needed some trade tips, thanks

Another great video from Ludi! I’m getting better in EU4 :-)

trade node paths is one thing that always bothered me and I hope they fix it in EU5. Sure if the world develops historically, the trade node flow is kind of correct but what happens if you play in the East or as the Azteks or whatever and manage to catch up? Would trade really flow to England or Venice when you have a bunch of 50 dev cities on the Chinese plains?

I would say the Ivory Coast is also a very strong node due to it being able to take trade from a couple of good places and stopping a lot of Asian and South american trade, only weakness being it feeds into both Sevilla and the English Channel

Lodi, what about trade steering. I've heard that you want to route the trade through as many provinces as possible to maximise the value of the trade before dumping it in an end node. But only if you have good trade steering.

I am learning Latin and I finally understand your channel's name which means Games (Ludi from ludus) and (et) History (Historia).

About the flagship, it should also have the movement speed bonus, just like admiral maneuver it increases the fleet's trade power projection.

Definitely some stuff I didn’t know there. Thanks Ludi. One thing I think is funny is the North Sea filters into Lubeck, so if a German nation goes colonial and gets some dominance in the trade nodes (likely through war to nab colonies), they can get all of that wealth that would have gone to the English Channel and Sevilla, and keep it in Lubeck. Though this also would require some other shenanigans to make work, likely more trouble than it’s worth but it is funny that you can technically do it.

they need to make university classes for paradox games jesus.

The best trade node in the game is the one in south africa. It is basically the only node for asian to western-european trade.

I have 1500 hours in EU4 and this is the first time I have ever felt like I know how trade works.

Ludi knows the secrets, buried treasure and where the skeletons are located!

This was ridiculously useful. Thanks Ludi, really enjoy your stuff.

16:03 just want to clarify that "trade steering" bonuses from ideas or the TC improvement don't actually increase the control, or % of total value that you steer out of a province- they increase the bonus value added to the amount you're pulling, basically pulling ducats out of thin air rather than any province's production, which is why trade steering is so abusable. Its equivalent at where you *collect* the value is the "trade efficiency" modifier Also, as I was skimming through I didn't see you mention anything about merchant/veche republic mechanics. It's worth noting that as a nation like Venice, Lubeck, Genoa or Novgorod (plus any pirate republic that takes the tier 5 or 6 smugglers government reform), any node you have some control in will produce a bonus amount of goods equal to half your control share; for example, if you're Lubeck and you have 44% control in Baltic Sea, every province in the Baltic Sea will produce 22% extra goods, adding to the value you pull home. You want to be careful fully controlling a node as a merchant republic, because although any other tag there will get close to 0 trade income, they'll have a massive boost to production income (especially if they have production efficiency NIs and economic ideas) Didn't learn any secrets but happy to see trade gameplay becoming more popular Edit: Actually I did learn one secret, add all provinces to TC in the node UI. Thanks!

You can make Constantinople be a virtual end trade node by controlling all of Ragusa.

Danke Ludi! This is very convenient cause I currently have a trade related dilemma in my current campaign as Ethiopia.

The Legend has made the much needed guide. On a serious note your guides helped me learn the game and still are helping. So keep it up love your vids.

The cape filters almost all the trade from the indian ocean to Europe making it one of the strongest trade nodes, controlling the Ivory coast node is key for any western colonial nation to transfer trade from South America into Europe

Very great trade guide. Helps me understand trade a lot more than I did before.

Hey Ludi, could you to a updated Estate Guide? I havent played since the Estate rework and I do not really understand when and why I should use or change Edicts.

I hope Europa 5 has a Vic/Imperator-type pop system because this (amazing btw) trade guide just goes to show how something so basic and fundamental is so railroaded. Honestly the pop system is Paradox’s greatest mechanic and it took me forever to realize that which makes me so sad that EUIV doesn’t have that level of dynamicism.

Thank you so much went from making about 70 ducats in 1700 to 200+ by 1700

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR A GUIDE LIKE THIS ALL MY LIFE THANK YOU LUDI ❤️

playing holland and got to like +5k surplus per month due to trading by the end game, i had only conquered the netherland btw and some colonial provices in the spice islands and a couple provinces around africa, india and some other places, 200< provinces total

Thing I’m most glad I learned today: why I keep hitting max on world ports and why I need more merchants

If you properly own all your provinces in the node and just fill in light ships as necessary means you are essentially an end node. Like Sevilla is ridiculously easy for Castile to get 99%

Ludi pls, could you do a navarra guide?

I don't think the modifiers from autonomy are additive with other percentage modifiers. So the 10% manpower from 90% autonomy means that the base manpower value only is 25 per development, and then other modifiers to manpower is applied to that after the modifier from autonomy. if it was the other way then autonomy almost wouldn't matter as other modifiers would negate having 100% autonomy.

Beijing is stronk, as it can get nippon and manchu trades, all chinese provinces trades. Only one outward point goes into mountains and steppes. Only thing is that for steer/collect canton trade you need to compete with mallaca power

wish you looked for complicated situations like France (English Channel, Champagne, Genoa) and Spain (Seville, Valencia, Genoa) Finding optimum way for them in terms of main note, collecting, transferring would explain everything about trade mechanics

Could you go over army composition and ratio at different points in the game for a future mechanics guide? I tend to struggle with that.

sevilla trade note is pretty op aswell if you controll the caribien node.

It should also be noted that steering trade from one node to another increases the value of all trade steered based on your trade steering modifier. This value can be up to 10% of the value. So a trade value of 10 being steered would be 11 in the next trade node. Not much concern when talking about non colonial nations but if you're steering from India and SE Asia to Europe you can easily turn it into a 50% bonus to value.

What is the difference between good produced modifier and production efficiency? How much do tradr companies boost the production? I assume trade becomes the most valuable sourcr of income in late game and the second most valuable is production So adding many provinces to trade companies and investing into buildings can be very profitable tradewise, but i am not sure about production income from trade companies So how much do trade companies bosst the production of the goods in provinces? So for example if the province has 1 produced goods, then what it will becomr after adding it to a trade company and building certain buildings in it? And does it worth developing provinces belonging to trade companies?

Trade in EU4 is kinda weird, it's always fun to see the world take a new path but trade is very rigid. I think we should be able to reverse trade flows. For exemple if the total of dev in the Lübeck trade node is at leat 50% more than total dev in english Channel the flows turn around (it can be automatically or with a decision if you are the nation with the more trade power in the node). Flows symbolizes where the money goes and it's always to a richer place. If most of the trade power in a trade node is held by outsides nations (countries with economic capitals in another trade node) the flows turn around (it allows the european to steal the trade from Malacca for exemple). "Convert" a state to an adjacent trade node should also be possible. If you're England and you've conquered Brittany (and there's no more separatism), the locals will obviously prefer to trade in the english Channel rather than Bordeaux. Obviously "convert" a lot of states would feel strange but it should cost a lot (like diplo points and maybe lost of production in the state) but should also be limited (maybe only "convert" one or two states from each adjacent trade node) (I'm sorry if I made some mistakes, english isn't my mother tongue ^^')

Can you do a guide that specifically focuses on the Trade Companies? I am so out of the loop when it comes to knowing WHEN to form a trade company, and all the WHY behind it.

The right way to say Cuiabá is koo-yuh-bah. It ain't my state though so I really don't care too much, but it sounded weird when he said it. It most likely comes from the Bororo word for fishing arrow (ikuiapá).

I still did not understand how to cut off trade playing for example as the Mamluks from going to Europe

Zanzibar node ftw. I managed to spawn in global trade as Kilwa and make 20 ducats more than the English Channel by reaching up to the gulf of Aden and Hormuz and taking lands for a vassal in India and steering trade from them all back to Zanzibar. Kilwa can make a ton of money if played aggressively in the early game

I'm I'm still clueless how to make the most of the North Sea as Ireland. Sending lightships to the English Channel seems to get a marginally better return than my own trade node, likely because of England's strength, but if I understand what's going on, I'll be investing in a trade node I won't see profits from until I've developed it enough to "protect trade" in

15:09 you can have one special upgrade for each TRADE NODE, not state

Probably the most concise trade guide!

Thanks for the guide! I was just playing eu4 and debating how to proceed with stealing all the global trade haha

LOL, I was thinking today that next time I will see you streaming I will ask about the trade guide since I have problems with min-maxing it. Thank you for reading my mind and if you are a stalker who is living in my room then sorry for the mess!

Спасибо!

The only thing I need to know about trade are if there is a level 1,2,3 trade center or some inland trade endnode. Conqoure said trade areas and roll in the money.

"Always switch to Lübeck as Brandenburg" is an oversimplification. You want to switch when you gain enough power in the node that you earn more there. Which will definitely not be immediately after annexing Wolgast and upgrading the CoT in Stralsund. Switching at that point will lose you money. To determine when it's optimal to switch, you'll need to crunch the numbers, and it's not likely to be before conquering several more CoTs in Lübeck.

Great guide Ludi! Love it

As a not or bug, from my past experiences, you can only use the merchant converting provinces if you are Muslim and also in some of the original trade companies area like India and China. A bug as far as I know was never updated since it was added (unless it has to do with regions or something else).

Did you forget the +25% Governing Cap when a province is in aTrade Company

Wasnt it also the best to go threw the most tradenodes as possible since Trade efficience does bump the value everytime up per tradenode ? Or did they remove this part.

Is there any benefit to putting multiple merchants in a row steering towards your main node? I've heard there's something like a caravan bonus, but I'm not too sure. Sorry if it was answered in the video, I may have missed it. With the Cape for example, is it worth having a merchant there? Nearly all of the trade is pushed to the Ivory Coast node in my experience whether I put a merchant there or not.

As Ottomans I own Genoa and Venetia (main port) and southern Iberia with colonies in Carribean. 50% rule explains why my money sinks when I try to transfer it from Sevilla to Genoa through Valencia where I don't have major share, or from Constantinople to Venetia through Ragusa where too I don't have major share. The question is, if I ensure major share in, say, Valencia will my money go through there without decrease? Because overall trade value of Valencia is less than that of Seville.

To this day I *still* can't figure out if Trade Steering in an area helps you *pull* to that node, or *push* from that node to where you want the value to go. Huge difference, especially for Ivory Coast!

:/ also you didn't talk about caravan power Just so people know, inland trade nodes (nodes of which none province is coastal) Will grant you extra trade power if you assign a merchant, based on your dev: +50 trade power at 200 dev as maximum, and there are modifiers to this caravan power

Just what i need. Still not understand much if you didnt do the first one

I'm just starting out and I'm using console commands to get what I want just until I get used to the game, just posting this so others know it's nothing to be ashamed of and not to be put off the game it's so much fun.

I played as Muscovy and wanted to annex Perm to then expand east. But they had that liberty thing all the way to 70 by 1454. So I read how to lower that and got a big ass army (Horde and Kazan have the threatened thing now) and got it liberty thing to 54 and I think I'll be able to annex it in a while. I have a big army that can wipe out anything, but I am broke and my expenses are over my income lmao

Question: you mention that in some scenarios you just collect everywhere, but doesn’t each merchant collecting decrease overall trade efficiency? I recall there being a debuff to just collecting everywhere

Holy shit I learned so much. I'll have to see this multiplce times though. INFORMATION +

Do a trade guide for the Anbennar mod.

Regarding Trade Companies: does it make sense to TC provinces upstream from your main trade node? For instance nippon as main, does it make sense to TC the trade nodes in Indonesia?

finally.. inner peace..

Bruh, the first time i played this, i don't understand the trade mechanics in this game, after i played as Great Britain and Andalusia, i understand it completely now

yesss finally the trade guide

Not bad as a beginner guide, but it misses some topics that are pretty important. For example, what is "Caravan power" and how should light ships be assigned in the late game?

6:17 why increasing prod and manpower not pord and base tax?

Does your main trade city matters if in the same trade node

okay but let's say that I have 96% of trade power in Constantinople and 90% in Coromandel. Is it always better to push trade to the main node? What If I don't have enough merchants to cover every trade node?