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Eu4 Change Home Trade Node: Tips and Tricks for Expanding Your Trade Network



Trade and production of trade goods are two of the three main sources of income for a country, the third being taxes. Every province produces trade goods, which give production income to their owner directly. The trade value of the goods then enters a system of trade nodes, where it is steered and eventually collected by merchants as trade income.


The trade value of all provinces in the same trade node is added together to determine the local trade value of the node. This can be seen in the node's window, as well as the ledger and the trade tab.




Eu4 Change Home Trade Node




The total trade value in a trade node is the sum of local trade value and incoming trade value from upstream trade nodes minus outgoing trade value. For details of incoming trade value, see Transferring trade below.


Each land province in the world belongs to exactly one trade node. The trade value from a province is added to the node's local trade value. In addition, most nodes have one or more other incoming nodes, and one or more other outgoing nodes. In this way all nodes are connected in a global network, with a handful (e.g. California, Lhasa, and Great Lakes) being origin nodes with nothing upstream of them, and three (English Channel, Genoa, and Venice) being end nodes with nothing downstream of them.


Each country has a main trade city. This is the same as the capital at the start of the game, and usually stays that way. In the trade node that this province belongs to, the country gets an extra +5 trade power and automatically collects trade. With the Wealth of Nations expansion, the main trade city can be changed at the cost of 200 diplomatic power. If the capital and main trade city are the same, moving the capital also moves the main trade city for free.


A country with trade power in a node who either has a merchant present and set to steer, or is not collecting there but is collecting in a node somewhere downstream (no matter how many hops away), is transferring. There are two stages to transferring trade:


Each country transferring with a merchant present selects an outgoing node to steer trade to (the player does this from the trade map mode). All countries steering in a particular direction cooperate with each other, and compete with those steering in other directions as well as those collecting, whereas they neither compete nor cooperate at this stage with countries transferring but not steering. The amount of trade value steered towards a particular node is


In other words, if no one is steering in any direction, trade value is divided equally between all outgoing nodes. (But in this situation a downstream node will only be considered for transferring trade value if someone is transferring between those nodes, i.e. they have trade power in both of them. For example, at the start of the game when all provinces in the Caribbean and Polynesian Triangle are uncolonized, all trade leaving Mexico goes to Panama; when the Caribbean is colonized, it's divided between there and Panama, but still none goes to the Polynesian Triangle.)


Every province contributes an amount of trade power to its controller's country in the local trade node. The exact amount and relevant calculations can be seen in province view under Trade category. It is determined by the following factors:


Any nation that has at least 10 provincial trade power in the node enjoys the propagation of that power upstream. An amount equivalent to 20% of the nation's provincial trade power is added to the total trade power of that nation in every immediate upstream node, where it is denoted as transfers from traders downstream. Global trade power modifiers do not apply to the amount considered for propagation, but are applied in the upstream node instead.[2]


If a country has a ship tradepower propagation modifier also a corresponding part of the ship trade power is added to the provincial trade power. E.g. with +20% ship tradepower propagation 20% 20% of ship trade power is also added to upstream node.


A country that owns a province in a trade node that is not in their home node but is in a trade company region can add it to a trade company. Provinces in trade companies get +100% local trade power. There are 63 trade company regions throughout the old world.


Light ships on protect trade missions can only be sent to trade nodes where the country already has trade power and the supply range is met. The limitation on supply range applies even when naval attrition is removed at diplomatic tech 22. If the trade range permits, a country can send a merchant to a node without any initial trade power and then follow up with light ships protecting trade (as long as these are within supply range). A good way to arrange for a favorable supply range is by gaining fleet basing rights from a nation in the vicinity of the target trade node.


Merchants are envoys used to alter the flow of trade value by collecting or steering trade. A merchant must be stationed at a trade node to have any effect and can only travel a distance defined by a country's trade range. A merchant present in a trade node gives a bonus of +10% to trade efficiency and also increases the trade power by 2 in that node.


Merchants can only reach nodes at this distance from a cored province (or a cored province of a junior partner, colonial nation or client state). The distance is measured to the central province of the node, visible on the trade map mode. Base trade range is increased by diplomatic technology (100 at tech 1 and 400 at tech 32) and some decisions and ideas.


A nation can set a trade policy in any node where they have a merchant present. There is no cost to setting this policy and it can be changed every 12 months. Policies available to all nations (except Propagate Religion, which requires a religion in the Muslim religion group) are:


If no merchant is currently collecting outside the home node, then the home node receives a +10% bonus to trade power for each merchant who is steering trade. This is a cumulative bonus, hence it is a big decision and sometimes hard to make the analysis depending on whether one should collect in other nodes or only steer trade. The quickest check is to compare the trade value in your income tab before and after your proposed changes; keeping the combination with the highest final result to your trade income. At most you'll lose some income during the envoy travel time of the merchants while experimenting.


Note that during times of war when they embargo your home node, and hence siphon your income, set some of the other upstream nodes to rather collect trade than to steer to the home node. This will avoid losing much of your trade income during the war.


A country's home node and nodes where a nation has the highest provincial trade power are considered domestic. Provinces in territories and trade companies can still be domestic. Domestic trade power refers to trade power in these nodes.


A nation steering from, towards or collecting (only in main trading port) an inland trade node receives bonus trade power. This bonus, called caravan power, is equal to , up to a maximum of +50.


Embargoing is an option in the diplomacy screen that allows a country to leverage their trade power against another nation's, decreasing that nation's trade power in shared trade nodes. The trade screen shows icons for each nation embargoed and those embargoing your nation. Placing the mouse over each nation icon breaks down the penalties in each shared trade node.


This mission is available to fleets which contain at least one ship that isn't a transport. Fleets containing heavy ships or light ships may hunt pirates in any non-inland trade node; however, fleets containing only galleys (as well as fleets which are a mixture of galleys and transports) can only hunt pirates in nodes where all nearby sea provinces are inland seas.


Pirate-hunting fleets reduce the trade power taken by the dummy "pirates" nation in the chosen trade node by reducing their privateer efficiency. They do not actually damage or take damage from any ships.


While most great oriental nations (Mamluks, Ottomans and Ming), and those dominating the end nodes (England, Aragon/Spain, Venice), do not struggle in controlling their home trade nodes, for other countries, it is often a nightmare to merely secure the trade benefits that derive from their production. Several steps must therefore be taken by all nations, in order to assert their control over the trade transiting from their territory, as without it, most of their growth will feed other nations' economies.


With your home node chosen and secured, you should look at taking control of the upstream nodes. One should be particularly careful about securing one node after another, as extracting trade value from a node only to see it collected by a rival in the next one is both fruitless and dangerous. While expanding, keep in mind some of the following aspects:


Trade value is the sum of locally produced goods and the inputs from trade nodes flowing in (upstream), and minus the value forwarded to other trade nodes (downstream). To increase the trade value of a node a player can:


Because merchants increase trade steered out of a node, by far the most lucrative method of increasing trade is to place merchants in a chain of controlled nodes so that each merchant compounds the value of trade it passes on to the next.


Control of a trade node is dictated by a country's Trade Power share in that node. Thus, to control a desired node, a country should increase its Trade Power share in that node. Merchants only provide a token amount of Trade Power, and sending power upstream is extremely inefficient due to the -80% penalty (stacks multiplicatively, not additively, with other modifiers) for doing so. Thus, Trade Power largely comes from provinces and Light Ships. Effective ways on increasing one's share of Trade Power in a node therefore include: 2ff7e9595c


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