In the Trade Interface you can see the impact that trade has on your Empire – and the effects your Empire has on trade.
On the top left are the various scores relating to trade:
- Trade Efficiency – Rated from 0% to 200%, this reflects how efficient your
nation is at trading. The number represents how skilled your merchants are at extracting money from a trade route, and the power and influence your merchants wield at a trade node.
- Trade Range – This is a measure of how far from your own lands your merchants may engage in trade. Trade Nodes outside this range cannot be reached by
your merchants.
- Trade Steering – This describes how effective your traders are at steering
trade towards your most profitable nodes.
- Trade Income – This is the percentage of the total possible trade income which
actually makes it into your coffers.
- Mercantilism – This value
boosts the Trade Power given by your provinces in their trade nodes. It can be changed by events.
All of these scores are heavily influenced by your decisions and by your Diplomatic Technology Level. Hovering over the numbers will open a tooltip explaining what drives your trade scores.
The influence of trade on your nation is shown to the right in the pie chart. It shows both the raw income you receive from your trading endeavors, and a pie chart showing what percentage of your total national income derives from trade. Here you can also see any active embargoes that other nations have called upon your traders, or that you have called upon theirs.
Below this is a list of all the Trade Nodes in your Trade Range. You can sort this list in a number of ways: alphabetically; by whether or not you have a Merchant assigned there; by what that Merchant’s goal is; by Income; by Trade Power; or by the overall Value of the Node. From this list you can recall your Merchants from their assignments or dispatch new Merchants. Merchants have two possible missions, both of which they will remain engaged in until recalled. The first mission is collecting money directly from a Node, which can only be done at Nodes you own a province in. Without a Merchant present, a Node will send Trade Power downstream, you will not collect any trade income from the Node. The second mission is Transfer Trade Power, which increases the flow of money downstream and boosts your trade power upstream
