6.6.5 Trading - How it works
Buying and selling goods is actually pretty straightforward once you know how the formulas work!
Buying
To calculate the cost per unit when buying goods the following formula is used (see 6.6.1., p56):
1600 x GF x Rate
SQRT(QtyC + 10)
So the cost to buy one unit of Gold (Goods Factor 35 - see 6.6.3, p57) from a trade city with a rate of 6, and with 100 units currently in the city would be:
1600 x 35 x 6
SQRT(100 + 10)
or...
336,000
10.49
or 32,031 Louisdore per unit. So to buy 50 units would cost 50 x 32,031 = 1,601,550 Louisdore!
Selling
Selling goods is much the same, with just one added complication. The formula is (see 6.6.2., p57):
1500 x GF x Rate
SQRT(QtyC + 10) + SQRT(QtyS)
So the price for selling one unit of food (Goods Factor of 4) at a trade city with a rate of 5, with 1000 units currently in the city and selling a total of 500 units would be:
1500 x 4 x 5
SQRT(1000 + 10) + SQRT(500)
or...
30,000 = 30,000
or 554 Louisdore per unit. The grand total when selling 500 units of food would be 554 x 500 = 277,000 Louisdore.
Notes:
The sale price for goods does depend very much on how much you sell! The formula in the rulebook does reflect supply and demand, so if you sell 1,000 units you will get a lower price per unit than if you sell one unit only!
To get the most money out of trading it’s better to sell a lot of small amounts many times than one large amount once. So instead of selling 1,000 units in one order, you will get more money if you sell 100 units ten times! To help us input all the multiple orders, it’s best to write ‘ten times’ next to the order you wish to repeat, and we’ll then duplicate it ten times (or however many times you want). However, you are still limited to just the normal 18 trade commands, inclusive of any repeated multiple orders.
When buying goods from a trade city, the money must be present in the 'destination' item, whether that item is a ship, baggage train, barracks or warehouse.
You can actually trade directly from your national warehouse into a trade city that you own. You don’t have to go ‘via’ a baggage train. (e.g. If you were playing Austria the command to do the trading would be, for example, ‘13 / 1000 / 1 / 113’ to sell 1000 EcPts from your European national warehouse into Vienna).
If during trading you cannot purchase all of a goods type that you would want, either because of lack of money or lack of the goods, then no error code is generated.
If you are transferring goods from your national warehouse to a ship or baggage train there is no need to go ‘via’ a barracks/shipyard. You can simply transfer the goods directly into the item, as long as it is positioned in one of your barracks.
If you have a baggage train loaded with goods situated in a friendly shipyard and you want to retrieve the goods, sail a merchant ship/fleet into the shipyard and unload the goods from the baggage train directly into the individual ships (i.e. in section -17- or -19-, the baggage train would be the source and the ship would be the destination). If the baggage train had used it’s cash reserves purchasing the goods and you wanted to supply it with more, ensure that one of the ships sent to pick up the goods has been loaded with money and simply transfer it into the baggage train at the same time it is transferring the goods.
When no error code appears you assume that there was no problem and that the trading was completed, when in fact no trading has taken place... Usually the problem arises when Louisdore are transferred into the ship or baggage train in the same month that the item is going to buy the goods, and because the national warehouse may be out of money by the time the transfer money order is placed in sections -17- or -19-, nothing is transferred. Then the ship or baggage train sets off, completes its ‘non’ purchases, no errors are generated, and nothing is bought.
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