Use Auto-Trading
To use auto-trading, your captain's total level must be 4.
If you're not engaging in naval battles, your captain's level will be reflected by trading and travel distance.
When auto-trading is enabled, your captain will buy and sell goods at their own discretion.
By adding level 4 captains and traveling throughout the Caribbean, you'll start earning income without doing anything.
Make Use of the Warehouse Keeper
Imported goods arrive regularly in Governor's Town, but by using the Warehouse Keeper, you can purchase them faster and cheaper than with a merchant ship.
It's quicker to buy processed goods in advance using the Warehouse Keeper setting.
Also, since production businesses produce goods every day, it's more efficient to keep a certain number in stock and sell the rest in town.
EPurchase Price
When there's sufficient stock, the town's trading post will sell goods at a price that adds about 20% to the production cost.
For example, if the basic production cost of wheat is 80, you can purchase it at the trading post for roughly 96 gold.
(This price increases or decreases depending on factors such as difficulty.)
If you set your purchase price slightly above this price, say around 100,
you can purchase up to the very limit of the market price.
Although imported goods are not manufactured goods, they are generally considered to have a cost of around 500, and are often priced at around 600 at the lowest.
Therefore, if you purchase them for around 580-620, it is easier to make a profit when selling.
ESelling Price
If goods produced in the town are plentiful, they will be purchased at a price equal to the production cost plus about 10%.
For example, if the base production cost of wheat is 80, you can sell it at the trading post for about 88 gold.
If the town's economy is booming, production costs will be reduced, slightly improving profit margins.
If the item is not produced in the town, the highest price (when inventory is low for a certain period of time) will be approximately 250% of the production cost.
Prices fluctuate depending on supply and demand, events, and other factors, so it's difficult to say exactly how much a product will sell for.
Therefore, if you try to sell at a high price, your products may end up piling up in your warehouse.
If demand is high, around 150-200%.
If demand is low, around 120-150%.
Around this range seems reasonable.
Manipulating Prices
Product prices are determined by the balance of supply and demand.
If there is a shortage of goods throughout the Caribbean, the supply to towns will decrease, causing prices to rise in many towns.
Conversely, if there is excess production, there will also be an excess supply to towns, causing prices to fall.
Product prices will average out, especially if there are no disasters or other events and the number of production businesses is uniform.
If you want to sell a specific product at a high price, you need to produce excess quantities of other products, creating a relative shortage of the product you want to sell.
For example, if you have an oversupply of necessities like wheat, fruit, lumber, or bricks, these products will fall in price and become harder to sell, while higher-priced processed and imported goods will be able to sell at higher prices.
It would be counterproductive to produce too many necessities and incur a loss, but in some cases, you may be able to sell excess inventory by trading with tavern merchants, etc.
Furthermore, if prices continue to fall for a long time, other producers will scale back their operations, and prices will eventually return to normal.
Furthermore, if there is a shortage of materials in the production area, production of processed goods will stop. In this case, even if there are sufficient production facilities, there will be a supply shortage, leading to a chain reaction of rising prices.
For example, if there is a shortage of sugar, an ingredient in rum, sugar shortages will likely occur in rum-producing regions.
This will result in a shortage of both sugar and rum, causing prices to rise.
In the case of corn, since corn and meat are food items used to prevent famine, a shortage of corn will
stop meat production and result in shortages of two food items. If wheat and fruit also become scarce, more towns will experience famine, and demand for the fourth item will double.
Furthermore, iron products are used as materials for dyes, tobacco, coffee, and cocoa, all of which are exports. Iron products are imported
and the amount of imports is linked to the Caribbean's overall production. Therefore, rather than adjusting the supply and demand balance, they would buy up iron products directly. However, doing so would halt export production throughout the Caribbean, causing export prices to skyrocket. (However, they would then have to sell off the iron products they bought up later.) While this phenomenon could also be achieved by raiding convoys carrying imported goods, buying up all the iron is more efficient. Raiding merchant ships and convoys is a prerequisite for obtaining a privateer's license. Raiding merchant ships allows you to plunder merchandise and even capture the ships. Furthermore, convoys regularly travel between governor's and viceroy's towns, delivering imports from Europe and transferring exports. Raiding these ships allows you to plunder imports on the way there and exports on the way back.
Gamble
Saving and loading is required, but the large stakes make it a bit of a cheat.
If you gamble too much, the game balance will change dramatically, significantly altering your progression.
If you're focusing on trading, one way to play is to refrain from gambling.
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