Profitable Trade

  • A thread in the forum, started by Gesil, has a detailed synopsis from Ugh!


    Gesil mounted spreadsheets depicting consumption and different pricing levels here


    Following the comments by Ugh!


    It is a balancing act to keep the population satisfied while still making a profit. As previously posted in the thread it is important to know which goods should be sold cheaply and which ones expensive to have satisfied citizens and full registers. Traditionally, we group all goods into three categories.

    • Staple Goods All goods that are extremely important for the satisfaction but have a very low profit margin. They should be sold as cheap as possible to ensure a high level of satisfaction. beer, fish, grain, timber
    • Raw Materials and Luxury Goods Goods that have no, or neglectable, influence on the satisfaction. The margins are considerable and you may use gouging price levels. Therefore, this is the easiest group pig iron, IG, furs, spices, hemp, honey, leather, pitch, bricks
    • Consumer Goods They fall between the other tow. They are of some importance for the satisfaction and some (cloths & wine) allow a good margin. In this group you have to fine-tune during the game. It helps to know which level of influence is assigned to each good. (I will make further posts on the topic) meat, pottery, salt, whale oil, cloth, wine, wool


    Prices for Raw Materials and Luxury Goods
    Since you do not have to take the satisfaction level into consideration, you can really gouge:
    Pig iron 1773
    IG 534
    Furs (skins) 1406
    Spices 551
    Hemp 834
    Honey 226
    Pitch 115
    Bricks 172
    These prices are for the current contest2006. Overall we get fixed pricing for the majority (13/20) of the goods that guarantee a high margin and a good overall satisfaction.


    Beer 42
    Eisenerz 1773
    IG 534
    Furs 1406
    Fish 520
    Fleisch *
    Grain 145
    Spcies 551
    Hemp 834
    Timber 62
    Honey 226
    Pottery *
    Leather 465
    Pitch 115
    Salt *
    Whale oil *
    Cloth *
    Wine *
    Wool *
    Bricks 172


    The goods marked with * are the consumption goods and a description will follow within a few days [I will just paste it here]

    Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new
    Wer niemals einen Fehler gemacht hat, hat noch nie etwas neues probiert Albert Einstein

    Dieser Beitrag wurde bereits 2 Mal editiert, zuletzt von bizpro ()

  • Optimum is to have three weeks supply in the marketplace for maximum happiness of the town. I posted in another thread the patrician level prices for a large city to maintain three weeks supply.


    For the most part (some cities have hidden imports), you can check the market hall for consumption per week, less production, if any, and sell enough to hit that level of supply. The resulting price, whatever your level of play, is the optimum price for that level, and you can set it accordingly. That will take care of your game, whether you play at shopkeeper, merchant, or patrician levels.


    Two weeks or under, the people get testy, and dissatisfied if you run out. If you have indeed run out, it takes a few months of steady supply to make them completely happy again, at large city populations and high satisfaction settings.

  • The price levels depend ultimately on the difficulty setting of trade and, potentially, needs . The above list is for the contest2006, which is "easy trade" and normal needs.


    I found that the townguard complain about lack of beer if the supply in the markethall drops below 2 week's supply. Outside the staple goods there is not much influence as long as the gods are avaialbe in your trade office. As Ugh! wrote, each day the people buy in the markethall. If the suppies are not avaialbe then you loose the sale. The markethal will buy at least one day's supply after they are sold out. Therefore, there is no need to keep a large stocks of luxury goods in the markethall; price as high as possible and sell on a daily basis. I'm not quite as "greedy" since fur is available at 1,350, hemp @ 600 and pig iron @ 1,500.

    Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new
    Wer niemals einen Fehler gemacht hat, hat noch nie etwas neues probiert Albert Einstein