How to trade?

Gathered together by Rincewind
Supplemented by Abi
Translated by Abi, i will translate it step by step...

Minimum price table

How to trade? Easy to tell, buy cheap sell high.

That is so simple. So simply? Well not really, there are some things which make it a little bit harder:

Often you may think you brought very cheap but mostly everywhere its as cheap as you got your goods.
There are many other players who whats to get your cargo and ships during you trade.
If you want to raise your tradingskill fast, you need merchants or spanish galleons. Both shiptyps are slow and no warships. Some people say that fluyts are good also but they arent effectively enough.
A further obstacle to reach a good trading level is the high jump from level to level (from 3 to 4 9600, from 4 to 5 19200 points!!!). In contrast you get relatively few trading points. If you sell goods at port of the own nation, you receive 1 point for 20 goods. If you sell at a strange nation you will get 1 point for 13 goods. That means if you sell 1000 goods with profit you will get 50 and/or 76 points.
Each port has only limited storege and produced also only certain goods. Take a look at city-informations -> industries

The ports only produce goods if there is a player in or close to port.

Some things you should remember: If you buy goods you should allways know where to sell. In addition there are different possibilities:

Goods delivery jobs: These kinds of jobs only availible if there is a lack of goods at destination city. Look which goods are needed and then get job and goods. Take as much as you can carry and deliver the goods at city. This kind of job will gain you some extra tradingpoints.

Take allways a look at Messages of lack of goods.

First you should take a look at merchantsprices at different towns to get a better overview then buy goods.

If you will raise your tradingskill fast, you should go to towns which are close to trade. Here some examples:

All "nation-home-areas"

Lesser Antilles

All there are many ports in small range.
Mostly there are many enemys close. So you have to look for news.

How can i compare prices?
You can change your transparency of the windows, 70% should be good. Then you go to port where you will buy the goods. Visit the merchant and now you click right mouse button -> logbook-> citys-> tradingprices of destination town (the barrels). So you can see if you would buy cheaper as towndemands. With "alt" and "mouse" you can shift the windows.

Some tricks::
If you found a port with lack of goods (especally food is good to trade), you sail to nears port and you buy all availible goods for destination port. there you sell all and you get tradingpoints. Now another one should buy all goods from port (you sold) and sell them back to other port (you buy). This way you will raise your tradingskill and make some money, your mates wouldnt get any point but to you can use the lack of good at town longer and you can buy enough goods to sell them. Next time you can change buyer/seller to help your mate.

If you found a tradingroute then take only 1 ton of food and fill up your cargospace with the goods you want to trade. You need enough fisher to feed your crew during your tour.

Personally i dont upgrate speed if i build up a tradingfleet. Merchants and spanish galleons are slow with and without speedups. So its better to upgrade 3 more cargospace.

For some extra money during trading you can take letter jobs for destination town and/ or a sloop with two cabs to take also passangers. So you can earn some more money. Attention, if you take cargo/goods-(?) jobs they will take away loading space!! Goods deliveries bring extra commercial points.

Little bit more:
You raise you tradingskill with:

1 point per 20 goods at same nation,
1 point per 13 goods at other nation,

if you can sell the goods with profit and above the minimum good-price. Take a look into loading space of your ship. There you can find the average price you paied for the goods. It should be the minimum price at least, otherwise you wouldnt get any trading points, even if you sold with "profit".

Another importent advantage of a high tradingskill is selling ships, especially war galleons. As appoximate value is considered thereby: each skillpoint increase shipvalue by 10.000 gold. I.e. with a tradeskill 4 and a specialist +2 you gain between 80,000 up to 95,000 goldpieces per WG (with condition of 90%). The value depends on armoring of the WG, more amor more money.

Minimum price table:
back
Laderaum

Goods	minimum price
Food	5
Suggar	12
Tabaco	15
Cotton	7
Coffee	20
Wood	15
Gems	200
Iron	30
Stone	55
Rum	200
Cigars	150
Cloth	40
Luxury goods	1200

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